Lincolnshire's SEND and Alternative Provision Inclusion Plan

Introduction

What does Lincolnshire's SEND and AP Inclusion Plan aim to do?

Lincolnshire is committed to continuous improvement to deliver the best experiences and outcomes for children and young people with SEND and for their families.

Lincolnshire’s SEND and AP inclusion plan captures this journey. The plan details the progress that has been made as part of Lincolnshire’s SEND transformation work alongside the commitments in place across the local area as we continue forward.

This plan details the actions to be taken from across a range of stakeholders, the intended positive impact on outcomes as a result of these actions and how we intend to measure success from robust oversight and review.

What is our strategic vision for inclusion?

This inclusion plan has been developed in partnership with a wide range of stakeholders, including young people, parents, early years’ providers, schools and post-16 providers, as well as health and local authority staff. Together, we have defined our inclusive ambition:

children and young people, parents, carers and professionals will have a strong understanding of the graduated approach and support available in Lincolnshire enabling it to be implemented in a proactive, robust and meaningful way
mainstream settings will have strong knowledge and understanding of supporting children and young people with additional needs and are able to use meaningful and effective ways to teach the range of skills that will enable aspirations to be reached
settings are able to proactively work together with families to ensure that the home environment reflects the support taking place within the school practice, in order to best meet a child or young person’s needs
children and families will feel supported by their community and have confidence with the SEND system, because the right support is provided at the right time
settings and professionals will work with families to recognise what need is being communicated by children and young people’s behaviours, enabling wrap around strategies to be provided within a fully inclusive approach
we will have high aspirations for children and young people with additional needs to enable them to be fully prepared for their adulthood, using effective support and planning to effectively meet needs and outcomes that will lead to higher achievement and increased personal resilience

Lincolnshire at a glance

Overview of SEND

SEN support Since 2014 the percentage of children receiving SEN support has risen both in Lincolnshire, most recently being 14.3% compared to 13.6% nationally.
EHCNA requests Since 2017, Lincolnshire has an average yearly growth in requests of 18.1% compared to 14.5% nationally. The bulk of the growth followed the pandemic. 51% of Lincolnshire requests are made by schools.
EHC plans Since 2016, the percentage of the school population with an EHCP or statement has grown from 2.9% to 5.4%. This is a larger rate of growth when compared to a national growth from 2.8% to 4.8%.
Primary need Since 2016, the three areas with the largest growth in need are ASD, SEMH and SLCN. One of these needs present in 50.5% of SEN in schools up from 33.4% in 2016. The largest decrease is MLD which has reduced from 31.7% to 18.8%.

Outcomes

Key stage 2

In 2023, for the percentage of pupils attaining the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined, nationally SEN support children (23.6%) and children with an EHC plan (8.4%) improved on 2022 outcomes by 2.5% and 1.3% respectively. In Lincolnshire, SEN support children (19.1%) and children with an EHCP (7.6%) improved on 2022 outcomes by 3.2% and 0.5% respectively. For SEN support pupils this narrowed the existing negative gap between national and Lincolnshire in 2023, but widened the gap slightly for children with an EHC plan.

In 2023 for reading progress, nationally SEN support children and children with an EHCP improved on 2022 outcomes by 0.60% and 0.10% respectively. In Lincolnshire, SEN support children and children with an EHC plan improved on 2022 outcomes by 1.14% and 0.94% respectively. In this measure, with steep improvement seen, Lincolnshire SEN support children now slightly outperform national SEN support children in 2023. Similarly, Lincolnshire children with an EHCP now outperform national children with an EHC plan.

In 2023 for writing progress, nationally SEN support children improved on 2022 outcomes by 0.10%. Children with an EHC plan declined by 0.30%. In Lincolnshire, SEN support children and children with an EHC plan improved on 2022 outcomes by 0.39% and 0.97% respectively. In this measure, with steep improvement seen, Lincolnshire children with an EHC plan now outperform national children with an EHC plan.

In 2023 for maths progress, nationally SEN support children improved on 2022 outcomes by 0.10%, children with an EHC plan declined by 0.30%. In Lincolnshire, SEN support children and children with an EHC plan improved on 2022 outcomes by 0.09% and 0.42% respectively. In this measure, with the improvement seen, Lincolnshire SEN support children now slightly outperform national SEN support children in 2023. Similarly, but with steeper improvement, Lincolnshire children with an EHC plan outperform national children with an EHC plan.

Key stage 4

In 2023, Lincolnshire now outperforms East Midlands and our statistical neighbours for both SEN support pupils and pupils with an EHCP for the percentage of pupils achieving a grade 4 or above in English and Maths GCSE. SEN support children (40.8%) increased on 2022 outcomes by 2.1% and children with an EHCP (11.9%) improved on 2022 outcomes by 1.9%. For SEN support pupils the negative gap of 0.5% is now 3.9% above between national and Lincolnshire in 2023 and the gap for children with an EHCP reduced from 3.5% to 1.1%.

In 2023, Lincolnshire continues to outperform East Midlands and our statistical neighbours for SEN support pupils, however for pupils with an EHCP in Lincolnshire remains behind our comparators for the percentage of pupils achieving a grade 5 or above in english and maths GCSE. SEN support children (23.1%) decreased on 2022 outcomes by 0.7% and children with an EHCP (4.7%) improved on 2022 outcomes by 0.6%. For SEN support pupils the positive gap of 1.3% is now 2.4% above between national and Lincolnshire in 2023 and the gap for children with an EHCP reduced from 2.9% to 2.2%.

Lincolnshire's children's services received a consecutive Ofsted outstanding rating in April 2023, recognising the excellent practice and high quality leadership. We continue to ensure the quality of work we undertake with children and families remains consistently strong and results in sustained improvements to the lives of children and families.

In January 2023 Lincolnshire Youth Offending Service (YOS) received an outstanding rating by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation.

In July 2023, Lincolnshire was selected as one of the Families First for Children pathfinders which runs until March 2025.

In February 2023, the DfE published the stable homes, built on love strategy, aiming to shift children's social care towards more effective early support. We are one of three local authorities chosen for wave 1 of pathfinders to test major reforms in children's services.
The pathfinder commenced in August 2023 and will run until March 2025, focusing on a test and learn approach to understand the impact of reforms before further roll-out

We also continue to work as a sector led improvement partner (SLIP) providing support, advice and guidance to authorities who are judged inadequate or requires improvement. We are one of 19 active SLIP authorities in England and have been at the forefront of leading
sector led improvement since 2016. Over the last 8 years, we have worked with over 40 local authorities across England to improve outcomes for local children and families.

Lincolnshire's priorities

Lincolnshire provides a wide and diverse range of support to children and young people with SEND aged 0 to 25 and their families.

This is achieved through close partnership working and coproduction.

Through this partnership working and in response to Lincolnshire’s current context, achievements and outcomes the following priorities have been identified to outline how the local area will continue to make improvements that ensure children and young people get the right support, in the right place at the right time:

Our priorities:

high quality early intervention
inclusion and removing exclusion in schools
prepared for adulthood
positive experiences
improving the range and quality of provision

High quality early intervention

We aim to ensure that we commission and provide the right support and provision to meet the needs and aspirations of children and young people and their families as part of our ordinarily available provision offer. We aim to ensure that providing access to robust services as part of early help and intervention prevents needs escalating and deteriorating, resulting in high levels of need requiring specialist provision. Crucially, we also aim to ensure that parental and school awareness of the wide and diverse range of different services in the local offer is clear and easily accessible.

What we have achieved so far

the autism and learning difficulties (ALD) outreach service was recommissioned. The working together team is a National Autistic Society beacon status accredited service that provides all Lincolnshire mainstream schools with an allocated outreach teacher. They provide an externally validated programme of training, bespoke interventions and verbal consultations for schools alongside a wide range of workshops and sessions for parents and carers. Increasing mainstream school’s knowledge, skills and ability to meet autistic children and young people’s needs within their settings
Lincolnshire’s inclusion toolkit has been designed to guide early years settings, schools and colleges in the education and development of children and young people with SEND. It aims to support SENDCos translating baseline assessment outcomes, such as those from valuing send (VSEND), into evidence-based, robust and responsive support plans
SEND advice line for Lincolnshire (AskSALL) has been embedded as an early advice service for SENDCos, SEND managers and other professionals. The latest survey response report (30 November 2022 – 03 April 2024) indicated 98% of contacts found the interaction very helpful in supporting the needs of children and young people with SEND. On the rating scale for satisfaction, 88% rated the service at the highest bracket (9-10) with 98% of contacts indicating they have actioned or were in the process of actioning recommendations SALL had made as part of their graduated approach. 95% stated they would definitely use the service again
we have continued to support SENDCo’s with access to information, knowledge, skills and advise via the continued roll out and development of termly SEND graduated approach briefings. Using feedback and evidence from each briefing to inform the content of future briefings as part of a sector lead approach
Lincolnshire’s local offer provides a wide range of information regarding services, events and advice and guidance across education, health and care for children and young people with SEND and their families. The local offer has been expanded and developed through coproduction with Lincolnshire’s Parent Carer Forum (LPCF) and Lincolnshire Young Voices (LYV)
Lincolnshire has launched family hubs which support families through Start for Life from 0-25 (SEND) with a focus on 0-5 year group. The family hub services have been launched in all ten identified children’s centre sites. There is a speech and language pilot in place with a speech and language therapist allocated in each of the hubs
the early support and learning provision was recommissioned. This is a non-statutory service delivered in children’s centres offering support to families so that children with disabilities can be ready for school, access universal services and engage with their peers whilst giving parents and carers a break from their caring role
we have continued to support short breaks for children with a disability in Lincolnshire who are assessed as a child in need. This is through the maintenance of two dedicated units; a third site is being commissioned in collaboration with an education trust that runs a special school. Direct payments are also promoted to support children and families with short breaks and ensure that the short breaks offer meets a wider range of needs
we have recommissioned domiciliary care services for children with a disability, moving away from a block contract to expand the number of potential providers in the marketplace and better meet need within each locality
termly leadership briefings are well established and embedded to provide a robust forum for Lincolnshire’s school leaders to collectively shape the future of educational provision in Lincolnshire through a sector lead development focus
promotion of the different mental health services and how they can support children and young people has continued. Z-cards are produced and circulated within secondary schools, a simple directory of services produced and shared with schools and GP practices, improvements made to the LPFT website to make understanding the services available in Lincolnshire clearer and referral much simpler, including self-referral for parents, carers and young people
Lincolnshire has achieved increased good level of development outcomes for children in the early years foundation stage and narrowed the gap with national levels
Lincolnshire has a start for life website in place which is a one-stop-shop for information and services available during the period of conception until the child turns 2 years of age. We have joined up the start for life branding with the family services rirectory and local offer so families clearly understand what is available to support them
all schools, including mainstream, special and alternative provision commissioned by the LA, have a termly support meeting with the LA to discuss the attendance of pupils as part of the DfE’s ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance. Schools facing barriers to good school attendance will have advice and guidance on how to remove these barriers
the holiday activities and food programme (HAF) is a government funded programme that provides free holiday clubs for reception to year 11 pupils in receipt of benefits-related free school meals in Lincolnshire over the summer, Christmas and Easter holidays. We have re-commissioned the targeted positive activities for three years from April 2024, including a requirement to work more closely with HAF and expand provision across the county

What we need to do next

Lincolnshire’s local offer will continue to be developed by the local offer working group to further expand its information and use by families and professionals
the family hubs will be further developed to meet identified needs as the work progresses and provide further opportunities for multi-agency working to identify and meet needs through earlier interventions
as part of the family hub programme, an antenatal education programme will be developed offering face to face groups delivered at times most suitable to prospective parents, such as evenings and weekends. These will supplement the current online offer
through the family hubs programme, a speech and language early support offer for children in their early years aged 3 to 4 years will be piloted within Lincolnshire’s children's centres. These are also designated family hubs
we will develop home learning environment outreach support to early years settings through our CPD offer for settings, including a sustainable approach for making it real through LCC train the trainers
we will develop quality 0-2 provision support as part of the childcare reforms. We will continue to narrow the gap with national levels in good level of development outcomes for children with SEN at the end of their foundation stage
we will further enhance our start for life focus through the development of strategy that identifies and takes forward key areas of development and will also support children achieving a good level of development

Inclusion and removing exclusion from schools

We aim to ensure across all aspects of our local area, we are ambitious for children and young people with SEND, have an accurate shared understanding of the needs of the children and young people in their area and are confident in our ability to create an environment in which effective practice and multi-agency working can flourish. We aim to meet the needs of the most vulnerable children and young people without resorting to exclusions, ensuring that exclusion is seen as an undesirable outcome rather than a justifiable sanction so that every child or young people feels part of their local school community.

What we have achieved so far

Lincolnshire’s ladder of behavioural intervention is well established and provides a clear framework for schools to develop their own best practice for identifying the underlying cause of behaviour and implement effective early support and evidence based intervention
Lincolnshire’s emotional based school avoidance (EBSA) pathway has been fully reviewed and strengthened in partnership with a wide range of stakeholders. The strengthened pathway provides schools with clarity regarding EBSA, proactive early intervention and effective whole school systems and practices. The improved toolkit provides a robust analytical framework for understanding the underlying issues, enabling a meaningful support plan to be put implemented. The pathway is now fully electronic
the support from the pupil reintegration team (PRT) continues to be highly regarded by schools with evidence of positive impact; 97% of schools were satisfied with the involvement of and experience with the PRT
behaviour outreach support service (BOSS) was recommissioned and continues to build capacity, confidence and competence of school staff to identify the causative factors of pupils’ distressed behaviours through a range of support strategies, interventions and advice and guidance
access to alternative provision is being expanded through commissioning of further providers alongside a £2.5m expansion to Springwell Lincoln that will increase capacity
collaborative headteacher inclusion panel (CHIPS) are well established and embedded to provide a robust and supportive forum for schools. The forum fully utilises off-site directions and managed moves as part of early support and intervention. The meetings continue to progress with a focus on sector lead developments
termly multiagency specialist community lead panels are embedded to meet the needs of children and young people accessing specialist support in their community. The panels are chaired by special school headteachers and consist of special school headteachers, health, social care, LPCF, SEND and any additional professional that may be working with the child or young person. The panel supports specialist settings to continue meeting the needs of children and young people in their community through sector lead recommendations, evidence based strategies and interventions and sharing of good practice
Lincolnshire’s inclusion strategy has been launched. This builds upon the transformation work that has taken place since 2021 and the previous high needs strategy. Our strategic direction continues to support a social model of inclusion
an extensive workforce development programme has been rolled out that builds on whole school SEND through a tiered approach and includes specialist training for practitioners, dependent on their role. This has been rolled out to mainstream to support their ability to meet children and young people’s needs with further elements made available to parents, carers, and families
Lincolnshire’s electronic hub has been launched for the processing of all EHC needs assessment requests. Resulting in a more transparent assessment process for parents, carers and children and young people
the SEND leadership project started in September 2023. This project works with a pre-selected list of maintained schools who have been identified as requiring guidance and specific learning to improve outcomes for children with SEND. The aim is to deliver training at all levels within he school, starting with senior leaders and CEOs, and working through to teachers and teaching assistants
the quality assurance group (health) has implemented a continuous process of reflection, feedback, improvement and embedded learning through a coproduced audit tool (QAF) and implemented teaching sessions in response to emerging themes from the EHC process
the children and young people’s out of area treatment panel has been developed to determine responsibility of a health need that sits outside existing service core offers
Lincolnshire has commissioned positive regard, part of the Wellspring Academy trust, to support our secondary schools with embedding a relational approach to behaviour support to create inclusive, empathic cultures. The support will focus on creating consistency of practice for supporting challenging behaviours that develops and builds on good practice already in place
the EHC process quality assurance group (health) lead and co-ordinate cycle of continuous review and improvement of health advice for the EHC process, via weekly audits using a quality assurance framework (QAF). Summary audit findings are shared on a bi monthly basis at the SEND health committee to inform developments and next steps
a children and young people’s key worker service has been developed and rolled out in Lincolnshire in line with national plans. The key worker acts as independent advocate on behalf of those with a learning disability and autistic children and young people and their parents and carers, where there is a probability of admission to specialist mental health hospital. Key workers are accessed through the local dynamic support registers (DSRs). This is used to query, challenge and improve the use of systems and processes, taking into consideration access to care, education and treatment reviews (CETRs), with the aim of preventing avoidable admissions to highly specialist mental health inpatient services

What we will do next

the workforce development programme will be embedded across educational settings with further training added to continue to develop mainstream school’s ability to implement a robust graduated approach that will reduce the need to rely on specialist provision. This will work collaboratively with the DfE commissioned whole school SEND support via the teaching school hub, which links into partnership and programmes with specialist providers across the county, to maximise positive impact
a multi-agency working group of key stakeholders will review Lincolnshire’s ladder of behavioural intervention, with a key focus on strengthening early intervention and also the steps within the ladder to further strengthen their application by schools. The work will develop the ladder to provide support for schools in relation to preventative whole school approaches and recognising initial early warning signs, along with a toolkit that demonstrates and shares the vast array of good practice seen across the county
a joint multi-agency data dashboard will be developed by the LA and health partners to maximise the use of data to inform commissioning and to support the sharing of meaningful evidence regarding outcomes and the provision of services. The child and young person voice data intelligence project will review and develop improved, processes to collate service user lived experience feedback and to have a robust dashboard of statistical and geographical information. This will compound existing data, identify gaps, and inform future commissioning activities
as part of the next phase of Lincolnshire’s ongoing transformation work and the building communities of specialist provision strategy, the introduction of alternative provision within mainstream schools will be rolled out. These will be created through the local partnership and will be part of our mainstream offer that is run by mainstream school as an integral part of their school. The provision will provide personalised educational delivery across the curriculum to support children and young people as they progress through their educational journey and prepare for adulthood
children's continuing care and the children with disabilities (CWD) social care team will further develop collaborative working to ensure that children and young people with complex health and care needs receive the right support at the right time. Current separate panels will be combined to form one overarching panel for shared cases
the children's integrated commissioning team (CICT), jointly funded by NHS Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) and ourselves, will lead on a review of integrated assessment processes and support for children and young people with SEND to further strengthen joint decision making, accountability and drive better outcomes and experiences for both children and young people and their families
use of Lincolnshire’s electronic hub will be widened for completion of all annual reviews of EHC plans, further widening the transparent way of working and access to information for parent, carer and children and young people with an EHC plan
the SEND Health quality assurance panel will continue to be reviewed and developed in line with national best practice in a process of continual improvement and to maintain a high standard of report writing and clinicians understanding of SEND
the review of alternative provision will be completed. This will highlight actions and steps to be taken to provide mainstream schools with the appropriate support that will ensure schools are only issuing permanent exclusions as a last resort
further alternative provision will be developed with opportunities for schools to develop their own internal alternative provision. This will focus on a three tier approach as set out in the DfE’s SEND and AP improvement plan as these national plans progress
the children and young people’s key worker service will continue to work with partners to identify those at risk of admission earlier, and work so that needs are considered holistically, to deliver the right support in the community. Keyworkers continue to help children and young people with a learning disability, autistic children and young people and their parents and carers to be heard throughout their involvement with mental health crisis or inpatient services. They ensure they feel informed, supported, and happy with the agreed outcomes, plans, and delivery, throughout the young person’s recovery. This service is available for 0-25 years
the EHC QAG is currently a pilot however its uptake and impact has been marked and will becoming a substantive process going forward. Following a tribunal teaching event co-hosted by the ICB and LA, clinicians are now using the QAF to review their own report writing to ensure that it is in line with best practice. The tribunal teaching session has now become a substantive addition to the SEND clinician training programme delivered by LIAISE (SENDIASS) on behalf of the ICB

Preparing for adulthood

We aim to ensure that children and young people in Lincolnshire are well prepared for their next steps and are supported to achieve the best possible outcomes in school and in life. We aim to use effective support and planning so that children and young people are able to transition successfully to adulthood and independence when they are ready to do so. We aim to have high aspirations for children and young people and use effective support and planning to meet needs and outcomes that will lead to higher achievement and increased personal resilience.

What we have achieved so far

the careers hub is providing improved careers provision. There is a network of over 120 establishments working together to drive progress against the Gatsby benchmarks. Enterprise coordinators are working with school clusters and employers to facilitate partnership working
there have been 50 new level three early years SENCo’s developed through the Certsey programme that have joined the existing forty already in place
termly early years SENCo network opportunities and briefings are embedded that support a collaborative sector led approach with a solution focus and peer challenge. A pilot sector was completed with outstanding early years settings providing support and sharing good practice to wider settings. A review of SEN inclusion funding has been completed in collaboration with early years settings and Lincolnshire Parent Carer Forum (LPCF)
children's health have 100% of the five mandated contacts within the healthy child programme. The skills mix in the team has been extended to include a registered nurse post that is able to support delivery of the healthy child programme and widen the available support and advice for families
not all parents take up the offer of the 8-12 month and 2.5 year health and development review delivered as part of the healthy child programme. All families are triaged to ensure those with the most need receive all the mandated contacts
parents who do not bring their child to an 8-12 month or 2-2.5 universal assessment receive a second appointment offer. The health visitor will continue to follow the contact up for those families identified with the most need
the transition protocol provides a robust supportive pathway for children and young people that are ready to transition from specialist provision into mainstream. The enhanced support for children and young people and their families straddles both schools setting to maintain a smooth and seamless transition that maximises successful outcomes
pathway plans are written with children in care (CiC) at the age of 16.5 to support preparations to leave care at 18. At 16.5 support is also allocated from a leaving care worker who works alongside a social worker up to 18 and then takes the support beyond 18. The leaving care service supports people until the age of 25 years
Lincolnshire’s SEND employment project has been established to support the ongoing development of the employer market. Increasing the employment market to provide a range of appropriate jobs and training opportunities for young people with SEND. This can be through supported internships being embedded in special school sixth forms, and a supported employment forum set up and facilitated through DfE grant and internal bid funding
the café in Lincolnshire’s county offices, the Quad, is run as an enterprise opportunity, providing on the job training and development for young people with SEND via a supported internship model
transition to adult social care is well embedded for those young people open to children with disabilities (CWD), with clear processes for passport to adulthood via our case management system. CWD meet regularly with the learning disability team and also the newly formed physical disability transitions team to support a smooth transition
the children and young people’s nurses (CYPN) and the community continence service (CCS) have pathways in place for transition of children, including those with SEND, to adult bladder and bowel services to ensure this service, particularly for those entitled to containment product provision, transitions with minimal impact for the child or young person and their families
we have developed countywide early years partnership meetings with primary schools and professionals to focus on implementing robust and effective transition into school

What we need to do next

the careers hub will support primary schools through wave three, focussing on achieving higher aspirations among primary pupils in terms of their own thinking about what jobs are possible in the future and challenge stereotypes that may be limiting. Also developing an increased understanding amongst children and young people of the link between learning in school, skills and the world of work. Crucially it will also support increased parental engagement in supporting their children to think broadly and with high aspirations about their future careers
health visitors will continue to ensure those most in need are seen on a targeted basis to ensure early intervention and prevention, including targeting those most vulnerable
the SEND team will be expanded by a further 15 caseworkers to improve the annual review process for children and young people with EHC plans, with a focus on improved timely completion of annual reviews. This will continue to ensure that phased transfers are completed on time for children and young people with an EHC plan that are transitioning at key changes in education, for example, from pre-school to primary education, or primary to secondary or secondar to post-16
the pupil reintegration team (PRT) will be expanded by four additional staff. They will have a specific focus on further developing and embedding supported transitions for children and young people transferring from special to mainstream. This will be part of the transition protocol, and for children and young people transitioning into a new mainstream setting following a permanent exclusion or period of time accessing alternative provision
we will continue to work with the further education sector to support children and young people transitioning from year 11. Focusing on the preparation for adulthood outcomes to improve the rate of 16 and 17 year olds not in education or training for young people in receipt of SEN support
the leaving care service will be insourced and directly provided by the council from 1st April 2025. The current service offer is being enhanced to increase the support available for care leavers aged 21+ to help their transition to adulthood. There will also more focus on supporting care leavers into education, employment, and training (EET) and increasing support for mental health concerns and substance misuse which can be a barrier to EET
Lincolnshire’s SEND employment project will continue to develop the employer market and employment opportunities for children and young people with SEND by facilitating quarterly employer forum meetings. This will be alongside SEND careers and employment awards and preparing for adulthood events. The project will continue to increase the employer base to build an offer of experience days, careers talks, work experience, supported internships and paid employment. Developing a training package to support employers to overcome barriers in the workplace and greater promotion amongst children and young people and their families of the employment pathways available and the use of the vocational profiles for all children and young people with an EHC plan from year nine upwards
gathering destination data for learners with EHC plans and learners on SEN support is proving to be an extensive piece of work for all involved. Further education settings currently do not have the capacity to enable them to gather this data. We will continue to link with the preparing for adulthood East Midlands group as part of the focused piece of work that is considering possible steps to enable the gathering of this data
the intake team will continue to enhance collaborative working with wider stakeholders to ensure that young people transitioning to adult social care have timely assessments and their families are clear about the support they will receive on reaching adulthood. Ensuring clarity of information for families about transitions will continue to be embedded and reviewed within Lincolnshire’s local offer so that expectations are clear from an early age, including eligibility, most appropriate pathway for transition and what to expect
building on our early years partnership meetings, we will roll out the home learning environment programmes focusing on school readiness (PEEP, making it real). We will also roll out the Lincoln pilot for transition to school portal

Positive experiences

We aim to continue strengthening the work with our partner agencies to ensure that children and young people with SEND or who access alternative provision and their families feel valued, visible and included in their communities. We aim to ensure that children and young people and their families participate in decision making about their individual plans and are actively engaged in decisions making about their support.

What we have achieved so far

Lincolnshire Parent Carer Forum (LPCF) week of SEND is a well established event in January each year. For parent and carers of children with disabilities or additional needs and for professionals who work with them. They provide a week of a diverse range of services, organisations and support groups attending online zoom sessions at different times throughout the day and evening. Aimed at providing as much information, support and help as possible in 10 minute, bite size presentations. The week is also supplemented with a number of workshops on specific topics requested by the membership that are held throughout the year
LPCF are a key participant in the EHCNA 16 week multi-agency panel decision, ensuring parent and carer voice is fundamental to decision making
LPCF is a joint partner all local authority strategic decision making for children and young people with SEND ensuring that coproduction is embedded in all we do. For example, Lincolnshire’s building communities of specialist provision, the review of the EBSA pathway, Lincolnshire’s SEMH strategy and Lincolnshire’s inclusion strategy to name but a very small few
Lincolnshire young voices (LYV) is an award-winning pan-disability participation group that helps to improve the lives of children and young people with SEND. Their committee members have lived experience of disability and are dedicated to making positive change with a service plan that echoes their mantra of 'together, our voices make a difference'
Lincolnshire’s electronic hub is available via Lincolnshire’s local offer for requesting EHC Needs Assessments. The hub is being widened for the completion of all annual reviews of EHC plans. Resulting in a more transparent process for parents, carers and children and young people and further embedding coproduction
there has been the recruitment of four dedicated education mentors within Futures4Me to actively support children and young people into education, training and employment
the head of service for inclusion is educational representative at the youth offending management board, ensuring that education, attendance, SEND and inclusion forms key elements of shared data, discussions and analysis. These links also support two way learning and developments
educational representation is embedded within the weekly joint diversionary panel (JDP) through attendance by the pupil reintegration team (PRT) to support robust decision making
as part of the children and young people’s mental health transformation programme, we have engaged with children and young people and parents and carers with learning difficulties and autism to ensure our mental health support offer can meet their needs from community offer through to specialist services
Liaise, Lincolnshire’s SEND information advice and support service (SENDIASS), provides a county wide service via an appointment based telephone advice line and email support. Face to face support is also available. Liaise ensure that service delivery is within the information, advice and support service network national minimum standards to effectively provide information, advice and support for parents, carers and children and young people. Young people who refer into the service can bypass the triage system and specify how they would like to be supported
where children and young people are identified as not requiring an EHC needs assessment, this is viewed as a positive outcome for the child and young people in that their needs can be met through the graduated approach and support without the need for an EHC plan. The SALL advisors provide robust feedback to the parents, carers and the school setting to identify the ongoing next steps and actions that should be put in place to maximise the positive impact of accessing the wide and diverse range of support and agencies available within the graduated approach
in the small number of occasions where a children or young people’s highly complex needs result in them being unable to access an education within a school setting, there is a clear and robust commissioning arrangement in place
Lincolnshire continues to fully utilise mediation to enable issues to be resolved where possible through mediation that prevents families needing to progress to an appeal being lodged with the tribunal
we continue to gather and evaluate feedback on the levels of satisfaction with services and implement developments for improvement where needed
LYV’s produced award winning training. ‘a rough guide to not putting your foot in it’ used the voices of the disabled community and national best practice to improve knowledge and confidence for everyone working or coming into contact with children and young people and adults with SEND. With the backing of the Council For Disabled Children and funding from NHS England, they won a national association for special educational needs (NASEN) award in the co-production category for working in partnership and producing a short, inspiring resource for professionals with the help of Badshoes Films. The training is available free via Lincolnshire safeguarding children partnership (LSCP)
we have maintained a high percentage of EHC needs assessments being completed within the statutory timescales to ensure timely identification of needs and the provision to meet those needs

What we need to do next

there remains uncertainty about families’ confidence in their child’s SEN needs being met in mainstream school through the graduated approach. LPCF will work with stakeholders to fully explore the reasoning behind why some parents/carers see an EHC plan as a golden ticket and lack confidence in mainstream school being able to meet children’s needs through the graduated approach. Learning will be analysed to support next steps and developments
we will continue to monitor and track our interim home tuition data to identify trends and gaps in services and to ensure children and young people do not spend prolonged periods of time with interim education arrangements
LYV’s will work with our transport and the independent travel training team in relation to public transport and accessibility for young people with SEND, providing crucial insight, advice and feedback to support developments
LYV’s will work with a range of schools to seek insight, views and experiences in relation to SEND related bullying with the aim of producing a school based resource to support key messages
Liaise will continue to review how calls and emails into their service are handled and use robust data analysis to enable them to continue to implement meaningful improvements that maximise the support available to parents and carers. They will continue to widen their offer and support through further developed links with special schools and with day care centers
Liaise will further develop and improve their accessibility for young people, including embedding stronger links with further education colleges, ensuring the Liaise caseworkers have up to date and robust knowledge of post 16 processes and provision
Lincolnshire will continue to analyse our data regarding appeals lodged with the SEND tribunal to inform developments and ensure that this adversarial route is avoided where possible for families
we will continue our collaborative working with LPCF to enhance how we evaluate and gather feedback on the levels of satisfaction with services to inform service improvement and workforce development
we will continue to work with informal and formal dispute resolution systems to try and resolve differences between families and the local authority at the earliest opportunity. This includes continuing to contact families when receiving a complaint, mediation request or a lodged appeal to try and resolve the issues promptly
we will consider our local data in addition to working with the regional mediation advice, mediation and disagreement resolution service to allow analysis of trends both within Lincolnshire and across the East Midlands and use this to inform practice in this area going forward and decision making
we will continue to monitor and track complaints and tribunals to identify trends and any gaps in service and implement effective developments to address the gaps
where a child or young person requires a bespoke package of support we will continue to develop and implement robust processes to ensure consistency and oversight of risk management for unregulated providers

Improving the range and quality of provision in Lincolnshire

We aim to ensure there is high quality local provision available across Lincolnshire with a clear focus on early intervention and access to universal support and services. An effective integrated system will ensure that children and young people with additional needs are educated and have their needs met in the right place, at the right time in their local community. Overarching this is an embedded clear inclusive ethos and culture for all children and young people through high aspirational focuses.

What we have achieved so far

the building communities of specialist provision strategy has seen a £100m investment in Lincolnshire’s special schools. This has provided over 500 additional special school places through school refurbishments, expansions and new builds
as part of the building communities of specialist provision strategy, the SEND workforce development platform has been rolled out, providing direct access for professionals and parents and carers to specialist resources and training around SEND. Sixteen modules are currently available via the SEND online learning platform, which include resources on SEND awareness, inclusion, SEND code of practice, transitions and a wide range of other SEND and inclusion specific subject areas
L.E.A.D teaching school hub Lincolnshire is demonstrating positive impact. 99% of leaders felt that the hub had a positive impact in the latest DfE survey July 2023 with those participating or active demonstrating higher outcomes verse those that did not participate
speech and language therapy (SALT) has put measures in place to support the children with the highest speech and language needs while the service continues to experience significant demand
as part of a pilot, on-line workshops to support around sensory processing difficulties (SPD) have been delivered by the behavioural specialist of Aspens. Evaluation following the workshops highlighted positive impact with parents andcarers:
- 80% felt more confident in supporting their child’s sensory processing needs
- 80% felt they knew enough about SPD and how it impacted their child
- 80% felt they now knew a range of strategies they could implement to help manage their child with SPD
Kooth Digital Health Ltd is an online mental health and wellbeing support service that provides a counselling and support platform in Lincolnshire via education settings and through Kooth ambassadors, with increased hours of support available from 2023-24. The support is well used by children and young people in Lincolnshire, including the information and advice pages, moderated forums, messaging and chat functions
since January 2022, a new mental health access team has been established for children and young people, parents, carers and professionals. The access team provides telephone advice, signposting information and takes referrals for all children and young people mental health services in Lincolnshire provided by Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (LPFT), including Healthy Minds Lincolnshire, mental health support teams, grief and loss counselling, and specialist mental health services (CAMHS). This creates a much easier route for referrers to seek the most appropriate support from a wide range on offer, referrals are allocated by the access team for the most appropriate support following screening. As a result, more children and young people are getting access to the right support, first time
the local authority has continued to develop its knowledge skills and practice guidance in respect of Mental Capacity Act (MCA), best interest (BI) and court of protection applications. There are five best interest assessors in children with disability (CWD) social care. The wider CWD team routinely undertake MCA and BI assessments on all young people 16 + who lack capacity to consent to their care and treatment. For those young people where there may be a potential deprivation, including community deprivation of liberty (Dols) there is a robust process in place including Dols panel to seek permission for legal advice and progressing applications for the court of protection
health visitors are often the first port of call for concerned parents and access to support from the children’s health service is easy through the single point of access (SPA). There is also a daily central duty model for health visitors and family health workers which ensures those needing advice and guidance receive a call back within 48 hours. Health visitors triage all calls to ensure the most appropriate person responds to the call
the early learning and portage service has been recommissioned. The co-delivery of services will empower more families of children and young people with diagnosed or suspected SEND to access universal services. The services are within their local communities and further strengthen best start Lincolnshire services staff knowledge and experience of working with children with SEND. This has a stronger focus on delivery in local communities and partnership working with the best start Lincolnshire early years and family service to ensure young children with suspected or diagnosed SEND and their parents and carers receive the right support at the right time and by the right professional. The service is delivered by a lead school on behalf of a collaboration of schools with staffing resource aligned to areas of high demand to ensure equity of provision
the children's integrated commissioning team (CICT), jointly funded by NHS Lincolnshire and ourselves are working in partnership to scope, plan, and review current services to identify gaps and required improvements for future services for children and young people with SEND. A revised integrated commissioning strategy for SEND has been published and a range of programme projects planned
a new and improved autism diagnostic pathway has been designed for children and young people up to the age of 18. Despite recent investment in Lincolnshire’s existing pathway and improved waiting times initially being achieved, demand for assessment has increased significantly post-pandemic, which is also the case nationally. This new pathway has been co-developed with the autistic community and specialist clinicians to make it a simpler journey for both children and young people and their families, as well as for professionals
the virtual autism hub has been launched to enhance the non-clinical community support available to autistic people of all ages and their parent and carers. The autism hub is funded by the ICB. The specialist autism navigators provide information and advice relating to statutory services, diagnostic pathways, signposting to local groups and services along with providing practical help. The open door policy enables users to step in and out of support as needed with a focus on empowering the autistic community
Lincolnshire community health services NHS trust (LCHS) launched a new pilot in April 2024 meaning that families are able to access NHS children’s occupational therapy advice and be able to speak to a clinician more easily regarding general fine motor problems, such as handwriting and activities of daily living that affect their participation in terms of play, education, and leisure. It provides parents, carers, and professionals with the opportunity to discuss any problems with a clinician who will offer support and guidance
we have produced an alternative provision guidance for Lincolnshire schools that sets out the guiding principles to ensure that children and young people benefit from high quality alternative provision, which is safe, secure and appropriate to their individual needs. The responsibility for the alternative provision used rests with the school commissioning the placement and so the guidance provides clear support for schools to ensure they have all the recommended and necessary checks, procedures and support in place throughout the placement

What we will do next

the local authority and the ICB will participate in the partnerships for inclusion of neurodiversity in schools (PINS) project. Working collaboratively with LPCF, the project will test an innovative model for the efficient deployment of the specialist health workforce and strengthening of parent effective carer and school partnerships in mainstream education settings. Focusing on supporting neurodiverse pupils, who represent a fast-growing group among the children most likely to benefit from more inclusive mainstream environments
where independent specialist provision is appropriate we will implement block commissioning arrangements to maximise value for money from our spending within the high needs block. SEND placement management meeting will be embedded, in which we will look strategically across all independent placements and incoming referrals. Considering referrals that are live, alongside the demand that is coming through the system, it will facilitate co-ordination of placement sufficiency in both maintained settings and the independent market to ensure that the right children and young people are placed in the right settings and accessing education as close to home as possible
CICT will complete a fully costed review of Lincolnshire’s SALT service. This review will lead onto a wider review of other children and young people therapy services, for example, occupational therapy and physiotherapy, for children and young people in the home, community and within education settings
SALT will continue to prioritise those children and young people with the highest need, providing safety netting advice whilst children are waiting for therapy so that the team of support around the child have strategies and programme of work in place
the extended communication and language impairment provision for students (ECLIPS) team will pilot an early intervention offer to settings to support staff with meeting children and young people’s language and communication needs. Aiming at supporting schools via auditing training needs that identify bespoke training needs in the delivery of relevant evidence based programmes
the L.E.A.D. teaching school hub Lincolnshire will continue to work in close partnership with LEARN to ensure provision and training meets demand and is inline with east midlands and regional updates
the L.E.A.D. teaching school hub Lincolnshire will continue to embed the DfE accredited tiered approach to SEND professional development - how best to support provision in mainstream, across headteachers and senior leaders, middle leaders, teachers and support staff
the recommissioned early learning and portage service will be carefully monitored in relation to positive impact, key performance outcomes and value for money for children and their families
the work completed to support SPD will be built upon to support the growing demand. A universal, targeted and specialist support pathway for SPD will be developed from recommended options for next steps. The ICB continue to commission a behavioural specialist from Aspens to deliver bespoke SPD workshops for families and professionals; a further six workshops shall take place throughout 2024-25
the children and young people’s mental health transformation programme will make recommendations to transform and improve provision, pathways and access to mental health support and services. The programme will help further embed a clear understanding about the range of universal, targeted and specialist support that is available and children and young people get the right support, first time
as part of the building communities of specialist provision strategy, we will further develop the SEND workforce development platform and its sustainability to continue supporting those professionals working in specialist or mainstream settings so that they have the skills, knowledge and ability to provide meaningful support for children and young people with SEND
the rising demand for domiciliary care provision will be met through engagement with specialist domiciliary care providers to match demand with capacity in the marketplace and block commission requirements on a locality basis
the core health offer that will be delivered within our special schools will be designed by working with partner agencies, health providers and LPCF. The offer will focus on meeting legislative requirements while maximising positive impact for children and young people through an effective and efficient offer, workforce and training
Lincolnshire’s dynamic support register (DSR) is used to monitor the risk for autistic children and young people and those with a learning disability who are identified as being at risk of going into hospital if they do not get the right care and treatment in the community. We will undertake a review of the processes for inclusion and addition of children and young people onto the Lincolnshire DSR as well as multi-agency monitoring and support and care planning
we will gain an overview of the alternative provision providers that schools are commissioning in Lincolnshire to further support schools with ensuring they implement and maintain robust checks, procedures and oversight of any arrangements they have in place
where there are gaps in our children and young people autism and neurodevelopmental diagnostic pathways, we will develop appropriate commissioning plans and seek to put in place the necessary arrangements
we will develop plans for how the existing autism diagnostic pathway for children and young people can be transformed in order to implement the new improved co-produced pathway. The new pathway includes more focus on offering support to the child or young person and their family throughout the assessment process, as well as post-diagnostic outcome. This would help us to achieve reduced waiting times, address increasing numbers of referrals for assessment and simplify the process for families
Our occupational therapy team have invested in creating additional occupational therapy positions and a dedicated team manager position, to support timely assessments taking place and take the recruitment to these positions forward. Robust case triage will continue to be used while the recruitment takes place
greater promotion of how personal budgets can be accessed by families of children and young people with an EHC plan, working with all stakeholders to ensure families are able to make an informed choice
further invest in our specialist provision with the building of an additional new special school that will specialise in meeting children and young people’s social emotional and mental health (SEMH) needs
as set out in our strategic plan and as part of Lincolnshire’s ongoing transformation work and the building communities of specialist provision strategy, the next phase is being rolled out with the introduction of Mainstream SEND hubs. These will be created through the local partnership and will be part of our mainstream offer that is run by mainstream school as an integral part of their school. The provision will provide personalised educational delivery across the curriculum to support children and young people as they progress through their educational journey and prepare for adulthood. This phase will also further explore developments around a possible community outreach support offer from our special schools that will compliment and strengthen provision in mainstream schools and their ability to meet need
we will monitor, review and evaluate the initial impact of the newly introduced occupational therapy advice line, pilot project to inform next steps and actions

How do we know our plans are working?

How will we measure success?

We will work continue to work closely with LPCF, LYV and our strategic partners to ensure that children, young people and their families coproduce developments and support in evaluating progress towards milestones
robust and meaningful application of appropriate early response to meet children and young people’s additional needs as early as possible through evidence-based strategies and interventions that impact positively on outcomes and prevent their needs from deteriorating
improved attendance for children and young people, with part-time timetables only used temporarily as a short-term solution in very exceptional circumstances
reduced suspensions and permanent exclusions from educational settings
a skilled, knowledgeable, and experienced workforce with the ability to implement robust support that enables children and young people to have their needs met at their local mainstream educational setting with tailored support
increased confidence in mainstream schools and the support ordinarily available within the local area to meet children and young people’s needs
a reduced reliance and demand on specialist support and provision, including specialist settings, alternative placements, and specialist services as a result of strengthen early intervention and confidence in mainstream provision
increased achievements and positive outcomes gained by children and young people with additional needs
flexible, proactive, and coherent planning across transitions that provides children and young people and their families with the support and appropriate preparation to move confidently between the various phases and stages of education and, eventually, into adulthood
positive feedback from children and young people and parent and carers, with support tailored to individual needs that enables children and young people to make positive choices and feel that they belong in their school and local community

How will we keep our plan under review?

Lincolnshire’s inclusion plan will form the basis of Lincolnshire’s inclusion action plan, which will be reviewed as part of a governance and review process. The inclusion plan will be formally reviewed and updated on an annual basis at the end of each academic year