Special educational needs and disability (SEND)

What are special educational needs and disabilities?

Children and young people aged 0-25yrs have SEND if they have a learning difficulty or disability that calls for special educational provision to be made.

The NHS health services locally (commissioners and providers of services) work in partnership with both Derby city local authority and Derbyshire county local authority to support the health element of the SEND reforms. This is a statutory duty under the Part 3 of the Children and Families Act 2014 to ensure children and young people (CYP) with SEND are properly supported.

SEND Local offer

Derby City and Derbyshire County Council each have a SEND Local Offer website with extensive information about the education, health, social care and voluntary services on offer to CYP with SEND and families, including support and information for schools/education setting and all professionals.

NHS services for children and young people

Children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) may need support from different health services at different stages in their lives.

The health needs of children and young people (CYP) are met from a range of NHS services, some of which are universal, such as GPs, health visitors and school nursing. Others are specialised and may require a referral from a health or social care professional such as:

Community and hospital paediatrics
Specialist nursing: epilepsy, diabetes, continence
Therapy services: Speech and language therapy, physiotherapy, occupational therapy
Specialist dental and children’s audiology
Mental health service: Build sound minds, Kooth & Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, emotional health & wellbeing website, specialist community advisors
Health services for Looked after children
Annual LD health checks at GP surgeries
Continuing Health Care Assessments and packages
Equipment including e.g., wheelchairs and mobility aids.

The implementation of SEND reforms

Derby and Derbyshire Integrated Care Board has taken on a number of key responsibilities from the former Derby and Derbyshire Clinical Commissioning Group.

This includes responsibility for understanding the health needs of the local population, planning and buying health care services and to arranging health care provision for the people registered with GPs to meet their reasonable health needs.

The Integrated Care Board (ICB) works in partnership with Derby City Council and Derbyshire County Council to contribute to the implementation of the SEND reforms (Children and Families Act 2014).

The role of Joined Up Care Derbyshire as an Integrated Care System is to bring services together, organising and integrating the delivery of these services at a strategic level across Deby and Derbyshire footprint, including Glossop.

The ICB is an active partner agency contributing to the effective implementation of the SEND reforms:

We have an Accountable Executive Lead for SEND who ensures that SEND is part of strategic & Service planning.
We employ a full-time Designated Clinical Officer for SEND. This role is a professional and strategic lead on all aspects of the health service contribution.
We are key members of both Derby City and Derbyshire County SEND Local Area Partnership Boards working alongside education and social care partner agencies to ensure that strategic plans are implemented at both place levels (city & county)
We use a variety of data and intelligence to inform commissioning eg community services data set, SEN2 & performance in relation to EHC plans.
We contribute to both SEND Local Area (Derby city & Derbyshire County) joint data dashboards
We regularly meet with & monitor our NHS Health Providers to ensure that they are complying with the statutory duties for CYP with SEND.
We continue to use and develop our “engagement” model to ensure effective co production with CYP and families when commissioning services & utilise the local area SEND co production charter & participation strategy developed jointly with Derby city and Derbyshire county local authorities and Parent carer forums when jointly commissioning and undertaking development work.

What you can expect from NHS health organisations across Derby and Derbyshire

As an ICB we are committed to:

Commissioning services in partnership with our local authorities for children and young people aged 0-25 years old with SEND
Working with the local authorities and NHS health organisations to contribute to the Local Offer to include information about health care services
Working closely with Parent Carer Forums, support groups representing young people with SEND, Health Watch, the voluntary sector and community groups
Making available health care provision as specified in the Education, Health and Care Plan (EHC plan) as part of the commissioning role
Agreeing to a personal health budget where these are provided for children & young people with EHC plans.

We work with providers of NHS services to:

Support the identification of children and young people who may require SEND provision
Respond to requests for health advice as part of the Education, Health & Care (EHC) assessments & planning process, within the required time frame and to regularly contribute to the review of EHC plans
Work with the local authorities to contribute to the local offer of services available
Work closely with Parent Carer Forums, support groups representing young people with SEND, Health Watch, the voluntary sector and community groups
Have clear arrangements in place for transitioning from children’s to adult health services where needed.

Designated Clinical Officer for Derby and Derbyshire

The Designated Clinical Officer (DCO) role is to:

Support the ICB to meet its statutory responsibilities for children and young people with SEND. The SEND code of practice (2015) states the DCO “would not routinely be involved in assessments or planning for individuals”
Support & advise schools where needed to implement DfE guidance ” supporting pupils with medical conditions at school”
Have oversight of the quality of health services contributions to the Education, Health and Care planning process.

If you would like to contact the DCO, please email: ddccg.childrenscommissioning@nhs.net

Joint inspections of local area special educational needs or disabilities provision

Each Local authority area across the country is inspected by Ofsted and Care Quality Commission (CQC),

The aim is to hold local areas to account by reviewing how well they are meeting their responsibilities to children and young people who have special educational needs or disabilities (or both).The outcome of the inspection is published in a report.