Education Health and Care (EHC) Plans, the Outreach Service, upcoming SEND events and the SEND and Inclusion Strategy 2024 to 2028
Education Health and Care (EHC) Plans
When a draft EHCP is issued, a band and a funding amount will be allocated. This amount will be stated on the consultation form received by schools.
If you receive a consultation and, in your professional opinion, either the band or funding amount is insufficient, schools can submit a costed provision map to the link SEND Officer. This will be reviewed and you will be told the outcome.
All allocated bands and funding will be set for review 12 months after the issuing of the first final EHCP or last Annual Review. The funding will not end, the expectation is that a child or young person's (CYP) needs, provision and funding will be reviewed at the next Annual Review.
Outreach service
We're also creating a new Outreach Service. The service has a budget of £1m per year and will be part of our wider SEND offer for Bristol settings. The purpose of the service is to support mainstream settings across Bristol to strengthen the quality and consistency of Ordinarily Available Provision and inclusive practice.
The service will aim to:
- make wholesale improvements in mainstream practice including the quality and consistency of their OAP and approach to inclusion
- promote inclusion and wellbeing, so that settings both effectively support children and young people (CYP) at SEN Support and increase inclusion of pupils with EHC plans in mainstream settings
- help families and CYP build trust in the support they receive in education settings, which can effectively meet their needs
- ensure that support and opportunities for CYP are equitable: for instance, there is good practice within many settings in Bristol, but others need support and challenge to reach the same standard
The service will be up and running in the winter school term 2025.
SEND Bristol Local Area Partnership Event at City Hall, Bristol
The SEND Local Area Partnership Event will be held on Thursday 10 October 2024 to coincide with World Inclusion Day.
World Inclusion Day is a day dedicated to making sure individuals of various abilities, backgrounds, ages, races, religions, genders, and other characteristics are accepted, welcomed, and treated fairly.
This event will bring together citywide partners and practitioners to share best practice, service updates and future initiatives.
The event will include:
- introduction to the Bristol SEND and Inclusion strategy 2024 to 2028
- SEND Fair for practitioners
- workshops and presentations aimed at practitioner development
- keynote speakers from Bristol Local Area Partnership
Information about to book a place on the event to follow.
Belonging with SEND: dissemination event at The Dings Rugby Club
As part of the Delivering Better Value in SEND (DBV) and Belonging with SEND (BwS) grant funding, several schools and organisations were awarded funding to develop their inclusive practice to improve outcomes for children and young people with SEND.
The event will be held on Tuesday 26 November for funded initiatives to share information and learnings from the interventions run across Bristol. It will provide attendees with resources and valuable networking to discuss evidenced- based initiatives, with a strong focus on impact assessment and ongoing evaluation.
An event invitation link will be sent via the Head teachers bulletin and SENDCo mailing lists soon.
SEND and Inclusion strategy 2024 to 2028
A public consultation for the draft SEND and Inclusion strategy 2024 to 2028 will open on Monday 16 September and close on Monday 28 October 2024.
The draft strategy sets out how our partnership will make improvements for children and young people with SEND over the next four years. It is based on a self-evaluation we completed in 2023 using feedback from the partnership. The strategy has been written with the people in our city, for our city.
During the process of drafting the strategy we:
- gathered the views of more than 1,500 children and young people and 2,000 parent carers
- received 750 responses from our schools
- heard from all our teams who support children and young people with SEND
Information on the strategy and how to take part in the consultation will be available from 16 September 2024 on the Consultation Hub.
