Government officials have signalled earlier this month that they have confidence in North East Lincolnshire Council’s plan to put national reforms to special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) support into practice.
In a letter to the local authority at the start of October, the Minister of State for School Standards, Georgia Gould, and the Minister of State for Social Care and Mental Health, Alison McGovern, praised the Council for its commitment to the reforms, local leadership and the building of relationships.
The Plan is a three-year roadmap setting out how the Council and partners will put into place national reforms to the way that children and young people with additional needs are supported. The move follows a Government white paper published earlier this year requiring Councils to outline how they would support the reforms.
North East Lincolnshire Council’s plan includes greater investment in creating more resource-specialist provisions, like those at Scartho and Waltham Gateway Academies and Littlecoates Primary Academy. A further two RSPs are underway at Bursar Primary Academy in Cleethorpes and Welholme Academy in Grimsby.
The Plan also proposes the creation of Experts at Hand – enabling education psychologists and other professionals to work more closely with teachers in schools, offering bespoke support where it’s needed the most.
By approving the plan, the Government have confirmed that it will write-off almost £25-million of the Council’s deficit from expenditure relation to schools and education, up to the end of 2025-26. This equates to around 90% of the Council’s overall education deficit.
The deficit is the gap between the money provided by the Government to cover school and education-related spending – called the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) – and what the Council actually spends on local education provision.
Ann-Marie Matson, Director of Children’s Services in North East Lincolnshire, added:
“These reforms are potentially seismic for children and their families, so it’s important that we get it right. Officers have done a lot of work to consider what types of support will work best in our area, and the Government have now shown confidence in our approach.”
To find out more about the Government’s SEND Reforms, visit www.gov.uk.
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