Camden SEND Strategy 2022 to 2027
2022 to 2027
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Contents
1. Introduction 3 2. About our children and young people with SEND 6 3. About provision for and resources for SEND,
and how it is used 8 4. Our strengths and areas for development 11 5. Our Foundations for Success 14 6. Our overall ambition 17 7. Our priorities and workstreams for the next five years 22
8. Making our funding work smarter to deliver our ambitions 42
9. Measuring what we have achieved 44 10. How the local area SEND strategy will be delivered and governed 46 Appendices 47 References 52
yA Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027
1. Introduction
In Camden we are determined to give all our children and young people the opportunities to thrive, helping them to grow as good citizens, be ambitious for change, and contribute positively to their communities and society. We are committed to creating an education system that delivers both excellence and equity. This is the vision that we set out recently in our education strategy, Building Back Stronger 2022-2030. As a partnership between education, health, social care, and our local communities, arguably our most important task is equipping children and young people with the values, skills and good health they need to flourish in their adult lives. Our ambitions and duty of care for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) form an essential part of our commitment to delivering the best for all our children.
Over the course of their lives, children and young people with SEND may need a little, ora lot, more support than their peers to reach their goals. It is therefore imperative that, as a local partnership, we work effectively with each other and with the families of children and young people with SEND to ensure that they receive the right support, in the right place, at the right time. Only in doing so can we be confident that children and young people with SEND will be able to live the fulfilling and rewarding lives that they deserve.
This strategy sets out our key priorities for supporting children and young people with SEND over the next five years, how we will work together to deliver these and how we will further strengthen links across health, education and social care. Although it is a five-year strategy, we will be reviewing our progress and updating our key priorities on an annual cycle. This will ensure it is a living document. Furthermore, our work and efforts to improve do not stop after five years. This strategy sets the foundations for an ongoing and long-term commitment to improving outcomes for children and young people with SEND.
This strategy is also a local area strategy, which means that it involves all the key partners in Camden who have a contribution to make to supporting children and young people with SEND including children, young people and their families, council services, Camden Learning, schools, settings and colleges, health and mental health providers, the voluntary and community sector and employers. We are also committed to developing a refreshed, all-age Autism Plan in the near future, which will complement and build on this SEND strategy.
1.1 How this strategy was developed
This strategy has been co-designed and co-produced with children and young people, parents and carers and professionals from across the disciplines of education, health and social care. To develop our key priorities, we carried out 10 focus groups with 59 children and young people with a broad range of special educational needs and disabilities and of different ages. We also carried out 8 focus groups with parents and carers and conducted a borough-wide survey of parents and carers (see Appendix B).
Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027
1. Introduction
In February and March 2022 we worked with 59 children and young people with special education needs and/or disabilities from across Camden schools and youth clubs to help develop our next Camden Local Area SEND strategy 2022. Their ideas have had a big impact on the key aims and priorities in our new draft Local Area SEND Strategy.
Here is what they said... Sometimes we get really
stressed, especially if something is difficult for us
Build in the time and spaces where we can take a break - or even provide some toys that can help
When you listen and adapt to our needs, it helps us feel more comfortable and relaxed
Celebrating our achievements makes us feel good and
We want to know what other options are available after
included our GCSEs We really like Teach us about the creative and practical skills that hands-on ways will help us in life, of learning We don't like financial literacy, Make sure that spaces always know what healthy relationships, are accessible, and that else is available sexual health and Pammtinicationhe or where to independent living adapted so that we can find helpful understand and participate : information Be kind and
understanding and don’t be quick to
judge We don’t want to feel different. We want to be treated with
respect and treated
There may be other things that are affecting us
that we don’t always know how to share
as individuals
Sometimes our parents need extra support so that they can help us
Friendships are really important - but for some of us making friends can be hard. We’d like some help from our
schools and teachers
We'd like activities to be adapted so that we can take part too
Having someone at school who we can talk to one to one and who is a good listener really helps us
We enjoy after school activities - it helps us make friends and have new experiences
If there are barriers to us participating, we have lots of ideas and can help you think of solutions!
Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027
1. Introduction
Throughout this process we were supported and advised by Camden’s Parent Carer Forum and Camden Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Information Advice Support Service (Sendiass). We interviewed and carried out workshops with health practitioners, staff
in the Local Authority SEND teams and children’s and adults social care, headteachers, SENDCOs and governors. The development of the strategy was guided by a multi-agency operational group of service leaders and overseen by the partnership-wide SEND Strategy and Improvement Board, chaired by the Executive Director of Supporting People.
Following approval of a draft strategy by Camden Council’s Cabinet on 22 June 2022, we invited everyone with an interest in SEND in Camden to comment on the draft strategy as
part of a 12-week, formal public consultation. The consultation ran from Friday 1 July 2022
until Thursday 22 September 2022. During the consultation, 38 consultation events were held, where we heard a wide range of views and opinions from parents and carers, professionals and children and young people. The consultation team returned to many of the same groups we had spoken to in the co-design phase to feed back to them the ways in which their ideas had shaped the strategy and to invite comment on the draft strategy. The comments received during the consultation have informed the final version of the strategy and will help to shape the strategy’s implementation.
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Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027
2. About our children and young people with SEND
Our children and young people with SEND form a wonderful, rich and diverse group within the wider population of children and young people in Camden. Their abilities, their ambitions and the help they may need are as individual as they are. We want to ensure our local offer meets the needs of all our children and young people with SEND, in the right place and at the right time. This means making sure that support is available for all those children and young people that need it from the early years to post-16 and into adulthood, whether this is early identification of need, support to thrive in learning, access to health support and therapies or support in gaining employment.
Camden is responsible for around 4,500 children and young people with SEND. There are 1,440 children and young people with Education Health and Care Plans (EHCP) who are resident in Camden’; some of these children and young people will be educated in Camden and some in other local authorities. Those children and young people with an EHCP represent around 2.8% of our total population of children and young people aged 2 to 18.? This is lower than the London and national averages and reflects the work that all partners do in Camden to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND early. It also reflects the substantial funding devolved to mainstream schools each year to enable them to provide support to children and young people with SEND, without requiring an EHCP. In addition, there are a further 3,169 children and young people who have special educational needs, but do not have an EHCP, and are educated in Camden's state-funded schools and receive SEND support.? The 3,169 children and young people identified as receiving SEND support in state-funded schools represent 14.3% of the pupils on roll at Camden schools.?
The large majority (71%) of those children and young people identified with SEND in Camden schools are male. This is similar to the profile nationally and reflects the higher percentage of boys who are identified as being autistic; social, emotional or mental health needs (Semh),
and social, communication and language (Scl) difficulties. 40% of children and young people with EHCPs in Camden schools are White British or from any other White background, 15% are Bangladeshi and 14% are Black African. This is very similar to the profile of all pupils in Camden schools.’
The SEND Code of Practice 2015 identifies four broad areas of special educational need and support. These are:
¢ Communication and interaction; ¢ Cognition and learning; ¢ Social, emotional and mental health;
e Sensory and/or physical needs.
In Camden we use these as a basis for understanding the needs of our SEND population. Within these four broad areas of need, there are some specific trends worth noting. One clear underlying trend is the high, and growing, proportion of children and young people with SEND whose primary need is identified as autistic. Currently 41% of children and young people with EHCPs in Camden schools are identified as being autistic as their primary need, which has increased from less than 30% five years ago. In terms of actual numbers, in 2016/17 there
Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027
were 292 children and young people in Camden schools for whom being autistic was a primary need. There are now 422.3 This trend is mirrored nationally, it is not unique to Camden, and the underlying causes are not fully understood.
The growth in autism has been partially offset by a decline in the number of children and young people being identified under other categories (for instance, social, communication and language needs and moderate learning difficulties), which indicates increased recognition and diagnosis. This trend highlights the need to grow expertise and resources around how best to support autistic children and young people throughout their journey to adulthood. After autism, social emotional and mental health (Semh) and speech, language and communication (Slc) are the most common areas of primary need in Camden children and young people. Many children and young people with SEND will have more than one area of need and where this is the case, their presenting main need may vary over time.
Nationally, the trend in the number and percentage of children with EHCPs has significantly increased year on year’ since the implementation of the In Camden, the increase has been less pronounced but remains significant. The number of children and young people with EHCPs increased by 16% over the last five years in Camden, compared with 48% nationally.’ Most of the increase in Camden has been in young people aged 16 plus, which reflects the extension of local areas’ responsibilities for young people with SEND up to the age of 25 which was introduced in 2014. The increase in children and young people with EHCPs of school age has been more modest — 8% over the last 5 years. During the same period the percentage of children and young people receiving SEND support in Camden mainstream schools has increased from 12.0% to 14.4% compared to 11.4% for London and 12.2% nationally."
Forecasting SEND needs of our population going forwards is challenging. This is because the collective metrics that we use are not always able to tell us the type of resource, intervention or support that is needed at an individual level, and these can vary widely. However, we do know that over the last five years, the number of children being supported with an EHCP for example, has increased between 2-3% each year. Therefore, based on our existing population and the trends over the last few years, we project that the number of children and young people residing in Camden who will require SEN support is likely to continue to rise by an average of 2% each year. To support this expected increase, we will regularly review our data to ensure we have sufficient specialist places and are putting in place the appropriate resources for each child.
3. About provision for and resources for SEND,
and how it is used
Most of our children and young people with SEND are educated in mainstream schools and early years settings in Camden. Currently just over half of our children and young people in Camden with EHCPs are placed in mainstream schools and early years settings. This is a slightly higher percentage than in other London boroughs or nationally, which may indicate that the education system in Camden is more inclusive. Of the children and young people with SEND (EHCP and SEND support) in Camden schools in January 2022, 79% are Camden residents.? 15% of Camden young people with EHCPs are educated in colleges (and other further education settings)."
Camden currently spends a total of £8.9m in our mainstream schools to support pupils with high needs (not including resourced provision). This includes £1.7m devolved directly to schools
so they can work in an anticipatory way as well as a further £6.9m in High Needs Block top-up funding through Exceptional Needs Grants or EHCPs. Camden’s Local Inclusion Fund (Clif) supports early years settings to meet the needs of children with SEND. In 2021/22 the fund supported settings to meet the needs of 231 children at a cost of £575,000. Settings apply to the Local Authority describing the needs of the child and what interventions they propose to implement to support the child’s learning.
In addition, 5.8% of children and young people with Camden EHCPs are educated in Additionally Resourced Provision (Arp) within mainstream schools. This is higher than
the national average (4.5%).’ There are currently 93 Arp places commissioned across six mainstream schools, the majority of which are for autistic children and young people. Over the next three years we will be increasing the number of Arp places in two primary schools and creating a new provision of 15 places in Haverstock secondary school. This will increase the number of Arp places available to 120.
Around 27% of children and young people with Camden EHCPs in Camden are placed in special schools, which is less than both the national and London average." There are three maintained special schools in Camden offering 330 places in total. Swiss Cottage is an outstanding school specialising in supporting children with profound and multiple learning difficulties (Pmld) and very complex autism with challenging behaviour. There is high demand for the school, and Camden Council have increased the number of commissioned places from 245 in 2017/18 to its current 260. The planned increase of Arp places aims to relieve some of the pressure for places at Swiss Cottage special school, particularly for young people of secondary age who have a complex autism diagnosis.
Frank Barnes is an outstanding school for children who are d/Deaf and is a centre of excellence. It has capacity to meet the needs of 35 children and provides a wide range of family support. It takes pupils from a wide range of boroughs and is therefore an important regional resource.
Camden Centre for Learning is our secondary specialist provision for young people with Social, Emotional and Mental Health (Semh) needs and is rated by Ofsted as ‘good’. The school has a strong record in supporting the needs of all learners with Semh who will often require a very bespoke and personalised curriculum.
Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027
3. About provision for and resources for SEND,
and how it is used
Camden also maintains two hospital schools — the Children’s Hospital School at Great Ormond Street and University College Hospital (4-18) and the Royal Free Hospital Children’s School (5-18). Both hospitals are regional, if not national, centres and draw patients from far beyond Camden.
In January 2022, there were 129 Camden children and young people in specialist school provision outside of the Borough - 59 in special schools maintained by other authorities, 8
in resource bases in mainstream schools in other authorities and 62 in independent or non- maintained special schools. 4.3% of our children/young people with EHCPs are in independent and non-maintained special schools (Inmss). The percentage of Camden children placed in Inmss is lower than in other London boroughs, and nationally but it is rising slowly. The number of Camden residents in residential school or college provision (all independent) has reduced significantly from 25 in 2018 to 11 in April 2022."
Ensuring we continue to meet the needs of our SEND children and young people locally is
a key element of this strategy. Alongside our education provision, we have a holistic offer of health support for children with SEND. Camden funds a range of services including Speech and Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, children’s nursing, children’s continence, paediatrics, CAMHS and Dietetics. Camden Integrated Children’s Service (Cics) comprises multiple NHS services and staffing groups from several organisations which work together in partnership: Central and North West London; Royal Free; Tavistock & Portman; and Whittington Health NHS Trusts. Cics provides services across health and education settings and in children’s homes in Camden. Most children are seen for an initial appointment within six weeks of referral. In line with National Institute for Health and Care guidance, we aim to see children for autism assessment within 12 weeks for a first appointment. As of August 2021, there were 1,371 children and young people on therapy caseloads for specialist input, with a similar number also supported at targeted and universal level by therapists. This includes drop- ins for teachers, inset day training, coaching and parent training workshops. Some interventions are delivered face to face and some virtually.
Mosaic (Making Our Services All Integrated in Camden) is part of Cics, providing an integrated health and care service for disabled children and young people with the most complex needs who require multi-disciplinary care. The service provides multi-disciplinary assessment, diagnosis and support for disabled children and their families. The service contributes to better outcomes by supporting families to care for their disabled children and for their children to remain living at home and as part of their local community wherever possible. Mosaic includes the Child Development Team (Cdt) which sees children from 0 - 5 years of age with complex developmental difficulties including autism, and the Social Communication Assessment Service (Scas) which is the assessment of social communication in children and young people aged 5 and over. Mosaic also comprises a multidisciplinary feeding clinic, specialist sleep service, Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMHS) and Down Syndrome Pathway.
We know that parents and carers are the biggest assets that a child can have. In the early years, both therapy support and advice aim to develop the confidence and skills of the parent/
Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027
3. About provision for and resources for SEND,
and how it is used
carer to support their child’s development and achieve their goals. In addition, we work with nursery settings and health centres to provide high-quality interventions to promote skill development in young children. Sometimes a child may need further investigation of their needs through the child development team to identify any underlying conditions that might be impacting on their general development.
When a child transfers into a maintained school, whether it be mainstream or a specialist setting, school staff will have access to a wide range of training, advice and resources from health specialists who visit their schools regularly. This means they can take a whole-school approach to supporting pupils as well as direct one-to-one or small-group interventions. Visiting health specialists may need to work with children in class, outside of the classroom or indirectly depending on what will be most effective, taking into consideration the wishes of the child.
It is expected that many children will not need long-term support from visiting specialists but will still benefit from whole-school approaches. The aim of therapy is always to achieve meaningful goals, help the school and the child feel confident so that their needs can be met within the classroom, and to prepare them for adulthood by supporting them to use the tools they have been given to be as independent as they can. A small number of young people with complex needs and learning disabilities will continue to require specialist health and therapeutic support after they leave school.
Camden has a fully staffed Educational Psychology (Ep) team and all maintained schools receive a core allocation of Ep time delivered across the academic year. The Educational Psychology Service also have a traded offer and all settings across Camden can buy into a Service Level Agreement with the service, which provides them with an additional number of sessions based on their size. Settings can also purchase additional Ep time where necessary across the academic year. This means that schools can utilise specialist advice when needed to support children in mainstream schools, as part of a planned approach to meeting their needs. Camden increased its number of Educational Psychologists during the early stages of the pandemic to respond to demand from schools and families and support our refugee children.
In the 2021/2022 financial year, Camden’s High Needs Block spending was almost £39m. This funding provides support for children and young people with high levels of SEND. Camden mainstream schools also receive SEN funding of £21m as part of their basic funding to
meet lower-level SEND needs. Around £850,000 is spent on other forms of support such as therapies.
Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027
4. Our strengths and areas for development
There are many strengths, and much to be proud of, in how we support children and young people with SEND in Camden. This provides a solid foundation on which to build over the next five years. In our most recent Loca! Area joint CQC and Ofsted inspection (2019) it was noted that “Senior leaders in the local area responded promptly to the [SEND] reforms when they were first introduced in 2014. Since then, dynamic and purposeful leadership has continued to secure improvement in the local area’s SEND arrangements and the achievement of better outcomes.”
In developing this strategy, we carried out a self-evaluation of our strengths and areas for development. Particular highlights include:
¢ Aclear focus on early intervention and prevention across the partnership, which enables challenges to be identified sooner and the appropriate support to be put in place. For example, the “Early Alerts” pathway enables early recognition of need and support being identified by both health and education.
e Integrated health and therapeutic support for children and young people with SEND is linked to the level of clinical need and not based on whether a child has a diagnosis or EHCP. Health and therapeutic support wraps around Camden’s educational settings to enable children and young people’s needs to be met in the most inclusive way.
e Ahigh-quality offer of teaching and learning for children with SEND which has led to increasing numbers of children and young people with SEND reaching the expected level at the end of KS2 and KS4; and enables a higher-than-average proportion to be educated in a mainstream setting and lower than average numbers placed out of borough or in independent or non-maintained specialist provision.
e Adiverse and well-regarded mental health offer including perinatal mental health, mental health teams in schools, trauma-informed practice, emotional literacy support assistants and outreach from specialist mental health practitioners into communities.
e Awell-developed and clear 0-25 pathway for children and young people with learning disabilities, which brings together education, health and social care at all stages in the journey, including the commissioning of 20 places for young adults with learning disabilities at the Alexandra Centre which enables them to continue their learning and remain close to home.
e Asecure and well-embedded partnership approach to supporting children and young people with SEND at both the strategic and operational level, leading to better timeliness and quality of casework.
e Secure planning for and use of High Needs Block resources, which has placed SEND financing across the borough on a sustainable footing for the next five years.
However, we are not complacent, and we know that there is a lot further to go if we are to deliver the consistently high-quality system for children and young people with SEND to which we all aspire. The co-design of this strategy with parents and carers, children and young people and professionals across the disciplines of health, education and social care, has made clear that clarity of communication, in all aspects of this complex system, remains a challenge. We
Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027
know that we need to get better at enabling parents to understand and access the support to which their children are entitled and to support parents, and young people as they become adults, to navigate the system with ease.
Despite relatively high levels of funding and resources in Camden compared with many other places, schools and health services are under pressure and working constantly to meet an ever-greater complexity of need. We need to find ways to reduce the pressure from our core frontline services to give them the space and support they require to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND with creativity and impact. We also need to be honest with our families, with our partners and with ourselves that our resources are finite. Strong leadership of the SEND system requires difficult choices to be made on how best to allocate our resources and capacity to equitably meet the needs of children and young people with SEND in Camden. This means that sometimes we will not be able to give an individual child or family all the specific support that they would like.
In Camden we are fortunate to have a vibrant social, creative and cultural environment for all our residents to enjoy. But we haven’t gone far enough in making this social richness and cultural diversity available and accessible to our children and young people with SEND.
Some of the fault lines and pressures in the system that we need to address are resulting in outcomes for children and young people with SEND which are not as good as they should
be — too many of our young people with SEND over the age of 16 don’t continue in education, employment or training; too many experience exclusions in the course of their education; too few families are able to access the respite to which they are entitled; too many children and young people are waiting too long to receive the health or therapeutic support that they need to support their progress; and too many young people with SEND are experiencing anxiety or presenting with significant emotional or mental health needs. The remainder of this strategy identifies the specific areas for development on which we will focus over the next five years and how we will work together to improve outcomes for children and young people and their families.
The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on children and young people with SEND is not yet fully understood. We know that across the country the lost months of education, the narrowing of access to vital services and community resources, and the financial and emotional impact on families have all served to widen the gap between the most and the least advantaged. Although some children and young people with SEND reported valuing the opportunities afforded by online learning and smaller in-person classes, more often we heard of increased isolation, disrupted routines, families under intense pressure, backlogs in treatments and services, and underlying needs that may have gone undetected while children were not attending school.
Across London, many professional colleagues in schools and health services are now identifying higher numbers of younger children presenting with a range of additional developmental needs including speech and language delay, separation anxiety, social and
4. Our strengths and areas for development
emotional difficulties and delays in toilet training. In Camden we have identified an increase
in exclusions involving physical violence towards another pupil or member of staff which may be indicative of the emotional and behavioural difficulties some children and young people are experiencing in returning to school. At the same time as these increased needs and pressures, many key staff in frontline services are exhausted by the effort of keeping services running and maintaining vital communications with families during the pandemic.
Despite the challenges, the pandemic also created opportunities, bringing communities closer together and fostering professional and personal resourcefulness in overcoming the multitude of barriers it created. It enabled flexibility for both families and staff to meet and interact online, opening up possibilities of different ways of delivering services. In implementing this five-year strategy, we will need to be open-minded in understanding the new context for children and young people with SEND in Camden, professionally curious in being willing to try new ways of working, and empathetic in recognising the strain on children and young people, on families and on services.
Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027
This strategy has been co-produced with young people, parents and carers, and with professional colleagues across education, health and social care. Our intention is that the strategy will be delivered with this same focus on co-production.
We will continue to work with our Parent Carer Forum and Special Education Needs and Disability Information and Advice Support Service (Sendiass) as key strategic partners and invite them to work alongside us as members of the SEND Partnership Board that will oversee the delivery of this strategy. In addition, we will use the commitments set out in this strategy as a platform for extending our reach out to more parents and carers, looking for opportunities to engage those who do not typically access existing forms of communication, consultation and co-production, for example through our early years and school networks. We will build on the co-production approach taken to develop this strategy and develop innovative ways for young people to feed into strategic and individual decision-making. This will help to ensure that the authentic voices of parents, carers, children and young people inform all our key decisions and enable us to honestly measure our progress.
We are committed to working with parents, carers, children and young people as equal partners and to being honest about what can and can’t be provided. We acknowledge that some parents and carers have significant challenges in navigating the SEND system. We are committed to showing empathy to parents and carers and to recognise their anxieties as they seek help for themselves and their children. We also recognise the need to build trust with families who feel let down by past experiences.
We want to be bolder and more agile in how we listen to and communicate with the young people and families who receive support for special educational needs and disabilities, and the many professionals in the system who help to deliver that support. Clear, timely and reliable feedback on how well the system is working is critical to creating a culture of continuous improvement and confidence in our local arrangements for children and young people with SEND. We will therefore work with parents and carers, children and young people, and professionals on ways for gathering the views of a much wider cohort of those affected by SEND, on a more regular basis, drawing on social media and our multiple contact points with parents in family hubs, early years settings, schools and health settings; this will enable us to improve our practice. In doing so, we are committed to joining up this work wherever possible through regular planning with the Parent Carer Forum to agree co-production priorities.
As a partnership, we strongly believe that we will deliver better outcomes for our children and young people with SEND if we intervene early to prevent difficulties becoming rooted and further needs arising. Early intervention and prevention is a key theme that underlies all our priorities set out in this and wider Council strategies and determines our approach to funding schools and services. We will aim to make even more support and resources available without the need for a diagnosis, and without needing an EHCP. We will invest in our early years to ensure that needs are identified early, and we will, wherever possible, look to provide support in mainstream settings, in communities and close to home. This includes building on our rich early help offer to support families with children with SEND and providing preventative support and advice for families while they might be waiting for assessment and diagnoses.
If we are to continually improve our support to children and young people with SEND, we
need to embed ways of learning from what works and sharing outstanding practice around
the system. In our recent 10-year education strategy we set out a principle of “Think, Test and Learn” to identifying challenges, experimenting with solutions and rolling out what we know works. As part of our SEND strategy, we want to use the same principle to problem-solve some of our most challenging issues, for example how we work and communicate with families so that they can navigate and access the support on offer, or how further to assist mainstream settings in meeting the needs of children and young people with increasingly complex needs.
Underpinning this principle is the commitment to be more systematic in how we identify exceptional practice and skills within Camden and use it for the benefit of the whole system. This might be the expertise in our special schools and additional resource provisions, or in our specialist health teams. Wherever possible we want to find ways to wrap specialist knowledge and expertise around our frontline practitioners, skilling up the whole system and enabling support to be given in community settings where children, young people and families feel comfortable.
A key resource for sharing knowledge and expertise for SEND around the system is Camden Learning. Camden Learning brings all schools together in a way that strengthens the system while also maintaining the distinct and positive identity of each school. If we are to grow the professional capacity that we need for a thriving SEND system, we will need to create more opportunities for collaboration within and across schools. This will enable us to move knowledge and expertise round the schools and our education system more effectively.
5. Our Foundations for Success
Working as an Inclusive partnership
The close strategic partnership that exists in Camden across education, health and social care has enabled a joined-up approach to planning and commissioning provision for SEND. We will ensure we work with future national recommendations to embed more systematic partnership working, with a particular focus on projecting future needs, simplifying communications, measuring and reporting progress and establishing ‘fast feedback’ loops so that we collectively understand the effectiveness of the system.
Over the next period, our ambition is to also strengthen our SEND partnership in localities and communities. We already have Family Hubs developing, organised on a locality basis, and building on our excellent and well-established children’s centre offer. Through this strategy
we are keen to explore how the Family Hubs can become more instrumental in joining up services for families with children with SEND, drawing on the wealth of our early help support and making stronger links into education and health. We will consider whether there is an opportunity to use some of the recently announced funding for Family Hubs to facilitate this.
As a partnership we are committed to the principle of inclusion as a core foundation for this strategy. In our Education Strategy we set out what it means to deliver an inclusive education system. In this strategy we need to go beyond this and make clear what it takes to create an inclusive partnership for the benefit of all children and young people with SEND, with stronger links across education, health and social care, and reaching into the community.
Developing and supporting our workforce
Our workforce — the professionals in health services, social care, schools and settings, colleges, social care and within the SEND service — are our greatest asset in delivering high-quality support to children and young people with SEND and their families. We know that in Camden there is outstanding expertise, but we also know that the key staff, on whom this strategy depends, are under great pressure in terms of their time, capacity, and reach. A key focus over the next five years, therefore, will be investing in the opportunities for staff development that will support recruitment and retention; streamlining systems and processes to reduce duplication and administrative burdens; and making space for professional learning and curiosity that will be the drive for ongoing improvement.
Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027
Our overall ambition
Our overall ambition in Camden is that
Children and young people
with SEND lead happy, fulfilled and rewarding lives
We recognise that for individual children and young people this will mean different things. For some, it might be realising a dream to go to university; for others it might be securing a job and living independently; for others it might be making secure friendships or contributing to their local community.
| hope my child receives the extra support | would like for my child to have left school he needs. I hope he finds some like minded with confidence to deal with the outside world. friendships despite being socially scared. It would be really beneficial for her to have | hope he gets enough support to fill his support in finding the tools to cope with every enormous academic potential. | hope he day life & achieve success academically or manages to create a happy life. through a vocational subject.
ee ae ae In the future, | want to
Assistant so that | can help other children with SEND.
own my own home and make computer games.
Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027
6. Our overall ambition
The process of co-production with children and young people, parents and carers and professionals, combined with our analysis of the data, has told us that in order to achieve this ambition, we need to focus on three main priorities:
Make life easier for Support children and Enable young adults families of children young people with with SEND to build a and young people SEND to thrive in good life locally with SEND learning, health and wellbeing
Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027
1
Make life easier for families of children and young people with SEND
We know that many parents and carers whose children have SEND still feel that it can
be a struggle to get the support that their child needs. Parents have also told us that they can find it difficult or confusing to navigate the range of services on offer, and don’t always understand where to find the support they need or what type of support their children are eligible for. Some parents feel that their views are not respected compared with the views of professionals and that sometimes they are not treated with empathy. Some parents felt that they had to reach crisis point before they got the help they needed. Parents
have been voicing these same frustrations and anxieties for many years, and we know these difficulties are not confined to Camden but are an issue of national concern. We are therefore committed to using this strategy as a vehicle to make a tangible positive difference to the lives of families of children with SEND, and to gathering feedback
more frequently to know whether we are having an impact. In a complex system, we know that we need to join the dots more effectively for parents and develop much
clearer communications. Furthermore, in an environment in which there are financial limitations on what can be provided, we need to make sure that access to support is fair, streamlined, clear and consistent.
Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027 19
V
Support children and young people with SEND to thrive in learning, health and wellbeing
Despite the overall high-quality of teaching and learning, and the improvements in educational outcomes for children and young people with SEND in recent years, we know that many still do not reach their potential. The majority of parents who responded to our survey felt that their child’s school understood their child’s needs, but a significant minority did not. This feeling seemed to be particularly prevalent among parents of autistic children or young people or those who had an Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (Adhd) diagnosis. Furthermore, while many of the children we spoke to commented on how they enjoy their school environment, they also noted that there could be small improvements made to help them thrive even more. Additionally, many parents who had accessed therapeutic or health support for their child were also impressed by the quality of the support they received, but the frustrations felt by parents who had been waiting a long time to receive the health or therapeutic support that they felt their children needed, were acute. Feedback from those working in schools, health services and mental health paints a picture of a system under increasing pressure both in terms of funding and human capacity. Although 42% of parents surveyed were positive about the progress their child is making now (compared with 36% who were not positive), they were anxious about the future with only 25% agreeing that their child will get the support they need over the next five years.
20 Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027
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Enable young adults with SEND to ‘build a good life locally’
We know that at a national level, there are more 16- and 17-yearolds with SEND who are not in education employment or training (Neet) compared to their peers without SEND.* Whilst Camden has lower rates of Neet than the London and national averages, we know that there is still improvement to be made. Therefore, we have had a strong focus on preparing children and young people with SEND for adulthood earlier, as well as continuing to build on our routes to employment such as supported internships.
We also need to get better at understanding what young people with SEND end up pursuing after their formal education ends, in terms of how many secure sustained employment and move into a more independent future. We know from parents, and from young people themselves, that approaching adulthood is a time of significant anxiety. At present, the pathways available to young people, and the careful person-centred planning that enables young people to approach this stage of their lives with confidence, are not always clear.
Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027 a
7. Our priorities and workstreams
for the next five years
For each of our three key priorities we have worked with parents and carers, children and young people and professionals delivering support to those with SEND, to identify the workstreams and actions that will enable us collectively to make progress on our priorities. These are set out in the diagram below and explained in more detail in the following sections.
Children and young people with SEND lead happy, fulfilled and rewarding lives
Make life easier for families Support children and young Enable young adults with of children or young people people with SEND to thrive in SEND to build a good life with SEND learning, health and wellbeing. locally l | Families feel that they are listened Outstanding practice in Continuing to learn and routes to, supported and included supporting learning into employment l Good mental health and fT Clearer communication and wellbeing Creating opportunities for information sharing I independent living Keeping children and young Developing a more inclusive pepole with SEND) satis Starting the preparation for borough adulthood earlier
More joined up support for ; children and young people Increased support for home-life moving between phases of and parenting education and between services I Enabling better access to health and therapeutic support I
Local provision for local children
1 Priority 1: Make life easier for families of children and young
people with SEND
Families feel that they are listened to, supported and included
Why is this important?
The majority of parents who responded to our survey said that they feel engaged in decisions about their child’s education (60% of those surveyed) and health support (70% of those surveyed), but others feel that their views are not taken seriously compared with the views of professionals. Some of the key themes emerging through our focus groups were parents who reported a lack of empathy in interactions with services; those who experienced too many handoffs and insufficient continuity between services; and those who felt judged rather than supported. Another recurring theme was the frustration that some parents experience in seeking a diagnosis for their child’s needs. We recognise that there is a need to build trust with families who feel let down by past experiences.
Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027
7. Our priorities and workstreams
for the next five years
There is a vibrant and well-attended Parent Carer Forum in Camden, and a high-quality Sendiass service, both of which advocate strongly for parents on a range of issues from the practical to the strategic. However, we know that we can do better in proactively seeking the view of parents, carers and young people, and making sure that they inform our improvement journey. We recognise that there is a particular gap in hearing from parents of children and
young people receiving SEND support. C Cc
For parents and carers of children and young people “Listen to us! Really listen to us, with EHCPs, we have made significant progress in because we know our children better the timeliness of completing plans, with 96% now than any professional ever could.”
being issued on time compared with 59.9% nationally."
: . “Less onus on parents. We’re Furthermore, recent recruitment to dedicated Annual
already drained looking after a child
Review officer roles has improved the timeliness of with additional needs. Many of us completion rates of annual reviews. However, it remains have additional needs ourselves.”
a concern that over a third of the parents of children with , ;
EHCPs who responded to our survey did not feel that the “Be caring and understanding, | need
to feel listened to and recognise the
provision set out in the child’s EHCPs were being met. . stress we are under. 5 5
What will we do to make a difference?
1. We will work with parents and providers to develop and publish clear service standards on what can be expected from professionals working with families and children with SEND across education, health and children’s social care — to establish a standard of working with families and with providers that is timely, clear, honest, respectful, empathetic and involved. We will ensure this is aligned with any future national standards.
2. We will work with families and young people to develop a co-production charter that will make clear what coproduction is in different contexts. This will provide the basis for a refreshed approach to working with children and families for the lifetime of this strategy.
3. We will improve the experience of how families receive support and advice through an annual cycle of multi-agency training focused on the quality of relationships between professionals and children and young people with SEND and their families. We will reinforce this through a plan of shared audit and quality assurance, which will include comparing local and national data as well as measuring the quality of relationships, to identify areas of strength and address any shortcomings more rapidly.
4. Weill establish a regular survey, or other means of gathering feedback, from parents and carers, ensuring that we reach out to a much wider audience than has been possible in the past and offering new avenues for accountability. This will enable us to baseline, and then measure progress against how we are delivering our ambitious service standards.
5. For children and young people going through the EHC needs assessment process, we will review the information and advice we offer to further embed the participation of children, young people and parents in the process. We will further improve the timeliness of EHCP annual reviews, as well as the way that outcomes for children and young people with EHCPs are monitored through the annual review process.
Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027
7. Our priorities and workstreams
for the next five years
Clearer communication and information sharing
Why is this important?
Many parents report difficulties in navigating the system and understanding eligibility. 60% of parents responding to our survey disagreed with the statement “If | need information about the services my child is using, | can find it quickly and easily”. The Local Offer is an information website where individuals with SEND, as well as their parents or carers, can go to find out what support or provision they can expect to be available in their local area. Local authorities are required by law to produce a Local Offer. In Camden it was identified as an area for improvement in the last inspection and is still challenging. Only 6% of parents responding to the survey reported using the Local Offer website to find information.
6 6 Some parents report inconsistencies in advice and messages from different professionals. Nearly half the parents surveyed disagreed with the statement “I feel the professionals supporting my child are linked and have a joined-up way of
Despite the 2014 reforms, you still have the sense that everyone is working in their own silo. That becomes evident in the amount of
times you as a parent have to repeat working”. Similarly, many of the professionals who yourself and answer the same contributed to developing this strategy fed back that questions over and over again. communication is not clear or consistent enough
599 and more needs to be done to share a compelling and co-produced strategic vision for the future.
What will we do to make a difference?
1. We will co-produce clear ‘Guides To’ designed to support a child/young person or parent’s understanding of the different processes, services and contacts they may come across in their SEND journey. These will be published on the Local Offer website and made available in different formats, including short videos and other styles of communication that best meet the needs of different audiences, including those for whom English is not their first language.
2. We will produce an annual SEND information document that will report on key measures, progress and actions towards achieving the aims of our strategy.
3. We will develop a clear ‘map’ of available services and support for children and young people with SEND, so that families understand what they can expect and when.
4. Wewill review and improve the way we capture information on our forms and systems to allow information to be more easily shared between services, reinforcing the ‘tell it once’ principle. We will explore the opportunity to use digital/online resources to share information more quickly and securely and reduce the administrative burden on families.
5. We will embed the local offer into the Family Information Service — with a knowledgeable practitioner available on the phone to help families navigate the system — so that it is not just a website.
Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027
7. Our priorities and workstreams
for the next five years
6. We will increase the opportunities to seek face-to-face advice, by ensuring staff are available in community spaces to answer concerns or questions that families or young people may have at regular surgeries or drop-ins.
7. Wewill increase the visibility of our SEND provision across the 0-25 age group through attendance by social care, health and education staff at Parents’ Forums and Parents’ Drop- ins at Swiss Cottage School and by running regular Preparing for Adulthood Drop-ins for parents and carers of children from Year 9 onwards.
Developing a more inclusive borough
Why is this important?
One of the most frequent themes we heard
from children and young people in our focus There are a couple of great disability groups is the importance of having strong specific clubs and sports sessions in friendship groups. For some young people Camden, but not nearly enough. You don’t
have much choice... Having an inclusive policy is not the same as having disability specific sessions that you can attend without feeling judged... If you are meant to
this is one of their key sources of support and enjoyment, but others have said that making friends is challenging and they often
feel lonely and isolated. At the same time, build a life locally, you need to have choice
parents, children and young people have and options - like everyone else has. stated that they would like more activities 5) y
outside school and support to access them.
Only 26% of the parents surveyed agreed with the statement “I know of suitable clubs and activities my child can attend outside of their educational setting” and of those parents, even fewer reported being able to make use of those resources. During focus groups, some parents also said that difficulty in accessing suitable holiday and afterschool activities made it hard to juggle family and work priorities. At the same time, many of the children and young people we spoke to that were attending out-of-school clubs and activities, identified these as one of their key forms of enjoyment and opportunities to develop — highlighting their importance.
We know that we can do more to recognise, celebrate and showcase the unique contribution made by our children and young people with SEND. This includes highlighting examples of positive role models with SEND in our communications, to raise awareness and challenge stereotypes. Camden has an ambitious equalities agenda to address the needs of people who have traditionally been disadvantaged or treated less favourably based on their race, sex, disability, age, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, sexual orientation or religion/belief. This must form an underpinning for our commitment to develop a more inclusive borough for children and young people with SEND.
Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027
7. Our priorities and workstreams
for the next five years
What will we do to make a difference?
1. Working together with the Equality and Cohesion directorate, we will co-produce a borough- wide statement of inclusion that is meaningful to all services, to families and to young people.
2. We will develop more opportunities for public celebration of the achievements and contributions of children and young people with SEND, and the individuals and organisations who contribute to making Camden inclusive. This could be through public events or, where appropriate, through alternative communications that celebrate success without putting children and young people with SEND under the spotlight. We will focus on things parents and children tell us are important to them, and engage parents, children and young people in making and evaluating nominations.
3. As part of the We Make Camden Diversity Mission, we will promote a Disability Friendly Places and Spaces kitemark for businesses and organisations in Camden. This could be the existing hidden-disabilities sunflower scheme or a more bespoke scheme for Camden.
4. We will train children-, youth- and family-focused staff to increase their confidence, capabilities and competence to work with a range of disabilities and SEND, including staff who may be a key first point of contact for parents and carers.
5. We will make available training to increase understanding of hidden and visible disabilities to professionals across the range of places and activities which parents and children frequent. This could include public transport, parks, libraries, sports and leisure activities and housing. We will build a focus on inclusion as part of the comprehensive package of learning and development that will be offered to the youth sector in Camden as a recommendation of the Youth Review.
6. We will work through and pilot how young people with SEND will be able to benefit from Camden’s new Opportunity Centres. These are spaces for after-school learning and social development that are being rolled out following a commitment in Building Back Stronger: Camden’s Education Strategy to 2030.
7. Building on our Youth Review, we will set out a new offer for young people- which covers things to do and places to go in their spare time across a whole range of organisations and spaces. This will include a focus on the offer for children and young people with SEND up to the age of 25, with information and support to help young people aged 21+ move to other suitable activities.
8. We will improve the Local Offer website with more up-to-date information on places to go and things to do and include a feedback loop button so parents/children can feedback on whether things are inclusive. This will also include information on childcare options that can accommodate children with SEND.
9. We will learn from the best that is already happening in our schools to support children with social skills and friendships- learning from schemes such as “Circle of Friends” and build on these initiatives.
Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027
7. Our priorities and workstreams
for the next five years
10. We will continue our work to make Camden’s public realm, in all its forms, more inclusive to children and young people with SEND by finding ways to make whole neighbourhoods inclusive and accessible and removing any unnecessary barriers that will prevent this from being achieved.
11. We will continue to build on the good work being done across the council to make Camden an inclusive borough, including the Camden Disability Sport and Physical Activity Network, the Parks for Health initiative, and Camden’s Accessibility Strategy and Diversity in the Public Realm Strategy. We will also consider this when commissioning and procuring contracts as part of our commitment to securing and developing social value.
Increased support for home life and parenting
Why is this important?
Less than half of the parents who responded to our survey felt that they were engaged in decisions about support from children’s social care for their child. Some parents in our focus groups reported that they felt help was only available after they had reached crisis point. Many of the parents to whom we spoke emphasised the critical importance of providing early help and support, in order to prevent issues from escalating.
As a parent of a child with Asd It would be good to have support for
it can often feel quite lonely parents early - before they get diagnosed particularly when your child is and can access formal support. We need going through the teenage years help with our children’s development at & the dynamics of their diagnosis home-techniques in calming them when is changing. they are out in public, how to support
non-verbal children to talk.
Other parents felt as though they were seen as the problem, rather than being in need of help themselves. Some parents said they would welcome additional support in promoting positive behaviour, particularly as a young person reaches adolescence. However, feedback from some parents is that generic parenting programmes, particularly as a hoop or hurdle prior to additional services being offered, are not very helpful. Other parents said they would welcome provision of practical support around the home, or time to spend with other siblings. A recurring theme was the difficulty in accessing respite or short breaks, even for those eligible.
How will we make a difference?
1. We will work with families to redesign what ‘good help” looks like for those with SEND and pilot how we can intervene earlier to support families with children with SEND, including making it easier for families to self-refer.
Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027
We will increase the access to respite opportunities to ensure that children and young people and their families already eligible for respite receive the support to which they are entitled. Carers will have access to support they are entitled to as a carer, as their child moves into adulthood.
In line with our “Think Test and Learn” approach, we will deliver the Rebuilding Bridges
pilot project during 2022/23 and seek further funding to extend this for future years. The programme works with a pilot group of 38 children with complex needs (including Semh, Asd, Adhd, challenging behaviour), who are not engaging with school or are at risk of exclusion. They will have support in and out of school through mentoring during school hours to maintain school placement, and respite sessions after school and during holidays covering activities and workshops on topics such as mental health, sexual and relationships education and substance misuse. The aim will be to improve their emotional and educational outcomes. Parents will also receive support through Positive Behaviour Support approaches and with welfare benefits.
We will review our universal services in early years, including through the development of Family Hubs, to increase the range of stay and play sessions that are welcoming and accessible for young children with SEND and their families.
We will build on and extend the more flexible opportunities for use of direct payments that were introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic.
We will build on the existing range of high-quality parent/carer training programmes which are currently delivered in our services. Where there are gaps identified, we will develop
a range of individual, bespoke parenting support programmes (such as Video Interactive Guidance) designed specifically to support families of children and young people with SEND to address the issues that are of concern to them, in co-production with parent and carers.
We will develop and increase the range of SEND parent support groups, run in schools and local communities, and establish links, where helpful, between parent support groups and the Parent Carer Forum to share good practice. In particular, we will build on learning from those schools who are offering support groups for parents and share good practice widely for all schools to build on.
Outstanding practice in supporting learning
e know that at a national level, young pupils with SEND do less well in terms of their attainment 8 score than their peers without SEND.5 Although Camden has made recent improvements in the progress made by children with SEND during both key stage 2 and key stage 4, which is
in line with or above inner London averages, there is still further to go in narrowing the gap in
7. Our priorities and workstreams
for the next five years
progress between children with SEND and their peers. Professionals report that the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic is increasing this divide.* Parents and professionals both fed back that there are opportunities to support children more effectively at an earlier stage in their learning to prevent challenges becoming entrenched. Many pointed to inconsistencies in early years settings being able to support children with SEND and associated difficulties in making the transition to primary school. Mainstream schools increasingly report working with children with very complex needs, requiring different skills and knowledge. This is placing some schools, particularly in the primary sector, under pressure. Some schools and professionals feel that more support and challenge is needed to make sure that ‘ordinarily available provision” for SEND is offered consistently in every school in Camden, as a matter of course.
While most pupils’ feedback about the support from teachers and teaching assistants is very positive, some pupils feel that strategies to support them further can earmark them as ‘different’, which they find challenging. Parental responses to the survey question “I feel my child’s school understands their needs” were largely positive (60% compared with 25% negative). However, some parents still feel that there is a lack of understanding in some schools, settings or colleges, particularly in supporting autistic 66 children. Although exclusions of children and young ; oo people with SEND have reduced, they remain If it wasn’t for individual educators more common in Camden than in London on woe saw peveng ie ete)
to the bright intelligent, capable average. Parents and carers also report that part- oung woman underneath and time timetables and children with SEND missing young
. og our daughter’s determination to education is a significant concern. continue with her education, she
would not be in education. 5 5 How will we make a difference?
1. We will continue to pilot the cluster approach to agreeing top-up funding and Exceptional Needs Grant (Eng), for children and young people in Camden mainstream schools where their needs have been well identified and they are eligible. This is a faster and less bureaucratic way of accessing funding than a statutory EHC needs assessment. The cluster model promotes a shared and consistent understanding across all Camden schools of ordinarily available provision.
2. We will co-design, with schools, a standard of excellent practice in supporting children and young people with SEND and support them to work together in pairs or small groups, through a school-to-school peer learning approach, towards this standard. This could include sharing good practice on how to make best use of LA-commissioned services and their own SEND budget, and good-practice approaches to parent engagement.
3. We will work with our special schools and ARPs to further develop expertise in the mainstream to serve pupils with complex needs who work differently than their peers. This will include on- and off-site support for individual children and young people with complex needs, whole-school consultancy support and open-access continuous professional development sessions. This will be monitored through the Special School headteachers meetings.
Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027
7. Our priorities and workstreams
for the next five years
4. Wewill more clearly map and draw together the available resources and support for schools so that they know what is on offer for children with SEND and how to access it.
5. We will roll out funded training, in partnership with the Autism Education Trust, to all mainstream early years settings, schools and post-16 providers in Camden to ensure that staff have both the skills and confidence to support and educate autistic children and young people, and better engage with parents who are autistic themselves. The aim is to deliver to school staff initially but in future sessions will also be offered for Governors, integrated therapies, Early Help and social care staff.
6. We will align and co-ordinate the resources available, including the significant resources and training to support positive mental health in schools, to help support the understanding of behaviour and develop positive relationships, reducing the need for exclusions.
A small community nursery contacted the Inclusive Intervention Team as they were struggling with provision for a pre-school child. After three months of weekly visits from the specialist educator who supported staff by introducing interventions and strategies, the child was able
to successfully follow routines, show much more interest in communicating with others, better manage his emotions and become more tolerant to others around him. The child’s challenging behaviour reduced significantly and now the nursery plans to extend his hours and days as he prepares for school.
Good mental health and wellbeing
Why is this important? 66
Camden invests more than many other local areas CAMHS has been our life saver,
in its support for mental health and emotional they are supporting my child wellbeing and has a wealth of resources on make sense of her neurological
offer, both for early intervention and preventative disability and how she can best support and for those with more complex manage it as to ensure her mental mental health needs. There has been significant health doesn’t deteriorate. investment in Trauma-Informed Practice and J J
mental health teams in schools, but these now need to be fully embedded in services and in 6 6 how professionals work with families. We know from national data®, and local feedback, that the incidence of poor mental health among children and young people with SEND is higher than their
Make it easier to get support from CAMHS when a child is displaying emotional distress at school
and is at risk of exclusion. It is
peers, and professionals report that challenging simply unacceptable to be waiting mental health and anxiety issues are increasing months for a referral. in a post-Covid world. Some professionals also 55
report that too many young people with SEND are presenting in crisis in their teenage years.
Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027
7. Our priorities and workstreams
for the next five years
Although many parents have spoken warmly about the quality of support on offer from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and other forms of support for mental health and wellbeing, it remains the case that parents have highlighted ongoing challenges in accessing mental health support for their children with SEND. Some parents we spoke to also identified their own need for mental health support, referencing some of the feelings of isolation and loneliness that can come from being a parent of a child with SEND.
How will we make a difference?
1. We will continue to engage more schools in Trauma-Informed Practice, embed Emotional Literacy Support Assistants, and further develop mental health training for schools and support for whole-school approaches, including staff wellbeing, so that schools review and strengthen their mental health provision and approach.
2. We will work with schools to embed the Emotional-Based School Avoidance (Ebsa) framework for schools, to increase understanding and support for young people missing out on education due to anxiety.
3. We will work with voluntary and community sector providers to increase the range of community-based support for mental health and emotional resilience for young people with SEND and their families, learning from our young people social prescribing pilot.
4. Weill create an easy-to-navigate map of the large range of mental health and emotional well-being support available before the CAMHS threshold, including Tavistock outreach and Mental Health practitioners in schools, and ensure families and schools know how to access these. We will also share good practice where schools have invested their own resources in additional initiatives to support mental health, such as Place2Be.
5. We will identify and recruit a group of peer mentors for young people with SEND who have experience of successfully managing their mental health.
6. We will build on the learning from rolling out the Parent Child Psychological Support (Pcps) programme in the first 1,001 days to understand the potential positive impact of this approach on families with children with SEND.
7. We will work with family support workers in our Early Help service, to increase access to emotional wellbeing support for parents of children with SEND and develop peer support networks of parents who have experienced similar emotional challenges, for example through Parent Support Groups which are run in some schools.
The Educational Psychology department delivered a training programme on Emotion Coaching which has led to staff adapting their practice and developing emotional wellbeing at a whole- school level. Staff have created their own resources with scripts to help bring this training to life. Since the training, the school has reported that this has developed staff's understanding of children and children are now using Emotion Coaching to support each other
Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027
7. Our priorities and workstreams
for the next five years
Keeping children and young people with SEND safe
Why is this important?
Safeguarding children and keeping them safe from harm will always be the utmost priority for the council and its partners, and this includes thinking deeply about the experiences for those with SEND and offering the right support, at the right time and at the right place.
Nationally, it is estimated that children with SEND are three times more likely to be abused or neglected. There are a number of factors that can increase the risk of harm to children and young people with SEND, and there are also a number of barriers that can make it difficult for them and their families to seek help or for professionals to recognise the indicators of harm.
Effective safeguarding is dependent on knowing and listening to children and young people
as individuals, to respond to the wide variety of difficulties and risks they may face and to recognise and nurture their individual strengths. Behaviour is a form of communication and changes in behaviour can be a key indicator of a safeguarding need, as can mental health difficulties. Schools and parents often need to advocate for children, so effective work with families and all partners is key to safeguarding children with SEND. This includes considering how additional vulnerabilities may present differently for children and young people with SEND.
A key element of good health and well-being is the interaction with others through forming and maintaining social relationships. We know that children and young people with SEND can be more vulnerable to bullying, abuse and risks of exploitation, including criminal exploitation, both in the offline and online worlds. Bullying was a significant issue of concern raised by
both parents/carers and children and young people during workshops as part of the public consultation and was an area they prioritised for further action. They recognised that children and young people with SEND could be the subject of bullying, could commit bullying themselves and that bullying took place both inside and outside school. Parents also expressed concern that children and young people with SEND might be more likely to find themselves in contact with the criminal justice system and end up in prison or long-term unemployed. They wanted to see more measures to avoid such outcomes for their children.
How will we make a difference?
1. Through Camden Safeguarding Children Partnership, and with colleagues in Camden Learning, we will strengthen work with Designated Safeguarding Leads at schools to improve how we identify and respond to any specific safeguarding concerns related to children with SEND. This will include ensuring that appropriate and timely action is taken and that the necessary support is provided.
2. Our Youth Early Help teams will strengthen work with partners to identify and support children with SEND, who are at risk of exploitation and/or entering the criminal justice system, earlier.
Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027
7. Our priorities and workstreams
for the next five years
3. We will explore the strategies that are currently in place in schools, settings and colleges to address bullying, such as restorative justice, assertive strategies, self-esteem, self-efficacy and conflict resolution skills, so to better be able to share good practice on what is working well.
4. Through Camden Youth Justice Services, we are committed to adopting the SEND Youth Safety quality mark to ensure that youth justice services offer strong support for young people with SEND and are working closely with other key partners to address young people’s special needs.
More joined up support for children and young people moving between phases of education and between services
Why is this important?
Parents report that when their child moves from one school or service to another it is often a time of anxiety and disruption. They also say that when their child moves between services
or between institutions the process involves too many hand-offs and too much repetition.
In responding to our survey, 36% of parents disagreed with the statement “when services provided to my child changed, | felt informed and supported” compared with 25% who agreed. Experience of changes between schools was more positive with 34% agreeing and 24% disagreeing. Improving and strengthening transitions between phases of education is a key ambition in Building Back Stronger: Camden’s Education Strategy to 2030.
Children and young people also described the stressful experiences they have faced, especially when moving schools or receiving a new health provider. This anxiety about the quality and depth of advice at points when young people are moving from one service or education setting to another is backed up by professionals who consistently report that information sharing and joint planning at points of transition, for example between early years and primary school,
or between primary and secondary school, could be stronger. At every stage of education, professionals voice anxiety about under identification of needs, and potentially lack of support, in the preceding stage of education.
How will we make a difference?
1. Wewill create a clearer map for parents around key ages and stages, and core information about what to expect at common transition points. This will include videos and accessible accounts of what the next stage of education, health or social care support looks like. This will be proactively communicated to parents by known and trusted services.
2. We will build on the current Year 6 to Year 7 common transition programme (which aims to embed a smooth and positive experience for all children moving from primary school to secondary school in Camden), by evaluating the impact of the work with vulnerable groups and drawing out the learning for other key transition points.
Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027
7. Our priorities and workstreams
for the next five years
3. We will explore the use of “wikis”, or other similar electronic media, as an easy way to disseminate information so that so that those with learning disabilities can more easily understand the support that is available. We will look at how we can build on existing successful approaches to this, such as the use of “Wikis” at the Alexandra Centre and “Evidence for Learning” used at Swiss Cottage.
4. We will support early years settings in identifying emerging need and ensuring that children with SEND have the right support and funding in place to ensure a smooth step up into primary school, including making sure that EHCP assessments have been initiated or that Exceptional Needs Grant (Eng) is in place, where these are needed. This will include putting in place one-year transition funding where appropriate.
5. Working with parents, we will ensure that information about key health pathways is clearly communicated in a range of accessible formats, so that there is an understanding from the start about how support and services will change over the course of a child’s life. This will form part of our “Guide To” information series described above.
D is a 12-year-old child with special educational needs who was anxious about his transition to secondary school. To make him more comfortable, a meeting, led by D, was held with his mum, his current school and the secondary school. This meeting resulted in a successful move to sec- ondary school where D is now excelling. Both school and home have noted how the transition meeting helped the school to understand the child’s strengths and provide their voice in support going forward. D is now setting up a volleyball team with a member of staff that will be open to all children to participate.
Enabling better access to health and therapeutic support
Why is this important?
There is a wide range of health and therapeutic support
on offer in Camden for children and young people with The assessment waitlist SEND. There is a system-wide approach to capacity took too long. This should building and enabling a child’s home and school setting be treated as an emergency
to feel confident to meet their needs with the help of because early intervention expert advice and training. For example, “Camden Kids spells a great difference.
Talk” is an initiative across health, education and social 5 5
care to support staff when they come across a child
with Speech and Language delays to have the skills
and confidence to speak to the child and provide a good experience for them. There is also a broad range of therapeutic support and interventions available including speech and language therapy, physiotherapy and occupational therapy. Importantly, therapies are available without requiring an EHCP and are not dependent on specific diagnoses. Many parents spoke very positively about the quality of support that they had received, particularly occupational therapy and the support on offer for children with very complex needs through Mosaic.
Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027
7. Our priorities and workstreams
for the next five years
However, parents and professionals have expressed concern about the significant waiting times to access support from certain therapies, for example speech and language therapy, which are more in demand than ever following the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Parents also felt that it was not clear enough which children would be eligible for particular therapies and did not always feel confident that what is specified in their EHCP will be delivered. Another common area of concern is around the number of assessments required to access certain forms of therapy or support, which some families considered too burdensome. Indeed, in our survey, 35% of parents who responded disagreed with the statement that the quantity of assessments is acceptable.
Health professionals highlighted the significant demands being placed on the capacity of staff delivering therapies and health support, particularly in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and have identified the challenges in meeting the health and therapeutic needs of children in schools, as the number of children with SEND has increased. Major reforms to the way in which health services are organised, with the creation of Integrated Care Systems spanning multiple local authorities, may create opportunities to innovate in how health support for children with SEND is delivered; at the same time, however, they may present risks in disrupting existing forms of delivery. Working closely with our partners and neighbours over the next period will be critical in maximising the opportunities of the new arrangements.
How will we make a difference?
1. We will further develop and communicate the holistic therapy offer for all children and young people with SEND, including clear guidance on eligibility.
2. We will improve communications with both families and other providers to improve understanding of therapeutic provision within the community, including how this can be accessed and by whom.
3. We will be more transparent about how staff and resources are allocated, how therapy services are commissioned and how these are prioritised. Where there are identified pressures, we will work flexibly to deploy the workforce and all available resources to address the highest priority areas.
4. Weill strengthen, clarify and promote our Universal Service Offer to schools and settings to ensure that all settings and staff are inclusive and confident to meet the needs of the children in their schools and are preparing them for adulthood and a life beyond school.
5. We will learn from and expand on the co-produced work in health on ‘waiting well’, which is about how to provide beneficial support for families on a waiting list.
6. We will work collaboratively with the North Central London therapy teams across Islington, Haringey, Enfield and Barnet to ensure that the Camden therapy offer is aligned, that there is continuity of support and that learning and resources are shared, so that access to therapy is not dependent on where you live.
Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027
7. Our priorities and workstreams
for the next five years
P was referred to the Inclusive Intervention Team (Iit) in July 2021. P had a diagnosis of Au- tism, was unable to eat solid food and only recently begun walking at nearly 3 years old. P had limited language and social communication skills. P’s mother needed support with understand- ing processes and paperwork. P received direct support from the Iit Specialist Early Years Educator and received Camden Local Inclusion Funding to enable nursery staff to dedicate time to interventions. Support from Camden Mosiac (Child Development Team) included feeding support, sleep service support, key worker support and group intervention.
Pis now using 4-5 word sentences and is confident walking and moving around the nursery. P is able to engage in a range of activities in the nursery environment and take turns playing with their peers. P now sleep through the night, is no longer having bottles and is attempting to eat new foods. Support from the Iit Inclusion Teacher is now being given to nursery staff and P’s mother around transition to primary school.
Local provision for local children
Why is this important?
When children are educated close to their home and their communities, we know it positively impacts them in terms of maintaining friendship groups and building support networks. It is easier to make sure that health and social care support wraps around a child effectively and to monitor the quality of education being provided. It is also often better value for money, which is significant in the context of stretched resources. Although lower than other London boroughs, the percentage of Camden children who have an EHCP in independent and non-maintained special schools and educated outside Camden is growing. In many cases this will mean that their education setting is a considerable distance from home.
At the same time, many school leaders are concerned that individual schools or settings which are particularly inclusive become the placement of choice for families with children with SEND. This can lead to a disproportionate financial and staffing burden on those institutions. Building parental confidence in the core offer provided by all schools would help to avoid additional pressure on some schools.
How will we make a difference?
1. Wewill set up an annual process for reviewing our forecasts and projections of children and young people with SEND, considering our capacity to meet needs as a borough and evaluating the amount and quality of support and provision available.
2. We will continue to work proactively with our Parent Carer Forum and with Sendiass to support parents to feel confident in the offer available in every Camden school for children and young people with SEND.
3. We will use the Family Information Service to provide support for parents of children with SEND in understanding the local school options and making an informed choice for their child.
Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027
For those undergoing statutory EHC needs assessment or who have an EHCP, we will ensure we consider all appropriate schools and consult in line with parent preference as well as consulting appropriate schools with lower-than-average levels of pupils with SEND and who therefore have greater capacity to meet their needs. We will continue to enhance our training offer to ensure staff feel confident in their knowledge and skills to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND.
We will maximise the use of short breaks provision in Camden, with a focus on early support and prevention, parental participation, services for siblings, targeted overnight respite for children and young people with complex needs and preparing for adulthood through fun and enjoyable activities.
We will implement our Closer to Camden Commissioning strategy to put in place the services or support that would enable more children’s and young people’s needs to be met more effectively locally in future and prevent the need for residential placements out of Camden.
We know that children with SEND can thrive in suitable housing with space to play and develop and to accommodate their physical needs. We will continue to work actively with developers to improve the stock of family-sized homes in the borough through our
. Areview of our Housing Strategy is also planned to enable the delivery of a housing system that incorporates the principles of early help and prevention and is easier to navigate.
Continuing to learn and routes into employment
Compared with other inner London boroughs, on average fewer young people with SEND in Camden continue in education, employment or training after the end of compulsory education. In 2021, 88.1% of Camden’s key stage 4 cohort with SEND was in education, employment
or training at age 17, compared with 89.4% across Inner London.‘ Significant investment and focus have been made on supporting young people with SEND into employment but we know there is more to do to reduce our levels of young people with SEND who are not in education, employment or training (Neet).
During focus groups, young people asked for better information about the range of alternative pathways open to them, apart from further academic study. Some young people spoke passionately about their interest in pursuing non-traditional or more entrepreneurial employment options. Others stressed the importance of access to jobs, internships and lifelong learning for building social skills and developing strong relationships. In addition, school leaders highlighted
7. Our priorities and workstreams
for the next five years
a lack of curriculum breadth at secondary schools to support secure routes into more vocational options and other alternative education pathways. Parents also wanted to see a broader range of options available, including lifelong learning for young people in the SEND community once they have finished formal education.
How will we make a difference?
1. We will clearly identify, map out and monitor the support and options available and communicate these effectively to parents, carers and young people at the right time. This will help young people to choose options which best reflect their interests and will build on our Education Strategy’s commitment to improving information, advice and guidance.
2. We will work with colleges to identify the range of training opportunities available that could help support children and young people with SEND into meaningful, paid employment, and further develop the career advice and pathways beyond college.
3. We will better coordinate our work with local employers, including small and large employers, public sector employers, voluntary sector employers and social enterprises to create more work experience, supported internships or career opportunities for young people with SEND.
4. Weill increase awareness of our supported internship offer and further strengthen the relationship between the SEND and Inclusive Economy teams.
5. We will build on Good Work Camden’s supported employment initiative and ensure that young people with SEND can benefit from this offer. As part of this we will do more to support the transition from education into a supported employment pathway, including working with young people as they move from a supported internship into employment.
6. We will develop a SEND employment forum, which includes schools/colleges, employment services and employers.
7. As part of Camden’s post-16 developmental activity, we will ensure that suitable progression routes into post-16 education continue to grow in variety and range for pupils with SEND.
8. We will build on and embed learning from the “Living a Good Life” pilot work delivered by the integrated learning disability service and our children and young people’s disability services in Camden, in partnership with specialist local providers. The pilot looks creatively at weekly activities available based on the young person’s interests, likes and dislikes, and helps them explore and develop those as they as they leave education and move into adulthood. The pilot will help us identify needs that are not being met and develop services which may not currently be available.
9. We will make the Camden community learning offer more accessible to young adults with SEND — developing better opportunities for lifelong learning.
10. We will promote and grow creative daytime opportunities for those with the most complex needs to lead purposeful lives within their communities.
Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027
7. Our priorities and workstreams
for the next five years
Following the completion of their supported internship, B was provided with employment in- formation and guidance from their job coach at Westminster Kingsway College for 3 months.
B then registered with Good Work Camden (employment support service) and was allocated
an employment advisor who supported B to job search online, complete application forms and prepare for interviews. B was successful in their application for a 6 months’ paid internship. They were able to develop and refine skills as an intern and networked with professionals in the industry. On the completion of their internship, B secured a paid job at the same employer as an Administration Officer.
Creating opportunities for independent living
Why is this important?
We know that when young people with SEND live closer to home, it supports the creation
of more secure support networks and friendships. At the same time, some parents and professionals report too narrow a range of independent living and supported living options,
as well as the need to think about the skills required for living independently at a much
earlier stage. In the consultations we undertook with parents for the Closer to Camden Commissioning Strategy, some voiced concerns about how their children would be supported to live independently as adults, particularly in cases where the parents were experiencing health difficulties themselves. Among the children and young people with SEND that we spoke to, assisted living arrangements were a particular concern for looked after children.
Ensuring there are opportunities for I'd really like there to be a fully joined supported housing, employment, up plan for kids from 2 - 25 that shows independent living and staying local to you what services you can get and how
be near friends and family. | would like to go about getting them. This could be services where my daughter can go and all the way through their school years to
talk - for example to youth services. | would university and beyond including assisted
like my daughter to live close to me. | want living and other support for when they
my daughter to be in employment, live may be able to leave home.
independently if she wants to. 5 5 5 5
How will we make a difference?
1. We will carry out long-term planning of accommodation requirements to feed into our accommodation strategy. This will enable us to utilise all accommodation options and, where necessary, work with housing and health, and parents/carers, to create opportunities for sustainable independent or semi-independent living.
Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027
7. Our priorities and workstreams
for the next five years
2. We will work with housing colleagues to ensure that young people with SEND, whatever the complexity of their needs, are able to access clear, simple and useful advice about their housing choices.
3. We will invest in our housing programme to offer young adults with SEND more local choice and flexibility, with one of our goals being to create additional accessible properties.
4. Wewill raise awareness of the expanded Shared Lives scheme which provides small, family-based support to adults with a variety of support needs and encourage greater take up of the scheme by young people with complex needs.
5. We will explore the feasibility of the Council’s housing allocation scheme being made available to younger adults with complex needs or their families.
6. We will work with special schools and colleges to ensure that young adults with SEND are developing the skills for life that they will need to live more independently.
7. As acorporate parent, Camden will continue to support care leavers with EHCP and/ or SEND as they move towards independence and independent living so they can be successful in adult life, healthy and happy.
Starting the preparation for adulthood iT
earlier | don’t know what to expect and this makes me very worried. | Why is this important? don’t know what options she
will have as an adult. Young people and parents, in many cases, remain fearful of the transition from children’s to adults’ services, 55 and report that they lack choice and control. The young people we consulted in developing this strategy 6 6
stressed the importance of learning life skills, including We want to learn about the
understanding finances, sexual health, relationships practical tools that will help us
and gender identity, and would value more support after education and in life, like
and advice on these issues in preparing for adulthood. financial literacy, sexual health Parents would welcome planning for transition starting and living independently.
a lot earlier, with better join up between education, 55
children’s and adults’ social care, housing and health.
Parents also emphasise that planning then needs to lead to information, action, services and options. There appears to be a mismatch between the ambition and commitment across Camden and what young people and parents report that they experience and feel.
As a young person makes the transition to adulthood, the focus of health services is to enable them to be as independent as they can in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Many young adults will be able to manage their health needs through universal services. Where they have more complex health needs, these will be supported via a health care plan and specialist healthcare. Annual health checks for people with learning disabilities help to detect and treat long-term conditions. In Camden the uptake of annual health checks has consistently been one the highest in the country.
Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027
7. Our priorities and workstreams
for the next five years
Young people with a diagnosed Global Learning Disability will transition into Camden Learning Disability Service (health and social care service for adults) which incorporates input from a range of social work and professionals and provides support within the local community. This clear pathway for young people with diagnosed learning disabilities is not replicated for all young people with additional needs, with parents and professionals reporting that the same clarity does not exist for other groups of young people with SEND. There appears to be a particular gap around pathway planning for autistic young adults and feedback that young people with SEND but without an EHCP struggle to find the right advice.
How will we make a difference?
1. We will work with special schools, primary and secondary schools, colleges and health colleagues to ensure young people with SEND receive practical and person-centred advice around financial management, sexual health, relationships, gender and identity. Where appropriate we will ensure relevant goals around these issues are captured in EHCPs.
2. We will develop stronger pathways between children’s CAMHS service and Adults Camden Learning Disability Service, Mental Health and Adults Social Care services at time of transition.
3. We will work across education, social care and health to develop a clearer pathway for autistic young adults, so that they will be supported into adulthood, there is advice and information available and if statutory intervention is required, staff have the knowledge and skills to work with autistic young people.
4. Weill build on existing good practice so that all care leavers aged 16-25 with an EHCP and SEND in Camden will receive information, advice, and support as they move towards independence.
5. We will work with families and young people to consider how to support them better through the transition to adulthood, including exploring the potential for identifying a named worker to work with a family and young person through the transition process.
6. We will engage with young people and families at all levels, from individual care planning process to parents receiving specialist short breaks, every month to share what works well for them and what needs to change.
7. Wewill hold an annual Preparing for Adulthood event aimed at families and young people aged 13 to 18 who are supported by services in Camden. The event will provide everyone with the opportunity to hear about what works well in Camden and what we need to improve. Professionals from social care, social work, SEN, and health will share the opportunities that exist in Camden around independent living, good health, employment and community inclusion for children and young people with SEN and disabilities.
8. We will build on existing good practice to ensure that young people aged 14+ are aware of the importance of annual health checks and are supported to take up the offer of annual heath checks with their Gp.
Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027
8. Making our funding work smarter to deliver our ambitions
Despite the increased investment nationally and locally in support for children and young people with SEND, we will need to carefully monitor our High Needs Block spend. Camden, through careful stewardship of its High Needs Block and excellent partnership working across frontline services, is in the fortunate position of our spending not exceeding our high-needs funding. However, maintaining this financial position, while continuing to meet the increasing complexity of need in our population, will require difficult choices to be made over the next five years. Our principle for making these decisions remains that we will continue to devolve as much funding as possible to the frontline and to mainstream settings so that needs can be met earlier, in order to reduce the escalation of provision that may require a specialist diagnosis or EHC needs assessment. By intervening early, we believe we will be in a better position to secure the best possible outcomes for all children and young people with SEND.
High Needs Block transformation programme
Following on from an external review of our High Needs Block spend in 2020 we have been working to increase our support to schools. We have done this by increasing top-up rates as well as increasing the amount of funding we devolve straight to Camden mainstream schools from £1.3m to £1.7m a year. This allows schools to work in an anticipatory way to meet the predictable needs of pupils with SEND and, in particular, those pupils identified at SEN support. We are also building on our processes to enable timely access to funding in a less bureaucratic way by piloting a cluster approach where all SENDCOs in a specific cluster will come together to share learning, expertise and agree decisions about top-up funding for Camden pupils in Camden mainstream schools without having to go through a statutory EHC needs assessment process.
Closer to Camden Commissioning Strategy
The Closer to Camden Commissioning Strategy focusses specifically on children with highly complex health and/or disabilities. Although there are only a small number of children and young people who are part of this cohort, they have very complex needs and therefore support requirements are highly specialist and the community support or placement costs are very high. The overarching aim of the commissioning strategy is to reduce the number of children and young people aged 0-25 with highly complex needs in residential schools out of the borough and improve outcomes for this cohort. Where possible, we believe that every Camden child and young person with complex needs should be able to access the support they need in the community near where they live. Our priority is to enhance local provision to add more choice and flexibility and reduce reliance on the out of borough schools.
As part of the Closer to Camden Commissioning Strategy, an early intervention approach is being proposed, which could result in reduced need for residential placements far from their Camden support system both in the short term and as the young person moves into adulthood. The approach champions a move away from thinking of this simply as a children’s services problem, recognising that the impact of intervening early will be of benefit to the whole system. The commissioning priorities focus on:
Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027
8. Making our funding work smarter to deliver our ambitions
e Staying at home: How resources could be focussed more effectively to support families to reduce the need for placements;
e Placement making: How placements are made and negotiated;
e Placement management: How placements are managed thereafter
Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027 43
9. Measuring what we have achieved
To ensure that we are making progress in delivering on the ambitions set out in this strategy we have agreed the following measures of success which will be regularly monitored. These align with our three priority areas. This list of measures of success may evolve over time, in response to regular monitoring of our progress in delivering this strategy. For many of these measures, we recognise that we need to establish a baseline to enable us to track changes over time.
Make life easier for families of children and young people with SEND
e Increase the number of audited engagements with families meeting the new service standards
e Reduce the average waiting time from initial assessment to the start of a therapeutic intervention where clinically indicated
e Increase levels of parental satisfaction, based on the new annual parents’ survey e Maintain a +95% of EHC needs assessments completed on time
e Increase the percentage of annual reviews for EHCPs that are completed on time
Support children and young people with SEND to thrive in learning, health and wellbeing
e Increase the progress made by children and young people with SEND and key stage 2 and key stage 4, narrowing the gap with their peers
e Reduce the number of young people needing A&E care for mental health issues
e Reduce the number of children and young people with SEND experiencing a fixed-term or permanent exclusion
e Increase overall school attendance for children and young people with SEND
e Reduce waiting times for formal Asd assessment
Enable young adults with SEND to build a good life locally
e Reduce the percentage of young people with SEND who are Neet
e Increase the percentage of young people with SEND who remain in paid employment after 1 year
e Increase the percentage of young people with SEND in supported internships
e Reduce the number of young people living out of Camden or in placements travelling more than 15 miles away
e Steadily increase the percentage of eligible young people aged 14+ taking up the annual heath checks with their Gp
Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027
9. Measuring what we have achieved
We also believe that we need to invest in mechanisms for regularly collecting views from stakeholders including parents and carers, young people and frontline professionals. We
will develop an agreed approach for seeking feedback which could be via annual surveys supplemented by a light touch “temperature check” that could be sent out regularly via social media to hear from a much wider group than typically contribute to more formal surveys or co- design events. Outcomes from the annual surveys and “temperature checks’ will be included alongside our measures of success outlined above.
Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027
10. How the Local Area SEND Strategy will be delivered and governed
Delivering on the ambitions set out in this strategy will be the responsibility of our local area SEND partnership which includes: the Parent Carer Forum; Sendiass; Camden Council; our local health partners; early years settings, schools and colleges; and Camden Learning. We will also work closely with our partners in the voluntary and community sector to help deliver this strategy.
Progress in implementing the strategy will be overseen by our multi-agency SEND Improvement Board which is chaired by the Director of Children’s Services. Operational delivery will be governed by the partnership-based SEND Improvement and Operational group (Siog). Both bodies include parent representatives. Overall progress will be reported to Camden’s Children’s Trust Partnership Board which is chaired by Camden Council’s Cabinet Member for Best Start in Life.
1 Nan ig a
a) Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027
Appendices
Appendix A — Glossary of terms
Adhd Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
Annual review The review of an EHC plan which the local authority must make as a minimum every 12 months
Arp
Additionally resourced provision for children with special educational needs which is part of a mainstream school
Asd Autism Spectrum Disorder
CAMHS
Child and adolescent mental health services: These services assess and treat children and young people with emotional, behavioural or mental health difficulties
Cdt Child development team
ciIcs Camden Integrated Children’s Services
Clc Camden Learning Centre: a centre which supports schools to deliver the computing curriculum
EHCP
Education, Health and Care Plan: a legal document setting out the education, health and social care needs of a child or young person which must be provided
Eng
Exceptional Needs Grant: Additional top up funding used to meet the needs of Camden children in Camden mainstream schools where they have more complex SEND
Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027
Appendices
Ep Educational Psychologist
Fe Colleges
Further Education College: A college offering continuing education to young people over the compulsory school age of 16. The Fe sector in England includes general further education colleges, sixth form colleges, specialist colleges and adult education institutes.
Hnb
High Needs Block: the additional funding that supports those children and young people with high needs
Inmss Independent and Non-Maintained Special Schools
KS1 Key Stage 1: school years 1 and 2 (infants) (ages 5 to 7)
KS2 Key Stage 2: school years 3 to 6 (juniors) (ages 8 to 11)
KS3 Key Stage 3: school years 7 to 9 (ages 12 to 14)
KS4 Key Stage 4: school years 10 to 11 (ages 15 and 16)
KS5 Key Stage 5: school years 12 and 13 (sixth form)
Local Offer
The provision that the local authority expects to be available across education, health and social care for children and young people in their area who have SEN or are disabled, including those who do not have Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans. The Local Offer also refers to the website that aims to bring together this information.
Maintained school Schools that are maintained by a local authority
Mosaic
Integrated service for children and young people with SEND and their families from birth to 18 years of age, providing assessment, therapy and family support
Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027
Appendices
Neet Not in employment, education or training 16/17
NHS
National Health Service: Government-funded medical and health care services that everyone living in the UK can use without being asked to pay the full cost of the service
Pmld Profound and multiple learning difficulties
PRU
Pupil referral unit: provision for children excluded from mainstream school or in need of specialist provision because unable to attend school
Scas
Social Communication Assessment Service
Scl Social, communication and language difficulties
Sendco Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Co-ordinator (also referenced as SENCO)
Sendiass Special Education Needs and Disabilities Information Advice Support Service
Semh
Social, emotional and mental health: a designation for a type of special educational needs setting or an individual young person’s needs SEND Special Educational Needs and Disability: terminology used in legislation and in particular the SEND Code of Practice
Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027
Appendices
Appendix B — Details of co-design and coproduction workshops
Partner
Hampstead School
Workshop Date 3 March 2022
Group Secondary Children
Parliament Hill School
25 February 2022
Secondary Children
Fleet Primary School
22 February 2022
Primary Children
Holy Trinity & S. Silas
1 March 2022
Primary Children
Brookfield Primary school
King's Cross Academy Fitzjohn Primary School
Swiss Cottage School
22 February 2022
25 February 2022 16 March 2022 15 March 2022
Nursery and Primary Children
Primary Children Primary Children
Children with SEND in specialist setting
Virtual School/ Looked After Children
Online workshop for parents
Fitzjohn Primary School- phase 1
16 March 2022
2 March 2022
2 February 2022
Looked After Children
Public Workshop open to All Parents
Parents with SEND children
Fitzjohn Primary School- phase 2
Parent Carer Forum- Phase
16 March 2022
2 February 2022
Parents with SEND children
Parents of children with
1 SEND Parent Carer Forum- Phase = 9 March 2022 Parents of children with 2 SEND
Early years Parent Champions
28 February 2022
Early Years/Parents
Reactive Forum
11 March 2022
Post 16 young people
Kids charity
1 March 2022
Early Years/Parents
Camden Carers
9 March 2022
Parents with adult children with SEND
Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027
Appendices
Appendix C — Note on data sources
The data in this strategy were primarily derived from the following sources:
SEN 2 Census Data January 2022 (Education, health and care plans, Reporting Year 2022 — Explore education statistics - Gov.UK (explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk)) The SEN2 is a census completed by every local authority each January recording the number of EHC plans that they maintain. It therefore relates to children and young people who are resident in Camden and covers the full age range up to 25
Office for National Statistics (Ons) mid-2022 population projection (Population projections - Office for National Statistics). Ages 2-18 population figures are used in line with benchmarking and high needs funding calculations published by the Department for Education (DfE).
Figures for Camden school roles are drawn from school census data from January 2022 (Special educational needs in England, Academic Year 2021/22 — Explore education statistics — Gov.UK (explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk). This data covers children and young people up to the age of 19 who attend state funded schools only (including academies and free schools but not independent or non-maintained schools). Camden’s two hospital schools are also excluded.
Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027
Appendices
1. SEN 2 Census Data January 2022 (Education, health and care plans, Reporting Year 2022 — Explore education statistics - Gov.UK (explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk))
2. Office for National Statistics (Ons) mid-2022 population projection (Population projections - Office for National Statistics)
3. Special education needs in England, 2021/2022 (Special educational needs in England, Academic Year 2021/22 — Explore education statistics - Gov.UK (explore-education-statistics.
service.gov.uk) 4. Statistics: Neet and participation, Department for Education
5. GCSE results (Attainment 8), Department for Education, March 2022
6. Covid-19 and education - Education Policy Institute (epi.org.uk)
7. The term ‘ordinarily available provision’ comes from the SEN Code of Practice and refers to the support that mainstream schools or settings should be able to provide for a child or young person through their agreed funding and resource arrangements.
8. In a 2017 study conducted by the NHS, it was found that special educational needs were more common in children with a mental health disorder (35.6%) than in those without a disorder
(6.1%). (Mental Health of Children and Young People in England, 2017) 9. Social care commentary: protecting disabled children - Gov.UK (www.gov.uk)
Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027
Camden Local Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027
If you have any question sendstrat
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End
Strategy
Why this page, not just a PDF? The original is a PDF - fine to read, but a poor fit for assistive technology: heading structure is often inconsistent or absent, text doesn't reflow for zoom or a narrow screen, and screen readers can struggle with multi-column layouts and scanned pages. This page is the same content rebuilt as plain, semantic HTML - real headings, text that reflows, nothing a screen reader or zoom tool trips over.
Recovered via OCR. This document's own embedded PDF text layer was corrupted (a broken font encoding, not a scan) - what's shown here was read back from the rendered page images instead, so heading structure isn't preserved, only paragraph text.
Republished from London Borough of Camden under the Open Government Licence v3.0. View the original PDF.