A journey to a journey – transformation of Home to School Travel
A journey to a journey – transformation of Home to School
Widening the lens through which our clients begin to tackle the challenge.
Today’s announcement of an extra £700m for Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) support will no doubt be warmly welcomed by many, not least by those councils who are struggling with multi-million pound overspends in relation to high needs block funding.
A number of local systems have been stretched to breaking point, and many local authorities are even struggling to find appropriate school places for children with SEND this academic year. However, whilst funding is part of the issue, the challenges across the SEND and high needs system are much greater.
From my point of view, there are 3 priorities that are as important as the need for adequate funding:
IMPOWER’s recent work has focussed on ensuring that these linkages are in place. Working alongside 3 local authorities, we have developed a new needs codification tool for children with additional needs which we will start to pilot this month. The tool will enable councils to better understand the needs of children, and crucially, increase the ability of education and home settings to meet those needs. We believe this will help to reframe the discussion on high needs in order to maximise the potential of all children and evidence progress at child, school and local area level.
Today’s investment in SEND provides a real opportunity to not only plug the growing funding gap, but also to create a fairer and more holistic system focussed on children’s needs and the positive impacts that can be made on their lives.
To discuss how you can grasp this opportunity, please get in touch.