Welcome to Devon's SEND Pathfinder website
New factsheet about the pathfinder pilot
May 22nd, 2013
Want to know how things are going with our pilot? Take a look at our new factsheet about the pilot for more information: Factsheet 1 (May 2013) v0 1
Children and Families Bill
April 12th, 2013
The Children and Families Bill was introduced into the House of Commons on the 4th February 2013. Some of the key points from the Bill for children with Special Educational Needs, including children with disabilities are:
- Replacing statements and learning difficulty assessments with a new birth- to-25 Education, Health and Care Plan, extending rights and protections to young people in further education and training and offereing families personal budgets so that they have more control over the support they need;
- Improving cooperation between all the services that support children and their families and particularly requiring local authorities and health authorities to work together;
- Requiring local authorities to involve children, young people and parents in reviewing and developing provision for those with special educational needs and to publish a ‘local offer’ of support.
It is expected that the Bill will become law in 2014. For more information please see the full Children and Families Bill, the Children and Families Bill Factsheet or the Indicative Draft Code of Practice for SEN.
Website Refresh
January 9th, 2013
We are currently in the process of refreshing the website to update you on the progress of the Devon SEND Pathfinder so far, including the new single assessment process. Apologies if any of the links or content are not quite working at present.
Many Thanks
SEND Pathfinder Project Team
Personal Health Budget Evaluation
December 6th, 2012
On 30th November, Norman Lamb Care and Support Minister, announced the government intends to roll out Personal Health Budgets following a successful 3 year pilot programme.
For more information about the Personal Health Budget pilot programme you can read the Final Evaluation Report or Executive Summary released November 2012.
Extension of the pathfinder programme – next steps
December 6th, 2012
Following on from the announcement on 6th November of the extension to the pathfinder programme, current Pathfinders received a letter from the Department for Education (DfE) and Department of Health (DoH) providing additional clarity on the future arrangements.
Minister writes to parents regarding draft provsions
December 6th, 2012
Edward Timpson, the Minister responsible for SEN and Disability within the Department for Education, has written to parents through the Council for Disabled Children (CDC) on the draft provisions of the Children and Families Bill.
The Minister recently gave evidence to the Education Select Committee on the draft provisions. CDC alerted Edward Timpson to the fact that parents were concerned that the reforms would erode their current rights in relation to education support. As a result, the Minister wrote to parents to address these concerns.
NHS Mandate and the Education, Health and Care Plan
November 27th, 2012
On 13 November the first Mandate between the Government and the NHS Commissioning Board was published, setting out ambitions for the health service for the next two years.
The Mandate is structured around five key areas where the Government expects the NHS Commissioning Board to make improvements:
- preventing people from dying prematurely
- enhancing quality of life for people with long-term conditions
- helping people to recover from episodes of ill health or following injury
- ensuring that people have a positive experience of care
- treating and caring for people in a safe environment and protecting them from avoidable harm
Bullet 4, ‘ensuring that people have a positive experience of care’, includes a specific pledge at paragraph 4.13 to improve support for children and young people with special educational needs or disabilities. This will be achieved through the Board’s objective to ‘ensure that they have access to the services identified in their agreed care plan, and that parents of children who could benefit have the option of a personal budget based on a single assessment across health, social care and education for children’.
Read more about the NHS Mandate.
NEWSFLASH! Parent Conversation Event Exeter
November 22nd, 2012
The parent conversation event will go ahead tomorrow (23rd November) at Exeter Racecourse as planned. We understand that some parents may not be able to make the event due to the recent weather conditions.
We look forward to seeing those who are able to attend and hope to have another informative and successful Exeter event.
Edward Timpson announces extension of SEND Pathfinders
November 6th, 2012
Minister Edward Timpson today announced the extension of the SEN and Disability Pathfinders for 18 months to run through to September 2014. Read the full story from the Council for Disabled Children website.
Devon visits All Party Parliamentary Group in London
October 17th, 2012
On Monday 15th October, John Shaw (SEND Lead) and John Peart (Senior Manager, Strategic Commissioning Education) visited the Houses of Parliament to present Devon’s SEND Pathfinder progress to the All Party Parliamentary Group. Their presentation outlined Devon’s Model for single assessment & plan and personal budgets. This model will show how the new legislation could work in practice.
John Shaw tweeted “Dynamic Parliamentary group discussion today, 2 young people Scott and Glenn, presented their views for the future – powerful voices”
