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<p>The cost of local authorities’ Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessment
and planning function is paid from authorities’ general fund from, for example, council
tax, business rates or the Revenue Support Grant provided by the Department for Levelling
Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC). Any increase in capacity for the EHC needs assessment
team must be met from the local authority’s general fund.</p><p>Stockport special
educational needs and disabilities (SEND) Local Area Partnership’s Accelerated Progress
Plan (APP), which has been in place since the Ofsted and Care Quality Commission (CQC)
joint area SEND revisit in September 2022, includes actions to address the quality
of EHC plans in the area. Department for Education officials and NHS (England) SEND
advisers have been providing support, challenge and advice in monitoring the progress
of the APP.</p><p>Stockport is also one of the 55 local areas which have been invited
to join the government’s £85 million Delivering Better Value Programme to support
local areas to achieve maximum value for money in delivering SEND provision, whilst
maintaining and improving the outcomes they achieve. One of the workstreams being
funded by this grant is ‘Governance and Accountability of SEN Support and EHC Needs
Assessments’ through which the department is assisting Stockport to improve their
EHC plan processes and the quality of plans.</p><p>The department wants to ensure
that EHC needs assessments, where required, are conducted as quickly as possible,
so that children and young people can access the support they need. In March 2023,
the government set out its plans to reform and improve the SEND system through its
SEND and alternative provision (AP) Improvement Plan. The plan commits to establishing
a single national system that delivers for every child and young person with SEND
so that they enjoy their childhood, achieve good outcomes and are well prepared for
adulthood and employment.</p><p>In the short term, the department is working hard
to improve the current EHC plan system through a range of measures to improve the
SEND system. The department is investing heavily in the SEND system. Examples of the
department’s investments include: improving specialist capacity by investing over
£21 million to train 400 more educational psychologists from 2024, investing £2.6
billion between 2022 and 2025 to fund new special and AP places and improve existing
provision (including announcing 41 new special free schools and 38 special free schools
that are currently in the pipeline), investing £30 million to develop innovative approaches
for short breaks for children, young people and their families over three years and
investing over £7 million to fund extension of the Alternative Provision Specialist
Taskforce pilot programme, (delivering now in 22 local authorities) to run until 2025.</p><p>The
department is also putting in place measures to improve the SEND system in the longer
term, so that where an EHC plan is needed they can be issued as quickly as possible,
so that children and young people can access the support they need.</p><p> </p>
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