Improving Special Educational Needs
Our priority to provide high quality SEND provision on Island
We aim to provide high quality SEND provision for children and young people up to the age of 25.
To do this we have five main areas we will focus on. These include what success will look like so we know when we have achieved our aim.
The Isle of Wight Council is creating more SEN places across the Island
We are going to create over 200 additional special educational needs places on the Island!
There will be provision for
- Social Emotional Mental Health (SEMH)
- sensory (visual impairment and hearing impairment)
- those with Autism and Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN)
- high anxiety and other mental health needs
There will also be
- increased provision for young people who are medically unwell
- new therapeutic learning environments
How we are going to achieve high quality SEND provision
We will
- re-use school buildings
- expand our primary and secondary special schools
- expand 'resourced provisions' in our primary and secondary schools
- develop and continually update our ordinally available provision
- enhance joint commissioning of support between education, health and care services for children with SEND to ensure services work together effectively
- ensure all children will have access to an educational setting that is appropriate to their needs
- challenge aspirations and ambitions for all children and young people, dispelling misconceptions by supporting children and young people to achieve their goals
- in partnership with schools and children’s services, be aspirational for the outcomes for children looked after
- listen to children’s and their families’ voices to get the right support and help at the right time
- collectively act as champions for vulnerable children when we recognise that they are not being served
- from the earliest point in a child’s life, provide families with timely access to support so their experience improves, and the needs of their children are identified early and effectively met
- incorporate the views of children and young people with SEND, children looked after and children with a social worker in order to minimise barriers to learning and ensure the holistic development of children and young people
- through training and development, maximise the effectiveness of high quality inclusive teaching and assessment to promote swift identification of need and target appropriate, evidence-based intervention
- collaborate with settings and schools to ensure quality transition for
- all pupils at each key stage with the opportunities for personalised programmes where needed
- ensure schools are fully aware of their responsibilities to keep all parents and carers informed of their child’s progress when they are falling behind and what is being done to address this
- ensure we have a robust outreach offer which supports the whole system
Resource documents
These are background documents, and are not fully digitally accessible. We are working towards making all documents digitally accessible. In the meantime, If you would like to give us your feedback, or need the documents in an alternative format, you can email strategic.planning@iow.gov.uk
SEND Partnership Board Terms of Reference
- SEND Partnership Board Terms of Reference (PDF, 196KB)
SEND Partnership Board minutes
- SEND Partnership Board Minutes 22 April 2024 (PDF, 261KB)
- SEND Partnership Board Minutes 24 June 2024 (PDF, 336KB)
- Download the SEN DfE Dedicated Schools Grant Safety Valve Agreement (PDF, 238KB) - this document is produced by the Department of Education
- Download the Safety Valve Board meeting minutes 25 June 2024 (PDF, 119KB)
- Download the Safety Valve Board meeting minutes 22 July 2024 (PDF, 92KB)
- Download the Safety Valve Board meeting minutes 20 August 2024 (PDF, 133KB)
- Download the SEN Education Safety Valve delivery plan June 2024 (PDF, 970KB) - this document includes plans, risks, mitigations and work streams
This is the first draft of the local area’s self-evaluation of SEND provision on the Isle of Wight.
- Draft Local Area SEND self-evaluation (PDF, 5MB)
Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this, especially the children, young people, parents and carers who have shared their views and experiences. Please send any feedback you have on this first draft to amie.cass@iow.gov.uk by 18 October 2024