Purpose
Our aim is for Warwickshire to be a Child Friendly County where all children should be skilled, safe, heard, healthy and happy and we are committed to working together as a system to deliver this vision.
We’ll do this by working restoratively and embedding how we work with families by developing and nurturing the four cornerstones of:
- Welcome and care
- Value and include
- Communicate
- Work in partnership to develop trust
This approach aims to develop trust with a focus on:
- Multi-agency working
- Family networks
- Inclusive practice
- The right support and services available at the right time
- Developing a skilled workforce
- Enhancing family voice
We will encourage ambition, create opportunity, and support learners to be the best that they can be. This strategy sets out how partners across education, health and social care will work together to deliver services to support and continue to make improvements to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND.
We will encourage ambition, create opportunity, and support learners to be the best that they can be.
Our children and young people have told us how important it is that all services have an inclusive approach and that they listen, communicate and work in partnership with them, so that there is a trusting and safe environment for them to learn.
Our Partnership Board is committed to ensuring that the views and wishes of children and young people with SEND and their parents and carers will be heard. We will continue working together in partnership to improve our SEND provision and ensure parents have reason to trust local providers to meet their children's needs.
Our plans need to reflect the growth in numbers of children and young people with Education and Health Care (EHC) Plans, which highlights greater need across the county.
Growth is predicted to rise to approximately 7,500 children and young people with EHC Plans by 2027/28.
As a system, Warwickshire has sought to increase the number of children with EHC Plans who are effectively supported within mainstream provision. These numbers have increased from 1,430 children and young people in 2021 to 2,132 in 2024; the number of children within special school settings has increased from 1,544 to 1,723 for the same period.
The number of children in independent provision has decreased but it is rising again in 2024.
This strategy must take account of the financial implications on the council of meeting our statutory duties.
