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Special Educational Needs and Disabilities improvement journey

Special Educational Needs and Disabilities improvement journey

The City of York Council (CYC) and the Yorkshire and Humber Health and Care Partnership welcome the opportunity to continually and jointly improve services for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) in York.

Our ambition is for York to be a city that is inclusive for all; that services are delivered at the right time and from the right places and that all our children succeed and are happy, healthy, and safe.

Following the Local Area SEND Inspection that took place in December 2019, we’re making some changes to our services.

To get involved and work in partnership with us on the improvement journey, email: [email protected].

Read more about:

SEND CENTRAL is Yorks SEND family hub. It is a dedicated space where families can drop in or contact a Navigator for support in accessing the Local Offer. The vision is to bring the online local offer platform to life in a physical place.

Through engagement sessions and ongoing dialogue with York’s Parent Carer Forum, families have expressed a strong desire for face-to-face support. In an increasingly digital world, many parents and carers value the opportunity to speak with someone in person. SEND Central embraces this feedback and places physical presence and personal interaction at the heart of its offer.

In response to family requests, SEND Central provides a flexible model that includes both bookable appointments and drop-in sessions. The initial offer includes:

  • A physical drop-in service from SENDIASS
  • Bookable appointments with the SEND Casework Team for families with an EHCP
  • Signposting to services when staff are not physically present
  • A presence from the Think Together project
  • Early years groups for children with SEND, combining open access and targeted invitations
  • Drop-in and signposting support around Preparation for Adulthood
  • Commissioned services running youth groups from the hub

This timetable has been shaped by the voices of families across York and will continue to evolve. Weekly themed information sessions will be held, and families will be invited to share feedback on what is working and what could be improved.

The name SEND CENTRAL was chosen by a young person and reflects the hub’s purpose: to be a central point of advice, information, and guidance for families navigating the SEND journey. It brings York’s SEND Local Offer into a single, accessible location, helping families find the right support at the right time.

SEND Central has been co-designed with families, and is supported by two Navigators employed by York’s Parent Carer Forum. These Navigators have lived experience of SEND and are passionate about ensuring families feel welcomed, informed, and empowered. They also play a key role in ensuring family voices are heard in service development, contributing to improved outcomes for children and young people.

SEND Central is an inclusive environment, where support is based on impact rather than assessed need. There are no thresholds or eligibility criteria—everyone is welcome to seek advice, connect with others, or simply drop in for a chat. The aim is to reduce isolation and remove barriers that families with SEND often face.

A wide range of groups and services operate from SEND Central, offering a holistic approach to support. Whether attending a Portage-led early years playgroup, a preparation for adulthood session, or a youth group, families are connected to a broader network of agencies and services. This multi-agency model promotes early intervention, peer support, and timely access to information—addressing the concerns we’ve heard from families who often feel lost or unsure where to turn.

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In August 2025, City of York Council started a consultation to co-produce our Inclusion and Belonging Special Educational Needs and Alternative Provision Strategy 2025 to 2030.

Every child and family in York deserve to feel that they belong at school, in their community, and in the wider city. That’s why it's so important that schools, settings and families and practitioners help shape the Inclusion and Belonging Strategy.

The result of this consultation and final documentation will be available on local guidance when completed.

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City Wide SEND Survey

In June 2025, we carried out a city-wide survey with families to gather their views on how well we are performing across the SEND Partnership. We received a strong response, and we’re grateful to everyone who took the time to share their experiences.

What you told us:

  • You want better communication around services and support, especially while children and young people are waiting for a diagnosis.
  • You would like more short breaks, activities, and supported internships for children and young people.
  • You asked for better understanding from schools and settings around meeting children’s special educational needs.
  • You highlighted the need for more training in settings to improve how they support children and young people with SEND.

What we’ve done:

  • SEND Central is opened on 22nd September 2025. This new space will support families throughout York’s SEND journey. It will help fulfil York’s duty to provide clear, up-to-date, and transparent information about the services available for children and young people with our Local Offer has evolved into an accessible and informative online platform.
  • We've shaped the Inclusion and Belonging Strategy to place greater focus on communication and staff training within schools.
  • We've reviewed the governance of the SEND Partnership Board to ensure we’re making meaningful progress at pace and in alignment with what families have told us matters most.
  • We are continuing to strengthen our joint voice and participation work, embedding co-production as a central part of how we shape services.

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In January 2025 a review of the Universal Offer took place which included a range of meetings with professionals at City of York Council, school teachers and SENCOs, parents and carers to understand:

  • whether there were any gaps within the current offer
  • Whether what is on offer is meeting the needs of both professionals and parents
  • If it does meet need, then why are the numbers of attendees/take up low
  • How can the Universal Offer be better presented on the Local Offer Website

What we’ve done:

  • Made changes to the type of support schools and settings can receive and create a more bespoke support offer
  • Keep the things that were working and well attended the same, such as the autism team SENCO helpline and EY helpline
  • Noted that the offer is heavily swayed to autism, and we will continue to work on the broader scope of support on offer

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In May 2025, the SEND Service and Parent Carer Forum worked closely together to review the existing model of joint partnership. After wider discussions with parents to understand if the priorities that were set in 2021 were still relevant, the new model was written and presented to the SEND partnership board together and launched in September 2025.

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Between 14 and 16 November 2022, Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) revisited the area of York to decide whether sufficient progress has been made in addressing each of the areas of significant weakness detailed in the inspection report letter published on 28 February 2020.

As a result of the findings of the initial inspection and in accordance with the Children Act 2004 (Joint Area Reviews) Regulations 2015, His Majesty’s Chief Inspector (HMCI) determined that a written statement of action was required because of significant areas of weakness in the area’s practice. HMCI determined that the local authority and the area’s clinical commissioning group (CCG) were jointly responsible for submitting the written statement to Ofsted. This was declared fit for purpose on 5 June 2020.

The area has made sufficient progress in addressing all the significant weaknesses identified at the initial inspection.

For further details about the findings of the revisit, read the re-visit report.

Re-visit of City of York Council from 14 November 2022 to 16 November 2022

Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) jointly carried out a re-visit of your local area following the previous inspection that took place between 9 December 2019 and 13 December 2019.

The re-visit evaluated how effectively leaders addressed the areas of significant weaknesses detailed in the Written Statement of Action (WSOA).

You can read more about this re-visit by reading the official re-visit letter to parent carers.

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York’s new Learning Support Hub is now live and our specialist teachers can provide a wide range of support, advice and training to both parent carers and professionals in childcare settings and schools.

Details about the new Hub is available on the Local Offer Specialist Teaching Team and the Learning Support Hub.

Requests for targeted support from any of the Specialist teaching teams, Portage, Danesgate outreach or Haxby Road/St Oswalds/St Pauls ERP Outreach, can be made by schools and settings via the Learning Support Hub.

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We’ve been working with families and partners at the Humber and North Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership to develop an 'Autism Myth busting' webpage.

We hope the page will help provide answers to some of the most common questions and myths about Autism. Visit Autism Myth busting to see if we’ve covered your top 5!

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We’re launching our SEND Outcomes Framework!

In York, we want all children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) to be happy and live the best lives they can. That’s why we and Yorkshire and Humber Health and Care Partnership (formerly Vale of York CCG) have worked with parent carers and young people with SEND to produce a set of outcomes that we all want to achieve for our children and young people.

These 7 SEND Outcomes are:

  1. I am healthy
  2. I have a choice and I am heard
  3. I am safe
  4. I achieve my goals
  5. I am included
  6. I can overcome challenges and difficulties on my own or with support
  7. I am becoming independent

The outcomes framework will change the way we work and the way we measure how effective we are in supporting children and young people with SEND. Our measure of success will whether children and young people can show or tell us that everything we do is supporting them to achieve these outcomes.

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York’s Health Services have published a SEND Mission statement that outlines their promise to children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities:

We will work in partnership with stakeholders, support our Providers with appropriate training and regular meetings to review objectives and identify improvements, and continue to work together unifying York and North Yorkshire.

“Complying with the Children’s and Families Act and SEND Code of Practice, ensuring that children and young people have their voices heard and have access to the resources they need. We will continually seek to improve services for our SEND population.”

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We’re inviting young people and parent carers to take part in future interview panels to ensure we employ the best people to support children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities in York.

To get involved in interview panels, please email: [email protected].

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We have been working with a range of families, young people, SENCOs, and other professionals to make changes to the Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs), and the annual review documentation to ensure they are simpler, easy to read and more concise.

We have also been working together to develop a new Request for Assessment document, which will make the whole process of requesting assessment much easier and quicker.

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Each Clinical Commissioning Group should provide a Designated Medical Officer (DMO) or Designated Clinical Officer (DCO) for SEND. The DCO/DMO plays a key role in implementing and embedding the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) reforms and in supporting joined up working between health services, local authorities, and other SEND partners.

Yorkshire and Humber Health and Care Partnership (formerly Vale of York CCG) have opted for a hybrid model of Associate DCO (ADCO) and a DMO for special educational needs and disability (SEND). Please note: this information was created in 2021 and at the time was accurate. This may not be the case in the current day.

The purpose of these roles is to support health colleagues across the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and the local health providers to ensure children and young people 0 to 25 with SEND have the right health support to achieve the best outcomes they possibly can. The DCO role is a key element in supporting the Health Service in its implementation of the Children’s and Families Act 2014.

If you would like more information on the role, please email: [email protected].

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The local authority worked with Contact during 2020 and 2023, prioritising listening and working with early years families. We wanted to ensure that services who work with children and families in the early years are working in Joint Partnership.

Working in this way from the earliest possible opportunity will ensure that families know they have a right to be heard, are involved and feel like a partner in the work being done with and for their child. Numerous sessions were held by Contact to support our early years services in learning all about joint partnership (co-production) working.

Moving forward we will be providing training to our early years’ settings. This training will include how and why to work in joint partnership with the families of York

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In the summer of 2020, some families told us that they wanted to be listened to, specifically regarding their child's Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs). To allow families to share their views with us specifically on how they found their experience with the Special Educational Needs Team (SEN Team), a 'How Well Did We Do' survey was developed.

This survey was developed with the support of families who have been through the request for assessment process. We wrote some questions outlining what we needed to include. These questions were sent to families, and we asked for their honest opinion on the wording, content and accessibility. The families gave their feedback and made changes to the questions, changes which had not been thought of. This is just one of the benefits to working in Joint Partnership with families. The final questions included areas such as feeling involved and like a partner in the process, confidence in the service, quality of contributions to the plans and how well families understood the language and processes being used.

These questions are now being used at various stages during a family’s journey with the SEN Team. Please look out for the survey being sent in emails from the team and share your feedback with us. Your feedback is so valuable and helps us to shape our services and improve outcomes for children and young people in York.

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The Model of Joint Partnership has been jointly produced with families and colleagues. The aim of the model is to outline how we at the City of York Council and Yorkshire and Humber Health and Care Partnership (formerly Vale of York CCG) will work together with families in York. We aim to improve our individual joint partnership when developing plans for children, and involve families and partners when developing strategic documents, improving services, or developing a new service.

The audit framework will help us measure how well we are working with families. This will support us on our Special Educational Needs and Disability improvement journey.

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We know that we need to communicate better with the families, children, and young people we’re working with. In August, Yorkshire and Humber Health and Care Partnership (formerly Vale of York CCG) and City of York Council have created a joint communications strategy which sets out how we want to communicate with, who with and when.

Our communications in the future will include information about:

  • updates and changes to Special Educational Needs Services in York
  • updates regarding the Ofsted visit and the Written Statement of Action we have in place
  • what we are doing to improve the outcomes for children and young people
  • information about how parent carers and young people can be involved in our work

We’ve also looked at how we can work better with families and young people to shape and improve our services.

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During the Council for Disabled Children's deep dive sessions, it was clear that colleagues at City of York Council and Yorkshire and Humber Health and Care Partnership (formerly Vale of York CCG) needed to gain a better understanding around what co-production is, and how it can be used to benefit the work we do with children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) in York.

4 training sessions were run throughout July and members of teams across the local authority attended.

In practice, co-production involves people who use services being consulted, included and working together from the start to the end of any project that affects them. When co-production works best, people who use services and carers are valued by organisations as equal partners, can share power and have influence over decisions made.

During the sessions it was clear that the term co-production was not recognised by staff or parent carers. Therefore, a survey went out and was completed by 34 parent carers to choose the new name based on ideas collected from the sessions.

The new name for co-production in York is Joint Partnership.

These sessions supported the development of the Model of Joint Partnership.

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As a result of the SEND inspection, a Written Statement of Action has been developed. This document outlines the changes that will be made, the outcomes we aim to see and the time frames in which these should be achieved. This document will be updated regularly.

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The Department for Education published our schools white paper, Every Child Achieving and Thriving, alongside a consultation on SEND reform, called Putting Children and Young People First on 23rd February 2026.

The Department for Education want to improve the lives of all children and young people, with a broad curriculum fit for the modern world, and ending the one-size-fits-all approach to education.

City of York Council’s Special Educational Needs and Disability Service will outline their plans for how this looks in York throughout 2026. For more information on the reforms and how this will look in our city visit SEND Reforms in York.

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