Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Local Area Inspection Written Statement of Action

The City of York Council (CYC) and the NHS Vale of York Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) welcome the opportunity to continually and jointly improve services for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) in York, through challenge and scrutiny, effective joint working arrangements and joint ownership. The ambition is to be the best that we can, that York is a city that is inclusive for all, that services are delivered at the right time and from the right places, that all of our children succeed and are happy, healthy and safe.

So that this ambition and vision becomes real, this written statement sets out how we will achieve this and how we will demonstrate improvement. The journey has already started. We accept that there is a lot to do over the next 18 months and there is absolute commitment across partners in York to address the areas identified as having significant weakness.

We are jointly responsible and accountable and will evidence our improvement journey through robust governance arrangements. Our commitment is to demonstrate improvement in:

• the ownership and oversight of strategic leaders to ensure effective implementation of all aspects of the 2014 reforms by education, health and care
• joint commissioning of services for SEND
• Aaconsistent approach to involving children, young people and families when co-producing services they need
• the quality and contribution from health partners in Education, Health and Care (EHC) assessment and planning

As a local area we want to be assured that:

• health systems are commissioned and provided to ensure children, young people with SEND and their parents and carers all have positive and meaningful experiences with all health services they interact with allowing them to be healthy, develop, thrive and be happy
• co-production drives the improvement, development and joint commissioning of services in education, health, care and the community
• children and young people are able to access all of the opportunities available to them in their local community, so that educational outcomes are good, they succeed and are prepared for adulthood

At the time of writing this statement, the country is responding to the coronavirus pandemic, therefore the respective organisations are working in unprecedented times. Some of our key partners have had to divert and prioritise business critical functions to ensure the most vulnerable in our local area are supported, and the requirement to plan for post recovery has diverted resources accordingly. Although we will make all best endeavours to remain within the key milestones set out in this statement, the impact and future pressures and implications of COVID-19 are still very much unknown.