Support set to be improved up for hundreds of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) across Leicestershire

Support is set to be improved for hundreds of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) across Leicestershire.

Leicestershire County Council said it is moving to urgently improve services for families with a child, or children, with SEND in Harborough as well as the rest of the county.

The council aims to:

- Introduce a new handbook for parents and professionals working with SEND children

- Boost the way education and health care (ECH) plans are delivered

- Develop an inclusion service, which offers early support to children and young people.

Cllr Deborah Taylor, the county council’s cabinet member for children and families, said: “It is vitally important that we support our SEND families in the best ways we can.

“We have already committed to investing £30 million into establishing new specialist schools and enhanced resource bases in some of our existing schools.

“We have also been working in consultation with young people and their families to help put together these new plans.”

She admitted: “We recognise there is some work to do.

“But these developments will help us improve support services and help us give SEND children a good start in life and access to the best possible education.”

The plans form part of the SEND and Inclusion Strategy.

Councillors were going to run the rule over the new blueprint at the authority’s Children and Families Overview Scrutiny meeting on Wednesday (September 2) and at a Cabinet meeting on Friday September 18.