How are we doing?

You can read our quality practice framework to:

• find out how we gather information
• see how we assess the quality of our practice
• find out how we learn from it 

In order to assure that health, social care and education services in North Tyneside effectively support children and young people who have Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), we are regularly inspected by the Office for standards in education, children's services and skills (OFSTED). This is the body that inspects and regulates services that care for children and young people.

They inspect relevant services to assure that, as a local area, we are effective in identifying and meeting the needs of the children and young people with SEND and supporting them to improve outcomes.

We also carry out regular checks ourselves to assure ourselves that the activities and services offered to children and young people locally are fit for purpose. 

We are pleased to present the executive summary of North Tyneside’s local area SEND partnership self-assessment, describing what we know about the impact of our arrangements for children and young people with SEND, how we know what impact our arrangements for children and young people with SEND are having, and what our plans are for the next 12 months to improve the experiences of and outcomes for children and young people with SEND in the Borough.

Our children and young people are our future, and we want them to thrive and achieve the best possible outcomes they can. Locally, our work is underpinned by a shared ambition to reduce inequalities, identify and meet the needs of children, young people and their families early, providing the right support at the right time, preventing needs from escalating wherever possible.

This self-assessment, developed by our local area SEND partnership, assists our understanding of the progress we are making. It is informed by a detailed understanding of our successes and the current challenges that our children, young people, their families and communities face.  It is also informed by the voices of children and young people, and their parents and carers, understanding what they tell us is important to them and the difference we are making to their lived experiences.

The self-assessment is reviewed bi-annually and provides an honest critique of the progress made on priorities in our SEND Inclusion Strategy, Ambition for Education Strategy and Children and Young People’s Emotional Health and Wellbeing Strategy, which together, help deliver on our Children and Young People Plan.  Our local area faces some key challenges, and in some areas, we are not yet where we want to be. Where that is the case, we are honest about it, looking to identify the resources and support we need to have in place, to deliver for children and young people in the borough, because as a partnership we have very high ambitions for our children.

The Our North Tyneside Plan sets out our partnership’s bold ambitions for making North Tyneside an even greater place to live, work and visit. The plan features five themes that reflect our priorities, creating a North Tyneside that is thriving, family-friendly, caring, secure and green.

The Children and Young People’s Plan is a key mechanism by which the partnership delivers on a family-friendly and caring North Tyneside. It focuses on delivering improved outcomes and reducing inequalities for all children and young people up to the age of 19 years, and those young people aged up to 25 years who are care leavers, have special educational needs or a disability, and live in the borough.

Our priority outcomes are informed by what children and young people tell us is important to them, ensuring that all can live a safe, happy and healthy life, where they are able to achieve their full potential in life. These priority outcomes are underpinned by our shared principles, that we listen to the voices of children and young people and that we continue to develop and embed our prevention and early help agenda, identifying and meeting the needs of children, young people and their networks early, preventing needs from escalating wherever possible. Early help is everyone’s business in North Tyneside, reflected in our partnership’s early help position statement. You can watch our partnership’s early help statement video.

When co-producing our SEND and Inclusion Strategy, children and young people with SEND told us that they wanted to have fun, make friends, learn, work, have the opportunity to speak up and be heard, and to be full participants in their community - in short have a ‘gloriously ordinary’ life.

Aligned to our commitment to enable children and young people with SEND to have a gloriously ordinary life, the partnership’s co-constructed pledges are:

• We will intervene early with evidence-based, family focused services
• We will work in partnership to keep children in school
• We will keep children safe at home, healthy and connected to their networks and local communities

Our strengths

• There are strong, systemic, ambitious leaders across the SEND partnership who are committed to improving the life chances of children and young people with SEND.
   
• Robust multi-agency governance arrangements enable leaders to have a shared, accurate understanding of need in the Borough, informing their oversight and evaluation of a SEND improvement plan, to drive forward practice improvement.
   
• All partners have a resolute and determined focus on continual improvement, reflected in our focus on self-evaluation and performance, and learning from and sharing with others, including the Regional Innovation Improvement Alliance, Council for Disabled Children, National Association for Special Educational Needs and What Works in SEND.
   
• A systemic focus on engagement, participation and co-production has driven our improvement journey, focussing on what is important to children, young people and families. In the last 12 months we proudly co-produced the SEND partnership’s Graduated Approach, expanded Additionally Resourced Provisions, the Neurodiversity transformation ‘think differently’ programme and Early Years Partnership.
   
• The partnership is indebted to a formidable Parent Carer Forum (PCF); strong advocates for parents and carers in the Borough, they hold partners to account, are intrinsic to many strategic priorities and, in a number of areas, spearheading local systems change. 
   
• A comprehensive SEND Sufficiency Needs Assessment (January 2025) provides leaders with a detailed understanding of need.  Aligned to our four priority outcomes in the Children and Young People’s Plan, this is informing the co-production of the partnerships Joint Commissioning Strategy (next due April 2025) and our future commissioning intentions.
   
• The Local Offer is frequently updated and promoted; in the 12 months to 4 March 2025 there have been 20,941 category pages viewed. In 2024/25, over 100 parents and carers joined seven workshops focussed on how we can improve the Local Offer website.  This feedback has made tangible improvements to the Local Offer, which you can read about here.
   
• North Tyneside has excellent education provision:​

1. 95% of schools are judged Good or Outstanding, up from 92% in 2021
2. 94% of pupils in the borough attend a Good or Outstanding school, up from 93% in 2021
3. 100% of Additionally Resourced Provisions are Good our Outstanding
4. 100% of Special Schools, including the Pupil Referral Unit, are rated Good or Outstanding , sustained since 2021
5. 99% of Early Years settings are rated Good or Outstanding, up from 98% in 2021
    

• Many children and young people with SEND achieve positive educational outcomes; a reflection of a whole-system approach.
   
• Attendance of children and young people with SEN Support Plans and EHCPs at primary, secondary and special school in 2022/23 and 2023/24 was above regional (in line for primary with an EHCP) and national compactors.   It was recognised in the Ofsted ILAC inspection (November 2024) that ‘There is a culture in North Tyneside in which school attendance and the safety of children is everyone’s responsibility’.  
   
• Suspensions in 2023/24 for those with SEN Support Plans and EHCPs were lower than regional and national averages.  There were no permanent exclusions for those with an EHCP in 2023/24, better than regional and national averages.  Permanent exclusions were higher for those with SEN Support Plans in 2023/24 (0.41) compared to regional and national, however, unvalidated data for 2024/25 shows this has improved.
   
• 14 children and young people with EHCPs are Electively Home Educated, equating to 0.59% of the total number of EHCPs maintained. This compares to a regional average of 1.1% at the end of Q3 2024/25. 
   
• The Authority has strengthened SEND place planning arrangements; a number of capital investment initiatives has supported maintained special school provision capacity to increase by over 250 places since 2018 and additionally resourced provisions and SEN units by 60 places since April 2023, in line with changing need.
   
• The partnership has strong arrangements in place to identify children under 5 who have or may have SEND early; recognised by the LGA in 2023, ‘Doing it Together’, this is improving speech, language and communication in early years.  The partnership has since co-produced and launched, in October 2024, with £0.500m Authority recurring investment, the Early Years Partnership.  Developed with the support of NASEN and Council for Disabled Children, this is attracting national interest from ‘Work Works in SEND’ for innovation in practice.
   
• The partnership is committed to whole school inclusion, evidenced in the launch of Whole School SEND Audits in Schools (since April 2023), the refreshed SEND Graduated Approach (May 2024) and a £1m capital investment in Funding for Inclusion (July 2024), enabling 44 schools to make building adaptations to promote whole school inclusion. 
   
• The Neurodiversity Transformation Programme, started in September 2023, is delivering significant systems change, with an emerging vision, co-produced, for ‘Making North Tyneside a neuro-comfortable place to live, work and go to school’. 
   
• A wide range of health services are designed to meet the needs of children with SEND.  These are delivered by the 0-19 Public Health Service, rated ‘Good’ in its CQC inspection (May 2023), and Northumbria Healthcare Foundation Trust, rated ‘Outstanding’ in its CQC inspection (October 2019). 
   
• The partnership has developed innovative, jointly commissioned delivery models to identify and meet children and young people’s emotional health and wellbeing needs early; it was recognised in the Ofsted ILAC inspection (November 2024) that ‘the early help emotional wellbeing-offer has been significantly strengthened’.   
   
• Referrals into CAMHS for 2024/25 are estimated to be in line with 2023/24.  Between April 2024 and January 2025 there were 2011 referrals, estimating 2413 by year end, in line with 2023/24.  This is against a year on year increase since 2019/2020.  We are closely monitoring if this is as a result of systems transformation and changes in delivery models.  The average wait for initial appointment has been below 4 weeks since July 2023.
   
• The ICB and Northumbria Health Care Trust have worked hard to meet the needs of children on the neurodevelopmental pathway; with a £1m investment to increase capacity with support from Helios, at the end of Q3 2024/25, there were 429 children and young people on the Neurodevelopmental pathway, down from 597 at the end of Q1 2024/25; the average waiting time currently is 27 weeks for assessment.
   
• The ICB and Northumbria Health Care Trust are working hard to meet the needs of children on the pre-school diagnostic pathway; at March 2025 there are 95 children waiting to be seen, and the average waiting time in 2024 for assessment was 41 weeks, down from 46 weeks in 2023.
   
• In CAMHS, on the ADHD treatment waiting list, there are currently 30 children, and the longest wait is 15 weeks; this has been achieved with the appointment increased Nurse Prescriber resource.  Children and young people on the eating disorder pathway continue to meet all access and waiting standards.
   
• Children’s Social Care, judged Outstanding by Ofsted (November 2024), prioritises children and young people with SEND:
   
• Strong sufficiency strategy leading to an expanded in-house children’s home offer for disabled children.
   
• Dedicated EHC Advice Giver: of the 266 active Education Health and Care Needs Assessment (EHCNA) (Feb 2025), 77% of advice are complete, the remaining 66 (23%) under 6 weeks.
   
• Ofsted found that social workers in the disabled children’s team champion the voices of the child. They are acutely attuned to how each individual child communicates, so that their wishes and feelings are heard, valued and acted on.
   
• North Tyneside’s Youth Offending Services were judged to be ‘Outstanding’ in its most recent HMI inspection (2021).
   
• North Tyneside’s Shared Lives Service, led by Adults Social Care, was judged ‘Good’ with ‘Outstanding’ features (December 2023), enabling young disabled adults to live in their Borough.
   
• We have the 4th highest percentage of adults with learning disabilities living in their own home or with family in the North East (ASCOF 2023/24), testament to our commitment to supporting young people and adults to live as independently as possible in our Borough.
   
• There is strong commitment for preparing young people for adulthood, reflected in a range of provision developed by the Authority’s Adult Learning Service, graded ‘Good’ in their Ofsted inspection (June 2023), with provision for learners with high needs ‘Outstanding’.   Connexions and our recently established SEND Preparation for Adulthood Team (September 2023) are supporting more 16 to 24 year olds to remain in education, employment or training (88% in November 2024, compared to 66.9% in North East and 54.6% nationally).

Children and Young People’s Voices

Capturing the ‘voice of the child’ is more than simply seeking their views; it is about enabling them to take an active role in any decision-making, especially when it impacts them, their future and their opportunities.  We routinely engage with children and young people in developing our services. We harness the voices of children to influence our priorities in our refreshed Children and Young People Plan 2024/25, in the development of our ARPs and SEN Units and in the development of our graduated approach and neuro transformation programme.

When developing our ARPs children and young people told us:

Positives about attending an ARP?

• Quiet and calm environment. Whole school praise culture. More support from staff. Relationship with peers ‘friends’. A safe environment.

Negatives about attending an ARP?

• Missing old friends due to the increased number of transitions. Disruption that other students sometimes cause.

What to change or like that doesn’t already happen?

• Longer social times and resources to also be used at social times (games/toys). Allowing students to bring in personal items as a reasonable adjustment.

Children with SEND told us what was important to them as part of refreshed children and young people plan. They want:

• activities to be more accessible for all, in particular for those with SEND.
• more provision post 16
• more staff training and awareness around young people’s mental health
• shorter waiting times for services such as CAMHS

Our North Tyneside SEND Youth Forum are a group of children and young people who are passionate about making sure those with SEND have opportunities to share their views and experiences, are listened to and heard. The key things they have told us are important to them:

• Staff working with children and young people to have more understanding about the different ways people's brains work (neurodiversity).
• Getting around the community and to education or training (not having confidence or knowledge about how to travel around the community).
• Post-16 opportunities (training and volunteering that works with my needs/disability).
• Housing and supported living (wanting to live with young people the same age/similar interests).

Parent and Carer Voice

Through its regular engagement activity, our Parent Carer Forum is able to share with us the views and experiences of parents and carers of children and young people with SEND.  Areas that parents and carers identify as challenges they experience help us focus our improvement activity; this includes: 

• Children not meeting criteria for services.
• Levels of available support for parent carers, and their ability to work
• Challenges around their caring commitments
• Parent carer mental health and burnout
• Children’s emotional regulation and behaviour
• Availability of respite / short breaks
• Availability of suitable school places
• Post 16 offer
• Home/school transition
• Reasonable adjustments in schools / settings
• Access to therapies and waiting times.
• Post diagnostic support.
• Children and young people’s mental health and self-harm
• PBS Sleep

Local area SEND system leadership

An accurate, shared understanding of need and ambition for children and young people with SEND

We have strong, committed, determined and stable leadership across the full SEND partnership in North Tyneside.  Strategic governance celebrates good practice and provides a high level of scrutiny, challenge, assurance and focus to the delivery of our SEND and Inclusion Strategy and subsequent SEND Improvement Plan.

The partnership’s SEND and Inclusion Strategy was co-produced and developed by listening to children, young people, parents and carers about what was important to them and what they felt could be better, sharpening our focus on improving the lives of our children and families.  It prioritises a focus on a ‘gloriously ordinary life’ – removing the barriers that will help children and young people to have fun, make friends, learn, work, and have the opportunity to be full participants in their community.

The strategy focuses on enabling, empowering, and supporting young people with SEND to: 

• Be heard in decision making and planning.
• Develop the skills and confidence they need to participate as independently as possible and to move successfully through their education and into adult life.
• Become and remain active citizens, living in, participating in, and contributing to their local communities.
• Access whatever support they might need to keep themselves safe and healthy, to know what services are available, and how to access them to maintain or achieve good health, well-being and safety.

We know that the Covid 19 pandemic impacted on the local area partnership’s abilities to co-produce the SEND and Inclusion Strategy in the way that we wanted to and that, when we ask parents and carers about our current strategy, fewer than we would want, know about it.  Reflective of our ambition to go even further, North Tyneside’s Parent Carer Forum have been commissioned to lead the co-production of the local area partnership’s next SEND and Alternative Provision Strategy, to be launched mid-2025.  Building on the progress made so far and the areas we know that we want to improve, it will be underpinned by a detailed SEND Sufficient Needs Assessment, approved in January 2025, and our robust SEND performance framework.

Local area leaders’ engagement with parents and carers

Leaders from across the local area SEND partnership are committed to ensuring that the children, young people and their families are listened to, and that their views and aspirations inform our collective strategic direction in the Borough.

 North Tyneside’s PCF are key strategic partners within the local area partnership.  The co-chairs of the PCF are members of the SEND Strategic Board and SEND Delivery Group, with representation across a large number of steering groups, such as the co-production of the SEND Graduated Approach, the Early Years Partnership, expansion of Additionally Resourced Provisions and SEN Units, and Neurodiversity Transformation Programme. 

 Together with their DfE grant funding, they have also been awarded funding from the:

• UK Shared Prosperity Funding to deliver SEND Families Together and SEND Family Support.
• ICB who have commissioned the delivery of Inclusive Connections in Schools (now working with over 40 schools); and,
• Council who has commissioned the delivery of Parent Carer Needs Assessments. 

 In February 2025, testament to the effective partnership working with the PCF, the Council also commissioned them to lead on the:

• co-production of the local areas SEND and Alternative Provision Strategy.
• single access point for services to schools.
• review of current post 16 pathways for SEND students; and,
• engagement to support the co-production of the Joint Commissioned Strategy.

 The PCF has 792 parents and carers on their database, and they engage with them on their open Facebook page (2020 followers), closed Facebook page (385 members), X - formerly Twitter (361 followers), Instagram (25 followers) and LinkedIn (50 followers).

 This level of reach has been transformative and supports the local area partnerships understanding of the things that matter most to parents and carers, and where we need to focus our attention, reflected in our local area SEND Improvement Plan.

Local area leaders’ actively engagement with children and young people

The Authority’s Head of Communities and Inclusion attends the SEND Strategic Board, and the Children’s Participation Manager, who leads the Children’s Participation Team and Advocacy Service, attends the SEND Delivery Group.  Their work is supported by two SEND Participation Officers, and a dedicated SEND Outreach and Inclusion Officer, jointly commissioned by the Authority and ICB. 

This service leads the coordination of our Children’s Council, for children aged 5-11, and Youth Council, for young people aged 11-25, both of which benefit from representation of children and young people with SEND.  The Authority also has an exceptional SEND Youth Forum, open to children and young people with SEND aged 11-25.  You can find out more about the SEND Youth Forum.  In 2024, strengthening our focus on preparing for adulthood, two groups were established, one for children and young people aged 11-16 and one for 16-25 year olds.  These groups support senior officers from across the partnership to hear directly from young people about their lived experience.  This is driving forward significant engagement activity with our children and young people with SEND and the following provides just five examples of this work: 

1. The SEND Youth Forum for 11–16-year-olds meet monthly as a working group supporting wider consultation with other young people with SEND in secondary schools.  Over recent months the group has been supporting the neurodiversity transformation programme to design a creative activity to support young people to share their experiences around what a good school might look like to them.  The group tried out different activities before deciding on painting pebbles, hoping that whilst using paint pens, young people would share their views. 

   An amazing 120 young people took part in sharing their views and painting pebbles.  One child said, ‘Holding the stone helped me focus’, whilst another said, ‘At first I couldn't think of anything, so I just decorated the outside of the pebble...as we were talking, I started to remember all my ideas.”  The pebbles were displayed at the Neurodiversity Symposium and viewed by over 100 professionals.  Their views directly influence the programme, and our ambition to make North Tyneside a more neuro-comfortable place to live, work, and go to school.

   The full report ‘What an ideal school might be like’ will shortly be published.
    

2. The SEND Youth Forum 11-16 are also supporting young people to share their views and experiences of being permanently excluded from school.  Some young people at Moorbridge (our local PRU) were given the opportunity to view the ‘Big Blanket’ during its tour of North Tyneside.  The blanket is made of 2,999 crocheted squares knitted by parents/carers, representing the daily aggregate number of reported suspensions and permanent exclusions in England each school day in 2021-2022.  

   Inspired by the blanket, young people decided to use fabric and make a North Tyneside blanket with their views and feelings about being excluded from school. This engagement work has started, and the group will be sharing the outcome of this shortly.

3. The SEND Youth Forum 16–25 years are held each school term for those in sixth form and college.  Recently, in October 2024, 25 young representatives from Beacon Hill Sixth Form, Ignite Your Potential, Tynemet College, Choices College and a young person currently not in education, training or employment but currently receiving services with the Disabled Children’s Team, came together to choose a focus for this academic year. Important topics included:

   * Staff working with children and young people to have more understanding about the different ways people's brains work (neurodiversity).
   * Getting around the community and to education or training (not having confidence or knowledge about how to travel around the community).
   * Post-16 opportunities (training and volunteering that works with my needs/disability).
   * Housing and supported living (wanting to live with young people the same age/similar interests).

   The young people chose to prioritise training for staff who support children and young people.  This was especially important to young people who did not have a diagnosed condition.   Young people talked about how attitude, and a lack of empathy had affected their confidence.  Now in a different place in their lives (college/sixth form), young people would like to explore this topic to help younger people.  Over the next few months, young representatives will talk with their peers and collect views on this issue. 

   Building on these important issues, the Authority is actively expanding the Independent Travel Service with two additional Independent Travel Officers, and the North Tyneside Parent Carer Forum is leading the review of our local area SEND post 16 progression pathways.

4. Further to the work of the SEND Youth Forum, the Children’s Participation Team and Advocacy Service also support targeted engagement and co-production to support the delivery of the SEND and Inclusion Strategy.  Since April 2023, the SEND partnership has been driving forward our strategic priority, to co-produce Additionally Resourced Provisions and SEN Units in North Tyneside which meet the needs of our children and young people.  Nearly 50 children and young people across six schools have been at the centre of this, where their views have directly influenced the work of the steering group.  They told us that transitions are important, that ARPs and SEN Units should be safe spaces, and that social opportunities and the availability of resources (games and toys) during these times would improve their experience.  You can read more about what our children and young people told us 

5. Youth democracy is incredibly important to us here in North Tyneside and maximising every opportunity for our children and young people with SEND to participate is key.  Children and young people from Woodlawn Special School in North Tyneside told us that they struggled to fill out the ballot and understand the complex wording at previous ‘Youth’ elections.  The Children’s Participation Team and Advocacy Service worked with the school’s council to create a Widget Ballot paper.  Prospective candidates were also made aware of the importance of easy read information and being inclusive to all.  The Elected Young Mayor was recently elected on her pledge to provider an inclusive environment and opportunities for all students despite race, gender, religion or disability. 

Commissioning arrangements and evaluation of services to make improvements

Implemented and overseen by our Joint Commissioning Sub-Group, the partnership’s latest Joint Commissioning Strategy, currently being co-produced, is underpinned by a detailed SEND Sufficient Needs Assessment, approved in January 2025.  This sets out the strategic commissioning priorities and our approach to joint commissioning in the Borough, delivered across North Tyneside, inclusive of statutory and voluntary partners across the education, health and social care.

 There are strong joint commissioning and intelligence arrangements in place between the Authority and the ICB, and the following provides six examples of joint commissioning activity delivered in the last 12 months:

1. Mental health and emotional wellbeing:

   The partnership has developed innovative, jointly commissioned delivery models to identify and meet children and young people emotional health and wellbeing needs early:

   Commissioned by the ICB, the Authority leads Connect Mental Health Support Teams for Schools with 75% coverage; the remaining associate schools receive a differentiated offer, providing a low intensity, early intervention offer.  The School Health Education Unit Survey in 2024 shows an improving picture overall regarding children and young people’s wellbeing compared to 2022.

   The Authority leads a dedicated Early Help Emotional Wellbeing Team; Family Health and Wellbeing Practitioners, commissioned by the ICB since 2023/24, receive requests for support directly from GPs that would otherwise be made to CAMHS. So far in 2024/25, 456 (95%) of 480 referrals were appropriate, and 452 (94%) were not open to other services, demonstrating robust early identification. Only two children following referral were escalated to Children’s Social Care.

   During 2023/24, Family Health and Wellbeing Practitioners joined CAMHS’ single point of access; of the 1803 children and young people referred, 59% of referrals were diverted to Early Help, and 98% of these did not need further support from CAMHS following intervention.  Building on this success, in 2024/25 the partnership has been piloting a wider multi-agency triage of all referrals into CAMHS.  The ‘Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing Collaborative’ is attended by HIVE, Connect Mental Health Support Teams for Schools, Early Help and CAMHS, and those not meeting the threshold for CAMHS receive a targeted offer and/or are directed to universal services.  So far in 2024/25, 98% have not needed further support from CAMHS following intervention.

   The Early Help and Emotional Wellbeing Team also employs Children’s Wellbeing Practitioners; leading on cognitive behavioural therapy intervention models with children and young people over 11 years of age (if under 11 years they work directly with parents), the need for their role is identified following step down from the Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing Collaborative or via the GP pathway.  They have worked with 133 young people so far in 2024/25 and of those, only 8 (6%) have been returned to the Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing Collaborative for review, and all have then been accepted for a CAMHS response.

   Supporting children and families on the neurodiversity pathway waiting list, the ICB commissions the Early Help Emotional Wellbeing Team to provide Family Health and Wellbeing Practitioners to support children Identified by CAMHS, 52 children have been referred for support.

   Jointly delivered by a CAMHS clinician, 130 children so far in 2024/25 who do not meet the criteria for a CAMHS response have benefited from the Time for Change workshop.  111 children in the same period have been referred onto the Sleep Well workshop, supporting a number who are on the neurodiversity pathway waiting list or who already have a diagnosis of autism of attention deficit hyperactive disorder.

   This investment was recognised in the Authority’s recent ILAC inspection (November 2025), which says, ‘Since the last inspection, the early help emotional well-being offer has been significantly strengthened. The Health, Information & Advice, Virtual School and Emotional Wellbeing (HIVE) team includes nurses, teachers, counsellors, educational psychologists and occupational therapists, as well as a team of administrators who support with appointments. This service is jointly funded with the NHS and, together with partners, they work across the borough, not only within social care but in schools and with wider partners to support the physical, emotional and intellectual growth of children. They deliver trauma-informed training across schools in the borough and across the whole of children’s social care. As a result, key partners are developing a greater understanding of the impact of trauma on children’s communication, behaviours and lived experiences’.

2. Expansion of Additionally Resourced Provisions and Special Educational Needs Units:

   The partnership is working with over 40 Headteachers and SENDCos, and wider partners across education, health and care, to expand commissioned places from 110 in April 2023 to 251 in April 2028; we are on track with 171 places commissioned (January 2025).   The Authority has committed a £3.2m capital investment.

   The partnership has co-produced and implemented a new service level agreement and funding model for each school and is developing its wider multi-disciplinary offer which wraps around these schools.

   This work is gaining national attention from the DfE, who have visited one ARP and one SEN Unit, and who have invited us to work with Ambition Institution, commissioned by the DfE, to set up a community of leaders who can begin to define principles of best practice.

3. Capital investment:

   The Authority has invested:

   £6.010m to open a new building at Beacon Hill Special School, educating an additional 35 children with profound and multiple disabilities.  This also contributed to the creation of a 6th form at an alternative site.

   £0.850m to increase capacity at Southlands Special School and refurbish internal space.  This has enabled a change of designation, since Sept 2023 the majority of children joining in Y 7 are neurodiverse.

   £0.60m to enable Silverdale Special School to increase their capacity for children with social, emotional and mental health needs.

4. Funding for inclusion:

   Co-produced with schools and settings, and following a recent bidding round, 42 school were successfully awarded capital grants totalling £0.935m to support whole school inclusion in their settings.  Schools were awarded grants to create, for example, sensory rooms and gardens and breakout spaces.  You can watch Catherine McKinnell MP’s recent visit to Benton Dene Primary School’s sensory garden here.

   Schools receiving investment are required to provide evidence of the effectiveness and impact within the school against areas including attendance, suspensions and exclusions, reduced class disruption and levels of distress and reduced need for an Education Health and Care Needs Assessment.  Evidence would include data, pupil voice, parent/carer feedback, staff voice and audit activity.

5. Early Years Partnership:

   The local area partnership is committed to identifying all children under 5 years of age who have or may have SEND.  In doing so, where we understand their needs across education, health and care, the partnership can provide the right support to children and their families at the right time and in the right place.  This approach is fundamental to the partnerships school place planning and the ICBs assessment of health provision requirements in those schools.  By knowing our children, we can ensure that we have the right provision in place as children move into reception, with an effective transition in place.  The Authority and partners are also committed to a wider training offer and providing ‘whole setting’ support to early years.

   To that end, together with parents and carers, the partnership co-produced and launched the Early Years Partnership in October 2024.  This partnership is made up of six core teams who support children under 5 years of age, including the newly established Early Years Inclusion Service, Portage, Sensory Support Service, Early Years Communication Outreach Team, Education Psychology, and the Primary Outreach Service.  Where these services previously required separate referrals, realising our ‘tell it once’ principle, there is now one single route to request support with one single access point.

   The Authority has committed a £0.500m recurring investment in the Early Years Inclusion Service and a £0.160m capital investment in the Riverside Family Hub, now providing office accommodation for the Early Years Inclusion Service and Portage, and an intervention space available to children and their families.

   Supported by NASEN and the Council for Disabled Children in its development, the partnership has been approached by What Works in SEND to publish a national case study, as an example of innovative practice.  The LGA has also commissioned ISOS Partnership to lead on research into the rising presentation of SEN in early years and childcare, and the partnership has been approached to support this research, recognising our investment in this area.

   The partnership is closely monitoring evidence of impact; since its launch in October 2024 to January 2025, 229 requests for support have been received for individual children and 30 settings had requested whole setting inclusion support.  As a result of a change in the processing of health notifications in January 2024 (triaged by the Early Years Partnership since October 2024), there were 159 health notifications received in 2024, resulting 41 children (25.8%) whose needs can be met within the universal offer, 107 children (67.3%) through the targeted offer and 11 children (6.9%) who progressed to SEND Panel, for determination on whether threshold is met for an EHCNA.  There are early indications that, as a result of a strengthened targeted offer, fewer identify that an EHCNA is necessary.  There have been 125 requests for an EHCNA for under 5s between January and December 2024, compared to 147 (15% decrease) during the same period last year.

6. Specialist Teaching Team:

   The Authority commissions a range of services supporting young people in settings and schools, including the Portage Service, Language and Communication Service, Social Emotional Mental Health Service, Sensory Support Service and Dyslexia Service. 

   Until recently, these services were employed directly by schools, and over a 6 month phase one period, they were TUPE’d into the Authority. We are now entering phase two, where the partnership will create a single access point for services to schools, to reduce referral routes and instances of siloed working.

In addition to commissioning activity described which we continue to take forward, the following summarises our strategic commissioning intentions over the next 12 months, reflected in our SEND Improvement Plan:

Subject to approval, develop the Paediatric Occupational Therapy/Sensory Service for children with sensory processing needs

• Review of the Special School Nursing Team, ensuring they meet the health needs of C&YP in school
• Establishment of the Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health collaborative
• Co-production of a single access point to services to schools
• Full review of Moorbridge Alternative Education Provision and wider Alternative Provision
• Sufficiency of special school provision for children in early years
• Review of current post 16 pathways for SEND students
• Shared governance for meeting medical needs in schools

Our Collective priorities over the next 12 months

Through review and evaluation, listening to what children, young people, parents and carers have told us, North Tyneside’s local area partnership have developed a set of collective priorities which we are working on over the next 12 months. They are as follows

How the local area partners work together to plan, evaluate and develop the SEND system

• Co-production of the local area partnerships refreshed Joint Commissioning Strategy, informed by our SEND Needs and Sufficiency Assessment. 
• North Tyneside’s Parent Carer Forum to lead the co-production of the local area partnerships SEND and Alternative Provision Strategy.
• Reflecting the development of a number of new initiatives, to lead a review of our SEND Performance Framework, maximising leaders’ understanding of need, strengths, impact and opportunities to improve outcomes for children, young people and families.
• There is a risk that the partnership does not maximise every opportunity to evaluate the quality of practice and understand the impact of service delivery for children and young people, and their families. We are currently embedding the local area partnership’s refreshed SEND Quality of Practice Framework, a systemic framework  to evaluate the quality of practice and understand the impact of service delivery for children and young people, and their families.
• There is a risk for the ICB in fulfilling its statutory regulatory requirements as the Designated Clinical Officer, covered on a temporary basis, is vacant.  Following the ICB review of the DCO role, a DCO for North Tyneside and Northumberland will be appointed to.

Children and young people’s needs are identified accurately and assessed in a timely and effective way

• We are not yet effectively assessing the needs of all children within the 20 week statutory timescale as set out in the SEND Code of Practice 2015 when completing EHC Needs Assessments.  Currently at 17% (excluding exemptions) for 2025, we will continue to deliver on our recovery plan, aiming to provide the right support to children, young people and their families when waiting.
• North Tyneside are unable to effectively assess the sensory processing needs of all children and young people in the borough as there is currently no commissioned service.  Subject to ICB approval, we will develop a Paediatric Occupational Therapy / Sensory Service for children with sensory processing difficulties.
• We are not yet effectively identifying and meeting the needs of all pre-school children due to waiting times on the autism assessment diagnostic pathway, and for children and young people on the neurodiversity pathway, due to the length of the CAMHS waiting list.  We perform well compared to regional and national comparators; however, we are actively establishing and will then deliver on a refreshed recovery plan, describing what we are doing to further reduce waiting times for children and young people, and detailing what is available to children, young people and their families when waiting.
• There is an increase in the commissioning of private assessments; parents and carers do this when there are delays or no available service.  We want to reduce the number of parent and carers, and schools and settings, who feel the need to commission private assessments, including those related to Occupational Therapy, Speech and Language, Physiotherapy, neurodevelopmental and educational psychology.

Children, young people and their families participate in decision-making about their individual plans and support

• We are not yet ensuring that all children and young people’s Annual Reviews of their EHCPs are completed 60 weeks following the previous Annual Review or initial EHCP.  We will establish and deliver on the Authority’s Annual Review recovery plan, to:

1. increase the volume completed within 60 weeks following their previous Annual Review or initial EHCP;
2. strengthen the quality of those EHCPs;
3. ensure all children and young people actively engage in their EHCPs and that they reflect the views and wishes; and,
4. strengthened focus on preparing for adulthood. 

• Building on their new website, SENDIASS will procure a new recording system and develop a strengthened performance framework.

Children and young people receive the right help at the right time

• Following the current pilot, establish the Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health collaborative – embed a single access point for the triage of requests for support for children with needs relating to their emotional health and wellbeing, and who are neurodivergent.
• We will develop an Emotional Wellbeing Pathway to support children, young people and families to get the most appropriate support at the earliest opportunity to maximise their emotional wellbeing and resilience.
• Delivery of the NHS England Mental Health Support Teams in Schools programme, develop our offer for associate schools, and evaluate impact of both.
• Following the establishment of Early Years Partnership, identify all children who have or may have SEND, so that their needs are met, promoting strong transitions when starting school.
• North Tyneside’s PCF will lead the co-production of a single access point to services to schools, aligned to the principles of the Early Years Partnership; in this work we will consider the benefits of a single access point for 18 years plus.
• Delivery of the partnership’s All-Age Autism Strategy.
• There is a risk that due to increasing caseloads, the special school nursing team are unable to meet the range of health needs of children and young people in school.  The ICB are leading a review of the Special School Nursing Team to ensure they meet the health needs of children and young people in school.
• North Tyneside needs robust shared governance in place for meeting medical needs in schools, including in relation to delegation of medical tasks to non-clinical staff.
• To maximise health outcomes for young people with a higher take up of annual health checks.
• To ensure there are effective transition planning arrangements in place into Adult Social Care and those with continuing health care (including those with an EHCP who are not open to Children's Social Care).
• North Tyneside are unable to effectively find homes for all children with the most complex needs in the local area.  Further to our expansion of local children’s home provision, we have submitted a bid to the DfE to develop local care arrangements for children with complex needs in the local area.

Children and young people are well prepared for their next steps, and achieve strong outcomes

• Develop and embed strengthened systems to forecast SEND school places planning need across the local area.
• Delivery of the SEND capital investment programme, including the Funding for Inclusion Capital allocation
• To deliver the expansion of Additionally Resourced Provisions and SEN Units in the Borough.
• To lead a review of the Authority’s strategic arrangements for Alternative Provision , including the alternative provider framework.
• To ensure sufficiency of special school provision for children in early years who require special school places.
• To coordinate a full review of Moorbridge Alternative Education Provision.
• To coordinate a review of special school designations, providing assurance that special schools meet the presenting needs of children and young people in the Borough.
• To coordinate the review of high needs block school funding mechanisms.
• To strengthen careers, education, information, advice and guidance from primary school to post 16 to ensure that there is an appropriate awareness of the pathways and range of routes available to young people
• North Tyneside’s PCF to lead a review of current post 16 pathways for SEND students, ensuring sufficient high-quality post 16 progression pathways, including those with SEND, in the local area.  
• Build on the success of Ignite Your Potential Preparation for Adulthood programme by providing further progression opportunities into supported internships, including delivery of ‘Explore Your Potential’ pilot for care experienced young people.
• To embed the SEND Graduated Approach, supporting all schools and settings to offer an enhanced and consistent educational offer for children and young people with SEND, including those who are neurodiverse and with complex SEMH.
• Work with schools to develop a high-quality curriculum offer for all pupils which will improve academic outcomes and progress, maximising opportunities to improve attainment for children and young people with SEND Support Plans and EHCPs.
• We are delivering on the attendance action plan, recognising there is a risk that children and young people who have attendance less than 90% or who are on part-time timetables do not achieve their full potential in terms of educational or wellbeing outcomes.
• To reduce the number of suspensions and permanent exclusions for those with SEN Support Plans and EHCPs.
• Deliver phase two of the Whole School SEND Audits programme
• There is a risk for children with social, emotional and mental health needs that they will experience breakdown in their home care arrangements when are not in full time education.  Working with the Keeping Families Connected Team, we will develop and track children at risk of a breakdown in their home care arrangement where their education offer compounds current circumstances.

Children and young people are valued, visible and included in their communities

• To maximise every opportunity for our Local Offer to be clear and enhanced, which is easily accessible and well used by families and the people who work with them; this will be hosted on the new site from May 2025.
• Delivery of the partnerships Neurodiversity Transformation Programme, creating a need led approach with the right support available at the right time, across education, health and care.  
• To maximise opportunities for participation and engagement, supported with a calendar of participation and engagement activities on the Local Offer, for children, young people, parents and carers. 
• There is a risk that when communication is not strong with children and young people, and their parents and carers, we will not maximise every opportunity to celebrate collective strengths, and share with them action taken to improve areas we want to address.  We want to strengthen communication with and feedback from children and young people, and their parents and carers.
• Developing what's available in the local community to support children and young people with SEND, including short breaks for younger children, so they have the same opportunities as those without additional needs.
• A menu of leisure opportunities is curated, enhanced and updated so that what is available is clear and accessible through the Local Offer.
• Work with local leisure facilities so that we are more able to identify and offer increased participation opportunities identifying for example, named SEND champions in facilities and offering training to staff.