Our Strategy for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities

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1. Foreword

In 2024, Bradford's SEND Strategy was co-produced with children and young people (CYP), parent carers, schools, education providers, health partners, social care services and the voluntary and community sector. Together, we set out a shared vision for creating a more inclusive, responsive and ambitious SEND system; one that enables children and young people with SEND to thrive, participate fully in their communities, and achieve positive outcomes throughout their lives.

Since the publication of the original strategy, the partnership has continued to evolve and strengthen. We have made significant progress in developing our local SEND system, establishing stronger governance arrangements, embedding co-production, improving partnership working and enhancing our understanding of the needs, experiences and aspirations of children and young people with SEND and their families. At the same time, demand for SEND services continues to grow, national reform developments have progressed, and new opportunities have emerged to improve outcomes through more integrated working.

In the strategy which we published in 2024 we committed to a review and refresh of that strategy after two years. This provides an opportunity to reflect on our progress and ensure our strategic priorities remain relevant, ambitious and focused on the areas that matter most. Rather than replacing the original strategy, this refresh builds upon its foundations and reinforces our collective commitment to delivering meaningful and lasting change.

This refreshed SEND Strategy strengthens the alignment between our long-term ambitions and the way we deliver improvement across the partnership. It brings together the strategic vision of the SEND Strategy, the delivery framework provided by the SEND One Plan, and the improvement activity set out within the Local Area Plan for SEND Reforms, creating a clear golden thread from vision through to implementation and impact.

Importantly, this refresh also reflects the principles of the Area SEND Inspection Framework, ensuring a continued focus on leadership, inclusion, co-production, quality of provision, preparation for adulthood and outcomes for children and young people. It sets out not only what we want to achieve, but how we will work together to achieve it, how we will measure success, and how we will hold ourselves accountable for the difference we make.

Our ambition remains unchanged. We want Bradford to be a place where children and young people with SEND are identified early, receive the right support at the right time, feel valued and included, and are supported to achieve their aspirations and prepare successfully for adult life. Through continued collaboration, shared responsibility and genuine co-production, we remain committed to delivering a SEND system that improves experiences, reduces inequalities and enables every child and young person with SEND to flourish.

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2. Introduction

This strategy sets out the vision and strategic priorities for the Bradford SEND and Inclusion Partnership.

The key partners who are working together to deliver this strategy are:

• Children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)
• Parent/ carers of children and young people with SEND.
• Health commissioners and providers – NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board
• Mainstream and specialist education settings
• Voluntary and community sector organisations
• Children's Services and Adult Community Services - Bradford Council and Bradford Children and Families Trust

We aim to run an efficient and inclusive special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and alternative provision system where practitioners work with parents and carers, children and young people to build trust and confidence and develop good quality partnerships that are focused on improving aspirations and outcomes.

We are committed to reviewing progress made towards the outcomes set out in the strategy. We will do this annually so we can continue to drive the improvements needed and respond to the needs of children and their families. We will continue to work with children, young people and parent/ carers to continue to review, design and develop services and support and continue our co-production journey.

2.1 What we have heard from our children, young people and families

The priorities that guide our work have been co-produced through consultation and engagement with SEND children, young people and families from across the district. We have worked with a range of groups and at a range of events to hear your views and we will continue to work with our children, young people and families as we further develop our work. The groups we have been working with are:

• Bradstarz – Bradford's SEND Youth Forum
• SEND Youth Summits –14 settings
• SEND CYP – outreach work in 12 settings
• Children in Care Council
• Healthy Mind Apprentices
• SEND Parent/ carer network group (13 SEND Parent/ carer groups from across Bradford)
• Parent Forum for Bradford and Airedale (PFBA)
• SEND Parent Involvement Partners
• SEND Ambassadors
• PFBA Shaping SEND Sessions

Our partnership will continue to work with our children, young people and families through our ongoing commitment to coproduction and established children, young people voice networks and parent/ carer groups.

We want to express our appreciation and thanks to our SEND Young People Forum (Bradstarz) and all settings involved in our CYP voice work and our SEND parent/ carer groups (PFBA, SEND Parent/ carer network, SEND Ambassadors and our parents who have contributed at our events).

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Vision

Our vision which was coproduced with SEND children and young people is:

"All children and young people with SEND in Bradford will achieve, have choice and control, and live happy, healthy and fulfilled lives."

“Bradstarz helps young people express their concerns and share their views about what should change in Bradford. It helps us feel listened to. I believe in sharing your voice for a better future. It has been a positive thing for me to be able to see that change is possible and people are listening to what we have to say.”
Junaid, Bradstarz SEND Youth Forum

“I want to make a change for children and young people in Bradford.”
Lauren, Bradstarz SEND Youth Forum

"It's really special to be able to use your voice and show others they can too"
Marnie, Bradstarz SEND Youth Forum

“Being part of Bradford’s SEND partnership means AWARE can signpost families to the right support early.”
Nikki, Airedale and Wharfedale Autism Resource

“The SEND Partnership” helps improve children’s outcomes… better learning and understanding; and working together to get better outcomes for all children and young people is really important”
Robena, SEND Ambassador

“Even though I attend partnership meetings as a parent, I don’t feel like I am there as a parent, I feel like part of the team.”
Gemma, PFBA Parent Involvement Partner

Our work underpins the wider Bradford District Children and Young People's Strategy and this vision will be delivered through:

• Co-production with children, young people and families
• Early identification and timely intervention
• High-quality, inclusive provision
• Strong partnership commissioning and workforce development
• Clear pathways into adulthood

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3. SEND Strategy 2024 to present: our journey

Our SEND strategic priorities since 2024 have remained embedded in our SEND workstreams which we have continued to drive forward. These priorities areas are:

1. Communication and engagement - Improving how we communicate and work with families and partners.
2. Our SEND journey - Being able to access assessments and services to have needs identified early and to allow the needs of children and young people aged 0-25 years to be met.
3. Preparation for adulthood - Building awareness of the support available, enabling SEND young people to achieve their aspirations and long-term outcomes, allowing them to live a happy and fulfilled life.
4. Developing services and support (joint commissioning) - Coproducing and improving services and support, identifying gaps where we need new services and support.

The SEND landscape continues to change: shifts in national policy, a new inspection framework, and pressures within our own SEND structures have all partners in agreement that more clarity is needed in some areas and our priorities have been expanded to reflect this and expanded into the SEND One Plan priorities. 

How will we deliver our priorities?

The Bradford SEND Partnership delivers improvement through two complementary sets of partnership groups.

SEND Partnership Workstreams These groups bring together partners from education, health, social care, parent carer forums and the voluntary sector to drive improvement, monitor progress, address risks and ensure accountability across the system. Their focus is on the long-term strategic priorities for SEND and include;

• Communication and engagement,
• Preparation for adulthood,
• Workforce development,
• SEND journey- statutory performance
• Joint commissioning
• Sufficiency.

Local Area SEND Reform Delivery Groups have also been established to lead the implementation of specific SEND Reform and Local Area Plan activity. These groups focus on the delivery of reform programmes, including locality development, Experts at Hand, quality assurance, offer development, sufficiency planning, finance, commissioning and contract management. Their role is to ensure Bradford successfully delivers national SEND Reform expectations and the priorities identified within the Local Area Plan.

Together, these arrangements provide a clear governance framework:

• SEND Strategy sets our long-term vision and priorities.
• SEND One Plan and Local Area Plan coordinates partnership delivery and performance.
• The Local Area SEND Strategic Partnership Board (LASSPB) provides strategic oversight, challenge and assurance across all activity.
• SEND Partnership Workstreams provide operational oversight and delivery of strategic improvement priorities.
• Local Area SEND Reform Delivery Groups deliver the specific changes required through SEND Reforms and the Local Area Plan.

These workstreams and delivery groups:

• Have agreed leadership from across the partnership including parent/ carer representation.
• Maintain live action plans which feeds into the One Plan
• Reports progress, impact and risks to Local Area SEND Strategic Partnership Board
• Are accountable for delivering against priorities

To manage, drive and monitor our work we will:

• Ensure that strategies and plans align to the priorities and set key performance indicators (KPI’s) to monitor progress at organisation and partnership level.
• Review our strategies and plans to ensure we are as streamlined and connected as we can be.
• Establish a management information dashboard that captures all the key indicators and clearly defines ‘where we want to get to, and how we are progressing’.
• Establish a SEND One Plan outcome framework to monitor impact annually against district-wide data and intelligence.
• Develop greater automation around information sharing between partners to help manage risk and improve the safeguarding of children in Bradford.
• Use a variety of consultation and engagement approaches to continuously receive feedback from, and work in partnership with, children, young people and families.

See Appendix below for our SEND Partnership diagram.

3.1. Working in partnership to improve outcomes- moving into action

Review and Refresh

The SEND Strategy will be reviewed annually to ensure it remains responsive to local need, with a full review and renewal planned for 2028.

The “One Plan” is a live delivery and improvement framework, reviewed quarterly by the Local Area SEND Strategic Partnership Board.

Priority areas and workstreams may evolve in response to:

• Inspection findings
• Data and demand pressures
• Lived experience feedback
• National policy direction

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4. Appendices

4.1. Appendix 1 – Partnership governance diagram

4.2. Appendix 2 - Data reporting – outcome framework

This appendix sets out the partnership's success measures and outcome framework for delivering the SEND Strategy, SEND One Plan and Local Area Plan. The framework provides a shared approach to measuring progress, impact and outcomes across education, health, social care and wider partners.

The measures have been designed to help the partnership understand whether the changes being made are making a meaningful difference to the lives of children and young people with SEND and their families. The framework moves beyond measuring activity alone and focuses on the outcomes that matter most, including earlier identification of need, improved access to support, stronger inclusion, better educational outcomes, positive preparation for adulthood, improved family experience and a sustainable SEND system.

Early Identification and assessment

Inclusion

Health

Social Care

Preparation for Adulthood

Community Inclusion

Coproduction and Family Experience

* this is just a selection of some of the main data sets monitored by the SEND Partnership