  Education Matters is a dedicated publication for stakeholders in education, including school staff, governors, and education professionals. Each issue explores key themes, empowering you to navigate the evolving education landscape and strategically improve outcomes for children and young people. To view previous editions of Education Matters, please click here.
Dear Colleagues,
This special edition of Education Matters focusses on our number one priority: effective and timely provision for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and the importance of inclusive practice in schools. The Local Authority, and our teams across Education and Skills, are passionate and determined to provide the very best service, guidance and support to our families and school staff.
You can find out more about our work, our teams and support available through three key websites:
In 2025, we will work with colleagues from SEND Commissioning, Health, Social Care and parents/carers to develop a new SEND and Inclusion Strategy, capturing our shared vision and plans for the next 5 years.
In this edition, we introduce the teams working tirelessly and passionately across our SEND & Inclusion Service, and inform you of some of the initiatives under way. We discuss the ways that we are working to align with Our Council Plan, and how the SEND Improvement Plan is assisting us to improve outcomes and lived experiences for children and young people in West Sussex.
We remain proud of, and continue to promote the excellent and collaborative work in our Inclusion Framework and Ordinarily Available Inclusive Practice (OAIP). Gemma Humphrey undertook a review of the OAIP in 2024, and we look forward to continuing learning from and working with the guidance.
I hope that this edition of Education Matters will provide you with an insight into the work being done by our SEND and Inclusion teams, as well as by colleagues in West Sussex’s education settings. I look forward to keeping you updated as we progress throughout the year.
Best Wishes,
Claire Prince, Head of SEND and Inclusion
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The national SEND and Inclusion landscape
Nationally, SEND and Inclusion is undergoing a period of immense evolution and improvement. The ways in which we worked before are no longer fit for purpose, and it has become vital for us to adapt our provision and processes to fit the needs of new cohorts entering education in the United Kingdom.
In this piece, we discuss the challenges being faced by local authorities across the country, along with the initiatives and strategies that we are using in West Sussex to improve our services for children and young people.
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SEND and Inclusion Leadership: the right support, in the right place, at the right time
"The SEND and Inclusion service is broad and far reaching, and it is a privilege to lead the service's work. I am exceptionally proud of the dedicated work that colleagues do to put children first and help them get the right support at the right time. Alongside their daily work, these passionate and hard-working colleagues are central to the Local Authority’s vision to change and improve the way SEND and Inclusion provision is delivered to children, young people and the people who support them." (Claire Prince)
The service comprises 4 services, with sub-teams that sit within them. Please click the links below to find more information on each team's area of expertise and the ways in which they are working to deliver better provision for children and young people in West Sussex:
SEND and Inclusion Strategy 2025-2030
The 2019-2024 SEND and Inclusion strategy is due to be reviewed and refreshed in 2025, which provides us with an opportunity to reassess the efficacy and sufficiency of the services that we provide for children and young people in West Sussex. As part of our ongoing work to improve SEND and Inclusion provision in the County, we are committed to keeping children and young people at the centre of all that we do.
In this article, Claire Prince discusses the West Sussex Vision for Inclusion and the implications of this vision for future provision. Claire explores the feedback provided by colleagues at the SEND Roadshows in the summer term, and reflects on how the West Sussex Vision for Inclusion might impact the SEND and Inclusion Strategy 2025-2030.
Please click here to view the full article.
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Improving outcomes through SEND Transformation
In this article, Nadia McGarry, SEND Improvement Lead, discusses the programmes and initiatives that are driving change within the SEND and Inclusion Service, and how these are helping the Local Authority to combat national challenges in the SEND and Inclusion space.
Nadia explores how the Delivering Better Value (DBV) Programme and the Southeast Change Programme Partnership (CPP) are assisting us in recognising current trends, forecasting future needs and identifying opportunities for change and improvement.
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Sufficiency of Places for SEND
We are pleased to share that our SEND Sufficiency Plans for the next three years have now been prioritised and, subject to funding, we are looking to progress a number of exciting projects with schools.
This builds on the successful projects in 2023/24 of a new Special Support Centre at St Margaret's CE Primary School in Angmering, and at Felpham Community College, plus improvements at West Park CE Primary School SSC in Worthing. We also opened our first satellite site at Chichester High School for Fordwater Special School. The Council has facilitated interim solutions at Cornfield, Palatine and Fordwater schools for post-16 provision.
School places for children with EHCPs are the bedrock to all our SEND Improvement Projects, and we are committed to investing in our Special Schools and Special Support Centres. We recognise that an increase in specialist places is needed so that children and young people have the right provision at the right time in their educational journey. This investment will be made in parallel with our projects with mainstream schools to develop a ‘mixed offer’ that provides inclusive environments for all.
2024/25 will see a new SSC will open at Maidenbower Infant School, completion of improvements to Worthing High School SSC, and the start of work to create a satellite site for Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee School.
Subject to the approval of funds, we also aim to start work on new SSC facilities at Warden Park Primary School, a satellite site for Oak Grove College, and consider additional places for St Anthony's School in Chichester and the expansion of the SCC at the newly merged Homefield Primary School.
We will be exploring opportunities and seeking funding for Fordwater School, Palatine School, Manor Green College and SSC’s in Adur and Horsham.
In the coming years (2025/26 and 2026/27) the Council will look to secure investment for Manor Green Primary School and to create SSC in schools across the County to create pathways of local provision.
The Council will aim to keep you updated as we progress through the year. For more information on our work to improve the sufficiency of places for SEND, please contact SEND.Sufficiency@westsussex.gov.uk.
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Updates to the Ordinarily Available Inclusive Practice (OAIP)
Thank you to the colleagues in settings who contributed to the OAIP workshops in the summer term. The workshops have provided us with an opportunity to reflect on how we can update the OAIP to improve provision for children and young people, whilst also improving communication and transparency with parents/carers.
In this article, Gemma Humphrey, SEND and Inclusion Adviser (Delivering Better Value), discusses the upcoming changes to the OAIP and provides helpful guidance on how the OAIP can support you to improve your inclusive practice.
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A message from Vince Clark, Interim Director of Children, Young People and Learning
"Whilst the national challenges and issues surrounding SEND and Inclusion are well-known to us, I want to acknowledge the resilience, dedication, and hard work of our SEND teams and colleagues in settings and say thank you for everything you are doing to support our children, young people, and families. We know we have significant improvements to make, but we are seeing the impact of our SEND improvement plan, and it is important that we acknowledge and celebrate our achievements."
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West Sussex Services for Education is a central hub of information for schools and settings, hosting a broad range of training, resources and communications.
Resource pages
While we continue to make changes to the way that SEND and Inclusion provision is delivered to children and young people in West Sussex, the following pages may be useful in keeping you updated and informed about the work that we're doing to improve our services:
Training and events
There is a wealth of training and events available for schools and settings to book, which are designed to ensure that school/setting staff are well-equipped to work with us in improving SEND and Inclusion provision in the County.
As mentioned in Claire Prince's message, the Educational Psychology Service delivers Therapeutic Thinking training, which is suggested as part of a successful whole school approach to mental health and emotional wellbeing. These sessions are varied and cover a wide range of topics, providing an excellent package of support for settings looking to strengthen their whole school approach.
Please click here and search 'therapeutic thinking' to view and book the Service's full range of training.
Updates to mandatory qualifications for SENCos
An important update was issued on 12 September 2024, regarding the mandatory qualifications that SENCos must gain within 3 years of taking up their post.
School leaders and governors should ensure that they are familiar with this guidance and ensure that their SENCos have achieved wither the former National Award in SEN Co-ordination (NASENCo), or have the new leadership-level SENCo National Professional Qualification (NPQ) within the timescales.
For more information on these qualifications, please click here.
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Feedback
To provide feedback on the content of Education Matters or to find out more about
any of the included topics, please email educationmatters@westsussex.gov.uk.
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