In south east England a partnership of councils called the South East 7 (SE7) SEND Pathfinder Project has been chosen to be a pathfinder area for the potential reforms. The SE7 SEND Pathfinder is a collaboration of councils involving Hampshire County Council, Surrey County Council, West Sussex County Council, East Sussex County Council, Brighton and Hove City Council, Kent County Council and Medway Council. The area serves 1.3million children including more than 24,000 with special educational needs. The SE7 SEND Pathfinder will work closely with partners in the health service and the voluntary sector and with parents of children with special needs and disabilities.

CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE SE7 PATHFINDER WEBSITE 

Voluntary Sector Engagement

The voluntary sector will be represented on the Hampshire Change Board, on its core team and on the various work stream groups. The Alliance has hosted a preliminary voluntary sector meeting to discuss how voluntary sector representatives will be chosen and supported and how information about the Pathfinder will be disseminated to the sector. Click here to view the minutes from this initial voluntary sector meeting.

A proposal for funding to provide administrative support to voluntary sector representatives and to enable information dissemination to the wider sector has been submitted to Hampshire Change Board. A further proposal for backfill and expenses to support voluntary sector engagement is being submitted.

There are 5 priorities for work streams plus the main Change Board and the fortnightly core team. It is essential that representatives are willing to speak for the whole Alliance not just for their own organisation, and are prepared to share information etc quickly between meetings. Terms of reference and action plans are being agreed for each of these, and will be posted in the archive section below or be available from enquiries@hants-alliance.org.uk.

Representatives are required as follows: 2 for Change Board (Every 2 months) 1 for Core Team (Every 2 weeks) 1 for Assessment and Single Plan (ASP) (Likely to start at Every 2 weeks then move to monthly) 1 For Personal Budgets (Frequency to be determined) 1 for Local core offer (Frequency to be determined) 1 for strengthening multi agency commissioning and collaboration (Frequency to be determined) 1 for Support to parents and carers (Frequency to be determined) 1 for Banded Funding (In due course but minimal activity as yet).

Timeline for all work streams to be completed (at this stage) by September 2012.
The other areas of vulnerable children and age range and employment are not a priority work stream for Hampshire.

The urgent decisions are on the first 3 areas above. The Assessment & Single Plan (ASP) area will be getting going very quickly, with decisions about how and where to test this with families being planned now. So a representative for this is especially urgent.
A further meeting to agree voluntary sector representation on the Hampshire Change Board structure will be held on 27 January, 10.00 a.m. – 12.00 p.m. ay KAYAC, Winnall Valley Road, Winnall, Winchester SO23 0LD.

If you wish to express an interest in becoming a voluntary sector representative on the Hampshire Change Board, its core team, or on one or more of the five work stream groups click here to download an expression of interest form, and click here to download the accompanying Knowledge/Experience Matrix.

Both forms when completed should be returned to The Alliance at enquiries@hants-alliance.org.uk The deadline for return is 23 January 2012.

Local SEND Pathfinder News

News and updates about the Hampshire SEND Pathfinder will appear here.

Local SEND Pathfinder Archive

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