SEND Strategy Governance Board

Four adults and one child sat down having a conversation.

Overview

The SEND Strategy Governance Board (SGB) has members who represent the large number of different groups and services that help and support children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

It's the main job of the board to make sure that the East Sussex SEND Strategy is working.

The board:

meet at least 4 times per year
reviews and helps deliver the SEND Strategy
started in September 2022

We have created a video that introduces the SGB:

Previous Board Meetings

Notes from the most recent meeting (29 January 2025)

We welcomed two new members to the Board:

Andrea Ferns - Designated Clinical Officer (DCO) for SEND, NHS Sussex
Max - Children and Young People’s (CYP) ambassador, who will be supported by the East Sussex CYP team

Our meeting was re-scheduled from 9th January to 29th January, 2025. This enabled us to discuss the findings of the recent East Sussex Area SEND (ASEND) Inspection. The inspection was carried out in November 2024 by a joint team from the:

Office for Standards in Education,
Children’s Services and Skills (OfSTED), and
Care Quality Commission (CQC).

You can find out more about the recent East Sussex ASEND Inspection.

We noted that the current East Sussex SEND Strategy (2022-2025) is scheduled to end and be replaced in 2025. We agreed it should be updated with actions to meet improvements required by the inspection report. The updated strategy should be extended to run until Summer 2026. The Board will monitor the improvements in services to support children and young people with special needs. Board members from NHS Sussex and the Sussex health and care system agreed that their SEND priorities over that period will include work to meet improvements required by the East Sussex SEND Area Report.

We were able to discuss new developments in national government policy and possible impact at local level. We heard about the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which has been introduced to parliament. It will require changes to the ways in which children’s safety and wellbeing are safeguarded. We also noted that the current government has asked for proposals to devolve more power to local areas. East Sussex, West Sussex and Brighton and Hove have responded with a proposal for a combined authority for Sussex. We expect change in government policy to impact upon our work and this is a further reason to extend our current SEND Strategy, with the updates mentioned above. We will use the time to judge the best ways to develop a new strategy beyond 2026, in the light of how national changes develop.

The East Sussex Alternative Provision (AP) services support children and young people:

excluded from school,
at risk of exclusion,
or absence from ill health or other reasons.

These support services as currently monitored by a sub-group of our SEND Board. We had a report on recent developments from the sub-group. As we move into the extension period of our Strategy, we will review our board membership to make sure we have enough expertise to enable us to monitor those services effectively.

Our next meeting is on 3 April 2025. Before then:

we will ensure the 2022 to 2025 East Sussex SEND Strategy is updated as described above
we will ensure that it addresses the requirements of the Area SEND Inspection report
we will agree Health and Care priorities in line with the report
we will discuss with all Board members the ways in which their organisations and networks can support the Strategy

You can read previous SEND Strategy Governance Board meeting notes:

If you would like to request any documents mentioned in the meeting notes, please email: