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 (22 June 2026)

We welcomed three new Board members:

Councillor Paul Soane - the new lead Council member at East Sussex County Council for Education and Inclusion, SEND.
Naomi Ellis and Louise Needham - Board members for the National Health Service (NHS) and Surrey and Sussex Integrated Care Board (ICB). Surrey and Sussex ICB is now one organisation.

We discussed the East Sussex Local SEND Reform Plan. The Plan has been sent to the Government for agreement. The Plan was discussed at earlier Board meetings. Board members also shared their views in other meetings and by email. The Plan explains how East Sussex will improve support and services for children and young people with SEND, and their parents and carers. It will now be reviewed by the Department for Education (DfE). The DfE is planning a new Act of Parliament to help improve services across England and Wales. Every local partnership has been asked to prepare for this.

As well as the SEND Reform Plan, we have been developing an East Sussex SEND Strategy for 2026 to 2030. This is not a detailed plan. It sets out the ways of working that everyone in our SEND Partnership Board agrees to follow. This Strategy follows the 2022 to 2025 Strategy, which our Board has been overseeing. We discussed the 2026 to 2030 Strategy. It will now go to County Council members to agree on behalf of the people of East Sussex.

While we have been working on the Plan and the Strategy, there has been a lot of change in local health and care services. The National Health Service (NHS) has now created the Surrey and Sussex ICB. We heard from our new Board members, Naomi and Louise, and their colleague Russell Shingles, about how the new arrangements will support SEND services. New job roles have been created and new people have been recruited. We look forward to working with them.

At the end of the meeting, we looked again at the four improvements asked for when East Sussex SEND was inspected by:

the Office for Standards in Education (OfSTED), and
the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The inspection took place in November 2024.

The inspection report was published in April 2025. Since then, we have been checking that improvements have been made. The report asked for:

Education, Health and Care Plans to improve and be reviewed on time.
Waiting times for mental health services and wheelchairs for children and young people to be reduced. Children, parents and carers should also get better support while they are waiting.
Early years settings, schools and colleges in East Sussex to improve what they offer children and young people with SEND, so they can make better progress. This is called ‘improving inclusion’.
Our Area SEND Partnership to work with the right organisations. This is to make sure there are enough suitable options for alternative provision. This means education for children and young people who cannot manage in mainstream school. We also need to improve the number and range of options for young people over 16 who have Special Educational Needs.

We will keep checking our Plan and Strategy to make sure these improvements are happening. The DfE and NHS England (NHSE) will next review our progress at a meeting on 16 July 2026.

Full SEND Strategy Governance Board meeting notes: