Sheffield City Council, NHS Sheffield Clinical Commissioning Group and Sheffield’s Parent Carer Forum have worked together to draft a new city wide Inclusion Strategy to describe how they will meet the needs of children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

The consultation, which has been extended to 26 January 2020, after running in November and December, asks people to give feedback on the draft strategy.

Dr Terry Hudsen, local GP and Chair at NHS Sheffield CCG said, “December is such a busy time for everyone so we are extending the consultation so we can hear from as many people as possible. We’re particularly keen to hear from families, schools and people who work in children and young people’s services as they are best placed to help us shape our priorities for children with SEND. We would also be happy to come and visit your group or meeting if you want to have a discussion and feedback face to face.”

The strategy will run for five years and set the priorities for how Sheffield supports its children and young people with additional needs. It has been developed from the views of over 800 people including two surveys, young people taking part in discussion groups and feedback from people who attended co-production sessions. The strategy will be finalised after the consultation.

Dr Hudsen continued, “Feedback from children, young people and their families made it clear that we can do better in making sure they are at the centre of all decision making and that services meet their needs in a timely and co-ordinated manner. The aspiration across Sheffield is to change the way we work so that we act early to identify, assess and meet people’s needs, to work in partnership with each other and to establish integrated and local services that make Sheffield an inclusive city.”

Executive Director of People Services, John Macilwraith, said: “We all want the best for our children and to see them thrive and live happy and fulfilled lives. For children with special educational needs this is no different.  It is important that they have the right support in place in their early years, at school, and other health and care needs met. We hope as many people as possible have their say on the consultation for the strategy so they can help shape the valuable support needed for themselves and their families.”

People can have their say online at: https://www.sheffield.gov.uk/home/schools-childcare/inclusion-consultation Young people will also be asked to say what they think in group discussions. 

In Sheffield more than 12,000 school aged children have special educational needs, which equates to just over 16% of the school population.