On the 2nd March 2023, The Department for Education (DfE) published the SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan, further to the SEND and Alternative Provision Green Paper which was published in March 2022.

Following engagement with children, young people, parents and carers, the Improvement Plan sets out their roadmap for implementing a single, national system and achieving real change in practice so every child and young person can thrive.

The Council for Disabled Children has published a helpful summary of the plan, its history and what it wants to achieve, which you can read here. They’ve also produced a short animation to help explain – watch it here.

The Improvement Plan comes out at a similar time as the #FailedAndForgotten report from the Disabled Children’s Partnership (DCP) which is based on the findings from surveying 2,200 parent / carers asking them about the current experiences of families with disabled children. Issues around SEND is just one of the aspects that came up in the DCP’s report and their findings highlight how much work there is still to do.