29. The reforms we set out in this Green Paper aim to provide families with confidence in, and greater control over, the services that they use and receive. For too many parents, their expectations that services will provide comprehensive packages of support that are tailored to the specific needs of their child and their family are not matched by their experiences, just as frontline professionals too often are hampered and frustrated by excessively bureaucratic processes and complex funding systems.

30. Rather than directing change from Whitehall, we want to make it easier for professionals and services to work together, and we want to create the conditions that encourage innovative and collaborative ways of providing better support for children, young people and families. The proposals in this chapter would mean
that:

  • by developing stronger local strategic planning and commissioning arrangements, local authorities and local health services will play a pivotal role in ensuring that children and young people with SEN or who are disabled receive high quality support, and that parents are able to make informed choices about what is right for their family;
  • frontline professionals will have the freedom to work together to develop better services for children, young people and families; and
  • the way in which services for children and young people with SEN or who are disabled are funded will facilitate integrated and collaborative approaches by local professionals, be more transparent to parents, and secure better value for money.

31. To work towards this we propose to:

  • work with the health sector and with the new Health and Wellbeing Boards to consider how the needs of children and young people with SEN or who are disabled can best be taken into account through the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment, joint health and wellbeing strategies, guidelines and standards from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), and health service outcomes frameworks;
  • work with the GP consortia pathfinders to explore the best ways of providing support for the commissioning of healthcare services for children and young people with SEN or who are disabled and their families;
  • reduce bureaucratic burdens by simplifying and improving the statutory guidance for all professionals working with children and young people with SEN or who are disabled from birth to 25 so that it is clear, accessible and helpful, and withdrawing guidance that does not provide useful support to professionals;
  • work with the educational psychology profession and local commissioners to review the future training arrangements for educational psychologists;
  • encourage greater collaboration between local professionals and services and across local boundaries;
  • extend the freedom and flexibility with which funding can be used locally;
  • provide targeted funding to voluntary and community sector organisations that have a strong track record of delivering high quality services, and publish a national SEN and disabilities voluntary and community sector prospectus that will set out the key areas in which we will make further funding available to voluntary and community sector organisations;
  • work with a group of local authorities to explore whether and how a national banded framework for funding provision for children and young people with SEN or who are disabled could improve transparency to parents while continuing to allow for local flexibility; and
  • explore how the different funding arrangements for special educational provision pre-16 and post-16 might be aligned more effectively so as to provide a more consistent approach to support for children and young people from birth to 25.