Special Educational Needs & Disability Pathfinder

In March 2011, the government published a Green Paper, 'Support and Aspiration', which set out how it wants to see services working for children and young people who have special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and their families.

In September 2011, Hertfordshire was chosen as one of 20 'Pathfinder' areas, which means we are involved in testing how some of the proposals in the Green Paper can be delivered.
In May and June, we are inviting a small number of selected children and families to help us to test two of the key Green Paper reforms:

• A new single assessment and 'Education, Health & Care Plan'
• Using personal budgets to extend families' choice and control over the support they receive

During the summer and autumn we will therefore be working with the Pathfinder families, and the staff working with them, to help us find answers to a number of key questions, such as:

• How could the current separate plans for each Pathfinder family be combined into a single Education, Health & Care Plan?
• Will a different approach - more person-centred, outcome-focused, involving the family - lead to a different Plan and more confidence from the family?
• How much do the services used by each Pathfinder family cost, and what would be the amount in the personal budget?
• What changes would families choose to make to their services and support, if they are given a personal budget instead?

Hertfordshire's SEND Pathfinder also includes a wider programme of work to explore how we can:

• Improve young people's transition to adulthood
• Strengthen our arrangements for engaging with parents and carers
• Explore how the voluntary and community sector can be more involved

You can find out more about the work taking place in each of the work strands, as well as other information about the pathfinder, by following the links on this page.

Hertfordshire's Pathfinder programme will only impact directly on a small number of families with whom we test new ways of working. For most families and services, current processes will remain the same. No significant changes to legislation and regulations for SEN and disability - including Statutory Assessments, Statements and Learning Difficulty Assessments - will be made until 2014 at the earliest. Families' existing rights and entitlements will not be affected, and Hertfordshire County Council, NHS Hertfordshire and other organisations will continue to fulfil their existing statutory duties.

• Conference Slides - Introduction to Hertfordshire's SEND Pathfinder Conference (PDF file 205KB)
• Conference Slides - Parent Carers' Perspectives (PDF file 477KB)
• Conference Slides - Workshops (PDF file 3MB)
• SEND Pathfinder - Conference Summary Report (PDF file 53KB)
• SEND Pathfinder FAQS (PDF file 94KB)
• SEND Pathfinder Programme Brief (PDF file 179KB)
• Questionnaire Results - SEND Pathfinder Conference (MS Excel 103KB)