Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, (SEND):.

A child or young person has a special educational need and/or disability if they have a learning difficulty and/or a disability that means they need specialist health and education support, we shorten this to SEND.

The SEND Code of Practice 2015 and the Children and Families Act 2014 gives guidance to health and social care, education and local authorities to make sure that children and young people with SEND are properly supported.

The government’s vision for schools and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) reform, is set out in the White Paper Every Child Achieving and Thriving in March 2026. You can find out more here

Most children and young people with special educational needs or a disability can be supported by the graduated response, also called the ordinarily available provision or SEN support. If a child needs more support than can usually be provided through SEN support than an application for an Education, Health and Care needs assessment (EHCNA) can be made. This may result in the young person getting an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP).

NHS Devon ICB SEND Roles and Responsibilities

The Children and Families Act 2014 places statutory duties on the NHS, Integrated Care Boards (ICB), health commissioners, and health providers, to work with local authorities to provide advice and support to children and young people with SEND who are aged 0-25 years.

This requires all partner agencies to work collaboratively to improve outcomes for children and young people with SEND.

In order for NHS professionals to meet the statutory requirements outlined in Part 3 of the Children and Families Act 2014 they must respond to requests for information as part of the EHCNA within 6 weeks.

Education, Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan)

EHC Plans bring together all the services that currently support children and young people with SEND and their families as part of the EHC assessment process and the issuing of EHC plans.

The EHC plans provides statutory protection for education, health and care provision detailed within and are accessible for individuals from birth up to the age of 25, with SEND, extending the rights and protections of young people in further education and training.

EHC Plans are subject to annual reviews.

The parties involved in developing EHC Plans process personal data to enable their completion (and review) in compliance with the structure of EHCPs outlined in the ‘Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice 2014.

Tribunal ‘Extended Powers of Appeal’ ‘Special Educational Needs and Disability (First-tier Tribunal Recommendations Power)’

These sit alongside the Tribunal Procedure (First-tier Tribunal) (Health, Education and Social Care Chamber) Rules 2008 (the ‘Tribunal Procedure Rules’). Health and LA social care commissioners must respond to any request for information and evidence from the Tribunal August 2022- V1.0 Final Children under compulsory school age For children who are under compulsory school age, the legal basis for sharing information between the Parties has been identified as: Under section 23 of the Children and Families Act 2014, whereby, the Integrated care Board, NHS trust or NHS foundation trust form the opinion that the child has (or probably has) special educational needs or a disability, they must bring their opinion to the attention of the appropriate local authority.

Health provision and commissioning arrangements

Furthermore, part 3 of the Children and Families Act 2014 places a duty on Local Authorities and Health bodies to work collaboratively with a view to making sure that services work together where this promotes CYP wellbeing or improves the quality of special educational provision (Section 25 of the Children and Families Act 2014). Section 28 of the Children and Families Act, 2014 requires the local authorities to co-operate with local partners including ICB, NHS Trusts and NHS Foundation Trusts to exercise the local authority functions under this Part.

Designated Clinical Officer Role

The SEND Code of Practice 2015 describes the introduction of the designated professional role. This is a non-statutory role which may be carried out by a number of health professions. The Designated Medical Officer role is usually held by a paediatrician. The Designated Clinical Officer role provides flexibility for the role to be undertaken by a suitably competent, qualified and experienced nurse or other health professional.

The Designated Medical Officer and Designated Clinical Officer plays a key part in implementing the SEND reforms and in supporting joined up working between health services and local authorities.

NHS Devon has a Designated Clinical Officer (DCO) for SEND covering the 3 local authority areas. The DCO’s role is to support health colleagues here at NHS Devon as well as our local authorities and health providers to make sure that children and young people aged 0-25 with SEND have the right health support to achieve the best that they possibly can.

We have a varied role which includes:

Attending local authority education, health and care panels to talk about which children go forwards for assessments and then, if required, have a formal plan (EHCP)
Supporting health professionals with the information needed within the assessments and education colleagues to get the correct information and support
Supporting the SEND team at the local authorities with questions on information
Signposting education professionals to health services and professionals for advice
Working alongside the commissioners and stakeholders including parents, children and young people, to identify and raise any commissioning gaps
Ensuring we have a good local offer of health services for those age 0-25 with SEND
Taking part in processes to ensure that we consider requests for those with highly complex needs, including continuing care
Reviewing Tribunal Health advice to ensure the correct provision is in place to meet children and young people’s needs.
Supporting the commissioners and senior leadership team to ensure that the SEND health requirements are met

You can contact us by emailing:  d-icb.send@nhs.net

The ICB works closely on SEND with each of our local authorities. Each local authority area has a Local Offer which describes the support available for children, young people with SEND, their families and carers in that area and a SEND Information Advice and Support Service, (IASS) which offer impartial advice to families, young people and carers. You can find out more using the links below:

Each local authority area also have a Parent Carer Forum. A parent carer forum is a group of parents and carers of children and young people aged 0 – 25 with SEND. They gather the views of local families, from all communities, so that they are representative of their local population. They work in partnership with local authorities, education settings, health and social care providers, and other local organisations to highlight where local services, processes, and commissioners are working well, and to provide challenge when changes or improvements need to be made.

You can find out more here:

Who we are

Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, (SEND):.

NHS Devon ICB SEND Roles and Responsibilities

Education, Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan)

Designated Clinical Officer Role

SENDIASS Services

Local Offers

Family Hubs