Children, young people and their families are at the heart of the SEND strategy. Everything we do will be guided by their voices, experiences and aspirations.
This strategy is not just about improving services - it is about creating a system that works in partnership with families to ensure every child and young person can belong, thrive and achieve their full potential.
Sheffield's Local Area SEND Partnership Strategy 2025-2030
Shaped by what's around us: our SEND strategy for making Sheffield the place where all children belong and thrive.
The SEND system in Sheffield needs to improve. Families have told us things need to change.
Our SEND strategy, Shaped By What's Around Us, which builds on the SEND Manifesto published in July 2025, sets out how this will happen.
Through engagement with families, the Sheffield SEND Enquiry and feedback shared on the Sheffield SEND Manifesto we have developed a plan which has children, young people and their families at its heart. Their voices, experiences and aspirations will guide us throughout our improvement journey.
The strategy is not just about improving services – it is about creating a system that works in partnership with families to ensure every child and young person can belong, thrive and achieve their full potential.
We must be honest about the challenge ahead. It may take some time before families experience all the changes being made. However, the Sheffield SEND Local Area Partnership which includes health, the local authority, education, and voluntary sector partners will work together with families to make things better over the coming months and years.
We need to get the building blocks right and have begun by identifying three priorities for improvement. These are described in our strategy, along with information about what this will mean for children, young people and families.
Briefly, the three priorities are:
- Workforce & Structures
- Creating the workforce that Sheffield children and families need
- Processes
- Developing processes that work for everyone and lead to better outcomes
- Governance & Accountability
- Redesign the system to ensure we make fair decisions and we do what we said
After the SEND inspection in early 2025, we created a SEND Improvement Plan. The Delivery Plan is a combination of the previous Improvement Plan and additional actions which will deliver the change that’s needed. We will update the plan at least every 3 months.
When you have read them, please let us know if you would like to be involved via our brief survey. If you have any questions about the strategy and delivery plan send them over to localoffer@sheffield.gov.uk
The SEND system in Sheffield needs to improve. Change is already underway.
This strategy, which builds on the SEND Manifesto that was published in July 2025, sets out how this will happen.
The strategy sets out our shared commitment across education, health, and social care to improve services and outcomes for children and young people especially those with SEND aged 0–25.
The Local Area SEND Partnership is determined to build a system that families trust, that values inclusion, and that delivers positive outcomes for all.
There is a lot of evidence that change is needed in Sheffield, but not enough of this evidence comes from children and young people or their parents and carers at the moment.
There is good practice to build upon, including the work of Sheffield Parent Carer Forum and the SENDing Voices group, but the system needs to reach out more widely and more often.
We will make sure that there are regular activities which ensure that everyone involved in SEND in Sheffield has a good understanding of the experiences and outcomes of children and young people. This includes making sure that we listen to the voice of everyone in our city and everyone is included in co-producing the outcomes framework.
Three priorities for improvement have been identified. Each of these priorities has a number of key building blocks. These are described in our strategy, along with information about what this will mean for children, young people and families.
Creating the workforce that Sheffield children need and the structures that enable improvement in leadership and practice.
Our commitments to children and families are:
- You will see improvement in the way you are helped and supported in your school or education setting,
in your home and in your community. - The people who help and support you will know you and you will know them. They will have strong
knowledge and will work well together as a team. - The places where you grow and learn will be inclusive and will provide the things you need to belong and thrive.
- You will know where to get the help and support you need in your community or neighbourhood.
How we will do this:
- Healthy Child Development and Ordinarily Available Provision
- Improve the quality of ordinarily available provision in schools and communities. This means describing the features of healthy child development in a holistic and connected way and working out how we educate and care for children so that more grow, develop and learn well without needing additional or different provision. It will require the whole children’s workforce to know more about healthy development during childhood as well as deepen their understanding of the needs of some groups of children.
- Sheffield Children's Taskforce
- Create the Children’s Taskforce to lead the city’s development programme for the whole children’s workforce. This programme will be based on our description of healthy child development and the graduated approach and will be underpinned by personcentred thinking and practices and a focus on preparing children well for their adult lives.
- SEND Hub Infrastructure
- Create an outline plan and proposal for a place-based structure to support the full continuum of provision for Sheffield children. This includes provision that is ordinarily available to children and families and the city's graduated approach to identifying, assessing and meeting children's needs in a committed multi-agency way. It will require strong partnership arrangements and a new approach to commissioning and providing services for children and families
Developing processes that work for everyone and lead to better outcomes.
Our commitments to children and families are:
- Your views and experiences will be at the centre of everything we do to help and support you.
- You will have a strong and influential voice in decision-making about your current and future life.
- The help and support you receive will prepare you well for your adult life so that you can be valued,
visible and included. - You will get the right help and support from the right group of professionals at the right time. You will know them and they will know you. They will work well together as a team.
- We will assess your needs well and work out how best to support you. Decisions that affect you will
be made with you.
How we will do this:
- Preparation for Adulthood and Person-centred Thinking and Practice
- Embed person-centred thinking and practices and a focus on preparing children well for their adult lives in everything we do
- Graduated Approach
- Improve the way we identify, assess and meet the needs of children who need additional or different provision using a graduated approach. This means bringing children, families and the right group of people together at the right time to work out how best to support them now and in the future.
- Alternative Provision
- Improve arrangements for commissioning and providing alternative provision so that it is responsive to children's needs and consistently improves their outcomes.
- Statutory Assessment
- As a connected part of the graduated approach, improve all aspects of education health and care (EHC) assessment, planning and review so that children and families have positive experiences, professionals work together well and EHC plans describe how we will collectively support children to achieve meaningful and ambitious outcomes that prepare them well for adult life.
Transforming governance and redesigning the way accountability works
Our commitments to children and families are:
- Your views and experiences will shape our ambitions, the outcomes we are all working towards and our assessment of the progress we are making.
- You will be actively involved in our city-wide approach to ‘developing, designing and doing’ together.
- You will see stronger leadership and better governance of the city’s SEND arrangements.
How we will do this:
- Outcomes Framework
- Work with the Council for Disabled Children to co-produce an outcomes framework that identifies the measures that enable everyone to understand the progress that is being made.
- Sensing and Shaping Sheffield
- Develop new ways of capturing the experience of children, young people, their families and professionals.
- Develop a collaboration between key organisations to facility a citywide network which connects children, young people and their families to trusted partners so that everyone in out city can contribute.
- Whole System Improvement Cycle
- Put in a whole system improvement cycle that supports evaluation and improvement bu making sure that we have clear information about performance and are able to support and challenge all parts of the local area SEND system.
- Strategic Governance
- Develop strategic governance and streamline the monitoring and oversight of SEND so that it is more purposeful, efficient and transparent.
Our most important accountability is to the children, young people and families of Sheffield.
Following Sheffield’s Local Area SEND Partnership inspection by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission, Sheffield has established a new leadership group to oversee the changes that need to happen to improve the SEND system. This new structure is set out below. The SEND Improvement Board has an independent chair and will hold the Local Area Partnership to account for progress in delivering this strategy and the Improvement Plan which responds to the inspection.
The SEND Improvement Board brings together senior leaders from:
- Sheffield City Council
- South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB)
- Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust
- Schools and education leaders (including Learn Sheffield)
- The Sheffield Parent Carer Forum, representing families’ voices.
The SEND Steering Group will provide more detailed oversight of the delivery plan, ensure communication is improved and evaluate quality and performance for review at the Improvement Board. The delivery groups will be responsible for different aspects of the delivery plan and will report directly to the steering group.
We will develop an Outcomes Framework to accompany this strategy.
This will identify the measures which enable everyone to understand the progress that is being made towards the goals of the strategy.
We have commissioned expertise from the Council for Disabled Children (CDC). They will support us to develop a holistic outcomes framework. We will co-produce the outcomes framework with children, young people, parent, carers, local leaders and practitioners. There will be two versions of the framework, including
an accessible version that brings it to life for everyone.
This approach is an important part of the Governance & Accountability priority in this strategy and will be closely connected to the other building blocks in this area.
It will ensure that those leading this work are focused on clear and co-produced outcomes, which help everyone to understand the progress that is being made. Those involved in governance will use the outcomes framework to measure success and know if change has been successful.
Feedback or queries
Please keep an eye out for further communications on what we are doing and how we are progressing.
If you would like to be involved in delivering Sheffield’s Local Area Partnership SEND Strategy 2025 - 2030, please complete this brief survey.
If you have any feedback or queries please get in touch by emailing localoffer@sheffield.gov.uk.