Parents of children with SEND can comment on Southend's new strategy until 30 November, online or at five drop-ins. A new three-year action plan sets no numerical targets.
Parents, carers and young people have until 30 November to tell Southend’s SEND services what needs to change. The Southend SEND Partnership is rewriting its strategy for children with special educational needs and disabilities for 2027 to 2029.
At the same time it has published a new SEND Strategic Action Plan for 2026 to 2029. The council announced both on 12 November (Southend-on-Sea City Council, 12 November 2026).
Overview
- What: a refresh of the Southend SEND and Alternative Provision Strategy, for 2027 to 2029.
- Deadline: the two online surveys close on 30 November 2026. Both are anonymous.
- In person: five free drop-in sessions between 17 and 30 November, no booking needed.
- Why now: the Ofsted and Care Quality Commission inspection earlier this year found experiences for children with SEND were still inconsistent.
Why the strategy is being rewritten
Ofsted and the CQC inspected the Southend-on-Sea Local Area Partnership this year. The partnership covers the council, the NHS and schools. It was the same verdict as in 2023: outcomes were inconsistent, and children still waited too long for assessments. We reported the findings in Southend SEND Inspection: Same Verdict as Three Years Ago.
The council says the inspection found areas to improve including:
- preparing young people with SEND for adulthood
- the quality of Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) and their annual reviews
- how consistently schools include children with SEND
- access to neurodevelopmental and mental health support
- how the partnership measures the impact of its own work
The current strategy runs from 2023 to 2026. The partnership says it will keep its vision and “core commitments” rather than start again (Your Say Southend, SEND and Alternative Provision strategy).
How to have your say
There are two surveys: one for children and young people, and one for everyone else, including parents, carers and professionals. Both are on the Your Say Southend page and close on 30 November.
The drop-in sessions still to come are:
| Date | Time | Place |
|---|---|---|
| Tuesday 17 November | 9.30am to 11.30am | The Forum, Elmer Avenue, SS1 1NS |
| Wednesday 25 November | 9am to 11am | SEND Surgery, Blenheim Primary School, School Way, Leigh-on-Sea, SS9 4HX |
| Friday 27 November | 10am to 2pm | SEND Information Day, Civic Centre, Victoria Avenue, SS2 6ER |
| Monday 30 November | 9.30am to 11.30am | Shoeburyness Youth and Community Centre, 204 Delaware Road, SS3 9NS |
There is also an online session on Microsoft Teams on Tuesday 17 November, 12.30pm to 2pm, booked through Eventbrite from the Your Say page. The Southend SEND Independent Forum, the city’s parent carer forum, is collecting views on a Padlet linked from the same page.
What the new action plan promises
The action plan sits on the council’s Livewell Southend site. It has four priorities (Southend SEND Strategic Action Plan 2026 to 2029):
- preparing for adulthood and transitions
- high quality, person-centred planning
- inclusive education and early support
- emotional wellbeing, mental health and neurodevelopmental support
Each priority starts with a plain statement of where things are now. On neurodevelopmental assessment, the plan says delays “can result in children and young people waiting too long to access assessment, intervention and specialist advice”. On ADHD, it says access to medication monitoring and review “is not consistently timely” (Priority 4).
Among the steps it lists:
- a transition pathway for young people from Year 9 onwards, setting out who does what at each handover (Priority 1)
- a performance framework to track annual review completion and how quickly EHCPs are amended afterwards (Priority 2)
- citywide inclusion standards for schools (Priority 3)
- support for children while they wait for an assessment, including children in care who move between areas
The council calls the plan’s outcomes “measurable”. But the success measures in the published priorities carry no numbers or dates. They are written as directions of travel, such as an “increasing proportion of annual reviews completed within statutory timescales” and a “reduction in average waiting times for neurodevelopmental assessments”. The plan does not say what the waiting time is now or what it should fall to.
The council describes the plan as a “live document” that will be revised once the strategy feedback is in.
What it means for you
If your child has an EHCP, is waiting for an assessment or has struggled to get support in school, this is the point at which the partnership is asking what went wrong. Concrete examples carry more weight than general comments: how long you waited, what happened at an annual review, where a transition broke down.
The surveys are anonymous, and the drop-ins need no booking.
Have your say