Stoke-on-Trent children and young people’s Special Educational Needs and Disabilities strategy

This engagement is now closed. Thank you to everyone who took part and gave feedback.

A document called ‘To be the best I can be‘ looks at how we can improve the lives of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities in Stoke-on-Trent. It sets out Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s vision, priorities and outcomes for 2021 to 2024 based on what children, young people, and their families had said were important to them

There are a number of ways to achieve this – one being through better joint commissioning of services. Joint commissioning is when different organisations work together to plan, review and buy services and enables services to be better joined-up. This can be done on a strategic level (looking at the needs of a whole population) or on an individual level (where a package of education or care is designed around the needs of a particular individual).

Stoke-on-Trent City Council and Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent NHS Integrated Care Board want to improve services and achieve the greatest impact for children and young people in Stoke-on-Trent. We will work together alongside children and young people with additional needs, special educational needs or disabilities; their families; and other partners.

We know that there is a lot of good work happening across schools, social care and health services, but we want to do better. We are developing a Joint Commissioning Strategy for children and young people with additional needs, special educational needs or disabilities. This will be our plan over the coming years on how, what and where we can all work together.