SEND document hub

Short breaks are for children and young people with disabilities or additional needs. They are an opportunity to spend time away from parents, engage in fun activities and enjoy time with friends.

They offer parents/carers a break from their caring responsibilities and time to spend with other family members and to catch-up on other daily tasks.

The short breaks programme is open to all children and young people who:

• Have a disability or additional needs and may require support to participate fully in leisure or recreation activities
• Are aged between 0 and 18 (up to their 19th birthday)
• Live within Southampton City Council boundaries

There are four tiers of support offered through the Short Breaks Programme. These are available depending on the child's level of need. View the short breaks statement.

The Buzz Network is a group for Southampton parents/carers of children and young people with a disability or additional needs. It's funded by Southampton City Council who work closely with the Southampton Parent Carer Forum to ensure it is meeting the needs of families.

The MAX Card and MAX Card PLUS is issued to all children and young people on The Buzz Network. It gives discounts or benefits to the holder and one other person at a range of venues and organisations within Southampton and further afield. The card can only be used by the registered child and their parent/carer so please don't lend it to anyone else.

You can:

• Register online
• Get in touch at buzz.network@southampton.gov.uk
• Read more about short breaks and the tiers of support available

Find out more about The Buzz Network.

Guidance on the special educational needs and disability (SEND) system for children and young people aged 0 to 25, from 1 September 2014.

• View the SEND Code of Practice

The previous SEND Strategy 2017-2020 highlighted the key challenges at the time and set broad outcomes with action plans to address these challenges. This SEND Strategy 2022-2027 builds on those outcomes and presents our priorities for the next five years co-produced over the last two years with children and young people, parents and carers, and all services and agencies who contribute to meeting the needs of children and young people (CYP) with SEND in the city. It takes into account the current context and challenges and has been led by the multi-agency Southampton SEND Partnership Forum which provides oversight and leadership on all SEND developments.

• View the SEND Strategy Document and Supporting Action Plan 2022-2027

An Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan is for children and young people aged up to 25 years old who need more support than is available through special educational needs support.

Education, Health and Care plans identify educational, health and social needs and set out the additional support to meet those needs.

• Self referral EHCP Application request form – parents and carers
• Guidance for completion of EHCP Application request – parents and carers

You can also view the Education, Health and Care Plan pages. You can download all the relevant forms/guidance on this page.

The Southampton SENDIASS website also has a really useful library of resources in respect of Education, Health and Care Plans.

School travel support for those attending SEN school or placement.

This applies to children attending their designated most appropriate school that can meet their need who are unable to walk to school (accompanied or unaccompanied) by reason of their special educational needs.

View the School Travel Service information.

View the Southampton City Council School Travel Service Policy 2024-25.

SEN support – easy read guide for children and young people

The Southampton portage service is a home teaching service for young children with special educational needs aged 0-3 years who are delayed in at least two areas of development.

Please visit the Portage service webpage to find out more and to complete a self-referral.

Disability Living Allowance (DLA) is the main benefit for children under 16 with a condition or disability. DLA helps to meet the extra costs that you might have as a result of your child’s disability.

View the Disability Living Allowance information page on Contact for links to the forms/guidance you need.

You can also go straight to the DLA claim for children.

Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is a benefit to help with the extra costs of disability for adults aged 16 to pension age. It replaces Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for children when they turn 16.

View information about the Personal Independence Payment.

The Children and Families Act 2014 is an Act of the Parliament of the UK. This is a landmark and wide-ranging Act designed to fully reform services for vulnerable children by giving them greater protection (paying special attention to those with additional needs), and also by helping parents and the family as a whole.

• View the Children and Families Act 2014
• View the Young persons guide to The Children and Families Act 2014

As a parent/carer, you can self-refer to this service (providing full evidence).

• Download the referral form for the Specialist Teaching Advisory Service

You can also view the Specialist Teaching Advisory Service information page.

Jigsaw (Children with Disabilities Team) is a specialist and statutory multi-agency health and social care service that undertakes assessments and provides services at the complex level of needs.

The team supports disabled children, young people and their families whose main need for service arises from their disability or their intrinsic condition, and where these conditions have a complex impact on the quality of the child’s life or/and the lives of their families.

The service intervenes where their needs cannot be fully met by universal and targeted services alone.

You can view the Jigsaw Service information page for full information about this service.

Dynamic support registers (DSRs) are the mechanism for local systems to identify children, young people and adults (with consent) who are at risk of admission to mental health inpatient services without access to timely dynamic support. They provide the tool to:

• Use risk stratification to identify people at risk of admission to a mental health hospital
• Work together to review the needs of each person registered on the DSR
• Mobilise the right support (for example, a Care (Education) and Treatment Review, referral to a keyworker service for children and young people, extra support at home) to help prevent the person being admitted to a mental health hospital

The DSR enables systems to identify adults, children and young people with increasing and/or complex health and care needs who may require extra support, care and treatment in the community as a safe and effective alternative to admission to a mental health hospital. Additionally, they play a role in ensuring that people’s needs are included in commissioning plans, financial plans, service delivery and development.

This new policy aims to prevent unnecessary hospital admissions for people with a learning disability and autistic people. The policy includes new guidance on the implementation of dynamic support registers and updates to the Care (Education) and treatment reviews.

The easy read and plain English versions of the policy have been co-produced with people with a learning disability and autistic people.

If you need this information in an alternative format please email england.CTRDSR@nhs.net.

View the policy.

The Children and Families Act 2014 requires that the Local Authority must publish an annual report on Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND). This annual report details feedback, about the Local Offer, from children, young people and parent carers, what progress we have made, what we have learnt and our next steps. 

View the local offer annual reports:

• Local offer annual report 2023-24
• Local offer annual report 2020-22

DVB - Letter to parents September 2023

This guidance aims to support schools to deliver on the inclusion strategy by setting clear expectations of what all schools should be providing and the support and guidance that the Local Authority will provide to enable schools to deliver on these expectations. As a working tool we hope this guidance will act as a basis for sharing ideas and good practice and will grow as a central resource for support and signposting to the wealth of resources within the city and available nationally. View the Ordinarily Available Provision Guidance.

The Early Years Advisory Teachers (EYATs) and Area SENDCos are qualified teachers with extensive knowledge and experience of Early Years education and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).

The team are able to offer support to settings to ensure their SEND provision is effective. The team have a wealth of experience and can offer ideas and strategies to set targets and differentiate the curriculum to meet the child’s needs.

Children are referred by an Early Years setting or professional supporting the child. The team are able to complete visits to the setting to observe children and liaise with staff, professionals and agencies involved.

View the Early Years and Childcare information.

Southampton is an inclusive city that respects and values difference. This charter links with and supports the delivery of the Children and Young People’s Strategy, the Education Strategy, the SEND Strategy and the ambition to be Child Friendly Southampton.

Preparing for Adulthood, sometimes referred to as 'transition planning'. It is an exciting stage in life but it can also be a difficult and uncertain time for a young person with SEND. There are some key aspects of life which this planning focuses on: education, employment and training.

You can find out more about preparing for this next stage and the support that is available for families and young people in our employment guide.

Southampton City Council and their partners were inspected by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to see how well they work together to improve the experiences and outcomes of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The inspection took place between 26 April and 17 May 2024. The full inspection report has now been published.

The Southampton Local Area SEND partnership had a full SEND inspection in May 2024 and the judgement was as follows:

“The local area partnership’s arrangements lead to inconsistent experiences and outcomes for children and young people with SEND. The local area partnership must work jointly to make improvements.”

An improvement plan has been co-produced with a range of stakeholders to address the specific recommendations in the report.

View the improvement plan.