Sheffield SEND Manifesto
Learn Sheffield have been commissioned by SCC, on behalf of the Local Area SEND Partnership, to support improvement in SEND in the city.
In 2024/25 this led to the development of the SEND Manifesto proposal below (in both a detailed and overview version) to provide the basis for further discussions across Sheffield. Feedback on the proposal was collected during the autumn term of 2025: SEND Manifesto Feedback (October 2025)
SEND Manifesto: A ProposalSEND Manifesto: A Proposal - An Overview
Sheffield SEND Manifesto Proposal – Full Version / Overview Version
The analysis in the manifesto was informed by a SEND Enquiry which was completed in May 2025, just after the Local Area SEND Inspection.
The manifesto provided a starting point for the development of a long-term strategy for Sheffield for the Local Area SEND Partnership in Sheffield, which includes:
- Sheffield City Council
- South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board
- Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust
- Sheffield Parent Carer Forum
- Learn Sheffield
More information about the building blocks for this work will be added below as it becomes available – please use the links below to access the content that you are interested in:
Improving Resourced Provision
Learn Sheffield has been commissioned by SCC to support the improvement of resourced provision in the city. This includes Integrated Resource provision, hub provisions and any other provision being resourced by the setting to support the needs of children and young people who need provision that is additional or different to that which is typical.
We carried out an audit of the number, range and types of resourced provision in the city to update Inclusion Taskforce in spring 2025.
Nick Whittaker has been working with colleagues in Integrated Resources over the past 18 months to develop and test a set of quality standards as a basis from which to evaluate and seek to improve provision.
We published the quality standards below in October 2024 and they have also been used as part of a programme of 40 enquiry visits (these visits were part of the commission and therefore funded for the settings involved). This work was revisited with the working group in April 2025 and an updated version (also below) was published in 2025. The new version also contains suggested self-evaluation activities to support colleagues to evidence their evaluation judgements.
Quality Standards for Resourced Provision (Updated May 2025)
We intend to publish a report in the summer of 2025 to share our findings. We will use this learning to inform the next phase of this work as well as the wider SEND Manifesto work.