A RAPID improvement in ensuring children with special needs can move to new schools without delay or disruption has been claimed by Somerset Council.

Children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are usually educated either in specialist schools or within mainstream schools in line with agreed education, health, and care plans (EHCPs).

The council has been under increasing financial and logistical pressure as demand for SEND resources has risen sharply, with large numbers of children in years six and 11 having their education disrupted when moving school because suitable provision cannot be agreed in time.

The authority decided in the summer to invest £5.3 million in the next two years to reduce backlogs in assessments and help with ‘phased transfers’, where SEND children move on from one school to another with additional support put in place.

Now, after ‘remarkable changes’, the council said nearly every child could successfully transfer by October half-term.

Somerset executive Cllr Evie Potts-Jones said there were 31 children with a SEND interim package in place and the ‘vast majority’ would have a school place by half-term.

Cllr Potts-Jones said it was expected for every child in a phased transfer cohort there would be a school or setting place agreed for the September term start.

She said: “Close working with commissioning colleagues means there is enough provision to meet the demand for all children and young people.

“Interim SEND packages are not only being agreed until the October half-term.

“We will dedicate at least two officers to only work with settings and families, with the aim that children and young people in this group have a school placement no later than October half-term.”

The issue was raised earlier in the year by Conservative opposition group Cllr Frances Nicholson, who said at the time more than half EHCP pupils did not have a suitable placement finalised.