The launch of the West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) SEND Ranges is a significant step forward in ‘making inclusion happen’ throughout all education years for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities aged between 0 and 25.  

The Ranges are the local approach to providing a graduated response to identify and meet children’s needs appropriately. They provide a set standard for each child or young person that can better outline what support is needed based on children’s individual needs or behaviours. The needs are grouped together into ‘Ranges’ to provide guidance for anyone working with children and young people with SEND. This includes the guiding principles on key areas of education and support such as; assessment and planning, teaching and learning strategies, curriculum and interventions as well as resources needed, creating an approved standard of quality support for behaviours.

The set of Ranges are centred around providing the right support to SEND children and young people and have been developed with local schools, colleges, education professionals and families to ensure these correctly meet behavioural needs. The Council have further engaged 16 schools and settings in West Northamptonshire who have trialled the SEND Ranges and has been invaluable in shaping and refining the ‘Ranges’ for our communities and wider implementation.

An event was held on 17 November to mark the launch of the SEND Ranges, which was attended by over 500 local professionals including parents, Headteachers, school leaders, SENCO’s, Education professionals, Teaching Assistants, Social Workers, and Health professionals.

The SEND Ranges were welcomed by those in attendance with acknowledgement of the positive need in “defining a language/measure to be used across all settings” as well as “real value in embedding this structure across the county.”

Cllr Fiona Baker, Cabinet Member for Children, Families & Education at West Northamtonshire Council, said:

“The collaborative approach and involvement received from professionals and families has been truly fantastic and highlights the shared commitment in adopting these Ranges within educational settings to better support our children and young people with SEND.

“We recognise the journey we are on to improve our SEND provision for our children and young people and the coproduced ranges are an important part of our improvement plan as they will help to provide a consistent and high-quality level of support, at the right time across our schools, colleges and settings.”

As a next step, the Council will be collaborating across all services and with families to ensure that these are fully embedded in all settings. There will be extensive training opportunities across the spring and summer terms to ensure that all staff and families are familiar with the SEND Ranges and can ask those pertinent questions.

Contact Information

West Northamptonshire Council Communications Team

communications@westnorthants.gov.uk