New Guidance to support school governing boards.

February 25, 2025

The Department for Education and the Council for Disabled Children have recently published two sets of guidance to support school governing boards in understanding their role and responsibilities in relation to children and young people with special educational needs (SEN) and disabilities and empowering them to hold their schools to account.


This updated guidance from the Department for Education provides a high level summary of the expectations of boards in relation to disability and SEN. It includes a checklist for governors/trustees and suggestions about how to use school performance data and build an evidence base to underpin its strategic oversight.  Download and read the document here.


Equality Act 2010 and disabled pupils: A guide for governors and trustees can be found here.  The Council for Disabled Children guide which was commissioned by the Department, focuses in more detail on the Equality Act duties to disabled pupils. It sets out the individually owed duties and the more strategic duties; and again it promotes a discussion about the evidence that governing boards need in order to understand how well the duties are being met in their school.


To illustrate how the duties work in practice, the guide uses examples from schools and from case law where claims of disability discrimination have gone to the Tribunal. At the back of the guide is a set of checkpoints that schools can use to inform a discussion between senior leaders and their governing body or board of trustees.


The new guide is a companion publication to the 2022 Disabled Children and the Equality Act 2010: What teachers need to know and what schools need to do which offers teachers more detailed practical guidance on meeting the duties to disabled pupils, read more about it.


We hope very much that the guidance will help governors and trustees in their school securing the best possible outcomes for pupils with SEN and disabilities.



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The Children's Learning Disability Service (CLDS) is due to be recommissioned in 2027.
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September 5, 2025
One of our favourite Events is our regular monthly coffee morning, where Parent Carers can get together to share their experiences. Every month we have the Local Offer team with us and invite 1 or 2 additional special guests from for example Health, Social Care, Education and more, to offer guidance and advice. There is also a sensory play creche available for your little ones aged 0-5 with Chaos & Calm. Come along and chat to other ParentCarers, get advice from one of our SEND support service guests and enjoy a hot drink with something sweet. Booking is not required.
September 5, 2025
“School Attendance Matters” but its not that simple! We know that that in recent years, at this time of year, social media and sometimes the news outlets too, become awash with campaigns relating to attendance at school and that this can be really distressing for some Parent Carers. Unfortunately, in the information widely circulating there is no clarity in how this affects children and young people with medical conditions, serious mental health challenges, or special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). As Parent Carers, our first instinct is always to protect our children and young people. Many of us are navigating incredibly complex situations, where our children maybe want to attend school but the reality of doing so is far from simple. It can feel deeply unfair to then open social media and be confronted with campaigns suggesting that not being in school will damage our child or young person’s future. When you’re already doing everything, you can to support your child – often against huge challenges - messages like these don’t feel supportive. Instead, they leave us feeling blamed, judged, or as though we aren’t doing enough. When in reality, we are working tirelessly to give our children and young people the best chance in life! We know there can sometimes be so much information that you don’t know where to turn but we thought it would be helpful to share some websites and information to find out more. We know that it is long but we have attached the “Working together to improve School Attendance” guidance document here and in particular the section relating to our families can be found at the end of Paragraph 2, pages 23-26. The guidance acknowledges that children and young people with long-term medical conditions, serious mental health challenges, or special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) can face extra barriers when it comes to school attendance. Schools are encouraged to have compassionate conversations with families in these situations, recognising that it isn’t always straightforward. If your child or young person struggles with school-based avoidance the first step we would encourage you to take is to reach out to their class teacher, SENDco or sometimes if available, the school mental health lead. If you feel that you aren’t being supported, the Local Offer have lots of information available on their website which can be found here , including links to books and apps that may be useful and details of who you can speak to, for example, the Access and Inclusion Team. SENDIASS also offer resources on their website with useful information about support available. Their information can be found here. Young Minds is a charity offering advice and information to give young people the tools to look after their mental health. They also aim to empower parents and professionals to be the best support they can be to the young people in their lives. You can find lots of resources on their website here . Similarly, Kids Inspire is a mental health charity that offers personalised recovery plans for children and families who have experienced trauma and have lots of information and resources on their website which can be found here. If your child or young person is experiencing high anxiety or very poor mental health we would strongly encourage you to speak with your GP to seek further support.  If you feel able to, we would be grateful to hear about your experiences, please use our family feedback form on our website or better still come along and see us at one of our Coffee mornings! 😊
poster for seminar with details
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