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Information from the second London SEND Summit
A group of colleagues sit listening to a speaker at a conference

London SEND Summit

The second London SEND Summit brought together colleagues across LAs, Health, and parent-carer forums to discuss the government’s recently released SENDAP Improvement Plan. You can find the programme for the day here.

Please find all speakers’ slides available to download here.

We heard from Andre Imich, at the Department of Education, who gave us a clear and thoughtful overview of what the SENDAP Improvement Plan will mean for young people, families, and partners. We also heard perspectives from Anna Chiva (AD SEND at Achieving for Children), Jemma Sharples (Improving Quality Lead, NHS England, London), Claire Richmond (London Representative for NNPCF), and Sornnaly Hossain (member of Our Time Youth Forum in Tower Hamlets) on the SENAP Plan and how London shuld respond.

We were delighted to welcome Jonty Clark (CEO, The Beckmead Trust) as our keynote speaker. Jonty presented on the experiences of young people with SEMH in London, and how the SEND partnership should be working to support these young people with the most complex needs. Jonty’s presentation offered a helpful perspective on the role of Education and specialist provision in supporting young people, and gave attendees much to think about in terms of how the partnership between LAs, Health, and Education providers can work best for young people. 

This event gave attendees the opportunity to meet and think more broadly about the proposals in the SENAP Improvement Plan, as well as share best practice and where pan-London support on taking forward proposals would be most welcome.

LIIA is very grateful to all our speakers and attendees for coming, and will be using the views shared at the SEND Summit to feed into the ALDCS SEND Plan for 2023-24, to ensure that our work remains relevant and useful to all colleagues and partners in London working with SEND.

We are also very grateful for colleagues at the City of London for providing us with the lovely Livery Hall venue, at the Guildhall. 

If you have any questions about the London SEND Summit, feedback about the event, or suggestions for future events, please contact: vita.bax@londoncouncils.gov.uk