Seashell’s response to the SEND White Paper Consultation

Seashell’s Response to the SEND White Paper Consultation – Ensuring children and young adults with the most complex disabilities can thrive

Seashell welcomes the ambition of the proposed SEND reforms and recognises the importance of creating a system that delivers better outcomes for all children, young adults and families regardless of their needs. As a national specialist provider for those with low incidence, highly complex disabilities, our response focuses on ensuring this group is fully recognised and effectively supported within the reformed system.

We are broadly supportive of the direction of travel and look forward to working with the Department for Education to ensure the reforms work for those with the most complex needs.

At Seashell we welcome:

• A clear commitment to reforming a system that is not currently working well for children and families.
• A focus on early help and intervention for all children as early on as possible. This includes the experts at hand model. This needs to include a mix of practitioners including those skilled in visual, hearing and multi-sensory impairment.
• A greater focus on outcomes and transparency in costs, with recognition that public funding should be used effectively and responsibly to ensure the best outcomes for everyone.
• The role of the specialist sector in supporting and upskilling the wider SEND system.
• A stronger focus on preparation for adulthood, life skills and long-term outcomes. This needs to include opportunity and planning for everyone including those with complex, low incidence needs.
• The potential for regional commissioning models for children and young adults with the most complex disabilities.

These are important steps towards building a more sustainable, outcome-focused SEND system. However, as an organisation we are concerned that there needs to be more detail in relation to how our children and young adults with low incidence/high needs will be supported to thrive into adulthood. We feel the following is needed in the proposals:

• A more robust mandated multi-disciplinary (MDT) approach coordinated across education, health and social care.
• Health responsibilities and commissioning arrangements made clearer and more robust.
• Joint commissioning and pooled budgets being required, not optional, up to the age of 25 to aid planning and decision making. Including regional commissioning for low incidence/high needs including those with medical needs and multi-sensory impairments.

Without this, provision will potentially remain fragmented and inconsistent for our group of students who all need support from education, health and care into their adult lives.

We are clear there needs to be further discussion and planning for those with low incidence, highly complex disabilities at a national level. This needs to include:

Focus on lived experience, data and planning:

• We are clear that the role of those who are experts by experience, including young people and families, should be strengthened. This includes a commitment to meaningful resource put into gathering perspectives of those whose communication method is not verbal.
• We believe there needs to be mandated national or regional planning for low incidence/high needs bringing sectors together looking at what works and planning ahead.
• The proposed “areas of development” classifications need further amendment for this cohort to ensure they capture truly needs.
• A discussion on how education “labels” interact with wider classifications, for example SNOWMED CT.

Flexibility within proposed specialist packages

• A “one size fits all” approach will not meet complex, individual needs.
• There needs to be a recognition that health needs to be integrated into provision for those with low incidence needs to enable them to learn.
• Provision must remain person-centred, evidence-based and responsive.

Ensuring access to the right specialist provision:

• We support regional commissioning for highly specialist placements to enable better planning and commissioning for the most complex children.
• We need to ensure that access to placements is equitable across the country and not determined solely on local area lists.

Ensuring nationally and regionally workforce capacity and expertise:

• Delivering reform depends on a highly skilled workforce.
• Greater investment is needed in training, recruitment and retention for specialist teachers of the deaf, visual impairment and multi sensory impairment teachers.
• Specialist roles such as therapists and habilitation practitioners must be strengthened.
• There needs to be a focus on training and coverage of assistive technology practitioners.

At Seashell we have spoken with our students about the reforms. (You can read more about this work here).

Learners were supported by skilled staff, including speech and language therapists, to share their views using augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) and other personalised approaches.

This ensured:

• Every learner could contribute, regardless of communication or physical challenges.
• Their views directly informed our recommendations.
• A meaningful approach to co-production in practice.

Students’ feedback focused strongly on the importance of feeling safe, listened to and understood by skilled, consistent staff who know them as individuals. They highlighted that good support means staff who listen to their worries, explain things clearly, and adapt learning in ways that work for them, such as using visuals, practical activities, and additional time. Students emphasised the value of trusted relationships, predictable routines and calm, well-structured environments, particularly to support their mental health and reduce anxiety. They stressed that support must be consistent, fair, and available every day, with regular check-ins to ensure it is actually helping. Students also identified that skilled and well-trained staff are essential, and that environments must be accessible and properly resourced to help them succeed. Looking ahead, they said it is important that adults believe in their aspirations, involve them in decisions, and support independence and life skills from an early stage to prepare them for adulthood. Overall, their responses show a clear message: they want to be respected, included, and actively involved in shaping the support that helps them learn, feel confident, and achieve their goals.

Our commitment

For over 200 years, Seashell has supported children and young adults with the most complex disabilities through specialist education, care and health provision.

We are committed as an organisation to:

• Work with all partners  across the sector on the next stage of implementation of the reforms.
• Share our expertise on areas such as sensory impairment to support children and young people as widely as possible.
• Help build a system that delivers good value, better outcomes, greater equity for all children and young people.

We believe these reforms present a vital opportunity for our students with complex needs and success will depend on ensuring that children and young adults with the most complex needs are fully recognised, properly supported, and never overlooked.