Lancashire's SEND Reform Plan Approved – What This Means for Families
13 October 2026
The Department for Education (DfE) has approved Lancashire's three-year SEND Reform Plan, an important milestone in the ongoing work to improve services and support for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
The plan sets out how Lancashire's education, health and care partners will work together over the next three years to improve the support available to families.
What has been approved?
The DfE has recognised several strengths in Lancashire's plan, including:
A clear vision with realistic and measurable goals.
A strong focus on inclusion, early identification and better outcomes for children and young people.
An honest understanding of the challenges facing SEND services.
A clear roadmap for improvements over the next three years.
An emphasis on collaboration and co-production with families and professionals.
What improvements are planned?
The next stage is about putting the plan into action, with priorities including:
Earlier support: Identifying needs and providing help sooner.
Better inclusion: Strengthening support for children and young people in mainstream education.
Improved access to specialist services: Helping families access the expertise and support they need.
More suitable local provision - Improving the availability of appropriate education and support closer to home.
Stronger partnership working - Improving how education, health and care services work together.
What is Experts at Hand?
A key part of the reforms is Experts at Hand, a new offer being developed to bring specialist advice and support directly into schools, nurseries and colleges.
The aim is to help children and young people receive the right support earlier, while giving education staff better access to specialist knowledge and guidance.
This could include support from:
Educational psychologists
Speech and language therapists
Occupational therapists
Specialist teachers
Mental health support teams
Special school outreach services
Experts at Hand is intended to help schools and settings identify and respond to needs earlier, improve joined-up working and provide more consistent support across Lancashire.
Importantly, children will not need a diagnosis to benefit from the offer, and it will not replace existing support, including provision set out in an EHCP.
Lancashire is currently developing its local approach with education and health partners, children, young people and families. Further information about local implementation and availability will be shared as plans progress.
What does this mean for families right now?
It's important to understand that approval of the plan does not mean all the necessary improvements have already been made.
The DfE has acknowledged that Lancashire is still at an early stage of its improvement journey, with further work needed to strengthen partnership working, accountability and delivery.
The plan covers three years and does not make any immediate changes to an individual child or young person's current support or statutory rights.
Progress will continue to be monitored through quarterly reviews, data reporting and existing improvement arrangements.
Here are some helpful information sheets from the DfE:
To read more about Lancashire's SEND reforms and access the full report, visit the Lancashire County Council website.
LPCF's perspective: Turning plans into real change
As an independent, parent carer-led charity, Lancashire Parent Carer Forum welcomes the focus on earlier support, inclusion and meaningful co-production.
However, we also recognise that many families are still experiencing significant challenges accessing the support their children need.
The real measure of success will be whether families begin to see and feel improvements in their everyday experiences.
We will continue to bring together the collective voice of parent carers across Lancashire, sharing their experiences with decision-makers and helping ensure families remain central to the improvement process.
Have your say
We want to hear from parent carers across Lancashire.
Are you seeing improvements in SEND services and support? What challenges are you still facing? What would you most like to see change?
Your experiences help us identify recurring issues, challenge where improvements are needed and represent the collective voice of families.
Get in touch and share your experiences
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