In February, the Government announced the Local Government Financial Settlement alongside a national approach to addressing SEND deficits. As part of these changes, all Safety Valve Programmes will come to an end on 1 April 2026 and will be replaced by new Local SEND Reform Plans.

As a local area SEND Partnership we have started working on this Plan and are in communication with the DfE about taking this forward including how our excellent intervention work and suite of initiatives that has been delivered through our Safety Valve Programme integrates with the SEND Reform Plans.

Due to the great work and the impact delivered through our Safety Valve programme, the local authority has decided to continue funding these interventions for children and young people until March 2027 while we await clarification on changes to the financial and SEND Reform landscape. This will allow time to fully consider the Schools White Paper and how our existing interventions will be implemented within the new Local SEND Reform Plan and for the continued mitigation of future SEND deficits.

Bexley’s Safety Valve Agreement, published in March 2023, introduced a range of new interventions designed to reduce the SEND budget deficit while improving outcomes for children and young people with SEND. Through strong collaboration with families, schools, members, and partners, the programme has successfully secured £19.6 million in funding to date.

What the Bexley Safety Valve Programme has achieved:

• screening of 3,400 secondary pupils and 2,800 pre school children for speech, language and communication needs
• early interventions for 2,700 children and young people, supporting speech, language and communication needs and their social and emotional wellbeing
• over 700 3 to 4 year children received Early Talk Boost and 86 settings have been trained to deliver the intervention
• 140 additional places and a new building through the expansion of Shenstone School
• creation of 122 new Resourced Provision places in mainstream schools
• support for 66 children and young people via Marlborough School’s Outreach Project, to maintain mainstream placements
• 66 young people returned to Bexley from out of borough independent and special schools
• participation of 65 parents/carers in the Incredible Years parenting programme
• 44 young people gained work experience through Supported Internships with the Shaw Trust and the LECB/Mencap
• training for 43 schools to deliver early intervention support directly
• establishment of 30 additional places at Parkway School
• support for 9 children and their families from Early Years SEMH Assistants

Cabinet Member for Education, Cllr Caroline Newton said

The positive impact of these interventions, reported by families and schools, has been wonderful to hear. We are proud of what has been achieved through our Safety Valve Programme and, following the publication of the Schools White Paper, we feel that the work that has been done through this programme and our wider SEND improvements puts Bexley in a strong position as we move towards implementing the new Local SEND Reform Plan."

While we continue to review with the DfE the implications of this for local children, young people and their parents and carers, we remain committed to working with our local area SEND and Strategic Education Partnerships to deliver changes at a system and local level to improve outcomes and ensure effective use of resources.

We want to hear from as many parent carers, young people, teachers and other professionals as possible on how you feel Bexley is placed to respond to the reforms and we will shortly be sharing a survey to capture your views.