Thank you to all the parent carers and service providers who took part in the Plymouth City Council Briefing throughout the day on Tuesday, 5th May. Your valuable time was really appreciated.

A recording of the presentation (not the Q&A session) will be available in the Members’ Portal soon.

For transparency, here is a list of the questions that you raised over the 3 sessions. We have also included questions that have been raised by parent carers who could not be there in person. We may not have used your exact wording, but we think we have covered everything. However, if you feel we have missed (or mis-represented) anything OR if you think of anything we need to add, please do not hesitate to let us know. You can email KatieR@PlymouthPCV.co.uk, or send a message via Facebook, or call/text us via the office mobile number: 07378 108723 (Please leave a message if we can’t answer your call – we promise to call you back).

Terminolgy

Although not raised as a direct question, it was felt that terminology needs to be clarified/shared in respect of:

What is the difference between an Inclusion Base and a SEND Inclusion Base?

Are Inclusion Bases to be run by MATS (Multi Academy Trusts) or the LA (Local Authority)?

Accountability

What accountability will there be between partner agencies? (Partner agencies include but are not limited to LA/MATS/Heath/Services.) Can these be defined, please?

What accountability processes will be in place when children and young people are not receiving the support they need to make progress?

Who will audit/monitor setting provision to ensure needs are consistently met, and outcomes for SEND children are optimised?  How will this happen?

How will the local area partnership encourage MATs to better support children with SEND?

Academically Able Children and Young People

What will be available for children who are academically able, but just cannot physically access a large school environment/classroom due to sensory differences/anxiety/trauma?

What will be available for children and young people who are academically able, but their physical/health needs stop them accessing a mainstream school? Currently, the special schools in Plymouth for children with physical disabilities are not able to support young people who are academically able.

How are GCSEs going to be available for academically able children that cannot manage mainstream?

Special School Places

Will children who are already in special schools keep their places?

Are SEND Inclusion bases going to replace Special Schools?

What is going to happen to those children who are currently/soon to be in a specialist setting who would possibly be deemed not “severe” enough to warrant a specialist provision, and could in your view be supported in an “inclusion base”?

Will special school places come to an end?

Will there be a push to move children into Inclusion Hubs without warning or parental consent?

Will there be a reduction in the number of special school places across the city?

Use of Inclusion Bases

What checks will be in place to ensure children and young people who access inclusion bases will receive the suitable, specialist education that they need and deserve?

An Inclusion Base at Ernesettle Community school has already been announced in the local papers, but there are no details. How will the base operate/who will get a place/what specialist staff will be in there/where will the physical location of the building be/will it just be a hut in a car park?

How do we know that Inclusion Bases will not just be used as a dumping ground?

What checks are in place to ensure that Inclusion Bases are not actually Exclusion Bases?

Which schools are going to have Inclusion Bases and when?

Which schools will have SEND bases and when, and what will be their designation so parents have an idea of provision-mapping across the city?

What assurances of genuine ‘inclusion’ across all aspects of mainstream school life will there be for children within a SEND inclusion base? (Include social, educational, emotional, and environmental. For example, play: how are other children (non-SEND) going to be supported to be inclusive of their SEND peers accessing the SEND base?  Who monitors this and how is the child’s lived experience monitored?

Will every member of staff within Inclusion and SEND Bases be properly trained?  If so, what qualifications as a minimum can families expect staff to have and will they have ongoing development?

Training for Schools

What work is being done for CPD for existing early years teachers within nursery and primary to enhance knowledge and skills in SEND that can be used to identify children/assist children?

Is there a national training scheme for teaching qualifications to cover these topics? Surely this would be in keeping with early intervention and full inclusion.

EHCPs

Are EHCPs staying/will my child retain their EHCP?

Should I be worried that my child’s EHCP has still got KS2 written in the targets despite being in KS3 and us having carried out annual reviews? 

If my child is doing well with their specialist/independent placement, will an annual review deem they no longer need that placement or EHCP, and have it removed?  If so, and I appeal that process, will my child retain their EHCP and placement until the result of the tribunal has been decided, or will their provision be removed and have to be re-established if the tribunal is subsequently won?

Targeted Funding

Can parent carers have transparency on targeted funding to help them make informed decisions about the mainstream best placed to support their child? For example, number of applications made by different schools, number of approved applications and how the funding will deliver support.

Will there be extra funding ring fenced for an anticipated increase in tribunal costs, mediation and/or complaints?

Post-16

Can we have more information about post-16 provision? There is no information available.

3-year Strategic Plan

There appear to be quite a few “interim” posts, as well as lots of top-level changes over the past few years. Will staff in those posts see the 3-year-plan through?

Will those who lead the plan just leave for families to pick up the pieces once this drive has been completed?

The plan on paper looks comprehensive, but families who have been “in the SEND system” for a long time/more than one generation have heard of various plans over time that have not materialised (for example, the “tell-it-once” approach, “Early Help through Family Hubs” who are now reducing staff). How will you show that this is going to be different/better for families?

Who monitors/evaluates the effectiveness of the plan? Parents are concerned about the ‘marking of own homework’.

If I get involved with one of the work streams, will I really contribute or will I just be used as part of a tick list that says “parents’ agreed to this” under the guise of co-production?

Can we have more information about the “tier” system in plain English? 

Can you make the slides from this presentation available so I can process the information?

Blog added 6/5/2026