Invitation to express an interest to host new specialist resource bases

You will be aware that the 12-week consultation on the strategy for developing and improving special educational needs (SEN) provision in Norfolk ended on 14 August. Overall, the level of participation in the consultation was good and the support for the proposals was very positive. We had a great response from a range of people, including parents, children and young people, Children's Services staff, schools and colleagues from other agencies.

On 6 September 2006, the Elected Members at the Children's Services Review Panel received a report which detailed the full outcomes of the consultation and agreed our proposed next steps. You can read the full Children's Services Review Panel report on our website .

During the period between September and December 2006 we intend to work with all key stakeholders, including staff in Children's Services, schools and other agencies, to develop a clear implementation plan detailing how the strategy for SEN will be delivered and how the various elements within it will be rolled out over an initial three-year period. We will be presenting a report to the Children's Services Review Panel in January 2007, which will contain full details of our implementation plan including the human and financial resource implications.

I am writing to you now specifically regarding proposal 2, which outlines the local authority’s proposals to redesign learning support centres to become specialist resource bases. I have appended the relevant section from the consultation paper, for your ease of reference, which gives an overview of the specialist resource base proposal.

I have written to all headteachers of schools that currently have SEN unit provision and made arrangements to meet with them this term, to consider and discuss in more detail the potential implications of this proposal. I would however, like to take this opportunity to extend an invitation to other headteachers who might like to work with the local authority to develop new specialist resource base provision on the sites of their schools in the future.

If you are interested in developing such provision on the site of your school or would like to discuss this matter further, please do not hesitate to contact either Michael Bateman or Suzy Leverett, SEN Strategy Project Manager for an initial discussion or to arrange a meeting.

Proposal 2