SEND & AP Change Programme
The SEND and AP Change Programme was a Department for Education improvement plan, aiming to test proposed changes to the UK's system for supporting children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
The local authorities making up the West Midlands region were Herefordshire, Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin and Worcestershire.
Over the past two years, Telford and Wrekin have led the SEND and AP Change Programme for the West Midlands, testing and embedding key elements of reform through a combination of national initiatives, including:
- Early Language Support for Every Child (ELSEC)
- Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools project (PINS)
- Alternative provision specialist taskforces (APST)
- PCF Working Together Charter
- assistive technology
and locally co‑produced developments such as:
- the transition support pilot
- wellbeing charter mark
- advisory teacher core offer
- enhanced provision model
- specialist language support
- targeted mainstream inclusion work.
Delivered collaboratively across education and health, this has strengthened workforce confidence, improved understanding of neurodiversity and communication needs, and driven more consistent inclusive practice, enabling more children and young people to access education successfully within mainstream settings, with clear evidence of impact from early intervention programmes.
Building on this learning, the SEND Reform Plan sets out the next phase: scaling and embedding what works through a strengthened partnership model with the ICB, providers, MATs and STSA, refreshed governance and delivery structures, and a system‑wide shift towards earlier intervention, improved inclusion and better alignment of provision, capacity and resources to deliver a sustainable 0–25 system over the next three years.