Bexley’s special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) improvement notice has been lifted after the Department for Education approved the borough’s Local SEND Reform Plan. The decision marks the end of a formal intervention linked to shortcomings identified in a 2023 inspection, while setting out a new programme for local education, health and social-care partners.
The council said it received a formal Department for Education letter on 2 October confirming both the approval and the lifting of the notice. The announcement was published on 15 October. The notice’s removal recognises progress by Bexley’s Local Area Partnership in strengthening leadership, creating a shared improvement plan and addressing priority actions from the December 2023 inspection.
From an improvement notice to a reform plan
The change does not mean that work on SEND services is finished. Bexley’s plan is intended to guide the next phase of local reforms and continue improvements in support for children and young people and their families. It sets aims around inclusion, outcomes, parental confidence and keeping services sustainable and responsive to local needs.
A central ambition is to help more children thrive in inclusive mainstream settings while retaining specialist provision for those with the most complex needs. The plan also covers a new “Experts at Hand” offer, intended to give mainstream education settings access to specialist advice and support. Other priorities include making sure the borough has enough specialist inclusion-base provision, improving joint working across education, health and social care, and establishing monitoring arrangements to track progress.
The framework follows an earlier period of improvement work. Bexley’s strategic action plan says the local area received a SEND inspection in December 2023 and a positive interim monitoring inspection in February 2026. The action plan was refreshed to reflect recommendations from that monitoring visit and preparations for a full SEND inspection expected in 2027. The Department’s decision to lift the notice is therefore a formal milestone within an ongoing improvement process, not a finding that every service issue has been resolved.
Partnership delivery and public updates
The plan was developed with education settings, health providers, voluntary-sector organisations, parents, carers and children and young people, including members of Bexley’s Time 2 Talk SEND group. The council’s earlier account of the plan’s submission described a three-year strategy and identified inclusion, early support and specialist professional advice as priorities. It also described “Experts at Hand” as a way to strengthen the support available in mainstream education.
Delivery depends on cooperation between organisations that share responsibility for children’s support. The plan identifies partnership working across education, health and social care as a specific focus, alongside monitoring and accountability. Those arrangements matter because the notice addressed the local area partnership’s improvement work, while the approved plan sets goals that extend across services rather than one council department alone.
The full plan was not included with the announcement. Further details are due to be shared with families and partners, with quarterly progress updates planned for the council website, the NHS South East London Integrated Care Board website and the Bexley Local Offer. The detail of those updates will be important in showing how the broad commitments translate into practical changes and whether support reaches children at the right time.
For families, the decision brings a formal recognition of progress alongside a continuing programme of work. The notice has been lifted and the reform plan approved, but Bexley has also acknowledged that more remains to be done. The next test will be the delivery and monitoring of the plan’s commitments, including the new specialist advice offer, sufficient inclusion provision and sustained work with local families and partners.
