Hull City Council commissions 3 Outreach Services, to support children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) to access education in a mainstream setting with SEN Support or for those with an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP). The three outreach services, that form the Outreach Partnership, include -
- Northcott Outreach Services – for children and young people aged 3 to 18 years, with communication and interaction difficulties, including those with Autism. Northcott is currently a maintained school, although has applied for academy status
- Severe Learning Difficulties (SLD) Outreach Services – for children aged 3 to 7 years, with severe communication and interaction difficulties. The SLD Outreach Service is currently provided by the Humber Education Trust (HET) Academy
- Steps to Success Outreach – for children in primary school with social, emotional and mental health difficulties. The Steps to Success Outreach Service is currently provided by Venn Academy Trust
The Outreach services have been commissioned to the providers for a number of years. These services provide a range of support to mainstream education settings -
- Universal training around whole school needs
- Targeted training towards individual pupil’s needs
- Group support for children and young people
- Individual support for teaching staff meeting individual needs, including coaching and mentoring
- Whole school approach to policy change and practice
In line with Hull City Council’s Delivering Better Value programme, the Outreach Services have been undergoing a review. This has involved a consultation process, data analysis, benchmarking against other Local Authorities and mapping all the offer of the current services.
The consultation process was live between 7 August 2024 and 13 October 2024, with additional consultation with Multi-Academy Trusts throughout October and November.
The consultation process aided to form the options for the future of the Outreach Services, including the gaps that were highlighted during the Outreach Services review. Hull City Council’s SEND Team and Children’s Integrated Commissioning Team are following a governance process to confirm what the future of these Outreach Services will look like moving forward.
Further information will be released in March 2025.