SEND is a priority for Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin’s Integrated Care Board (ICB).  Our Integrated Care System (ICS) enables greater integration across agencies and improved sharing of good practice and common solutions across Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin. ICS partner agencies work closely together and have shared responsibility for outcomes for children, young people and families.

Integrated Care Boards’ (ICBs) commitment to SEND is demonstrated in the following ways:

• ICBs must consider how they will meet the needs of children and young people aged 0-25 and set this out in their forward plans.
• ICBs must consider how to ensure a diverse skill mix of leadership, which should include a consideration of whether there is knowledge and expertise related to children and to SEND.
• Each ICB must have an executive lead responsible for SEND and accountable for how well SEND support by partners is delivered. The STW Executive Lead for SEND is Vanessa Whatley, Chief Nursing Officer.
• ICBs have to work with children’s system leaders, children and young people and families when forming their strategies and have to show how they have met their statutory responsibilities relating to SEND in their annual report.

Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin ICB works in partnership with the two local authorities (Places) in our area and supports the health element of the SEND agenda for children and young people.

Inspectors from Ofsted and CQC review how local areas meet their responsibilities to children and young people 0-25 with SEND. The aim is to hold local areas to account and champion the rights of children and young people. The latest inspection reports for Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin can be found at the following links:

Telford Ofsted & CQC Area SEND Inspection - SEND - Local offer

Shropshire Local area SEND inspection | Shropshire Council

Each of our Places has a SEND Local Offer which provides a wide range of information about the support and facilities which families can expect to find in their area for children and young people. The Local Offers can be found here:

Shropshire The SEND local offer | Shropshire Council

Telford and Wrekin SEND - Local offer

The Designated Clinical Officer for SEND (DCO) supports the ICB to meet their statutory responsibilities for children and young people with SEND. The DCO provides a point of contact for the ICB, local authority, schools and colleges when specialist health advice is required.

In Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin, the DCO works alongside other ICB SEND team members to ensure the following SEND responsibilities are met:

• Oversight from a health perspective of education, health and care requests discussed at panels
• Working with others in the local area to improve the quality of Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCP)
• Supporting health professionals to contribute to the EHCP process
• Working in partnership with local authorities to develop the Local Offer
• Working alongside commissioners and stakeholders including children and young people, and parent carers to identify and raise any commissioning gaps

On a day-to-day basis the DCO supports the local authority SEND case worker team answering any queries, supporting with obtaining health information and complex cases, whilst ensuring health teams deliver advice and services to meet the needs of children, young people up to 25 with SEND.

For more information about Education Health and Care Needs Assessments and Education, Health and Care Plans visit:

What happens in an EHC needs assessment | (IPSEA) Independent Provider of Special Education Advice

What is an Education Health and Care Plan?

For more information about our commissioned services for SEND children, young people and their families visit the links at the bottom of this page Learning Disability and Autism - NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin

In this section you will find position statements that have been developed by the Integrated Care System (ICS) and Commissioned Services to provide clarity on specific areas.

Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin SEND Team Position Statement (20/03/2025): Learning Disability Assessment Pathway - Children 0-18 years

The Department of Health and Social Care defines a learning disability as “a significantly reduced ability to understand new or complex information, to learn new skills (impaired intelligence) with a reduced ability to cope independently (impaired social functioning), which started before adulthood”(Valuing People - A New Strategy for Learning Disability for the 21st Century - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)).

The difference between learning disability and learning difficulty

• A learning disability affects a person’s global learning and intellectual ability and requires ongoing support from others to enable the person to function in most aspects of day-to-day life.
• A learning difficulty affects one or more specific areas of learning, it does not affect the intellectual potential of the person. It can be overcome through changes to learning styles, the presentation of information, or giving people more time to understand and complete tasks.

Learning disability assessments

Learning disability assessments seek to determine whether an individual has:

1. a significant impairment of intellectual functioning.
2. a significant impairment of adaptive behaviour (communication, daily living skills, socialisation and motor skills); with
3. both impairments arising before adulthood.

Current position in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin

There is currently no commissioned learning disability assessment pathway in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin. However, some professionals will identify/apply the ‘learning disability’ descriptor to a child’s health record.

• The Child Development Centre have recently moved to using the term Early Childhood Development Disability (ECDD) in their early years assessments as a means to identify those who may be identified as having a learning disability later.
• Community Paediatricians may convert GDD (Global Development Delay) / ECDD descriptors to learning disability for children on their caseload; for example, those attending Severndale and the Bridge School who are open cases with Community Paediatrics for medical needs. A significant number of children and young people who attend the Bridge or Severndale are not open to a Community Paediatrician.
• The BeeU LD service will conduct learning disability assessments with some of the children and young people referred to them for behaviour/mental health support. Children and young people need to meet the service criteria and LD assessments will only be competed where it is clinically indicated (i.e., a better understanding of cognitive strengths and difficulties is required to inform clinical decision-making or decisions around transition pathways). Most of the children referred to the BeeU LD service without a diagnosis, will not be offered an LD assessment.
• GPs can apply learning disability descriptor codes in relation to clinical diagnoses that NHS England deem should automatically be included on the learning disability register, for example Down’s Syndrome and some other genetic conditions (Improving identification of people with a learning disability: guidance for general practice (england.nhs.uk)).
• Learning disability assessments are not included in the choice options (‘Right to Choose’) under the NHS Choice Framework (Your choices in the NHS - NHS (www.nhs.uk)).

Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin Integrated Care System recognise that the absence of a commissioned learning disability pathway is a significant gap impacting health inequality in the learning disability population.

There are many children and young people who are currently unable to receive the learning disability descriptor and therefore unable to access Learning Disability Annual Health Checks and other services where diagnosis is required.  This will include:

• Children and young people attending Southhall and Haughton schools in Telford
• Children and Young people with a variable cognitive profile attending Severndale in Shropshire
• Children and young people attending hubs attached to mainstream schools
• Children and young people with complex needs attending mainstream schools

Furthermore, the absence of a locally commissioned learning disability pathway means that there is inadequate data about the size and needs of the local learning disability population, and this impacts the effective planning and delivery of services.

The development of a commissioned learning disability pathway is a priority on the ICS Learning Disability and Autism Strategic Priorities Document (also known as the “LDA Road Map”).

To download a PDF version of the above statement click on ICS Position Statement.

Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust Position Statement on Sensory Processing Difficulties Children's Occupational Therapy Service

To read this position statement, go to Children's Occupational Therapy Sensory Resources (the statement can be found on the right hand side of the webpage).

Vanessa Whatley is Chief Nursing Officer & the ICB Executive Lead for SEND

Laura Powell is Designated Nurse for Safeguarding Children & ICB Senior Responsible Officer for SEND (SRO)

Jennifer Griffin is Designated Clinical Officer for SEND (DCO)

[on maternity leave to Summer 2025]

Carrie James is Associate Designated Clinical Officer for SEND & interim DCO until Summer 2025.

Carrie leads on Education Health and Care Needs Assessments (EHCNA), Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCP), Complex Health Needs and Health Transitions.

Hilary McGlynn is SEND Change Programme Partner (Health)

Hilary leads on the health aspects of the SEND Change Programme Partnership, Neurodiversity and Speech Language & Communication Needs

To contact the SEND team Email stw.send@nhs.net