Hi, my name is Kemi Omoboye and I’m a Project Manager at Manchester City Council currently leading on the Department for Education’s Special Educational Needs Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Change Programme Partnership for the North West. This means I work with lots of different people in Manchester, Rochdale, Oldham and Trafford to test the proposals in the Department for Education’s Improvement Plan. As a mother of a child with autism, I am extremely passionate about improving the system which aims to create better outcomes for children on the SEND and AP pathway.

In April, we shared the exciting news that Manchester had been chosen by the Department for Education to lead the North West Change Programme Partnership (CPP) and since then the team has been working in co-production with parents, carers and families to put a plan in place for Manchester to test the reforms.

So far:

  • We’ve co-produced a strategic delivery plan for the North West CPP that details the areas each Local Authority will focus on to test/improve the system in line with the reforms.
  • We co-produced a Local Area Inclusion Plan, which is a high-level strategic plan that helps Manchester plan our priorities for the next 3 years.
  • We’re currently holding focus groups with parents, carers and young people on a draft standardised Education, Health and Care Plan.

Look out for an update event in the autumn term that is currently being planned together with parent/carer groups and young people. In the meantime, keep up to date of related news by subscribing to the SEND Local Offer newsletter or by following Manchester Parent Carer Forum on social media.

Input and feedback from families is essential to the Change Programme, so if you’d like to get involved in the testing or provide feedback on the suggested changes, you can attend one of the monthly Local Offer Drop-ins located across the city.

You can also keep up to date by following the Manchester Local Offer SEND and Alternative Provision Change Programme Partnership webpage and Manchester Parent Carer Forum information hub.