SEND Governance Structure

Operational Group 5: Joint Commissioning

Purpose

To lead and coordinate joint commissioning activity across education, health, and care services, ensuring that support for children and young people with SEND is planned and delivered in line with the SEND Code of Practice. The group promotes integrated approaches, effective service contracting, and contributes to the Safety Valve Agreement by improving commissioning efficiency and reducing unit costs across the SEND system.

Update

The Joint Operational Group, established in October 2024, has recently undergone a review of its purpose and delivery. The group was focused on overseeing and delivering some key projects including, the SEND Banding Review, the Joint Commissioning of Speech and Language Therapy Services, and developing an overarching Joint Commissioning Strategy. As work on these and other projects progressed, it became clear that each piece of work required attention from a smaller more focussed group of professionals working with education settings and multi-agency stakeholder. Following a review, it was agreed that the group would be stood down. The outputs from the projects are regularly reported to the SEND Inclusion, Quality and Improvement and the SEND Partnership Boards.

To support more effective and efficient ways of working, the decision was made to devolve the group’s responsibilities into smaller, task-specific working groups or to integrate them into existing strategic groups. This approach aims to reduce unnecessary meetings while ensuring that key areas of work continue to progress collaboratively and with the right expertise.