What is DBV in SEND?

The Department for Education’s DBV in SEND programme aims to support local authorities and their partners to improve delivery of SEND services for children and young people whilst working towards financial sustainability.

The DBV programme is now in its second phase.

Illustration of a group of young people interacting

The programme comprises two phases:

Phase One (Diagnostic)

Phase One of this programme provided dedicated technical support and funding to 54 local areas which opted to participate. Phase One of the programme is now complete – you can find out more about the activity that was undertaken in Phase One and the findings from the Diagnostics by following the button below.

A Toolkit has been developed to enable all local authorities to apply the approach and tools of the DBV programme to help improve their local SEND services. You can access the Toolkit by following the link below.

Phase Two (Implementation)

The DBV programme is now in its second phase.

Local authorities and their partners will deliver the plans to realise improvements for their local area. It is expected that the implementation plans developed by each local authority in Phase One will build on existing initiatives and address underlying challenges in each area’s SEND system.