Shropshire SEND Self Evaluation workshop – 19th July 2018

25/07/2018

Last week Sarah and Zara from the PACC Board attended a workshop hosted by Shropshire Council that looked at how education, health, social care and other services are working together to make a difference to improve the lives of children and young people with SEND and their families. 

This is part of the work being done locally to review the effectiveness of the implementation of the SEND reforms and to prepare for when the Shropshire Area is inspected.  The focus of the day was;

To look at what services thought they were doing well, what difference they thought they were making and how they could evidence that they were making a difference.  We looked at particular themes which reflected the structure of the SEND Inspections.  These themes are;

• Initial identification of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities – is this happening early enough and do services in the local area know who has SEND and where they are?
• Assessments and meeting need – are children and young people getting effective and timely assessments and do they result in the support they need?
• Improving Outcomes – is the support provided making a positive difference to the lives of children and young people with SEND and their families and supporting young people to prepare for adulthood.
• Co-production – are services working in partnership with SEND families at a strategic and individual level so that their experiences and views inform how the service operates and the individual support provided?

If you would like to know more about the SEND Inspection programme visit https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-area-send-inspections-information-for-families

The workshop was well attended by a range of services including; Public Health, IASS, Health Commissioners, Children’s Social Care, Short Breaks, the Department of Works and Pensions, Adult Social Care, Sensory Inclusion Service, Beam Service, Severndale Academy and the Shropshire SEN Team.

The morning started with an overview of the key duties under the Children and Families Act and the summary of expectations placed on local areas by the SEND Inspections.  Some of the key findings from inspections already completed were highlighted.  You can find out more about this finding in the SEND Inspections One Year On Report - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-area-send-inspections-one-year-on

Year 2 of the inspections have just been completed and while a further report is not being published Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission have shared some key themes that have specifically emerged in recent inspections, these are;

• Quality of EHCPs – plans issued that are often not of the quality they should be and need to be improved
• Post 16 and 19 provision is a weakness
• Autism Spectrum Conditions pathways – not all areas have them and they are not always NICE compliant
• Schools not always delivering their SEND duties effectively – especially at SEN support

The main activity of the workshop was a table top activity where services were asked to identify what they were currently doing well in terms of identification of SEND, improving outcomes and co-production, what impact that activity was happening and how this could be evidenced.  Following this PACC had an opportunity to share what we believed the key feedback would be, from Shropshire Parent Carers to the inspectors, if Shropshire’s SEND Inspection was to happen tomorrow.  You can read what PACC shared here.

PACC would be really happy to hear what you think of the feedback provided to services at this event.  Does the PACC report reflect your experience, can you provide us with examples of the issues we have raised or can you provide examples of where the Shropshire SEND system has worked for you and your family.  It is really important that we all prepare for when Shropshire has a SEND Inspection, so that we can use the opportunity to highlight what is working and not working locally.  Please share your thoughts with us at enquiries@paccshropshire.org.uk