Making SEND Everybody's Business: A Strategy to Provide Inclusion for Children and Young People Aged 0-25 with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, 2019-2024)
Making SEND everybody's business
Making SEND everybody's business
A strategy to provide inclusion for children and young people aged 0-25 with special educational needs and disabilities
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough 2019-2024
Contents
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- The three priority areas for action
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Page 13 With special thanks to everyone who worked on this strategy. They are too numerous to name them all here but include local authority teams from Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group and other health organisations, the SEND parent carer forum for Peterborough – Family Voice and Pinpoint the parent carer forum for Cambridgeshire, the children, young people and families who took part in the engagement workshops and online survey, as well as to the elected members of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Councils and the schools, youth groups and other organisations in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough who have been involved.
Foreword
We have listened to what children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and their families and carers have told us about their experiences and views. We have worked together with them to develop this strategy. It is part of our commitment to improve the life outcomes for children and young people from across the local area. The strategy has a clear vision that: Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) is Everybody’s Business. A wide range of people are playing an important part in delivering this vision. Elected members, schools and childcare settings, leaders and managers from education, health and social care services together with parents/carers, children and young people are driving our ambition forward. The work is led by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough SEND Executive Board. This is the local partnership that brings together organisations and parent carer forums responsible for services and support for children, young people and families in a shared commitment to achieving our vision. The purpose of this strategy is to set out our vision, principles and priorities to ensure that we are working together effectively to identify and meet the needs of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough’s children and young people with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEND) from birth to the age of 25. The strategy aims to meet the requirements of the Children and Families Act in a way that is ambitious, inclusive and realistic and makes best use of the resources available to us. We have high aspirations for all our children and young people and want to ensure they have the right support, that is provided in the right place and at the right time so that they can thrive and be the best they can be. Wendi Ogle-Welbourn
Introduction
This document sets out a vision and strategy for children and young people (0 - 25 years) with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. The strategy is built upon a shared belief that considering and providing for the needs of children and young people with SEND should be ‘everybody's business’. The collective desire is to ensure a holistic and inclusive approach evidenced by high quality, multi-agency services and provision focused upon enabling children and young people with SEND to thrive. The strategy was co-produced with key partners and draws upon data from:
Feedback from children, young people and their parent/carers National and local data on trends in special educational needs and disability Information from an externally commissioned sufficiency analysis Peterborough and Cambridgeshire local area self evaluations and SEND action plans Feedback from schools and settings Data from health, social care and other key agencies Early Years Peer review (2018) This strategy is intended to cover the ‘local area’ which is defined as the geographical area of both Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and includes the local authority, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), public health, NHS England for specialist services, early years settings, schools and further education providers. The legal definitions outlined in the Equality Act 2010, Children and Families Act 2014 and SEND Code of Practice 2015 (see appendix 1) are used in the strategy to identify what we mean by children and young people with SEND. This strategy covers the issues that are common to both Cambridgeshire and Peterborough local areas at a strategic level. The intention is to help us work better together, in the interests of children and young people, but it also recognises that some actions will be responsive to issues specific to Cambridgeshire or Peterborough. The strategy recognises the need to acknowledge, and link with, other pending work across both local authorities e.g. Joint Early Years Strategy.
A shared vision
The shared vision and purpose was co-produced through a series of workshops held with representatives from Cambridgeshire and Peterborough in 2017-18. The shared vision was for children and young people to:
Lead happy, healthy and fulfilled lives, having choice and control over decisions about their health, education, employment, friendships and relationships Achieve in line with, or better than, expectation in their early years, school, further education and training Successfully participate in the community and access meaningful occupation, employment and life-long learning opportunities
The diagram below was developed at a parent lead workshop with subsequent involvement from children and young people, and illustrates what families sought as the ‘lived experience’ of parents/carers, children and young people that would be the outcome of a successful SEND strategy:
Safe Deliver my care as close to my home as
Respected Give me choice
Healthy Make transitions
and control easy possible
I want to Grow
Respected Nothing about me
Aspirational Have high expectations for me
and be
without me Successful Identify my needs Confident Know that I am Included Include me early empowered In summary this means children and young people will be able to: Dream big - Achieve well - Have choice - Control - Lead happy and fulfilled lives
Principles
In order to achieve this vision, families, support services and educational settings across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough have agreed the attitudes we expect each other to adopt when working with or caring for children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). These are described in detail in the document “Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Expects – Our Pledge.” We believe that the culture promoted by adopting the agreed attitudes is crucial to ensuring that SEND is everybody’s business. The commitments that we expect everyone to adopt and sign up to are summarised below Our commitment is that everybody can be:
Aspirational - Confident - Healthy - Included - Respected - Safe - Successful
We will work together to
Have high expectations Be positive and constructive Make everyone welcome Value individuality and celebrate diversity Have a 'CAN-DO' approach Build resilience and self confidence Listen Offer opportunities to experience excellent support Celebrate success Have the skills to achieve Work in ways that build trust Be a positive part of the local community Be transparent and honest Stay as healthy and well as we can be
What do we need to do?
In order to understand what we need to do and what our priorities for the strategy should be, we have drawn on a number of sources of information. These include:
Review of the national and local context and data that outlines trends in the pupil population Analysis of the local data and the joint sufficiency exercise What families have said through surveys and their own evaluative reports What children and young people said through ‘Big Youth Shout Out’
Self evaluation processes and tracking progress through SEND Implementation action plans Regular analysis of statutory performance e.g. meeting timescales Response to statutory duties and requirements including compliance review of implementation of the Code of Practice What other practitioners including health, social care and schools and educational settings have said Ofsted and CQC SEND inspection of Cambridgeshire Peer review Social, Emotional and Mental Health (Semh) review Transforming Care review Local offer reports/data
The key concerns that arose:
The growth in overall numbers and trends for the future The need to ensure SEND is “everybody’s business” and not just the concern of the few Ensuring that the participation of children and young people in services development and commissioning should becomes routine, part of ‘the way that we work’ The need for the development of a graduated response and access to services that prevent escalation including school to school support The growth in post 16 young people with an EHCP – there is a need for improved preparation for moving into adulthood and associated service development The lack of a cohesive, co-ordinated offer at transition points from services working together, particularly the issues that arise from the misalignment between health services (0-18) and Local Authority (LA) services for 0-25 year olds The patchiness and fragility of current integrated and collaborative working which needs to further develop including joint decision making, funding arrangements etc
The need to further develop joint robust commissioning processes/commissioning cycle (e.g block and school contracts, mental health services) Gaps in provision across all services (health, education and social care) - joint commissioning ensures that children are being educated as close to home as possible – there is a need to rebalance spend and use all resources to deliver in the appropriate setting Need to better understand severity and extent of needs and develop a good local offer re: early help, children in need and those with more complex needs including the care offer from all social care services Use and allocation of financial resources needs to be more transparent
The three priority areas for action were identified as:
SEND is everybody’s business - embedding the vision of the SEND Strategy into the practice of everyone who works with children and families in ways that strengthen families 1
Identify and respond to needs early - a holistic and joined up early identification of and graduated response to needs 2
Deliver in the right place at the right time - improving outcomes for children and young people through making best use of resources, ensuring a graduated response and high quality local support and provision 3
How are we going to deliver the strategy?
Making SEND everybody's business
This is a 5 year strategy. It will be reviewed and progress monitored, through the governance arrangements outlined in section 5. The strategy will be updated as appropriate in response to changes in local needs and issues. Examples of the issues that we will aim to address under the three priority areas of the strategy include:
5 Year Strategy
Promoting a shared vision and expectation of responsibility across all service providers who come into contact with children and young people with SEND that “SEND is everybody’s business” and not just the concern of the few
Ensuring that every service is signed up to the principles of the SEND strategy - a multi service integrated approach that ensures child and family are engaged and families and carers feel they only need to tell their story once
Sharing and aligning our practice to present have a stronger joined up services working with families and carers in response in key areas like such as early identification, assessment, personal budget arrangements; transitions and person centred and/ outcomes oriented approaches
Ensuring our workforce have the skills and knowledge required and access to appropriate training
Identify and respond to needs early
Promoting an inclusive, timely and graduated response to improve confidence, capacity and trust in local support
Ensuring that everyone is able to identify and respond to needs early, from pre-birth to 25 years, from the earliest point of contact e.g including health visitors, midwifery, hospital staff, Gp and early years
Ensuring that we can improve outcomes for children and young people
Deliver in the right place
Embedding a strategic approach to seeking the views of children, young people and their families in order to improve their personal experience of service delivery and also to inform the wider development and/or commissioning of services
Promoting alignment, collaboration and creative solutions across all services in both Local Areas to make best use of available resources and so that children and young people can be supported locally
Ensuring families feel confident that there is a good and appropriate local choice option for children and young people in all but the most exceptional cases
Addressing the issues arising from the growth in demand and population, particularly the 16 years plus age group
Ensuring a broad range of opportunities is available for young people over the age of 16 years
Focus all local resources (health, education and social care) to enhance the total provision so that children and young people can be supported locally
Reviewing and re-modelling our resources so that they are sufficient to meet current and future need
A strategic action plan will be developed from the issues identified. The actions will be driven by key lead champions who will coordinate work programmes and/or task and finish group working as required.
Work will to a large extent involve Cambridgeshire and Peterborough colleagues working together with other partners but there will be some discrete areas that require a more local response. These will be noted in the plan and cross refer to the individual SEND action plans for each council.
How will we recognise success?
We have agreed a number of success criteria to enable us to measure our progress. The measures are intended to keep a balance between being aspirational but also realistic. SEND is everybody's business
Parents/carers report increased confidence at transition points between services and when there are changes in provision (e.g primary to secondary school)
Annual monitoring of joint commissioning contracts shows that arrangements take a person centred approach
Data from all agencies (e.g referrals data, SEN audit) shows timely identification of need The majority of children and young people with an education, health and care plan (EHCP) are educated in their local mainstream school - nationally published data shows that the balance of those with an EHCP in mainstream is in line with national, regional and statistical neighbours All professionals know the local offer and what the contribution of their service and other services should be There is a reduction year on year in the number of fixed term and permanent exclusions of children and young people with SEND Key data shows proportionate representation of children and young people with SEND (e.g. elective home education, attendance data, youth offending, emergency health admissions, social care services) Annual survey carried out by parent/carer forums shows evidence that year on year parents/carers have increasing confidence in the system and, where issues persist, there is clear evidence of follow-up action to address Service development/provision and commissioning of services clearly reflects user feedback
Identify and respond to needs early
Feedback from parents/carers shows satisfaction with early identification of need, by all agencies
Data shows less conflict in the system e.g. number of Tribunals registered, number of appeals
Numbers of children and young people identified will be in line with population expectations
Healthy child programme quarterly report shows all checks carried out note SEND issues
Quality of all assessments will reflect a child centred approach and demonstrate joined up working
Annual local authority and parent/carer survey data shows that there is a continuing increase in the number of parents/carers, children and young people who report a positive experience of, and confidence in, the SEND support system
Practitioners report they are confident and have the tools, resources and access to Cpd they need to be effective
The progress and attainment of children and young people receiving SEND support is as good as or better than their peers in comparable authorities at all key stages
The progress and attainment for children and young people with an EHCP is as good as, or better than, their peers in comparable authorities at all key stages
Deliver in the right place
A termly audit of EHCPs and other plans related to SEND shows that they reflect a holistic package that enables families to flourish locally
Children and young people have their needs met locally, reducing reliance on out of county places with a reduction in travel time and number of reported incidents during travel
Data systems are in place that enable appropriate measurement of the timeliness and quality of input to EHCP processes and other plans from all statutory agencies
Quarterly reports/audits show an increase in the number of creative, collaborative and flexible packages of support with a clear link between the identified needs/outcomes in plans and decision making processes
There is a year on year increase in the take up of personal budgets particularly by young people post 16
There is evidence that the increases in take-up of personal budgets is stimulating the market range
Improved outcomes for vulnerable groups with SEND (looked after children, children in need, children in the youth justice system) are demonstrated as a result of an increase in collaborative commissioning
There is good planning for adult life with young people and their families reporting increased choice and control with regard to living independently, having good health and opportunities to take part in a range of activities including employment
All children and young people leave school with an option of further education, employment or training - there is a drop in numbers of those with EHCP who are not in education, employment or training (Neet)
The commissioning of SEND services and provision is based upon data and considers the needs of both local authorities
The number of children and young children with a diagnosable mental health condition receiving treatment increases in line with NHS targets
Who will oversee the strategy?
The joint Cambridgeshire and Peterborough SEND Executive Board is responsible for the governance and commissioning of services to support children and young people with SEND and will be key to the delivery of this strategy. Membership of the Board include the parent forums, Cambridgeshire County Council, Peterborough City Council and the joint Clinical Commissioning Group (Ccg). A Cambridgeshire and Peterborough SEND Partnership Group provides the mechanism for tracking and monitoring the joint SEND strategic action plan. The Partnership Groups are accountable to the Executive Board enabling a clear link between strategic and operational action.
Joint Cambridgeshire and Peterborough SEND Executive Board Cambridgeshire and Peterborough SEND Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Joint SEND Partnership Group Advisory Group Cambridgeshire SEND Peterborough SEND Partnership Group Partnership Group With special thanks to everyone who worked on this strategy. They are too numerous to name them all here but include local authority teams from Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group and other health organisations, the SEND parent carer forum for Peterborough – Family Voice and Pinpoint the parent carer forum for Cambridgeshire, the children, young people and families who took part in the engagement workshops and online survey, as well as to the elected members of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Councils and the schools, youth groups and other organisations in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough who have been involved.