SEND update - May 2017

Devon County Council sent this bulletin at 26-05-2017 12:29 PM BST

May 2017

Welcome to the latest edition of the SEND bulletin. Achieving the best possible outcomes for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities is a high priority across Devon’s Children and Families Partnership. We have high aspirations for our children and young people and high expectations of schools, colleges and children and young people’s settings and services. There is some outstanding and innovative practice across Devon, but the whole system is not yet sufficiently joined up.

Our new multi-agency SEND Strategy focuses on a number of key priorities that will help us improve the experience and outcomes for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities, and their families.

The strategy forms an important part of the planning and delivery of services, and as such, every practitioner and professional who works in this field should familiarise themselves with it, and understand their role in delivering it. At the heart of this strategy is a desire to involve children, young people and their families in everything we do and every decision we make, to enable them to thrive and to achieve their ambitions.

Implementation of the SEND Strategy will be the responsibility of the multi-agency SEND Improvement Board, chaired by Dawn Stabb (Devon County Council’s Head of Education and Learning).

Jo Olsson

Interim Chief Officer for Children's Services

Local Area SEND Inspection

We are still anticipating the Local Area SEND Inspection which will assess how effectively we fulfil our responsibilities towards children and young people who have SEN and disabilities. Arrangements for the Local Area SEND Inspection are in place in Devon and are reviewed by the SEND Improvement Board on a regular basis.

Local areas within the South West who have been inspected to date include Plymouth, Gloucestershire and Dorset. Ofsted outcome letters for SEND inspections can be found on the website.

SEND Strategy consultation

Earlier this year we carried out a consultation through Healthwatch, on the SEND Strategy. The consultation feedback has informed the final strategy which has been approved by the SEND Improvement Board and ratified by the Children’s Alliance Executive.

A SEND Implementation Plan is currently in development to set out how the SEND Improvement Board will ensure we meet the priorities set out in the strategy. We're working with our partners, including primary and secondary schools, to develop the SEND implementation plan.

Website peer review

We recently underwent a peer review of the South West SEND regional network, working across the peninsula to audit each other’s Local Offer websites. Part of this process was ensuring a parent carer took part in the audit, and local authority officers and parent carers met afterwards to discuss findings, best practice, and action plans to improve Local Offer websites.

Devon’s strengths lay in its health sections, which included lots of information and links; the ‘Preparing for Adulthood’ information and guidance, an excellent ‘We are Listening’ section showing feedback and responses, and clear guidance documents produced by DIAS.

Areas highlighted for improvement were publishing an up to date Accessibility Strategy; including in-built accessibility options, publishing SEND Local Offer information for people who don’t have internet access and offering a search function specifically for the SEND Local Offer.

We have an action plan to address these areas and will be developing them in the coming months

Improving the Local Offer

The SEND Local Offer Reference Group – a representative group of parent carers of children and young people with SEND, has been working with Devon County Council’s web team to improve the Local Offer pages.

At an ‘open space’ event the group looked at the 30+ pages on the Local Offer website, and how they are categorised, how easy it is to search and access the right pages, how the site could be improved, what information is missing, and where information should be placed.

Using ‘user journeys’ we tested the site and looked at how different people use and access it and how to accommodate their needs. We also looked at how we can meet accessibility standards.

These findings need to be considered alongside the findings and actions from the Mott Macdonald Peer Review of SEND Local Offer websites.

Involved...

Parent Carer representative Michelle Semmens gives an update on her involvement with the SEND Improvement Board

I have attended the SEND Improvement Board meetings since January as a Local Offer Reference Group (LORG) representative.

In that time I feel that the LORG is very much valued as a group and I have provided an overview of who we are, what we have done prior to the LORG (InControl), progress so far – drafting terms of reference, agreeing a SEND Local Offer definition, creating a draft Local Offer leaflet, SEND Local Offer web quest and plans to take the group forward.

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