There’s a different feeling among Devon County Council’s leadership team with regards to its biggest challenge – SEND, (special educational needs and disabilities).
Talk to its directors or heads of service and there’s a palpable change in energy.
They’re meeting weekly, sometimes twice weekly or more, to discuss progress on work to improve SEND services.
The increased frequency and the expansion of the services attending them, is a reflection that the council has dialled up its determination to transform its SEND support.
It’s driven partly by data – growing waiting times for diagnosis; increasing number of children with Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) who are not in education, employment or training – but more importantly the shift in gear comes with the realisation that despite so much work in the last 18 months to improve or build new foundations on which to improve services, young people and their families are simply not yet feeling it.
“We’re good at getting jobs done and ticking boxes,” said Kellie Knott, Director of SEND improvement to a conference room of head teachers and SENCOs (special educational needs coordinators) this week. “But despite all that we have done so far to improve our local system, young people and their families are not yet feeling or seeing the change.”
For all its own changes at the top in recent years, the council has now established a new leadership team in children’s services, which is more determined, more insistent on change.
It’s expecting more, and it’s driving change harder. It’s also got a new political administration at the helm that has made SEND one of its top two priorities.
That’s the backdrop to where the council is on its improvement journey.
Four priorities to focus on this year
And with new wind in its sails, the council has set out four key priorities to give structure to the next 12 months.
Starting with, improving people’s experience, the council will review the information and advice given to young people and their families when they’re going through the EHC needs assessment process.
It will continue to improve the way it assesses and manages EHCPs, with the aim of improving timeliness, and leading to people having better access to the right care and support where they need it.
A second priority, the council wants to continue building inclusive learning communities.
In short, it wants to improve access to high quality support in schools and educational settings close to home, so that young people with additional needs can learn at their local school, alongside their friends and peers.
It wants to do that by helping schools be more inclusive, supporting them better with outreach services. It wants to increase resource bases and enhanced learning provision to provide additional capacity within schools.
It’s already got plans this year to deliver a new satellite specialist service in Tavistock, at Castlebridge Special School, until the new special school is built in Ivybridge.
It will continue to work with colleges, including Petroc and Exeter College, to expand additional capacity for young people with SEND into further education.
It wants to see improved school attendance for pupils with special educational needs support and with EHCPs, and fewer permanent exclusions.
And it wants to see more young people with EHCPs be in education, employment or training.
Its third priority, to reshape its services to support our most vulnerable children in education.
Behind the scenes, the council has been restructuring its education services, it’s focus now more on inclusion and learning.
It will have three new locality teams across north & mid, Exeter & East Devon and south & west Devon, bringing together multi-disciplinary teams within them to better support vulnerable children in education and to work closer with local education partners, health partners, Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprises, and local communities.
It’s also agreed to adopt four new rules, or ‘cornerstones’. These are a set of four principles against which the council will evaluate how well its working with families and its partners. These cornerstones are to ensure that its services help make young people and their families feel welcomed and cared for; valued and included; that services are working well in partnership; and that they’re communicating well with young people, families and its partners.
And its fourth priority, to get tighter control of its finances and invest in schools by getting the basics right. As demand rises, and costs to meet demand follow suit, the council recognises the enormity of the financial challenge ahead of it,
It’s determined to see an increase in funding into mainstream schools to support SEND.
Through a new commissioning framework, it wants to reduce the council’s reliance on high-cost independent placements, by building capacity and support in mainstream schools.
It wants to reduce the number of young people receiving support out of county, and who are having to travel long distances.
It wants to see an overall reduction in unit costs for EHCPs through better commissioning and management of services which support children and young people.
And by focusing more on improving families’ experience, it wants to see a reduction in complaints and numbers of appeals going to tribunal.
“It’s a full agenda,” admits the council’s newly appointed Cabinet Member for SEND, councillor Denise Bickley, “and it’s ambitious. But we’re ambitious and determined that children and their families rapidly begin to see and feel the change they need.
“The council is in a much better place than it was 18 months ago. Teams are working extremely hard to make things more streamlined and effective for children and young people and their families.
“We’re beginning a new phase in our improvement programme working with young people and their families, schools, colleges and with our partners. Much of the groundwork has already been done and now needs to be rolled out to make real change, fast, that our families welcome, notice and feel.
“SENCOs I talked to at a recent conference were enthusiastic about the initiatives coming, whilst also needing to see actual change, not just words.
“Time will tell, but there should be no doubt about the strength of our conviction to see these necessary changes through.”