Why Devon County Council has introduced a new way of working in the SEND Operations service, and what happens when families or practitioners contact the team.
Devon County Council introduced a new, locality based, way of working within its SEND Operations service (previously known as the ‘0 to 25 team’ or ‘SEND Statutory team’) in April. From feedback since then, we know people are concerned about what the change means for the families and practitioners who support children and young people with Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) .
The move to localities is designed to improve the experience of children, young people and families during key stages of the EHCP process. While the council has been working to strengthen timeliness, the quality of plans and communication, many report that the process can still feel slow and difficult to navigate.
SEND Operations staff now work within three local areas: North and Mid Devon, Exeter and East Devon, and South and West Devon. This will bring teams closer to schools and partner services, helping them respond more quickly during assessments or when changes to a plan are being made.
A key reason for introducing this is so that the SEND Operations team can focus fully on those who need help during the most important parts of the EHCP process. These are children who are having an EHC assessment and those who are having their plan amended. The locality model is designed to ensure support is better organised, more responsive and more closely connected to local schools and services.
Families have also told the us that what matters most is hearing from the service when they need information or help – not simply having a named officer. The locality approach supports this by enabling teams to respond at key moments rather than relying on one individual.
The team hold daily locality meetings to coordinate new requests and ongoing work across SEND and education teams.
If you need to contact the SEND Operations about a child or young person with an EHC Plan, please use the EHC Hub or include their EHCP Hub reference in the subject line of your email to our central inbox. Please do not email officers individually. Details on how to contact the team, and other services in Devon’s SEND local offer, are on our website.
This will help us to respond within five working days and help us to monitor timeliness of responses. This is in line with our communications standards.
We hope you should see, over time, that enquiries are responded to more promptly, and that your locality team are providing more consistent support for all children and young people in your area.
Watch a video about how we are supporting families locally through the EHCP process on YouTube.