The Four Cornerstones Oversight Committee met on 17 September 2026. The meeting was co-chaired by Julia Bonell from Parent Carer Forum Devon and Kellie Knott from Devon County Council. 

This summary outlines what was discussed at the meeting, and the actions that were agreed.

The committee is made up of parent carers and practitioners from Devon County Council, Children and Family Health Devon (CFHD), NHS Devon, Parent Carer Forum Devon (PCFD), schools and community organisations. They work together to support and challenge services to make improvements. They use your feedback through the Four Cornerstones surveys to measure the impact of everyone’s work.

The committee received updates on how the Four Cornerstones approach is helping to improve services for children, young people and families. This included: 

• Disabled Children’s Service
• Education Quality and Inclusion service
• SEND Operations update

Disabled Children’s Services

Jo Siney presented a report showing how Disabled Children’s Services is using family feedback and the Four Cornerstones framework to improve its Short Breaks offer, ensuring services are inclusive, accessible, and responsive to families’ needs.

Feedback is highlighting the importance of strong relationships, compassionate support, and opportunities for children and families to connect and thrive, while also identifying areas for improvement such as communication and provider confidence in supporting SEND. This insight has helped shape the Short Breaks Strategy, reduce complaints, and identify gaps in provision. The service will continue to strengthen feedback processes, expand partnership working, and demonstrate progress through a clear “You Said, We Did” approach.

Next steps

• Embedding the Four Cornerstones framework across wider Children’s Services.
• Strengthening family-centred practice and co-production.
• Improving engagement with underrepresented families.
• Enhancing support and inclusion for children with complex and profound disabilities.
• Improving transport, accessibility and local provision.
• Reviewing Devon Wallet processes and cross-border access.
• Developing stronger approaches to feedback, complaints and service learning.
• Using data and demographics to better understand service reach and impact.

ACTION: Review progress when next attend committee.

Education, Quality and Inclusion

Mark Walker presented a progress report. Over the first ten months, the service has embedded the Four Cornerstones framework into its values, culture and ways of working, creating a shared charter focused on care, inclusion, communication and celebrating success. Early work with schools, families and young people has strengthened partnerships and trust, while identifying areas for improvement, including consistency across localities, SEND training and clearer communication with families.

As the service moves into year two, the focus will be on building stronger partnerships with parents and carers, improving consistency, sharing learning through case studies and feedback, and continuing to use the Four Cornerstones approach to drive positive outcomes for children and young people. Recent successes have demonstrated the benefits of collaborative, multi-agency working to support better outcomes.

Next steps

• Strengthen family engagement and feedback by developing a formal approach to gathering, analysing and reporting family experiences, ensuring families are actively involved in shaping improvements.
• Focus on prevention and early intervention by using learning from case studies to identify how support can be provided earlier and reduce the risk of issues escalating to crisis point.
• Improve partnership working with schools by continuing to build trust, embed relational practice and align school improvement activity with the Four Cornerstones framework.
• Expand learning and best practice opportunities through initiatives such as the Devon Attendance Network, specialist training, and inviting the strategic lead for sensory needs and physical difficulties to discuss inclusion and specialist support.

ACTION: Develop collaborative action planning by progressing joint work between Mark and Julia, incorporating meeting feedback into ongoing evaluation and identifying additional questions or measures to inform future service development.

SEND Operations update

Claire Merchantjones shared a report focussed on the latest feedback and changes to letters. It highlighted positive early progress with the new communications approach, which is aligned to the Four Cornerstones framework. Since June, over 90% of families have been offered an initial call, helping to build relationships and improve communication from the outset. While demand remains high, with around 11,600 emails received in one month, 93% were responded to within five working days.

The service is now focused on evaluating the impact of the model on families and staff, improving the quality of communication, and ensuring responses consistently reflect Four Cornerstones values. Findings from a six-month review will help shape future improvements.

Next steps

• Engage families in reviews to understand their experiences, identify pinch points and clarify where support is breaking down.
• Develop a clear, accessible pathway for families, ensuring they are directed to the right support when an issue falls outside SEND responsibilities.
• Strengthen partnership working with schools to address EHCP delivery issues, prevent relationships with families from breaking down and identify how services can support schools.
• Review feedback collectively to understand the differences between surveys and direct family feedback, identify recurring patterns and learn from both positive and negative experiences.
• Provide regular updates to the Four Cornerstones Committee on progress, gaps, capacity pressures and improvements, demonstrating an ongoing learning culture rather than a tokenistic approach.

Family feedback: PCFD survey, Four Cornerstones survey, SEND Ops feedback

ACTION: Start with this next time.

Next meeting: 5 November 2026