Devon Local Area SEND Accelerated Progress Plan 2023-24

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This is a working document which means it will be updated over time.

Date of inspection: 23 – 25 May 2022
Date of publication of the revisit report: 7 June 2022
Accountable officers from the LA and CCG:

• Donna Manson (Chief Executive, Devon County Council)
• Steve Moore (Chief Executive, NHS Devon Clinical Commissioning Group)
• Stuart Collins (Director of Children and Young People’s Futures)

DfE and NHS England SEND Advisers:

• Brian Gale (Department for Education)
• Mark Tucker (NHS England)

Introduction

Between 23 and 25 May 2022, Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) revisited Devon Local Area to decide whether sufficient progress had been made in addressing each of the areas of significant weakness (ASW) detailed in the inspection in December 2018.

This Accelerated Progress Plan (APP), which will be monitored by the Department for Education and NHS England, will focus specifically on improvements in the four areas of weakness set out in the inspection findings:

• A. Strategy – The fact that strategic plans and the local area’s SEND arrangements are not embedded or widely understood by stakeholders, including schools, settings, staff, and parents.
• B. Communications – The significant concerns that were reported about communication with key stakeholders, particularly with parents and families.
• C. EHC Plans Timeliness and Quality – The time it takes to issue Education, Health, and Care (EHC) plans and the variable quality of these plans.
• D. Autism – Weaknesses in the identification, assessment, diagnosis and support of those children and young people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

In September 2023, the APP was revised as part of Devon’s move to a system-wide SEND Transformation Programme. This was discussed with the DfE and NHS England Advisers.

SEND Partnership governance and reporting arrangements

We are determined to work together to improve the lived experience of children and young people with SEND in Devon, and their families. This APP is part of an overarching SEND Transformation Programme which looks to deliver system wide improvements to address local challenges and deliver a financially sustainable system, not just the areas identified by Ofsted and the CQC.

The governance diagram below sets out clear lines of accountability and responsibility for monitoring the SEND Transformation Programme and the delivery of this APP. Detailed progress against the APP will be monitored directly by the SEND Transformation Programme Board and reported to the SEND Strategic Partnership Board as the accountable partnership body. Reporting will also be done through Devon County Council (DCC) and NHS Integrated Care Board (ICB) single agency governance arrangements.

SEND Strategic Partnership Board

The multi-agency strategic board that holds the partnership accountable for delivery of the accelerated progress plan, the delivery of the deficit management plan (and any future safety valve agreement) and Ofsted/CQC readiness. The Board will meet monthly and membership includes an independent Chair, Parent Carer Forum Devon, DCC and NHS ICB Chief Executives, Senior DCC and NHS Leaders, Elected Members, the Chair of Devon Schools Leadership Services (DSLS) and the Designated Chair of Devon Special School Heads.

SEND Transformation Programme Board

The multi-agency delivery board responsible for overseeing programme delivery against agreed milestones and delivery plans, including this APP. The Board is responsible for managing programme risks/issues and the local areas progress against KPIs. This Board reports to the SEND Strategic Partnership Board. The Board will meet monthly and membership includes Parent Carer Forum Devon, Senior DCC and NHS Leaders, Project Leads and representatives from across partners.

Expert Reference Groups

Alongside the board, an expert reference group of parents and carers and group of young people will be established to advise and guide the board. A schedule of meetings with these groups and the Participation Team will provide feedback, engagement, and opportunities to ensure strengthened partnership with parent carers.

Section A: Strategy – clear and understood strategic plan and SEND arrangements

What needs improvement

• Devon’s strategy fundamentally fails to address significant weaknesses.
• There is a lack of coherent action.
• Schools, the local authority, and parent carers do not have a shared view of weaknesses and ways forward.
• There is no self-evaluation.
• Some services are working well. There is significant disaffection from others
• Staff do not know the strategic plan.
• Staff do not know what different services do.

What families have told us

• Many families of children with SEND are impacted in simply trying to enjoy family activities at home.
• For families, their child’s condition, and the impact of meltdowns or behaviour were the two greatest challenges.
• The situation is then made worse, due to a lack of support and understanding and a feeling of having to battle/fight for what’s right.
• Across a variety of education services, 1 in 4 parents felt that their child’s needs were met.
• 50% of parents feel school support meets need, although outside agencies less so. Whilst many feel the education setting wants to do their best and involves the parents, the average parent felt that a lack of resource leads to children being unable to reach their full potential.
• There is a clear difference between what parents feel school/school staff want to do, and what they are able to do.
• Despite the challenges faced at school there were some clear positive differences made by their child’s education setting which centred around staff understanding and meeting need either changing school, specific support or 1-2-1 smaller classes, supported by increased communication.
• Families do not trust local area services and agencies.

Ref	Actions	Outcome or success criteria	By when	Senior Responsible Officer	October 2024 update
A1	Establish a clear Local Area governance structure including roles and responsibilities and lines of accountability to address the four areas of significant weakness identified in the Ofsted and CQC inspection.	Evidence of coherent action to improve the lives of children and young people with SEND and their families and address the areas of significant weakness.	June 2023 (completed)	DCC and NHS ICB Chief Executives	Completed.
A2	Embed a strategic commitment to coproduction and develop the right models to support effective working with parent carers and young people.	Parent carers and young people are part of developing solutions to local area challenges, they feel heard and listened to and can see the impact of their contribution.	June 2023 (revised date to embed by April 2024)	SEND Improvement Director	Co-production at individual, service and a strategic level is happening, but this is in small elements or specific teams and is reliant on individuals. The local area has sought support from RISE, funded by DfE, and through Genuine Partnerships to support the Four Cornerstones to be implemented locally, as set out in the new SEND Strategy.
A5	Develop a workforce plan to establish a skilled, sustainable, supported, and sufficient workforce across the Local Area to deliver services to children and young people with SEND.	Resources are deployed to the best possible effect to achieve good outcomes for children and young people and make best use of public funds. The Local Area fulfils its statutory duties as set out in the SEND Code of Practice and SEND regulations.	June 2023 (revised date September 2024)	Organisational HR leads	Task group have agreed a working day together in September to write the plan based on a tiered approach to knowledge and understanding. More than one session may be required which may affect the completion date. Following this, there needs to be work across the service areas to agree how this can be implemented as part of their induction and ongoing training offer.
A6	Establish a performance dashboard to enable the Local Area to understand our strengths and weaknesses and create transparency.	The SEND partnership is equipped to understand and monitor improvement and inform SEND commissioning.	September 2023 (revised date April 2024)	Director of Children and Young People’s Futures Chief Nursing Officer, NHS Devon	Draft data dashboard has been produced and is awaiting finalisation.
A8	Provide a robust support offer for parents and carers through an evidenced based peer support approach.	There is increased support for parents and carers’ emotional well-being.	December 2023	Head of Women and Children’s Commissioning SEND Improvement Director	Paper presented to SEND Board in May. Request made for joint funding with DCC of the commissioned offer. ICB led workshop took place on 15 July including colleagues from Health, Social Care, Education, voluntary sector and members of the Parent Carer Forum Neurodiversity Expert Reference Group. Information from this workshop is now helping inform a commissioning framework to procure a wide peer support offer across the ICB footprint. This will be procured during the autumn. Some budget within the ICB has already been identified to fund this going forward. In addition, the workshop covered development of a neurodiversity hub/webpage and the ICB has agreed to utilise the MyhealthDevon site. Work has started including staff training, collation of resources and initial design. A first version of the site is currently being built and includes clinical expertise and feedback from the expert reference group. Revised timescales for implementation of November The neurodiversity keyworkers continue to be rolled out across the ICB area with a lead now in post who is connected to the recovery and transformation work. Keyworkers are already recruited and in post in Plymouth and Devon, and Torbay jobs are now out for advert. These roles will support those families who are the most vulnerable using the clinical prioritisation tool, will be linked to family hubs and will help keep the neurodiversity hub/webpage up to date with tools and resources for all parents and carers to access.
A14	Enhance inclusive capacity of mainstream schools by setting clear expectations for Ordinarily Available Inclusive Provision (OAIP) as part of a robust Graduated Approach and developing education support service.	OAIP is understood by all stakeholders and embedded in practice. There will be an in increase in the number of children/young people learning effectively in their local mainstream school.	December 2023 (revised date of September 2024)	Head of Early Years Principal Educational Psychologist	The Partnership with Parents section of the OAIP framework has gone live online. DIAS have updated their website to reflect the OAIP and signpost parents to it. Analysis of OAIP training participants has been completed so that schools who haven’t attended can be targeted for additional training. Short videos outlining the content of the training have been recorded and will be shared publicly. This will form part of the training and embedding materials for schools. The OAIP targeted support framework is well underway with input from health colleagues and is due to be published in January 2025.
A16	Develop a new SEND strategy based on feedback from parent carers, young people, and local evaluative data and intelligence on needs, performance and gaps in provision, that sets out clear goals that can be monitored and evaluated.	Partners are clear about the local areas’ shared outcomes and priorities and reflect on them in service plans, evaluation of the contribution to the outcomes and priorities and can link them to their day-to-day role.	April 2024 (revised date of September 2024) (Completed)	SEND Improvement Director	Completed – SEND Strategy published in November 2024.

Section B: Communication with key stakeholders, particularly with parents and families.

What needs improvement:

• Communication remains poor.
• Telephone calls are unanswered. Complaints and documents are lost.
• There is a failure to keep families informed. Incorrect information is shared with others.
• There is a multitude of different ways to connect to different services. Managers do not know whether these are effective or not.
• Staff and parents do not use the local offer as it does not describe what is on offer and does not contain the information people want.
• Many staff pay lip service to the involvement of parents. They see the parents as representative of a particular view, not as true partners. Some staff do not understand the viewpoint of parents, and do not embed it into their work on a daily basis.

What families have told us

• Families have found communication during the EHC process poor or very poor.
• Families have not been kept informed of services or provision for their children.
• Families have said that knowledgeable and supportive staff who listened to and communicated with both the families and the child made the difference

Ref	Action	Outcome	By when	Senior Responsible Officer	October 2024 update
B1	Develop a clear and accessible communication strategy and plan with parent carers and young people to create shared understanding of the work of the SEND Partnership Board and progress against the APP and Transformation Programme.	Parent carers, young people and key stakeholders understand the work of the SEND Partnership Board and the progress against the APP and Transformation Programme.	June 2023 (revised date March 2024) (complete)	Media and PR Manager (Strategic)	Complete – a programme communication plan and strategy has been developed and signed off by the SEND Strategic Partnership Board to ensure that all stakeholders are informed of the improvement work underway in relation to SEND. Parent carers, young people and key stakeholders are updated through the main SEND Partnership newsletter and through various channels such as social media.
B2	Implement the co-produced Core Competencies Framework with parent carers and children and young people to deliver a set of communication standards that values people as partners.	Parent carers, young people and stakeholders understand the pathways and are kept informed of their services or provision.	September 2023 (revised date of April 2024)	SEND Improvement Director Head of Women & Children’s Commissioning	Initial conversations with Customer relations team to begin the development of service standards relevant to Statutory SEND Team. SEND Strategy will commit to using Four Cornerstones as a value-based approach to working with families. Communication is one of the Four Cornerstones.
B3	Ensure that the ‘Local SEND offer’ meets the needs of children and families and is communicated across the Local Area.	There is clear understanding across the Local Area of the SEND services offer and how they connect by parent carers, young people, and professionals.	January 2024 (revised date of August 2024)	SEND Improvement Director Head of Women & Children’s Commissioning	Work coming into the final stages for all phase 1 activities. Monitoring of the information that has been added to the website has begun to support continued performance. Phase 2 work is underway with a focus on reviewing the current preparing for adulthood information on the local offer website and to develop a website specifically for young people for SEND, Children in Care, Care Leavers and Young Carers

Section C: Timeliness and Quality of EHC plans

What needs improvement

• There are significant delays in annual reviews and the production of EHC plans. Parents do not find this helpful.
• Quality of professional advice is variable. There are issues with EHC quality
• There is no quality assurance and no professional ownership of EHC plans.
• Children and young people with EHC plans are out of school for too long.
• Parent carers are dissatisfied.

What families have told us

• The overall timeliness and communication during the EHC assessment process is poor or very poor.
• Parent carers have rated the EHC plan’s understanding of their child, and how well they were listened to as poor or very poor.
• The overall process and the ease of application as poor or very poor.
• The average parent carer felt that every aspect of the EHC process was poor.
• The outcomes to meet need at the annual reviews were poor or very poor.
• Over 40% of parent carers said the annual review process was poor or very poor.

Ref	Action	Outcome/success criteria	By when	Senior Responsible Officer	October 2024 update
C1	Review governance and processes across the Local Area for issuing and reviewing EHC plans and implement recommendations for improving timeliness and quality.	EHC plans are of a high standard, co-produced and meet the needs of the child or young person. Professionals are clear about their role in ensuring that the EHC plan and actions are taken forward. Improved satisfaction of parent carers and young people in the EHC process.	June 2023 (revised due date of March 2024 / January 2025)	Head of Statutory SEND Digital Transformation Manager	SATURN release 2 further embedded, resulting in improved ways of working in relation to issuing EHC plans. Work has begun on SATURN release 3 to deliver same benefits in relation to review of EHC plans, with go live planned for Q1-2025.
C2	Hold robust multi-agency reviews of young people aged 16 to 25 in non-maintained and independent settings to establish clear, appropriate, and ambitious pathways for independence in their local community, that meet their education aspirations, health, and care needs, with appropriate support.	All young people in non-maintained and independent post-16 provisions have a clear plan in place for their future employment, training, and adult lives.	December 2023 (revised date January 2024 / June 2024)	Head of Statutory SEND Senior Manager, Employment & Skills	This is an ongoing process of development and improvement – nationally and locally. The SEND Transformation Programme is actively progressing, with a focus on preparing young people aged 16 to 25 for adulthood and independence in their local community, meeting their educational, health, and care needs. There is an ongoing effort to hold robust multi-agency reviews to establish clear pathways for these individuals, with the involvement of a Senior Manager for SEND and Employment and Skills. Regular multi-disciplinary team (MDT) decision-making meetings are going to be set up to identify and remove barriers for 16-18-year-olds, which is a work in progress across directorates. There’s a framework in place for funding activities within and without the DCC, ensuring better coordination and communication among stakeholders. Efforts are being made to improve the transition outcomes with regular decision-making meetings and focused efforts on smoothing transitions for young people. The process is inclusive, with clear guidance being developed for everyone to follow, and continuous improvement is sought through regular monitoring and feedback.
C3	Ensure robust quality assurance procedures are in place for EHC plans.	EHC plans are of a quality to make a difference to the lives of children and young people.	September 2023 (revised due date of February 2024)	Head of Statutory SEND	Quality assurance processes for all new plans is now in place. The backlog reported last month has been significantly reduced following the mitigations being implemented. Tier 2 and Tier 3 QA processes in line with the QA framework will be implemented during November.
C4	Local Area commits to support and resource the multi-agency EHC assessment process.	Partners will have permanent, suitably trained teams with sufficient capacity to enable the effective delivery of the statutory SEN processes.	June 2023 (revised date of September 2024) (completed)	SEND Improvement Director Head of Women and Children’s Commissioning	Complete and moved into business as usual. The DCC Children’s Recruitment & Retention Strategy was implemented from December 2023 and has created clarity on the short, medium and long-term strategic recruitment activity for all roles across children’s services. DCC are taking various approaches to resourcing team including agency EHC Plan Writers, additional agency caseworkers, rolling recruitment of caseworkers, associate EPs. As part of ICB Organisational Consultation – increased hours for DCO roles and shared responsibilities across provider organisations. Additional new roles to respond to the need for health information requested as part of EHCP and individual funding. Regular monitoring and evaluation will be conducted to assess the effectiveness of these initiatives and make necessary adjustments as required

Section D: Weaknesses in the identification, assessment, diagnosis and support of those children and young people with autism spectrum disorder.

What needs improvement

• Children and young people still wait too long.
• Parents describe battles to get onto the waiting list.
• Shortages in the health visiting services persist, there are delays in healthy child programme reviews.
• Parents say that the support they receive while waiting for an assessment does not meet their child or young person’s needs.
• Parents are still not getting the support they need in a timely way.

What families have told us

• Work with different ‘neuro-types’ – young people should be central to this – need a broader understanding of neurodivergence not just a focus on autism.
• Look at different presentations rather than societal stereotypes.
• Avoid ‘comparison culture’.
• Many, many amazing ND people’s voices out there – bring them into the mainstream, into schools, their communities, we need to hear their stories.
• Social knowledge not social skills.
• Still impacted by medical model of assessment which is deficit biased.
• Listen to parents and help parents new to the world of neurodiversity see that there are many paths – we don’t all have to be on the same one.
• Allow more young people with autism to live well and independently in their own communities, enable to find work and access higher or further education opportunities.
• Equip early years’ professionals in universal and early years settings to recognise signs of neurodivergence developing.
• Intervene earlier to support with social interactions and skill development.
• Access to face-to-face health visitor sessions.
• Ensure health visitors have a strong understanding of autism presentations.
• Parents and carers describe battles to get onto the waiting list.
• Despite initiatives such as additional training or information, leaders are not able to show the impact on the vulnerable groups that were identified at the previous inspection. These groups include girls with ASD and those requiring access to mental health services.

Actions and outcomes

Ref	Action	Outcome	By when	Senior responsible officer	October 2024 update
D1	Improve waiting time for autism assessments.	Continued reduction in number of children waiting. Reduced mean waiting time.	January 2024 (revised date of September 2024)	Children’s Alliance Director	Health system lock in took place on 10 September and a programme to manage the recovery of the Children’s Autism Waiting list has been implemented. There are 6000 children waiting for an autism assessment. A new model of delivery by existing multi-disciplinary teams is being tested in November which will draw on assessments and information already known about children to expedite the decision about diagnosis.
D2	Develop a neuro-diversity strategy and plan, taking into account the gap analysis and any joint commissioning strategy.	Neuro-diversity strategy and plan creates clear, system-wide route map for transformation of services for children with neurodiversity needs.	August 2023 (revised due date of September 2024)	Head of Women and Children’s Commissioning	Strategy and vision have been presented to the Parent/Carer Expert Reference Group. Revisions will now be made, and the final version will go to senior meetings and boards through September and October. This has been presented to the Children’s Joint Forward Plan Board in October.
D3	Strengthen the early identification of neuro-divergent needs in children and young people across the Local Area and ensure that children and young people with a range of presentations are identified early.	Children, young people, and parent carers are offered support to meet need, in all settings, related to neuro-divergence regardless of whether the child or young person has a diagnosis. Pre and post-assessment support which has been co-designed with parent carers is offered to those who need it.	September 2023 (revised end date October 2023 / January 2025)	Service Lead – Early Help	Targeted Support Framework being developed in preparation for Jan 25 publication, to further support OAIP. Development of an early identification tool is included in the action plan for the Multi Agency Pathway. This work is under way. Also, the other actions relating to training in schools, peer support, development of the ND Hub and the keyworker programme will all support these actions. Good practice being evidenced through the PINS project from the completion of self-evaluation forms by the schools involved and parent carer surveys. There are challenges with how PINS is expanded more widely to schools. Public Health Nursing and Education are involved in both the multi-agency pathways meeting and also the System Implementation Group so input into this work through these routes
D4	Co-produce a new model for needs-based support across universal, targeted and specialist services, in health, education, social care and the voluntary sector regardless of diagnosis.	Children, young people, and parent carers are offered support to meet need, in all settings, related to neuro-divergence regardless of whether the child or young person has a diagnosis. Pre and post assessment support which has been co-designed with parent carers is offered to those who need it.	September 2023 (revised due date of October 2024)	Head of Women and Children’s Commissioning	Strategy and vision have been presented to the Parent/Carer Expert Reference Group, Joint Forward Planning Board and the SEND Transformation Board. Revisions will now be made, and the final version will go to senior meetings and boards through September and October. Key elements include all the elements discussed in other areas of this tracker including roll out of neurodiversity key workers, commissioning of peer support, design and launch of neurodiversity hub, improve support into schools, alignment of OAIP with early help and other frameworks, working with family hubs, implementing a neurodiversity assessment model, improving risk support.
D5	Establish a cross-sector outcomes framework for children and young people with neurodivergence to understand and address inequalities for children and young people. Ensure that a neurodivergent diagnosis is not a barrier to access other support.	Neuro-diversity model is shaped by parent carers.	September 2023 (completed)	Head of Women and Children’s Commissioning Parent Carer Forum Devon	Three Expert Reference Groups have taken place (9th of July, 2nd of October, and 16th October with monthly meetings set up going forwards) plus a workshop was held in May. Parent Careers also involved in the Multi-Agency Pathways Project Group. Expert reference group met on the 9 July and worked through the developing vision, strategy, system working and action plans for improvements across the whole system for children, young people and their families who are neurodiverse. The 2 and 16 October meeting focused on development of the website and peer mentoring. The ND Strategy being finalised in November, being reviewed internally by ICB before coming to SEND Transformation Board for final service.
D6	Establish a cross sector outcomes framework for children and young people with neurodivergence to understand and address inequalities for children and young people. Ensure that a neurodivergent diagnosis is not a barrier to access other support.	Reduce inequalities in outcomes for children with neurodivergence with additional vulnerabilities.	June 2023 (revised date September 2024)	Head of Women and Children’s Commissioning with Parent Carer Forum Devon	Workshop held in September to repurpose the Multi Agency approach. A matrix has been designed to pull across different elements of the work plan. Leads, outcomes and action plan being finalised as part of the matrix. Matrix established with good representation from across all agencies.