We recently held roadshows to share our new SEND strategy and suggested SEND Delivery proposals with practitioners, schools and parents and carers. All were given the chance to share their views, and attendees were sent a follow-up survey to help us gather feedback.
We have collated all the feedback from both the breakout sessions and the survey, and it has been used to inform our preferred SEND Delivery model.
The insights will also be used as part of the next stage of development where we will be developing the organisational structures, systems, processes and measures needed to bring the new SEND Delivery model to life.
Feedback on the service options people would like to see offered through the new model showed the provision of SEND support and advice was one of the most important requirements for all stakeholders.
Practitioners and schools also felt the proposed Navigator role – which helps schools, young people and families access services and navigate the system – would be pivotal to the success of the new design model for them.
Parents and carers also ranked having early, quick and easy access to SEND Support Services and having somewhere to turn to for problem resolution as the most important options for them.
The new SEND model will consist of either four or eight ‘hubs’ and practitioners, schools, parents and carers were asked to share their opinions on the option they felt would work best.
In both cases, there was a clear split with the majority opting for an eight ‘hub’ model on the basis it would allow for the development of a deeper level of local knowledge and understanding, to enrich the service being offered.
Key messages from the feedback included:
- The new SEND Delivery model should not be called a ‘hub’ to avoid confusion as there are too many hubs already in existence within the council. The name needs to be meaningful to those who will be using it
- The new SEND Delivery model needs to be built with the improved outcomes we want to achieve in mind – better outcomes for children and young people with SEND across Devon, and they need to be at the forefront of everything we do
- It will take a lot of work to implement this new SEND Delivery model and feel it will need careful management to drive the project forward, and that there needs to be commitment from all SEND services in order to make it work. Parents and carers in particular also expressed a desire for more opportunities to engage with the project and have your voice heard
- It’s important to learn lessons from other systems that are working well, and also from the way we have adapted over the past year in response to the pandemic and not lose what works well
- The new SEND Delivery model needs to be sustainable. Parents and carers shared their concerns over their experiences with constantly changing staff and how that affected them, and expressed a desire for more stability with the new delivery model
- The new SEND Delivery model to be easy to use for those accessing it. There needs to be flexibility over how and when you can access the ‘hubs’, but the key will be to have one point of contact who will either provide support and advice or take the case and follow through on it until it has been triaged and handed over to the services involved in the agreed support package
- In order to deliver a more joined-up service, providing wraparound support for children with SEND, we need to communicate better and IT systems will play a key part in this. We need to give some consideration into which system will be best to do this and make sure it is fit for purpose without creating duplication of work
- As well as communicating better amongst ourselves, we also need communicate better with our stakeholders. We need to be open, honest and transparent, and to be proactively managing expectations
- To be a success, we will need to ensure we develop clear standards, as well as establishing a central performance monitoring framework, which can also be used to share best practice across Devon