Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Strategy - Impact Report 2022 to 2023

Our vision for SEND in Dorset: SEND is everybody’s business

Cllr Andrew Parry, Dorset Council Portfolio Holder for Children, Education and Early Help

 Theresa Leavy, Executive Director for Children’s Services

David Freeman, Chief Commissioning Officer NHS Dorset

Elaine Okopski, DPCC Participation Co-ordinator

Our vision is clear and focused

“We want our children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) to be healthy, happy and safe and able to achieve their potential to lead a fulfilling life. We want them to have, and to expect the same opportunities in life as other children and young people.”

Our 6 vision strategic priorities:

1. Our early identification and support vision:  we will make sure we identify, assess and support children’s needs both early in life and when issues arise.
2. Our inclusion vision: we will make sure there is a commitment to services and support that is inclusive of children, young people and adults with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). We are committed to inclusion in mainstream settings and firmly believe every teacher is a teacher of special needs.
3. Our SEND pathway vision: we will make sure that children and young people with SEND and their families can access the right support from services easily and quickly.
4. Our SEND provision and sufficiency vision: we will make sure we increase the education we provide for all children and young people with SEND so that our children can stay in Dorset and thrive in their local communities. They will have access to health services, early years provision, post-16 services. There will also be community resources for adults with learning disabilities.
5. Our transitions and preparation for adulthood vision: we will make sure that transitions between phases of education or changes in what we provide as support are smooth and supportive across all ages.
6. Our managing money and resources vision: we will make sure that we manage our SEN funding from the dedicated schools grant (DSG) effectively and efficiently so that we can have the best impact and outcomes for our children and young people with the resources available.

Our key pledges:

• we know what we need to improve and are acting to improve it as quickly as possible 
• we are working together to develop a single strategy and system to improve outcomes for children and young people with SEND and their families 
• we will be accountable for doing what we say we will and for letting people know how well we are doing 
• we will support families to provide help early 
• we will complete assessments and plans on time 
• we will involve and listen to children and young people with SEND and their families 
• we will make it clear to families what information, advice and support is available, how to find it and how to give feedback 
• we will improve families’ experience of getting support with SEND from birth to adulthood 
• we want to give children and young people with SEND in Dorset the best chance to succeed in life 
• we want children and young people with SEND to enjoy family life and to go to school as near to their home as possible 
• we will work together across children’s and adult’s services to support children and young people with SEND to prepare well for adulthood, to participate in their community and to live as independently as possible 

Here are some facts and information to help appreciate the current situation in Dorset.

Special Educational Needs (SEN)

The percentage of children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) has increased in Dorset each year since 2016. The percentage with either a statement or an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) has increased every year since 2016. There were 1515 children with either a statement or EHCP in 2016, today there are 3555, a 134% increase over a 6 year period.

Percentage of pupils with an EHCP:

• 29% of pupils have Autism
• 18% have speech language and communication needs
• 48% of pupils are educated in mainstream schools
• 2.7 % are primary school children
• 75% of Dorset Council school children are boys

66% with SEN support are boys - very similar to the national picture.

Mental health

The number of children accessing mental health services has increased nationally, with more than 1 million children under 18 having first-time contact with mental health professionals. However, this number had fallen slightly across Dorset on the previous year, from 3925 to 3450. 

Increased referrals nationally may reflect that more young people are comfortable talking about their mental health and know where to get help. However, the pandemic led to more people needing help with their mental health and in 2020, more than 10,000 children and young people were waiting for support from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services. 

Early Support Hubs and the CAMHS Gateway are being expanded to meet service demand and mental health support in schools is being made more readily available. 

National funding is being used for Family Hubs, perinatal mental health support and Supporting Families programme. 

Our recent achievements

£40m SEND capital investment over 5 years:

• Dorset Council capital investment of £40m (2020 to 2025) creating at least 500 new specialist places
• 2 new schools opened

New area partnership agreement:

• Dorset Council's strategic partners working even more collaboratively to achieve the best outcomes for children and young people

New SEND customer charter:

• in partnership with DPCC, launched in May 2022

Launched Dorset Education Advice Line in October 2021:

• 209 contacts
• 143 calls by SEN workers

Launched graduated approach to additional support in October 2021:

• all Dorset Council SENCOs are trained in giving additional support

Our impact: new partnership agreement

Key partners are working even more collaboratively to achieve the best outcomes for children and young people

We have a new Partnership Agreement (February 2022) which sets out how as key strategic partners we will work together to achieve the best outcomes for children and young people.

As a partnership, our mission is:

• to deliver the best education for all our children and young people,
• to prepare our young people for independence and adulthood, and
• for our children and young people to experience the best possible health and wellbeing

What working together means

We will deliver the best possible outcomes for children and young people. We will do this by sharing ideas and delivering change together, whilst also challenging each other on the journey towards a strong partnership that will be evidenced through action.

As equal partners, we share a mutual understanding of the complex and multi-layered challenges that each of our children, young people and their families may experience, and reflect this in the way that we work together to share the expertise that each partner brings and together unlock creative and innovative ways of undertaking these challenges as a system. Co-production is a practice that we want to become part of our way of working together in planning and implementing our services and the Local Offer.

We will celebrate our successes whilst also tackling our challenges together. As partners we each bring different and complimentary expertise. We strive to communicate with our families together in such a way that children, young people and their families can make use of our information and ensure that their voices are heard. Every family has a different journey and experience, and we will reflect that both in the way we listen, but also through our actions.

Our partnership vision will also reach professionals representing each of our organisations and together we will strive to ensure this is embodied across our partnership.

Our impact: improved SEND local offers and events

We have improved Dorset's SEND Local Offer to help families find trusted information, support and advice

The ‘local offer’ website gives children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and their families information to help them find the right help and support in their area. We have been updating and refreshing our website pages informed by the views of children and families. We have exciting plans and are creating a new digital family offer to provide a digital space for children and families where they can easily find help and advice when they need it.

We are designing online services that will provide a personalised experience. For example, having the option to open an individual account where you can access services 24-7 from your mobile device, such as plan progress or notifications about key dates and be able to book directly online onto activities.

The pages of the SEND Local Offer are an excellent way to tell us about services, and the Parent Carer Council have a dedicated Facebook page to provide feedback on the service.  

Our Impact: Dorset Parent Carer Council (DPSS) information event

We have improved awareness of support services amongst SEND parent-carers by staging large face to face events

On 4 October 2022 parent-carers across Dorset had a chance to come together at Kingston Maurward College. The event was an opportunity to meet and talk to organisations, hear their news, and ask questions. There were over 200 parents and carers who attended and offered their feedback which will inform future support events.

We are committed as a partnership to continually improve communication so we will be holding more events like this. We also welcome suggestions for how we can improve communication in other ways. Thank you to all of you who attended (it was great to see you) and a huge thank you to all of you who make up Dorset's Parent Carers community!

Our impact: a partnership with family action to delivery Special Educational Needs and Disability Information, Advice and Support Service (SENDIASS)

We have worked closely with expert charity partner Family Action to successfully deliver SENDIASS services

From February 2022, Dorset Council’s Special Educational Needs and Disability Information, Advice and Support Service (SENDIASS) has been run by Family Action, a long-established charity that supports all families.  

SENDIASS aims are to:  

• provide a high quality, impartial, accurate and confidential service   
• empower children, young people and their parents/carers to play an informed and active part in decision-making and supporting them to make the best decisions   
• contribute to partnership working with providers of education, alternative provision, training, supported employment, health and social care  
• ensure service user views are heard, understood and utilised to continuously improve the service
• make sure service users understand their rights, roles and responsibilities 

SENDIASS – impact facts and figs:

• launched Feb 2022
• 609 parents supported by October 2022
• 36% enquiries for EHCPs, 26% for education
• 85% enquiries successfully solved without escalation
• 70% of cases related to autism

Our impact: new SEND Customer Charter launches

We launched a new SEND customer charter in partnership with Dorset Parent Carer Council

At the heart of our SEND children and families customer charter is our commitment to improving the quality of life of our SEND children, young people and families. We strive to get it right first time, every time. We believe that our children and families have the right to know what level of service they can expect from us all the time - even when we fall short of the very high standards, we have set ourselves. We are committed to improving how quickly we respond to enquiries and ensure that when we do respond it is helpful and consistent wherever you live in Dorset.

We want to use feedback that people give us to get things right more often. Our staff are here to help and we know that sometimes it can be a difficult and anxious time for families. We want to ensure we can provide the right support at the right time. After the introduction of the Customer Charter in May 2022, the early indication is that we have halved the number of complaints received month on month.

Our impact

We’ve improved the education experience for people with special educational needs and disabilities 

For SEND education this year we have raised operational standards, run a successful advice hotline, and continued with our £40m capital programme which is providing hundreds more specialist places. Throughout the year we continued the roll-out of the standardised ‘graduated’ additional support approach across schools to ensure the right level of help is provided for children. We have also been developing much needed provision of parent-carer advice and have seen increasing use of the Dorset Education Advice Line (DEAL) phone service.  

Our achievements: 

Graduated approach

Explanation of the graduated approach diagram

Review

It is not necessary to wait for a formal review but the SEND Code of Practice states that reviews should be at least termly.  It is important to check how the plan is working and if progress is being made.

Assess

In the assess stage of the graduated approach, the setting gain a growing understanding of the child's young person's needs.

Plan

Two areas need to be considered when planning provision.  The first step is to ensure high-quality teaching is in place.

Do

The SEND Code of Practice emphasises that the teacher has day-to-day responsibility for the learning and teaching of all children and young people.

Our impact

We’ve improved the guidance on speech, language and communication support, and reviewed neurodevelopment services

Most families will be able to access the NHS services they require through Universal Services. These are services anybody can access, at any time, without requiring a referral, such as GPs, health visitors, dentists, school nurses and walk-in centres. Some families will require additional, more specialist help from the NHS. These are called Targeted Services, including CAMHS, occupational therapy and speech and language therapy, and a referral is usually required to access them. The referral will usually come from another professional such as your GP or school. Children and young people with the highest levels of physical or emotional health needs may be entitled for support through Children and Young People’s Continuing Health Care or Continuing Health Care.   Further information can be found at Continuing care – NHS Dorset

The resource is structured to assist the user in building a programme of local and UK support to help children and young people develop their speech, language and communication.

The Balanced System® speech, language and communication pathway

Our impact

We’ve delivered key workers to help prevent mental health crisis for children and young people with a learning disability and / or autism

Keyworkers will work alongside young people and their families who are heading towards a mental health crisis.  Dorset has a Dynamic Support Register (learning disability and / or autism) to enable earlier identification of those people at risk of admission to hospital

Our impact

We’ve improved health and well-being through the 14-25s Learning Disability Health Checks Project

The Learning Disability Annual Health Check aims to improve the health and wellbeing of people with learning disabilities, as they often have difficulty in recognising illness, communicating their needs and using health services. We have been implementing the 14-25s Learning Disability Health Checks Project which focuses on improving awareness and uptake of these preventative health appointments.

Our impact

We are working to improve transitions and preparing for adulthood

The Dorset Local Area has an ambitious change programme to improve the quality of support provided to children and young people who have special educational needs or disability as they prepare for adult life.

To support this, the following joint declaration outlines and confirms the commitment made by Dorset Council’s Children’s and Adult Social Care, Dorset Council elected members, NHS Dorset, and the Dorset Parent Carer Council to work in partnership towards delivering our plans and associated improved outcomes. To achieve these, the partnership is committed to ensuring the following principles are applied as a minimum when considering the improvements to our service offer:

• the partnership shares the vision for children and young people as stated in Dorset Council’s SEND Strategy

• our offer will comply with the requirements outlined in the Mental Capacity Act 2005, Equality Act 2010, Care Act 2014, SEND Code of Practice 2014, Children and Families Act 2014, Mental Health Act 1983 (2007) and the Health and Care Act 2022
• the partnership is underpinned by an effective and equitable Joint Commissioning Strategy that enables us to come together in a place-based service
• our service offer will ensure that assessments and provision are agreed together.
• we will use inspection reports, user feedback and the ‘As Is’ analysis of the current pathway to resolve issues and concerns
• our service offer will ensure a seamless experience for Children, Young People until they reach a settled adulthood
• our service offer is led by our shared ambition for young people to achieve their outcomes, to have access to better life opportunities and to be the best they can be
• our service offer will ensure that information, advice, and guidance is accessible and available at the right time to everyone
• our service design will ensure that young people and parent carers know who to contact, to ensure early conversations happen in the key areas of Education & Employment, Independent Living, Health & Wellbeing and Community Inclusion
• we will create our service offer by involving all stakeholders and partners
• all safeguarding requirements for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) are fully understood and complied with

For further support for families, children and young people and for the full SEND strategy see Dorset’s SEND Local Offer.

Dorset Education Advice Line (DEAL)

Dorset Special Educational Needs Information, Advice and Support Service (SENDIASS)

Dorset Parent-Carer Council (DPCC)

Parent-to-parent advice

Find a support group run by other parent carers who have children with similar difficulties.