West Northamptonshire SEND Improvement Board, Summary (25 January 2024)

West Northants SEND Improvement Board Summary (25 January 2024)

Workstream highlight reports

Workstream/Priority 3 Identification & Assessment

It was noted that all highlight reports had been sent to members of the board previously and there would be an opportunity to ask questions about any of the workstreams if anyone had any. Today, the deep dive would be into Priority 3: Identification & Assessment.

The workstream lead explained that the priorities of workstream are broadly spilt into four elements:

• SEND ranges development
• EHC timeliness, quality, and mediations
• Transitions (between settings, services etc.)
• SEMH (Social, Emotional and Mental Health Difficulties)

Quality assurance plan is in place with some completed quick wins completed (particularly those in partnership with social care).Strong partnership representation in workstream meetings, subgroups formed, and project plans are in place to track progress.Ongoing risk to priority targets due to colleague capacity and timeliness/consistency of advice.Suggestions by the board were made to include more data details within the highlight report.

Young Researchers Young Voices (YRYV)

YRYV provided a project overview and confirmed its alignment with DfE SEND and AP improvement plan to look at whether children and young people are getting what they want and need from their EHCPs.

Six young researchers have partnered with the University of Derby to conduct the project through in-depth interviews with several children and young people.

The findings suggest that young people place most importance on good relationships support and understanding.

YRYV are keen to broaden their project and work with children and young people in West Northamptonshire education settings and asked for permission to go ahead.

Decision: Board approved YRYV involvement with local schools in the ongoing research project.

Schools have already been identified to take part in the research project and will now be contacted to proceed.

Self-Evaluation Framework (SEF), Position Statements & Outcomes Framework

Updates were provided on the timeline of progress toward SEND and AP strategy priorities, SEF development, position statements, and outcomes framework.

The importance of involving grassroots colleagues and communication strategies was highlighted by the board members.The evaluative work is allowing the teams to see clear gaps and although evidence has been collated, agreeing any Position Statements will need future board sign-off.

The principles of the outcomes framework were agreed through the board previously and all responses to online and face to face engagement have been reviewed, collated and fed into the draft framework. All members of the board were asked to review the draft outcomes framework and bring feedback to the next meeting.

The raw data/feedback was also highlighted as an important tool for the partnership to reflect on and members were asked to consider this too.

West Northants Voices in Partnership (WNVP) Update

West Northants Voices in Partnership’s active outreach to parents/carers has already resulted in a significant number of member sign-ups. WNVP reported currently having approx. 170 signed members, a Facebook following close to 400, and a reach of roughly 15k.

Acknowledgment of WNVP's professional support and upcoming plans to distribute an annual survey to their members.

Board members expressed support for the parent carer forum and methods of increasing their reach further through a number of communication tools.

Data Dashboard

This month saw some challenges with data availability, but it was observed that the volume of requests for assessments continues to rise.

The data regarding SEN Support cohort in schools was reviewed by the board and it was agreed that further data gathering and analysis was required to understand the impact of support.

Advices outstanding continues to have the most significant impact on timeliness of assessments.

Links will be made with Workstream Priority 3 to align the data and priority targets.

Any Other Business

The Board agreed that the Data Dashboard will be prioritised first on future agendas.

Future meetings will be booked for 2 hours due to the volume of items being considered each month.

Parent Carer Forum updates will be a standing item that is also prioritised on the agenda.

Short breaks update and School Placements will be substantive items on the next Board meeting agenda.