Executive summary on the consultation of the Southend Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Strategy.

Introduction

The draft Southend Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Strategy was developed and co-produced by the Southend SEND Partnership and with Southend’s Parent Carer Forum, Southend SEND Independent Forum (SSIF). The draft strategy was shaped by a wide range of stakeholder feedback gained from April 2021 to January 2022.

Read how the strategy was developed and learn about the action taken after the consultation.

The Strategy outlines the Southend SEND Partnership’s five key priorities and the collective aims and ambitions, all of which focus on improving the lived experiences of children and young people with SEND and their families

The SEND partnership is committed to providing help and support as early as possible, to provide opportunities to maximise life chances, make good progress and achieve outcomes that prepare children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) for adulthood. We want children, young people and their families to be happy, and to thrive.

What did we hope to achieve from the consultation held in June and July 2022?

The aim of the consultation was to gain wider views on the draft Southend Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Strategy and to have an open and honest dialogue with young people, their parents, carers and the professionals who support them about the things that mattered to them. Once finalised the Strategy would be a key document that would shape local area action plans, so it was important we got it right and listened to what families and stakeholders told us was needed. The consultation was also a way to ensure that local people were aware of the ambitions of the Southend SEND Partnership and had an opportunity to shape it and influence the action plan that would sit beneath it.

The key aims of the consultation:

• confirm if the draft strategy had identified the priorities that matter to young people, parent carers and professionals, and if not, what had been missed.
• understand what actions were important to local young people with SEND, their parents, carers and professionals around the 5 priority areas
• to provide information on our planned commitments and proposed actions for each of the 5 priorities
• understand if the aims, ambitions, visions and values of the Southend SEND Partnership were clear
• understand if the Strategy and the planned actions would give families confidence that things will change or that outcomes for young people would improve.
• find out what positive change would look like for young people, parent carers and professionals
• find out what feedback people wanted over the next 3 years
• confirm what format people wanted the finalised SEND Strategy presented in

The consultation findings would shape the final draft Southend Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Strategy presented to Cabinet for ratification.

Overview of consultation activities and respondents

The draft Strategy was presented for public consultation from 17 June 2022 to 29 July 2022. Parent carers of children with SEND, young people with SEND, SEND professionals and stakeholders were invited to give their feedback in the following ways:

• through a survey which could be completed online via the Your Say Southend platform or on paper with a postage paid envelope provided
• at one of 3 face-to-face consultation events
• at one of 2 online consultation events

The consultation set out the overall aims, ambitions, values and vision of the Southend SEND Strategy and sought feedback on how the area should address the five identified priorities:

• Transitions
• Early intervention
• Good mental health and wellbeing
• Plans
• The Local Offer

A total of 137 people engaged with the consultation as follows.

Survey: 96 respondents (see further details below).

Face to face consultation events on 1 July. Morning session – 13 attendees (10 parent carers and 3 professionals). Afternoon session – 6 attendees (3 parent carers and 3 professionals).

Face to face consultation event for young people on 9 July. 1 attendee.

Online consultation events on 6 July. Session 1: 6 parent carers attended. Session 2: 4 parent carers attended.

Partnership online consultation event on 18 July. 11 professionals attended.

Details of the 96 people who completed the survey:

• 70 parent carers, 9 of whom stated they have additional needs or a disability
• 1 young person (in the 19 to 25 age bracket)
• 25 practitioners, of which 21 were from the education sector, 1 from health and 3 who described their sector as ‘other’.

74 respondents confirmed they had read the draft SEND Strategy.

Demographic information of the survey respondents.

Age of respondent’s children/young people (there were 71 responses to this question).

• 0 to 4 years – 9 (13%)
• 5 to 9 years – 17 (24%)
• 10 to 14 years – 31 (44%)
• 15 to 19 years – 11 (15%)
• 19 to 25 years – 3 (4%)

Type of education setting attended (there were 71 responses to this question).

• Mainstream School – 40 (56%)
• Special school – 10 (14%)
• Pre-school/nursery – 9 (13%)
• Resource base – 4 (6%)
• Education somewhere that is not a school – 2 (3%)
• Further education/college – 2 (3%)
• Elective Home Education – 1 (1.25%)
• Employment – 1 (1.25%)
• Doesn’t attend school or any educational setting – 1 (1.25%)
• In employment following mainstream education – 1 (1.25%)

Postcode area (there were 71 responses to this question).

• SS0 – 17 (24%)
• SS2 – 16 (22.5%)
• SS9 – 16 (22.5%)
• SS3 – 12 (17%)
• SS1 – 9 (13%)
• SS6 – 1 (1%)

Ethnicity (there were 96 responses to this question).

• White or white British – 78 (81%)
• White – any other background – 5 (5%)
• White Irish – 4 (4%)
• Asian British – 4 (4%)
• Mixed – any other mixed background – 2 (2%)
• Prefer not to say – 1 (1%)
• White or white British – prefer not to say – 1 (1%)
• Middle East – 1 (1%)

Religion (there were 96 responses to this question).

• No religion – 56 (58%)
• Christian – 23 (24%)
• Prefer not to say – 7 (7%)
• Jewish – 2 (2%)
• Muslim – 5 (5%)
• Buddhist – 1 (1%)
• Humanist – 1(1%)
• Spiritualist Buddhist – 1(1%)

Summary findings

The 24 survey questions as part of the SEND Strategy consultation gave us a great deal of insight of what actions we could take to improve the the experience of the SEND system in Southend. Below are some key findings and recurring themes from those answers.

Communications

• Throughout the survey respondents were consistently requesting an increase in information in different formats on the Local Offer website to support those with special educational needs and disabilities. Suggestions included ways to increase its accessibility by have information presented in different languages such as British Sign Language (BSL), and languages that would embrace the multicultural nature of Southend. Additionally so having information presented in video formats was important too.
• Respondents also believed that we should be considering the cultural aspects of those in Southend to remove the barriers of families getting support.
• We also saw respondents asking for an increase in communications between parents, carers and young people with their respective professionals. The survey found that this includes a desire for professionals to follow up and take ownership of a case. In relation to ownership, we found that respondents had difficulty in certain services taking responsibility for a particular case. With regards to follow ups, respondents believe they are especially important when considering the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people.

Community opportunities

• Tied to all the feedback themes was for respondents to see an increase in the number of youth clubs, activities and summer schools in Southend. When it comes to these extracurricular activities, respondents were primarily looking for clubs that were safe spaces, affordable, and easy for SEND young people to socialise in. The particular activity that the potential clubs do, such as karate, didn’t seem to matter to the respondents, though further research on this aspect may be needed.

Transition

• Respondents said they would also like to see an increase in information on schools. Particularly in relation to the transition that SEN children make from primary to secondary school, though more information at all stages is required.

Local Offer

• Signposting was also highlighted as an issue for respondents. Though this does come two-fold through not only more signposting, but better signposting. It should be noted that this was not limited to the Local Offer website; but also in relation to the signposting in schools on visits and their websites.
• In regards to the Local Offer website, respondents wanted an increase in guidance, especially when it comes to certain complex technical terms.
• Respondents would also appreciate more clarification on schools and their relationship to the council and SEND

Early support

• Respondents believed there were improvements to be made in understanding and empathy. They especially believed this to be important in Early Intervention. It is not only limited to schools and SEND, but also the wider community.
• Respondents would appreciate professionals having more knowledge of particular issues such as ADHD and greater empathy among caseworkers to see young people fully develop their skills and abilities.
• For the wider community, this would involve greater SEND knowledge within support groups for young people.

Resources

• The final consistent theme was related to funding, not just in asking for increases in resources, but also more awareness on the funding available to support SEND families.
• Respondents were requesting more funding for local services, such as the Lighthouse Centre, the Local Authority and local clubs.

Feedback from the consultation showed that the priority areas set out in the draft Strategy are undoubtedly important to young people, parent carers and professionals (although it must be noted that we got very little feedback directly from young people in the formal consultation and so were relying on the voice of their parent carers and those who support them).

Conclusion

The SEND Partnership used the consultation to check our direction of travel in determining the areas to improve upon so that Children and Young People with SEND and their families feel the difference in support, provision and services. The consultation confirmed that the draft strategy and the engagement work and activity that had been carried out to date to produce it, did identify the improvements needed.

In asking “Have we identified the priorities that matter to you”? of the 85 people who answered, 87% said yes or partially (46% yes, 41% partially) and 13% said no. We are confident that the new three-year SEND strategy, would drive the necessary improvements so that Children and Young People with SEND and their families feel the impact.

The perception of support for SEND in Southend and confidence levels of some, are a key issue that needs to be addressed. When asked “Does this strategy give you confidence that things will change or that outcomes for children and young people will improve?”, of the 81 people who responded, 41% said yes, 58% said no and 1 person said yes and no.

The Southend SEND Partnership is committed to improving the experience of our children and young people with SEND by providing the right help and support at the right time. We know we are on a journey of continuous improvement and need to gain the confidence of SEND families that this Strategy can make a difference to their children’s lives and the community they live within.