Shape the SEND Local Offer: Your Voice Matters!

The final Southend SEND Area Partnership Strategy (2023 to 2026) can be read here.

The draft Southend Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Strategy consulted on in June 2022 was shaped by a wide range of stakeholder feedback gained from April 2021 to January 2022 which is set out below.

Southend’s Area SEND Self Evaluation Framework - Spring 2021

The self-evaluation framework (SEF) was compiled from partnership development sessions, discussions, and a wide evidence base including the SEND Profile and Smart Southend. It evaluated the area’s effectiveness across all areas of SEND; progress against priorities in the last strategy and against the four areas of improvement identified from the CQC and Ofsted inspection in 2018.

The SEF highlighted the gaps in provision and services for Children and Young People with SEND and their families. The SEF included the impact on communities, families, service commissioners and providers in Southend that play a part in working with children and young people with SEND and their families living in Southend. This was an important document in understanding the difference and impact of the area’s SEND offer.

The SEND summit - April 2021

The SEND summit was a critical meeting of the three main SEND groups (SEND Strategic Partnership Board, SEND Operations Group and the Joint Commissioning Group) and representatives of the Health and Well-being Board.

49 members of these groups attended the event, including five members of Southend SEND Independent Forum and other stakeholders. Attendance included Councillor’s Harp and Jones

The event was facilitated by Carole Brooks, the Council’s Children’s Services Independent Adviser. The purpose was to:

Assess whether:

• The area had achieved the priorities and actions from the last SEND Strategy; the areas for improvement from the last inspection, including current progress on the Written Statement of Action.
• If the area was meeting the requirements of the SEN code of practice and our standards, but most importantly, how are we doing for children and young people?
• The key achievements are being met.

Agree:

• Whether the self-evaluation is an accurate portrayal and update it based on feedback
• The outstanding areas for improvement
• The priorities, potential actions and key features for the new three year SEND strategy.

The SEF was recognised as a fair reflection of the current position, but the outcome and evaluative component was missing on how it makes a difference.

Top 5 Priorities from the SEND summit

• Transitions to cover the full 0 to 25 age range equally and improve transitions at all stages and across the board. A recognition that transition means different things to different people e.g. transition to different settings, from Key Stages, to adulthood etc.
• Voice of the Child/Young Person –There needs to be a clear strategy on how we do this and to ensure that it runs through everything we do and reflected in strategic and operational decision making.
• Mental Health and Wellbeing - Proactively addressing Mental Health and Wellbeing, rather than retrospectively.
• Early Intervention - joined up and timely planning that is proactive and not reactive with the recognition that intervention is needed at the earliest stage and age.
• Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) - There is further work to do for the effective collaboration between all partners when producing an EHCP to make sure quality contributions from all agencies are received when required, improving how health outcomes feed into plans and that plans fulfil both academic and wider outcomes.

Other common priorities:

• A clear communication strategy setting out routes and avenues for effective and good communication. To use the Local Offer website as a comms tool for information that goes out to parents, CYP and professionals
• Continue to develop the Local Offer of provision and the website with clear and active signposting to all available services. Defining the expectations from others of what they would expect to see in the local offer.
• Workforce development and continuous professional development across the partnership; sharing competence and professional development from a first person and clinical perspective
• Consistent SEND provision available in all settings; particularly at SEN Support with a better curriculum/vocational offer.

We surveyed participants after the summit

• 24 participants responded
• 100% of attendees felt listened to and felt able to participate in the summit and found the summit helpful.

SEND Priorities - survey April to July 2021

The next step was to ask children and young people with SEND, their families and people providing support and services to children and young people with SEND their thoughts on the proposed priorities drafted from the Summit.

A SEND Priorities survey went live on Your Say Southend from 21 April to 11 July 2021. This space is an engagement space run by the Local Offer Team to run consultations, engagements and to gain feedback on services.

• 64 responses were received.
• Just under 30% of respondents were a parent/carer/relative of the child with SEND
• Just under 40% were practitioners
• Just over 30% answered as ‘other’

98.4% of respondents said that transitions was a priority

95.2% of respondents said the Voice of the Child was a priority

98.4% of respondents said that early intervention and identification was a priority

98.4% of respondents said that emotional wellbeing and mental health was a priority

98.4% of respondents said that effective collaboration on EHCP’s was a priority

42% (24) respondents said they would like to help to develop the priorities further and left their contact details.

Developing the SEND priorities – poll July 2021

We specifically went back to those who left their details on 15/07/21 asking them to take part in a quick poll. 11 people responded.

The survey results confirmed that the majority of respondents agreed with the 5 priorities we identified and we were able to confirm the agreed wording for the priorities.

The Southend SEND Partnership reviewed the feedback and considered that ‘focussing on how the Voice of the Child/Young Person is heard’ should instead be one of the five partnership actions in the Strategy; which will drive effective implementation and sustainability of our priorities.

It was therefore agreed to use the 6^th identified priority from the SEND Summit; The Local Offer.

Developing the SEND priorities – community visits June to August 2021

In June the Local Offer team contacted and visited SEND Groups in the community to gain their feedback on the priorities. Parent / Carers from Little Heroes and a parent group at Family Action provided their views which reflected that they needed more support and access information, early support and identification, support to understand SEND processes, and shared their frustration with diagnosis and health waiting times.

In July the Local Offer team also undertook 7 sessions with 25 young people to understand what their priorities were. Schools and youth groups facilitated the sessions where young people shared that their priorities largely focussed on activities and accessing the community.

In August 8 young people took part in a MS Teams session with the Local Offer team to share what the identified five priorities meant to them. The young people shared what having SEND meant to them and what was important for them in each of the priorities. Feedback included flexible support, more places to socialise and feel safe, and having support with transitions.

Developing the high-level strategic actions - July to August 2021

Alongside the community engagement was further partnership engagement sessions to develop strategic actions for each of the priorities. 2 sessions took place in July and August 2021 for operational practitioners and representatives from the parent carer forum Southend SEND Independent Forum (SSIF).

Participants across education, health and social care and SSIF considered the feedback from the survey and engagements and provided input into the strategic actions.

Drafting the Strategy - Partnership engagement October to November 2021

During the autumn term members of the SEND Partnership worked alongside SSIF to co-produce a draft SEND Strategy which incorporated the feedback to date.

The SEND Strategy was circulated internally to members of the SEND Strategic Partnership Board, SEND Operations Group and the Joint Commissioning Group with an invitation to provide feedback on the content and wording.

Feedback was sought to ensure the draft Strategy was clear on the strategic intentions on which to formulate a set of actions and outcomes in the accompanying Strategy action plan. The Strategy was updated to reflect this feedback.

Developing the action plan – Partnership engagement December 2021

2 facilitated sessions were arranged to engage with members of the Partnership to consider the refined high-level strategic actions for each of the 5 priorities.

These sessions were designed to obtain stakeholder input around the action plan that would sit beneath the Strategy.

SCC colleagues in public health, Early Years. Social Care, the SEND Team, Connexions, Inclusion Team, Provision Team and school nursing in addition to the designated Medical Officer, CCG colleagues, A Better Start, Health Watch, schools, SSIF and Lighthouse Centre all provided input.

The sessions asked partners to identify what was needed to meet Strategy objectives, what they can lead or contribute to and how the area could effectively measure the impact of services/interventions on the lives of children and young people with SEND and their families.

Refresh of the draft SEND Strategy

In November 2021 Council Members commissioned a Local Government Association peer review of Council SEND services. Their report and recommendations were published in January 2022.

The recommendations included a refresh of the draft Strategy, drawing on advice and support from the parent career forum (SSIF) in co-producing it so that it was less complex and parent friendly.

A review of all feedback to date was undertaken along with SSIF and amendments were made and sighted at various governance groups once more for comment ahead of formal consultation.

Consultation June to July 2022

The updated draft strategy was presented for public consultation from 17 June 2022 to 29 July 2022. 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.

Parent carers of children with SEND, young people with SEND, SEND professionals and stakeholders were invited to give their feedback and given opportunities to shape and influence the action plan that would sit beneath it.

A total of 137 people engaged with the consultation. The feedback 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 accross the area.

Final draft August 2022

The parent carer forum (Southend SEND Independent Forum) worked closely with the SEND Partnership to review the wide range of consultation feedback to ensure that the key priorities and the proposed strategic actions reflected the needs of the SEND community.

The final draft Southend Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Strategy was developed and co-produced by the Southend SEND Partnership and Southend SEND Independent Forum.

Governance September 2022 to July 2023

The final draft strategy was presented to the various SEND Governance meetings, Council meetings and Cabinet for additional feedback and agreement over the autumn term 2022. Additional updates were made to the strategy in line with feedback.

The Southend SEND Partnership undertook a consultation on the draft strategy which opened on 17 June and closed on 29 July.

Feedback was invited from young people, parents and carers of children and young people with SEND and professionals who work with and support children and young people with SEND.

The community was invited to get involved in whatever way suited them best.

3 face to face engagement events were held:

• Friday 1 July 10am to 11:30am at The Tickfield Centre
• Friday 1 July 12:30 to 2:00pm at The Tickfield Centre
• Young person engagement event - Saturday 9 July 9:30am to 11:00am at Trust Links, Westcliff-on-Sea

2 online engagement events were held:

• Wednesday 6 July 5:30pm to 6:30pm
• Wednesday 6 July 7:00pm to 8:00pm

People were also invited to visit the Your Say Southend consultation page and complete a survey or share their views about the proposed actions, vision and aims and ambitions through our ideas boards.

An executive summary of the consultation has been produced.

You can read about the steps following the consultation in the final sections of this page: Developing the 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.

Thank you to everyone who responded to the terminology poll run by the SEND team in August 2022.

After much discussion and consideration of the poll results alongside published documents and other sources, the team have decided to use the term ‘hearing loss’ in their documentation. The team will, however, always ask parent carers at the outset how they would like their child’s disability described.