SEND Improvement Board Independent Chair's Update from Kathryn Boulton 15 October 2025

Introduction

Hello and welcome to my fifth Chair's Update, as Independent Chair of the Lancashire SEND Improvement Board.

We held our latest board meeting in person on 15 October 2025. I welcomed and thanked everyone for attending the meeting, including Mark Wynn, Lancashire County Council Chief Executive. It was positive to see the commitment from everyone, especially our school and health providers. As a Partnership Board we are committed to making sure everyone's ideas and concerns are listened to and acted on. The Board also recognises that while we can see progress at a strategic level, the impact of the improvements are yet to be felt directly by families.  

I invited Olly Moores, our SEND Young Advisor, and Clare Smith, Strategic Lead for Participation and Co-production to give us an update on behalf of POWAR, the SEND youth forum.

POWAR SEND youth forum feedback

POWAR explained that they are piloting workshops in schools and colleges to extend youth voice. A survey has been developed for children and young people to share their views on the capital plan and what makes an inclusive education setting with 70 responses received so far. Parent carers have also been given the opportunity to complete this survey. We also heard that Participation training co-produced by young people is being launched on 4 November at the University of Lancashire.

What was said:

POWAR made an observation that some parents have taken the opportunity to share their views in the Children's SEND survey, which is understandable. However, there is a need for surveys to truly reflect young people’s views. POWAR are reviewing the current questions asked to ensure the survey captures what is important to young people and how their views can help to shape services.

What we will do:

  • Review and adapt surveys to ensure children and young people’s voices are central.
  • Promote the children and young people's survey to schools and settings so they could capture their views directly.
  • Consider what support schools and settings may need to be able to do this.
  • Promote and support participation training for senior leaders and practitioners.
  • Continue expanding POWAR’s reach and influence, including open events for wider participation.

Next on the agenda was an update from Michelle Pye and Miranda Hyman, co-chairs of the Lancashire Parent Carer Forum (LPCF).

Lancashire Parent Carer Forum (LPCF) feedback

The Parent Carer Forum (LPCF) reported a busy month, focusing on sustainability, momentum and impact. Admin support recruitment is underway to help support the forum. The forum has recorded the first podcast and Let's Talk webinars have been held. The forum are busy with the PiNS project (Partnership for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools) and responding to requests for specialist sleep support. The forum are focussing on measuring impact and would like to explore how they could capture wider parent voices, and track how families feel about the recent changes.

What was said:

Board members recognised the value and impact the forum is making in representing parent carers and contributing to service improvement. The forum were praised for how involved they are as a strategic partner, including the SEND Academy, PiNS Project, Specialist Teaching and Educational Psychology services, and the Capital Plan.  However, it was recognised that many parent carers are not feeling this impact yet.  Board members noted that the forum had raised concerns about the social care experience for families. There was a shared desire to improve collaboration between the forum, children with disabilities and social care teams.

What we will do:

  • Board members will continue to support the forum's sustainability for the future.
  • Support the forum to build trust of families.
  • Continue expanding the reach of the forum.

Priority Action Plan Highlight Report

Vanessa Wilson, ICB Director of Maternity, Children and Young People, shared an update on how we’re doing with our Priority Action Plan. The report shows what progress has been made and discussed at the SEND Operations Board meeting on 30 September 2025. Most of the improvement plan is on track, with 85 out of 95 actions completed or underway. Progress has been made with communication, the ND (neurodevelopmental Pathway) and Preparation for Adulthood most notably.

Delays were also discussed, with details of these included in the report. Some things, like the SEND strategy, and Capital Plan need more approval before being published and launched. The data dashboard needs information to flow each month into it and for the information to be analysed and understood. There is more work to be done on the new SEND staffing structure, and this is underway.

What was said:

Where there are delays it is important the board understand why this is and what is being putting in place to improve this. It was recognised how important it was for the form requesting an assessment to be reviewed and changed, before it can be added to the digital portal, known as the EHC (Education, Health and Care) dashboard for parent carers. It was also agreed that the form should be available in paper form not just digitally.

What we will do:

  • The board agreed it’s important to keep tracking progress and will invite outside experts to peer review how things are going and to provide assurance.
  • The EHC Form will be reviewed before going live on the EHC dashboard / portal.

Performance and data

Cerys Townend, Head of SEND and Inclusion gave an update on performance measures. The data dashboard is being developed but isn’t ready to share yet. It still needs to be tested before it can be shown to the Improvement Board later this year. The recovery plan is working to reduce the delays.

Key facts:

  • Data shows that delays with EHC Needs assessments continue to reduce.
  • EHC longest wait time is also reducing.
  • EHC Average wait time is reducing.
  • Education Psychology allocations for assessment remain high.
  • Annual Review delays are reducing.

What was said:

Board members need to feel confident that progress is being made and that it will continue over time. It was recognised that the shortage of Educational Psychologists is a national issue, and it is important that Lancashire compares its data to national data.  We need to clearly understand what the data is telling us, who is waiting the longest and why this is.

What we will do:

  • Identify how the partnership makes sense of what the data is telling us at the SEND Partnership Workshop in November 2025.
  • Continue to make sure those waiting the longest are prioritised by the recovery plan and the board continues to monitor how effective it is.
  • Make sure there are enough school places for children with an EHC Plan over the next five years.
  • Add any risks to the risk register for close monitoring.

Quality assurance

Hayley Smith, the SEND Auditor, gave an update on how we check the quality of our plans. We are now checking a lot more plans compared to last year, but we still need to do more. We are using other ways of measuring quality of EHC plans, including dip sampling, and multi-agency audits. Quality of plans using Invision 360 software tool has increased 9% since March 2025, due to training through the SEND Academy, Designated Social Care Officer and Designated Clinical Officer.  It was noted that quality of new plans continues to be better than reviewed plans, due to the quality of advices. 'Closing the loop' processes are also in place to feedback learning to advice givers and how to improve the quality of advices. The SEND quality assurance forum focusses on areas of advice. The quality assurance framework was shared with board members but still needs more detail from partners.

What was said:

The board asked if some plans were better quality with the same advice givers, and how we could measure this. It was suggested that the EHC group could analyse these trends. It was noted that Invision 360 doesn't analyse the quality of advices, so it was important the forum and dip samples do this. The SEND plan writer mustn't change any wording in advices, so quality of advices is the key to quality plans, particularly specificity.  

What we will do:

  • We will complete and implement the formal quality assurance framework so that everyone is working to the same standard across the partnership.

Communication update

Cerys Townend, Head of SEND and Inclusion, gave an update on the Communication and Engagement Strategy and Delivery Plan, that the partnership group has co-produced. These documents will be designed to match the SEND Strategy, before being published on the Local Offer website. The SEND survey feedback from parent carers and children and young people were shared with board members for their information. The SEND survey for children and young people was being reviewed and updated by POWAR, ready for a re-launch.

What was said:

Board members discussed the length of the SEND survey, although the parent carer survey had been co-produced with parent carers in 2024. Trends would be tracked better if the results were in a table. It was discussed whether alternatives such as postcards to collect feedback, quick polls with happy / sad responses, text messages with questions, a question per week via social media, EHC audits, and small focus groups in schools to capture child voice.

What we will do:

  • Communication group will discuss alternative ways of capturing feedback.
  • Parent Carer Forum will also explore how they capture feedback.
  • Feedback from surveys would be added to a table to enable clearer tracking.

Support whilst waiting

Lauren Jackson, ICB Head of Children's Services (SEND and Complexities), gave an update on the neurodiversity support hubs being set up, which will provide needs-led support at every stage of a child or family’s journey. Five local hubs are planned, with mapping of services underway. These hubs will offer advice, workshops, and practical help at differing levels of support and will be embedded in community settings.

Martin Hartley-Smith, Chief Executive of Spring North charity consortium shared information about the funding bids that have been submitted. Providers include Child Action North West (CANW) who provide the Family Autism Service in east Lancashire, together with Triple A in the north, Communicate SLT in Fylde and Wyre, Key in central Lancashire, and Lancashire Mind in West Lancashire. Gaps in support will be mapped, and further providers will deliver support to meet these. The sensory offer pilot is starting, with a workshop in November, which will build on the universal offer of support.

What was said:

Workforce inclusiveness and consistency need prioritising, for schools and settings.

What we will do:

  • Launch support hubs and make sure families know what’s available.
  • Build an online directory so everyone can find help easily.
  • Train staff and make sure specialist training is joined up for schools, settings and Family Hubs to ensure consistency.

Risk registers and governance

The risk register was reviewed by the Board as a standing item. The biggest risk remains the pace of improvement, given financial and capacity challenges. It was emphasised that it will take time and lots of resources to improve the experiences for our families. The Board will keep a close eye on progress and update the register regularly.

Communication

The Independent Chair's update will be written after each board meeting and published on the SEND Improvement Board webpage within 1-2 weeks, before being shared on social media. Formal minutes of the meeting will be written and published after they have been approved at the next board meeting.

A full communications strategy and delivery plan has been developed, which will be published on the Local Offer soon.  Feedback mechanisms for young person is being developed by our Strategic Lead for Participation and Co-production.

I hope this update is useful. We next meet as a board on 3 November 2025 for a face to face meeting.

If you are a parent carer and have any thoughts or comments, please contact the PCF Lancashire Parent Carer Forum by emailing secretarylpcf@lancashireparentcarerforum.org.uk.   

If you have a child / young person interested in POWAR participation group please contact Suliman Hussain at Suliman.hussain@lancashire.gov.uk.

If you are a partner, please do feedback through your organisation. Also don’t forget to sign up to our SEND Newsletter if you’re not already receiving it.