SEND Improvement Board Independent Chair's Update from Kathryn Boulton 3 June 2025

Introduction

Hello and welcome to my second Chair's Update, as Independent Chair of the Lancashire SEND Improvement Board. The board met in person on 3 June 2025.

Lancashire SEND Partnership co-produced the Priority Action Plan which details the expected impact of the actions (the difference made), the key measures of what success looks like, and how the SEND Improvement Board will monitor evidence to make sure sufficient progress and positive change is made to children and young people with SEND and their families. There is a strong commitment across the partnership to bring about the improvements that are required so that children, young people and their families have a better experience.

I welcomed all members to the board meeting, with some members attending for the first time, including County Councillor Matthew Salter.

I welcomed Oliver Moores, SEND Young Advisor to the meeting and invited him to share an update on behalf of POWAR the SEND youth forum

SEND youth forum feedback

Olly shared that some children and young people have voiced concerns that they are disillusioned with school, as they don't always receive the support they need, even with an education, health, care plan (EHCP). Particular challenges faced include not having needs identified early and sufficient support transitioning through key stages, specifically to college.

POWAR face to face groups continue to grow but young people don't always want to talk about their experiences about school at the meetings which are outside of school. The online group meets weekly however, this is not as popular as young people sometimes struggle to access meetings on line. There needs to be a greater understanding of what POWAR is amongst young people, and how they can socially engage whilst being purposeful too.  

You Said…The partnership needs to find ways to identify opportunities for children and young people to have their voice heard and map out with education providers, health colleagues and children with disabilities social care team what this looks like.

We Will…. Clare Smith, Youth Policy and Participation Strategic Lead is meeting with education providers this week to discuss how children's views can be better captured in school. Health and social care colleagues will also be included in these discussions.

You Said…. Children and young people also need to be given the opportunity to have their views heard without the need for adult to be there too, and the SEND Survey for children and young people needs to accessible for all with the key messages from this informing services.  

We Will…. The SEND survey will be co-produced with children and young people exploring how this can be made accessible for them to complete without the support of a parent or teacher.

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

LPCF feedback

Michelle and Miranda provided a written report with feedback from parent carers and a verbal update on Lancashire Parent Carer Forum recent activities.

Since taking over as co-chairs parental engagement in the forum has significantly increased, online and in person. At the parent carer forum recent event 34 parent carers attended, with 15 offering to volunteer with the forum, which is fantastic. The forum shared the chair's update on their Facebook page which resulted in 1622 views and 54 interactions.  A further post about EHCP process and communication received 1613 views and 46 interactions.

Feedback from parent carers emphasised delays and lack of communication from services. The parent carer forum want to be able to share with parent carers how sorry the partnership is and let them know what is going on. Schools also want to be able to update families as they are often the first point of contact.

You Said … there is a lack of communication from the SEND Team regarding position of education, health, care needs assessments and amendments to plans.

We Will…. Cerys Townend, Head of SEND and Inclusion will discuss pro-active improvements that can be communicated with LPCF at their meeting on Thursday.

It was acknowledged by the board that lack of communication is unacceptable and not good enough. The partnership is committed to improving experiences of children, young people and their families, by increasing transparency and communication. However, they recognise that even with increased funding and staffing, the changes will take time for families to feel the benefit.  

You Said …. The partnership need to apologise to families for lack of communication and delays in the process.

We Will…. Senior leads will draft a response for parent carer forum to publish, as families need to see progress and re-build trust.

LPCF made a number of suggestions which the partnership will ensure are addressed by the actions in the priority action plan.

Progress against the Priority Action Plan

Priority Action Plan Highlight Report

Vanessa Wilson, Director for Maternity, and Children's Services at the ICB presented the highlight report with Paul Turner, Director of Education, Culture and Skills at the county council.

The priority action plan tracker is updated each month by action leads and looked at in detail at the SEND Operations Board. Improvement Board members are given the opportunity to scrutinise the tracker and progress against the actions, with the highlight report providing the evidence. The purpose of the report is to provide assurance to Board members of progress being made and highlight risks and actions taken or needed to get the actions back on track.

Updates on action being taken is shared on the local offer, through this update, and the formal minutes, together with council scrutiny meetings which are published on the council website. Families and board members need to be able to see what difference has been made as it is acknowledged by the Board that any progress is not yet being felt by families.

The Board considered the risks within the risk register and the measures that are being put in place to address these risks (mitigations). The board are closely monitoring what difference these make and holding action owners to account. It was stressed that the partnership must also provide the narrative (detail) and measure outcomes through a framework. The analysis is crucial to be able to understand the impact on children and families.

Performance and data

Dave Carr, Director of Policy, Commissioning and Children's Health and Peter Chapman, Associate Director for SEND and Complexities presented an overview of performance and data. It has been difficult pulling together more reliable data in a systematic way, but a joint dashboard is being developed to do this, and a completed version will be presented at the board in September 2025.

The number of EHCPs continues to rise and so there has been an increase in funding made available to support the work needed.  The main categories of need are autism, speech and language and communication and social, emotional and mental health. The Board discussed at length the timeliness both of new EHCPs and annual reviews.  It was agreed that this is not where it needs to be and a number of actions are planned to improve the timeliness.  This will continue to be a priority and will be monitored closely by the Board as we move forward.

Health data is being integrated into the dashboard so that there is one overall, comprehensive set of performance data to monitor and scrutinise.  It was acknowledged that the quality of health advice is crucial and therefore there is training being provided to address this. There is significant variation in wait times across the providers, with increasing wait times for autism and ADHD assessments, however actions are being taken to reduce the wait times.

It was acknowledged that the partnership needed to think differently so that the needs of children and their families can be better met. The workstreams are designed to address the challenges and work together in partnership to explore solutions. A deep dive report will be brought back to the board with a progress update. It was recognised that co-production is the key to thinking differently and affecting change.  

Quality assurance

Hayley Smith, SEND Auditor and Cerys Townend, Head of SEND and Inclusion shared a written report providing an overview of the education, health and care plan (EHCP) audit since a new tool called Invision 360 was introduced. Hayley provided an overview of progress and risks, including how more auditors need to be recruited and trained to be able to reach the target of 5% of plans audited. Multi-agency audits are not yet embedded due to lack of capacity from partners. To address this risk a task and finish group will focus on progressing the action and bring the processes together in the Quality Assurance Framework. A multi-agency deep dive is also being completed to improve quality of advices and develop training. Learning from audits are feedback to auditors and through training in the SEND Academy.

Risk registers and governance

The risks identified in the highlight report are on the risk register and Board members were asked if we could also add children and young people not in education.

The Joint Strategic Needs Assessment will be completed at the end of the month, with recommendations made for action. This will be added to the forward planner for September 2025.

Communication

This chairs update will be produced after each board meeting together with minutes of the meeting and published on the local offer. 

A full communications strategy will be developed, alongside a feedback mechanism for children and young people.

I hope this update is useful. We next meet as a board on 7 July 2025 in person.  

If you are a parent carer and have any thoughts or comments, please share with the PCF by emailing chair@lancashireparentcarerforum.org

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.