Lancashire SEND Partnership

Edwina Grant OBE is the new Chair of the SEND Partnership Board, supported by Dr Julie Higgins as Vice Chair. They will hold bi-monthly Board meetings to ensure all partners are held responsible for their work to improve SEND services for families in Lancashire.

Both Edwina and Julie bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to their new roles.

Edwina was recently appointed by Lancashire County Council as Executive Director for Education and Children's Services. She also serves as the National Children's Services Adviser for the Local Government Association.

Julia has previously served as Vice Chair of the Greater Manchester Public Health Network. Here she supported a number of ground breaking public health initiatives including the development of the Greater Manchester Health Commission.

They replace John Readman (Chair) and Mark Youlton (Vice Chair) who formed and led the Partnership throughout 2018.

Pictured ahead of their first Board meeting are (left to right) Dr Julia Higgins, Edwina Grant OBE and Hilary Fordham Chief Executive Officer, Morecambe Bay CCG.

The SEND local offer for Lancashire is receiving a makeover. Feedback from the partnership is being used to develop a new website that better meets everyone's shared needs.

Parents and carers who expressed their views last year were invited to take part in more consultations in March. Two sessions took place at County Hall giving the opportunity for volunteers to help with the re-design of the Local Offer website. The SEND Partnership team also received attendee's feedback about what they think other parents, carers, young people and children would like to see on the site. All comments have been taken on board and the re-development is underway.

In the meantime, workshops with young people have been held at Sir Tom Finney Community High School, West Lancashire Community High School and Parklands Academy. Pupils took part in a design class, supported by the University of Central Lancashire, to create a new brand and mascot for the local offer.

The final design will be published later this spring.

Over 90 parent carers have signed up to a series of engagement activities hosted by the Partnership in Lancashire and there have been 12 events across the county so far.

These events are called 'Coffee, Cake and Conversation', they are informal events where parent carers can meet and talk with health and social care professionals about their child's needs.

It also provides an opportunity to meet other parent carers and share experiences.

More events for June and July will be announced soon.

Parent carers can keep informed about events, advice and guidance in the following ways:

• FIND Newsletter – sign up for this excellent magazine which provides information to thousands of families in Lancashire
• Local Offer Facebook – updated daily, this page is dedicated to families living with SEND

Pictured at a recent parent carer engagement event in Chorley are (left to right) Victoria Harvey-Higgins, SEND Officer from Lancashire County Council, Anne Hardman, Designated Clinical Officer from NHS, Ben Homes, Headteacher at St Peter's Church of England Primary School in Chorley, and Shak Shah, Engagement Officer, Lancashire SEND Partnership.

Edwina Grant OBE, Chair of the SEND Partnership Board, is encouraging everyone to get behind the new independent Parent Carer Forum (PCF) as it re-establishes itself in Lancashire.

The steering-group, led by Chair Sam Jones, has been working as part of the SEND Partnership with Contact and local support groups to provide a collective voice for families of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Parent carers interested in joining the forum can request specialist training to help develop skills in participation and co-production with a view to representing parent carers within the SEND Partnership. For more information, parent carers can email Sam Jones at Chair@lancashireparents.co.uk.

Read more about the PCF in this recent article from the Lancashire Evening Post.

In February, Dr Sally Richardson was announced as the new Head of Inclusion at Lancashire County Council. She replaces David Graham who retires in April.

Sally successfully completed a thorough interview process for external and internal candidates and impressed the panel which included parents, carers, young people, education leaders and executive directors from the council.

She has served Lancashire County Council for two years and successfully led the Educational Psychology service to improve the lives of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Sally is delighted to be appointed and is very much looking forward to working with colleagues and families to improve the outcomes for children and young people with SEND.

A new local area partnership has been created to work with families to identify and address issues at a local level. Meetings will be held each month in the north, south and east of Lancashire.

Each meeting will have representatives from health, education and the local authority who will talk with parent carers and young people about their needs and identify any gaps in services.

The local area partnership will work with all partners to provide support for children, young people and their families with SEND in Lancashire.

If you have a local issue you would like to raise, please email SENDPartnership@lancashire.gov.uk and we will pass it onto the team.

On 6 March, nine students from Preston's College received special recognition for taking part in Project SEARCH. The scheme offers an internship, training and support for students living with a disability.

Project SEARCH is a global programme which has helped over 6,000 students around the world. It is supported by Lancashire County Council who welcomed the students into County Hall to learn new skills within the Inclusion Service department.

Pictured are the students and staff from Preston's College, the founders of Project SEARCH, and Council colleagues including Councillor Susie Charles who presented the certificates.

A brand new audit process has been created to drive up standards of education health and care plans (EHCP) in Lancashire.

A team of Auditors will begin regularly reviewing ECHPs and identifying areas for improvement.

So far this year, 41 volunteers from health, schools, colleges, the inclusion service and youth offending team have completed specialist training to apply the latest quality standards.

To support them, a handbook has been published and a SEND Auditor appointed to provide on-going training, advice and guidance. 

The Partnership is pleased to welcome Jan Burrows as the new SEND Auditor, based at County Hall. Jan will co-ordinate the process of improving the quality of education health and care plans (EHCPs) across Lancashire. She will also work with all the agencies within the SEND Partnership and alongside colleagues in the Lancashire County Council Auditing team to deliver actions in the new SEND Partnership Improvement Plan.

The number of auditors will continue to grow and further training opportunities will be published soon.

If you are interested in becoming an EHCP Auditor with the SEND Partnership, please email SENDPartnership@Lancashire.gov.uk for more information.

Pictured is Jan Burrows, SEND Auditor.

In January, over 50 representatives from across the Partnership met in Leyland to review the neurodevelopmental pathway which has been developed between parents, carers, young people, third sector and health and education colleagues.

It will provide a consistent approach to considering neurodevelopmental conditions for young people living in Lancashire aged 0 to 25 years.

The new pathway has four key elements; referral and triage, initial assessment, assessment process and feedback and planning. The final pathway is to be implemented by June 2020.

Pictured below are partnership colleagues attending the latest workshop at Farington Lodge Hotel, led by Dr Maria Hall and Caroline Waddington.

So far, nearly 2,000 people have contributed to the Personal Outcomes Evaluation Tool (POET) survey from In-Control.

Children, young people, families and practitioners across Lancashire can take part in the survey which is part of a national pilot to help local areas understand the impact of the SEND reforms.

The survey takes less than 10 minutes to complete online using one of these links:

• Survey for parents or carers
• Survey for children and young people
• Survey for practitioners

The findings are being used to inform improvements and will enable the SEND Partnership to understand more about what is working well and where more improvement in needed. 

Read the 2017/18 report.