Lancashire SEND Partnership
The Lancashire SEND Partnership brings together all the agencies in Lancashire which provide special educational needs and disability (SEND) services for children, young people, their parents and carers, with representatives from those who use the service.
The SEND Partnership was formed following the Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) joint inspection of SEND services in our local area.
We will continue to share more about the changes taking place via regular updates so look out for notices on our SEND local offer website and Facebook page or view our events on Eventbrite.
If you would like to get in touch with the partnership team, you can email SENDPartnership@lancashire.gov.uk or call 01772 532 280.
News
Ofsted and the CQC carried out a SEND Local Area revisit in Lancashire between 9 and 12 March 2020. The revisit was to evaluate the effectiveness of Lancashire's progress in improving SEND services for children and young people against the twelve areas of significant concern identified during the November 2017 SEND Local Area Inspection.
Inspectors identified seven of these areas of significant concern as having sufficiently improved, and although there have been improvements in the remaining five areas, further on-going work is required.
We will respond to the findings in the report with a targeted action plan that addresses the five areas which continue to require improvement. This will be monitored by the Department for Education SEND Intervention Unit and NHS England.
You can view the reports on the Ofsted reports website and our news item provides more information about the report and our response.
You can find regular updates for parents and carers on our Facebook page and the Lancashire Parent Carer Forum website under the Covid-19 tab.
Disruption to services
On 12 March 2020, Cabinet agreed the proposals arising from the outcome of the review of Lancashire's Short Break Offer for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities. Cabinet also agreed that a consultation is undertaken on the proposed changes.
One of the priorities for the SEND Partnership was to review Lancashire's SEND local offer, which is the information, advice, support and services available across Lancashire, for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.
Following an extensive review, work has been carried out over the last six months to revise the local offer website, which provides a central access point to this information. You can find the revised SEND local offer website at www.lancashire.gov.uk/SEND.
To help spread the word about the new local offer, please share this link or our electronic flyer (PDF 101 KB) with anyone you think may benefit from accessing the local offer. The flyer can be reproduced if required and included in newsletters, social media or on your own websites.
We will continue to share more about the changes taking place via regular updates on the SEND local offer website and Facebook page. In the meantime if you have any questions please get in touch with the SEND Partnership, SENDPartnership@lancashire.gov.uk.
Lancashire County Council's cabinet has agreed a number of proposals to increase the provision for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities in Lancashire over the next five years. The county council needs to support the increasing number of Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCP) that are developed for children and young people. An increase of 42% was experienced between 2014 and 2019. Ensuring that as many children as possible are educated in mainstream schools that are suitable to fit their needs is a paramount commitment of the county council, as well as ensuring that appropriate sufficient specialist provision is available. It is expected that at least another 213 special school places will be needed within the next five years. The county council is investing an additional £10m to support children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
For more information about this, please see the council's news article.
The SEND Partnership has agreed its ways of working (PDF 499 KB). This document was agreed at the SEND Partnership Board on 16 September.
The LPCF open event in October was a celebration of parent participation and the impact of how parents being involved with improvement work has been a positive change in our county over the past year.
Invited speakers spoke to parent carers on topics including how parents have been involved in the redesign of the Neurodevelopmental Pathway, the Short Breaks redesign and the development of the One Page Profile section of the Education Health and Care Plan.
Parent carers were given opportunities to share their views on selected topics, to post questions and comments either via the flip chart questions around the room or via the tabled questions. All these comments, questions and responses will be published in the Event Report which will be available in the coming weeks.
A child's first day at school can be nerve-racking for them and their parent/carers. Take a look at Lancashire County Council's video with hints and tips for getting your child ready to start school. If you would like more information about any help your child may need you can visit the special educational needs and disabilities local offer.
Lancashire SEND Partnership is hosting three more events in the north and west of the county for parent carers to talk about SEND issues with local professionals.
So far this year, 12 events have been held across Lancashire where parents have met designated clinical officers, SEN co-ordinators, senior managers from the inclusion service and members of the information advice and support team.
We will post upcoming events at different locations when they become available.
POWAR the council for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities have created a survey for young people with SEND to share what they think is the top issue for them. Once the results are in, POWAR will create a campaign to raise awareness of and tackle the issue.
POWAR would like to hear the voices of children and young people through this survey and ask that you share it with your child/young person so POWAR can collate as many views as possible.
www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/EmPOWAR
If your child or young person would like to join POWAR, or you would like more information about the group, please email Mia Leyland on mia.leyland@barnardos.org.uk.
The Local Area Partnerships (LAPs) provide two-way communication between families and senior practitioners. Each monthly meeting is hosted by the Designated Clinical Officer (DCO) who enables families to identify and address SEND issues at a local level. The LAPs meet in schools in the north, east and south of Lancashire and have representatives from health, education and the local authority who talk with parent carers and young people about their needs and identify any gaps in services.
To raise a question or concern in your area please contact your DCO before the next meeting:
| Area | DCO | |
|---|---|---|
| North | Kathleen Freear | Kathleen.Freear@nhs.net |
| South | Anne Hardman | anne.hardman@lancashirecare.nhs.uk |
| East | Carole Kay | carole.kay@lancashirecare.nhs.uk |
Each LAP meeting is attended by at least one parent carer representative who will help ensure your voice is heard.
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:
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.
The SEND Partnership Board
The board is responsible for decisions made to improve SEND services. It has representatives from:
- children and young people
- parents and carers
- education
- health
- social care
- volunteer groups
You can read more information about the membership and role of the board in the terms of reference (PDF 163KB).
Due to the COVID-19 response, the Partnership Board meetings were stood down from March 2020 to July 2020, with delegated responsibility being handed to the SEND Operational Group in the interim. Meetings were reconvened from September 2020 online via Microsoft Teams.
Meeting notes
Improvement plan
In 2018, our written statement of action (WSoA), set out the changes we needed to make to address the recommendations that Ofsted and the CQC made in their report.
In early 2019, we produced an important update to the WSoA called our Improvement Plan. This plan was produced by the partners who form the SEND Partnership Board which is accountable to the Health and Wellbeing Board, the NHS and the council.
- Lancashire SEND Partnership Improvement Plan (PDF 1 MB)
Investing in SEND
To support the action plan, the county council and the six clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have already invested significant resources by recruiting a number of new positions. These include:
- Joint commissioner for health pan-Lancashire
- SEND improvement partner and programme team
- SEND ICT implementation team
- Commissioning support managers
- Three designated clinical officers
Publications
Strategy
- Lancashire SEND Partnership Written Statement of Action (PDF 503 KB)
- Lancashire SEND Partnership Improvement Plan 2019 – 2020 Update on the Written Statement of Action (PFD 1 MB)
- Lancashire SEND Partnership Strategy: 2019 – 2021 (PDF 941 KB)
- Lancashire SEND Partnership Strategy and Vision Poster (PDF 373 KB)
- Lancashire SEND Partnership Working Together (Co-production) Strategy 2019 – 2021 (PDF 774 KB)
- Lancashire SEND Partnership Ways of Working (PDF 499 KB)
Statistics
- Joint strategic needs assessment (JSNA)
- Education and social care data dashboard
- Health data dashboard
Procedures and guidance
Feedback
Local Area Partnership
Local Area Partnership (LAP) meetings allow representatives from the SEND Partnership to discuss local issues in the north, south and east of Lancashire. The meetings are organised by the designated clinical officer (DCO) and includes members from education, health, the local authority and the parent carer forum.
Schools and families can raise local concerns about SEND services by contacting your local DCO. Any issue which can't be resolved at local level will be raised to the SEND Partnership Board.
Timeline
| November 17 | January 18 | March 18 | April 18 | May 18 | June 18 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ofsted and CQC inspection completed | Ofsted and CQC report published | SEND action plan created | DfE and NHS England monitoring visit |
Action plan approved by Ofsted |
Parent/carer engagement launched |
| July 18 | August 18 | September 18 | October 18 | November 18 | December 18 |
| DfE and NHS England monitoring visit | DCO's appointed | Parent/carer reps appointed and education engagement launched | DfE and NHS England monitoring visit | SEND Partnership publishes its vision, values and strategy | DfE and NHS England monitoring visit |
| January 19 | February 19 | March 19 | April 19 | May 19 | July 19 |
| POET survey re-launched | Draft improvement plan published with partners | New working groups hold first meetings | 2019-2020 Improvement Plan published | Parent Carer Forum Participation training workshops | Inclusion Service host education engagement events |
| August 19 | September 19 | October 19 | November 19 | December 2019 | January 2020 |
| Cabinet agreed to review and redesign the whole Short Breaks Offer, in partnership with parents, carers, young people and providers. | SEND Partnership Board Meeting |
SEND Partnership host Annual Review Guidance/Support Events LPCF One Year On Event |
SEND Partnership Board Meeting | Short Breaks Offer Re-design Workshops | Short Breaks face to face engagement with children and young people |
| February 20 | |||||
| Short Breaks report submitted to Cabinet |
Get in touch
If you would like to make a suggestion or have a comment about the Lancashire SEND Partnership, please email SENDpartnership@lancashire.gov.uk or call 01772 532 713.
We will keep this page up to date with news and information so look out for updates on the SEND local offer website, our Facebook page or view our events on Eventbrite.