Progress Update for SEND in Shropshire

According to a recent review, partners from across Health and the local authority in Shropshire are making progress against their commitment to improve support for children and young people with Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND).

Following the six-month progress review of the Accelerated Progress Plan (APP), Department for Education (DfE) SEND and NHS England have found the evidence submitted by partners supports strong intentions by officer leadership and commitment from front line staff.

The response from DfE and NHS England highlights the range of actions which have been taken to drive improvement and recognises the contributions from the Parent Carer Forum (PACC) and school representatives.

The actions include:

• Recruitment of a Head of Transformation and Commissioning Children and Young People and Learning Disabilities and Autism at NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin

• Implementing changes to improve communications to ensure parent carers are aware of the range of support available to them whilst their children are waiting on the diagnostic pathways.

• Quality Service Improvement work to ensure the local area has clearer oversight and measures in place to review waiting times.

• The development of the Neurodevelopment Neurodiversity Practitioner (ND) role.

• New multiagency Education Health Care Plan (EHCP) quality assurance processes to analyse the quality of EHCP planning.

• Investment in workforce development to ensure Children and Young People receive quality EHC plans.

• Ongoing feedback mechanisms allowing officers to have structured conversations and support as part of a multiagency Quality Assurance approach for EHC Plans.

• Introduction of a New Appendix B – Education advice, which has been co-produced with education setting representatives.

• Embedding the process of triaging children and young people and expediting referrals based on clinical needs.

• Work to increase the Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) workforce capacity.

• A coaching model and video sessions to professionals to support children and young people with speech and language difficulties.

The health and local authority partners are in the process of updating the Accelerated Progress Plan which will be published on the Local Offer website pages in the New Year.

A survey was shared with parent carers earlier this year to benchmark people’s experiences of SEND provision in Shropshire. A follow-up survey will take place in 2024 to check if people’s experiences are improving as a result the actions being taken and identify opportunities for further improvement.

The Local Area SEND system is committed to providing regular updates on these key areas of work through the Shropshire SEND Newsletter available at https://www.shropshire.gov.uk/the-send-local-offer/news/