Independent Review of Suffolk SEND Services

In response to the 2021 Independent Review of SEND Services in Suffolk, we produced an action plan to help us deliver the review's nine recommendations. You can read an update on our progress against these recommendations, along with an open letter from Assistant Director for Inclusion Ros Somerville here: Autumn 2022 update.

You can also read the full version of the Action Plan update here.

In July 2022 we published an open letter to parent carers from Ros Somerville, Assistant Director for Inclusion. You can read the July 2022 letter here.

Dear Parent / Carer,

Following my last letter in January, I wanted to update you about our ongoing work to develop SEND services in Suffolk. We have been very busy working with our partners across Suffolk to make changes and improvements to services

Here are some of the actions and achievements since my last letter.

• We have continued to recruit staff to vacant posts across Inclusion, including recruiting 13 officers to Family Services since January 2022, which includes 3 new Family Service Managers to the vacant posts.
• We have extended the temporary contracts for our two data coordinators who continue to support us with refining our data records.
• We have also extended the temporary contracts for our Advisory Teachers who are working with Family Services.
• We had a new Educational Psychologist (EP) start with us in March and two new EPs due to start in September 2022, which will bring some much-needed capacity to the team.
• The Family Services capacity review was completed by IMPOWER and indicated that if we are to continue to work in the same way with the same trajectory of need to support young people, we would need to recruit more than 20 new members of staff across Family Services.  This is addition to the recruitment we have already undertake and described above.  We have started to recruit in April 2022 using the £1.1million new investment.
• IMPOWER are working with the Family Services team to support them in improving the quality of conversation they can have with parent/carers and children and young people with additional needs and disabilities.
• We have changed course slightly with the SENCO support line, to build on the current SENCO support line offer which is already available to schools.  We are launching an Inclusion Support line, this will be available for all educational settings, colleagues in social care and health to contact for information, advice or guidance to support children and young people with SEND. These posts are currently being recruited to.
• Leaders across the SEND Partnership met with the Department for Education (DfE) and NHS England to review progress against the written statement of action, the DfE noted that a tremendous amount of work had been undertaken although the impact of this is yet to be perceived by many parent/carers.  Link to DfE Letter
• Time to Listen events were held in March giving senior Local Authority (LA) and Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) Officers the opportunity to hear directly from parent/carers.  We use the information from these sessions to help us cross reference that all our work will address any challenges faced by parents/carers.
• Over 30 partners across Suffolk Parent Carer Forum (SPCF), Education, Social Care, Health, and Schools attended a Coproduction training event.  This was a really useful session to ensure we had a shared understanding of what coproduction means and how we can productively work together.
• Valuing SEND, a new tool for Suffolk schools to use to support accurate identification of needs and matching that to evidence based provision to meet needs, is being trialled.
• A new member of staff has been appointed in the Work Force Development team to lead in the development of training and induction for staff across Inclusion Services.  This will include a review of the current induction training for Family Services with a view to move to online training programme for staff.
• Training for LA and CCG colleagues involved in SEND Decision Making Panels has been delivered in April.
• 82% of phased transfers were completed by the statutory deadline of 15 February and 32% of phased transfers for post 16 were completed by the statutory deadline of 31 March. We know more work is needed to improve annual reviews and phased transfer cohorts – and we are exploring further options of support. This was an improvement on last year. 

Next Steps

Our next steps during the summer term are:

• Understand the feedback from schools on the Valuing SEND trial and look at what has worked well and what might need to change
• Finalise the SEND Decision making panel process and ensure membership from Social Care, Health and schools.
• Continue to recruit to new posts across Inclusion from the £1.1million investment by SCC.
• Reflect on the training received to improve conversation with families and look at how we can further improve or change
• Soft Launch of the Inclusion Support Line and introduction of the new advisors
• Continue to improve statutory time scales.  Whilst improvement was seen for 15 February deadline, we did not see any improvement for the 31 March deadline.

Other News

• The SEND and Alternative Provision green paper has been published, we will be discussing with partners across SEND what the collective view on the suggestions on the changes needed to the system and we will respond to the consultation.
• Officers from the Local Authority will be joining SPCF in May for an Open Event to meet parent/carers.

If you would like to be kept up to date with our progress and with future developments of SEND in Suffolk, you can:

• Follow us on Facebook and/or Twitter
• Sign up to the Local Offer email subscription list
• Check the News page on our website where we regularly post news and updates

We anticipate that our next update will be published at the end of July 2022. If you have any questions about the review in the meantime, you can email us at sendreview@suffolk.gov.uk.

Yours faithfully

Ros Somerville

Assistant Director, Inclusion, Children & Young People’s Directorate, Suffolk County Council

Following my last letter in November, I wanted to update you about our ongoing work to address SEND services in Suffolk.   A lot of the work and plans we set out in the Autumn term will come to fruition in the Spring term and beyond, we are continuing to plan for our next steps as well.  

Here are some of the actions and achievements since my last letter.

• Several significant appointments have been made across the SEND Services including that of Suffolk’s first Designated Social Care Officer. This role will be pivotal in building stronger working relationships between Social Care and the other partners. We are also delighted that our colleagues in North East Essex and Suffolk NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) have appointed a new Designated Clinical Officer, to further develop and integrate work between Health and the other SEND partners.  Both post holders started this month.
• Our new Head of SEND, Francesca Alexander has joined Inclusion this week. Francesca brings a wealth of experience to her role and will ably lead our SCC Family Service Teams forwards into our new ways of working.
• We have recruited two data co-ordinators who are working to improve our data records.
• Colleagues across the Children and Young People Directorate have been redeployed to assist in processing Phase Transfer Reviews.
• We have appointed one new Educational Psychologist, with recruitment currently live for two more vacancies
• We have several significant appointments still to make and are pleased with the wide field of applicants.
• Our strategic partner IMPOWER have undertaken several multi-agency case reviews to help all parties understand what has worked well, identify where gaps or weakness occurred, and to embed the learning from these to future practice.
• We are currently recruiting for staff to launch the expanded SENCO Support Line at the beginning of February.  This will add more support for schools and settings with early intervention and help to sign-post them to additional support when this is needed.
• The Family Services capacity review is being finalised by IMPOWER and has indicated where we need to recruit more staff to support the SEND statutory processes.
• A request for a further investment of £1.1million has been made to Cabinet for Inclusion Services from April 2022 and has received support from all political parties.
• Leaders across the SEND Partnership met with Suffolk Cabinet Members at the recent Education and Children’s Services Scrutiny Committee.
• A formal Data Protection agreement has been put in place between the Local Authority and the NHS CCGs to enable us to work together and share information more efficiently.
• 16 time to listen events were held in November giving parent/carers the opportunity to meet with senior leaders across the SEND Services to share their experiences and ask questions.
• The Integrated Action Plan developed by IMPOWER has been published on the Local Offer website. Integrated Action Plan
• Coproduction has started with Suffolk Parent Carer Forum., including representation at the SEND Accountability Board.

Next Steps

Our next steps during the Spring term are:

• Continue to develop and embed our partnership working practices. During February we are running a co-production training event, to ensure all key partners understand and adhere to the fundamental principles of co-production.
• Trial “Valuing SEND” - a new approach to considering Children and Young People’s needs and how settings meet them, developed by IMPOWER. This will be being trialled within three education settings over the next few months.
• Review the findings from the Family Services Capacity Analysis, to consider what further action is needed.
• Review the results of the training needs analysis undertaken within Family Services against the training offer currently available, to develop and strengthen our skills in this area.
• Start the training regarding the strength-based conversations which will support coproduction at an individual child and family level as part of the Education, Health and Care needs assessment.

Other News

• The Department for Education (DfE) will be holding a remote review meeting of SEND Services in Suffolk. Preparation is currently underway to update them on our progress, challenges and next steps, and feedback from this meeting will be published on our Local Offer website in due course.
• Suffolk Parent Carer Forum (SPCF) - Formal Launch: We are delighted to share that SPCF are holding their formal launch event online on Tuesday 1st February between 10am-1pm. They invite any who would like to join them to find out more about what they will be doing, and you can find out more about this event here: SCPF Launch.

If you would like to be kept up to date with our progress and with future developments of SEND in Suffolk, you can:

• Follow us on Facebook and/or Twitter
• Sign up to the Local Offer email subscription list
• Check the News page on our website where we regularly post news and updates

We anticipate that our next update will be published in April 2022. If you have any questions about the review in the meantime, you can email us at sendreview@suffolk.gov.uk.

Yours faithfully

Ros Somerville

Assistant Director, Inclusion, Children & Young People’s Directorate, Suffolk County Council

Dear Parent / Carer

It has been two months since we published the findings of the Lincolnshire Independent Review into SEND Services in Suffolk.  I am mindful that one of the things we must do is communicate better with you as families, and so what follows is a short update on what we have done so far and what our next steps will be.

Over the last two months, we have undertaken the following actions.

• We have appointed IMPOWER to work in partnership with us, to support to implement the recommendations. IMPOWER are an independent company experienced with working with the public sector to improve service outcomes. You can find out more about IMPOWER on their website;
• We are working with IMPOWER, and parent carers on an Integrated Delivery Plan detailing how we plan to meet the review’s recommendations and set out the timescales for our actions. This work is ongoing, and when the plan is ready, we will share it with you.
• We are recruiting additional staff to our Family Services teams at both management and support officer levels. This will take some time yet to complete and is proving more difficult than we would like. However, it is vital that we continue to increase the overall size of our team to manage the volume of work.
• We are recruiting additional Educational Psychologists to the team.
• We are redesigning our decision-making panels, including our Specialist Education Panel (SEP). This work is being coproduced across the SEND system with social care, education, health, and parent/carer representatives.
• We have provided training on SEND Decision Making and the Law which was attended by over 100 members of staff. This session was based on training from the Independent Provider of Special Educational Advice (IPSEA). A further session is planned for later in November.
• We have completed a review of the system we use to hold all our data about children and young people with an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans. We now have an improved system that will track which annual reviews have been received and which have not been received such that we can ensure we take appropriate action.  This review has also identified how we can use the system to help us to work as efficiently as possible.
• We have employed time from an additional SEND Specialist Solicitor, to help us as we analyse our current processes and working practices against the SEND Code of Practice (2015) and look to develop new processes in- line with the review recommendations.

In addition, I am delighted to be able to bring you news of the new Suffolk Parent Carer Forum, which will become our formal coproduction partner for SEND. The Management Board of the Forum are in place; they are currently recruiting and training new members and we anticipate them being fully up and running by the new year. I would like to thank those of you who have worked so hard and so quickly to get the new forum in place and I should like to encourage you all to join the forum to support and strengthen it with your voices and experience. You can find out more about the forum by visiting their Facebook page Suffolk Parent Carer Forum.

Next Steps

There is much work still to do and a lot is planned. Our immediate next steps are to:

• agree and publish our Integrated Delivery Plan, with a list of actions to be taken against each review recommendation and anticipated timescales;
• provide a detailed report to Education & Children Services Scrutiny Committee on progress, next steps and evidence our improvements on 9 December 2021;
• complete a more detailed analysis of the volume of work and check we have enough staff in the right places to complete the work.
• develop our processes to ensure that we improve coproduction at the individual child level as part of an EHC needs assessment;
• complete a staff training needs analysis to identify and address any gaps in knowledge.

If you would like to be kept up to date with our progress and with future developments of SEND in Suffolk, you can:

• Follow us on Facebook and/or Twitter
• Sign up to the Local Offer email subscription list
• Check the News page on our website where we regularly post news and updates

We anticipate that our next update will be published in January 2022. If you have any questions about the review in the meantime, you can email us at sendreview@suffolk.gov.uk.

Your faithfully

Ros Somerville

Assistant Director, Inclusion, Children & Young People’s Directorate, Suffolk County Council

Thank you to all those who have contributed to our independent review. The review process has now finished and we await the final report and recommendations from the Lincolnshire review team.  

We have shared more than 100 documents with the Independent Review team, including:

• Performance data
• Process documents
• Examples of co-production, and
• Feedback from children and young people with SEND

We have also arranged over 25 meetings with more than 140 attendees invited, including:

• Two groups of children and young people with SEND
• Four groups of parents/carers
• 28 education settings
• A range of practitioners and managers across Education, Health and Social Care

We will publish the findings of the review on the Suffolk Local Offer website (www.suffolklocaloffer.org.uk) in due course.

Meanwhile if you need any additional support you can contact:

For support around EHCPs and school placements, email your local Family Services team

For support regarding short breaks, email info@activities-unlimited.co.uk

For other SEND-related enquiries, email localoffer@suffolk.gov.uk

Independent review of aspects of Suffolk’s SEND services to be carried out by experts from Lincolnshire

Published 18 Jun 2021

A multi-agency team from Lincolnshire will carry out an independent review into SEND provision.

A multi-agency team from Lincolnshire will carry out an independent review into the way parents and carers are communicated with and kept informed of their child’s SEND provision in Suffolk. 

The SEND (special educational needs and disability) review will focus on the processes, communication protocols and family-facing elements of SEND services within Suffolk County Council. It will not look at specific cases or the provision given to specific children.

The review will start next week and will be completed within six weeks. The report, with any recommendations, will be published on Suffolk County Council’s website, shared with those who contributed to it and also scrutinised, in public, by the council’s Education and Children’s Services Scrutiny Committee.

The review team from Lincolnshire will consist of two senior officers from Lincolnshire County Council, performance analysts and the chair of the county’s parent carer network. 

Councillor Rachel Hood, Suffolk County Council’s cabinet member for education, SEND and skills, said:  

“Lincolnshire has excellent SEND provision and the team has kindly agreed to review certain elements of our service and will make recommendations based on their findings which will be of great value to us. 

“Families with experience of Suffolk’s SEND may share their feedback of the communication process for the review, but we ask that this is relevant to the scope of the review. We have set up an email account for families to feed in their comments. It is important that a range of stakeholders are heard so we can fully understand our strengths and weaknesses and identify next steps. Ofsted have confirmed that we have made significant improvement in this area, and the findings of this review will enable this improvement to continue.”  

SEND services in Suffolk are delivered in partnership by Suffolk County Council, Suffolk’s NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups and education settings.  

The review will look at: 

• The effective flow of cases 
• Communication with young people and families   
• Processes for dealing with incoming enquiries from young people and families in a timely manner 
• A focus on the family-facing elements of the service  
• The allocation of provision and, where appropriate, placement in a timely way for children 

In recent weeks, there have been calls from some parents and carers of children with SEND - known as the Campaign for Change (SEND Suffolk) - for a lawyer-led audit of the council’s compliance with the legal requirements set out for the service. Suffolk County Council has considered this request, but has decided not to move forward with it because:  

1. It is the role of Ofsted to inspect all aspects of SEND provision, including those that would be included in such an audit. Ofsted and CQC has already made two monitoring visits to Suffolk and have identified areas of progress as well as areas of improvement 
2. A new national SEND inspection framework is being launched, meaning further detailed inspections will take place 
3. The county council already has an internal and external auditing process for Education, Health and Care Plans 
4. There is an established complaints procedure for parents and carers who feel that the service they are receiving is not appropriate or sufficient 

Suffolk County Council is eager to work collaboratively and productively with the Campaign for Change group, and parents and carers not involved or represented by the group, to make improvements in SEND services. 

Councillor Hood added:  

“We know that every parent and carer wants the best for their children, especially when it comes to education and care. Suffolk County Council wants the same and must strive to provide the very best services we can. 

“This review will be immediate, in depth and independent and we will act on the recommendations made as swiftly and thoroughly as we can.  

“We want to reassure parents and carers that this is a priority and we will make improvements where they are needed as quickly as possible.”  

In Suffolk nearly 18,000 young people are supported in some way through local SEND services, including 5,900 with Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) or those receiving support in education settings. Demand has grown very significantly. Prior to the 2014 national SEND reforms, Suffolk held approximately 3,000 statements of SEND. 

If you would like to participate in this review then please share your experiences of the processes, communication protocols and family-facing elements of SEND services within Suffolk County Council at SendReview@suffolk.gov.uk.  This email account is only for review feedback and should not be used to raise specific issues.

Independent review of aspects of Suffolk’s SEND services to be carried out

Published 13 Jun 2021

The way parents and carers are kept informed of their child’s special educational needs and disability services in Suffolk will be independently reviewed.

This review will be carried out by a senior professional with no links to, or direct involvement with, Suffolk’s provision and will focus on the processes, communication protocols and family-facing elements of SEND services within Suffolk County Council. This review will determine if current systems in place are sufficient.

Councillor Rachel Hood, Suffolk County Council’s newly appointed cabinet member for education, SEND and skills, said:

“I know that every parent and carer wants the best for their children, especially when it comes to education and care. Suffolk County Council want the same and must strive to provide the very best services we can.

“The findings of this immediate independent review will help us to understand our strengths and weaknesses and identify any changes that need to be made. We are approaching matters with an open mind and with the best interests of children, their parents and carers at heart.

“The way in which SEND provision is delivered with our partners has improved significantly over the last 18 months, but we must always work to improve what we do, especially when we are faced with increasing demand for special educational support.

“I am newly appointed to this Suffolk County Council cabinet portfolio and am determined to build on the progress that has already been made. It is important to recognise that significant reform and improvement has taken place recently and that further improvements can take time, but SEND provision is one of our main priorities for this year. This urgent review will build on existing achievement, and offer insight for further improvement.”

There has been some criticism of SEND services in Suffolk, which is delivered in partnership by Suffolk County Council, Suffolk’s NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups and education settings. Details of who will conduct the review, alongside the timescales, is to be confirmed.

The specific scope of the review is also being finalised, but is expected to look at:

• The effective flow of cases
• Communication with young people and families 
• Processes for dealing with incoming enquires from young people and families in a timely manner
• A focus on the family-facing elements of the service
• The allocation of provision and, where appropriate, placement in a timely way for children

Anne Humphrys, Co-Chair of Suffolk Parent Carer Network, said: “We know that many families still experience frustration with a system that doesn’t always respond to the needs of their children and young people. SPCN welcomes the independent review following our feedback about how families’ experience services.

“We hope it will result in change that improves the lived experience of families.”

In Suffolk nearly 18,000 young people are supported in some way through local SEND services, including 5,900 with Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) or those receiving support in education settings. Demand has grown very significantly. Prior to the 2014 national SEND reforms, Suffolk held approximately 3,000 statements of SEND.

SEND Background

Joint local area SEND inspection of Local Authority (LA) & Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) December 2016

• This required a written statement of Action to address key weaknesses

SEND Revisit January 2019

• Governance now well established. At that stage, the quality of the SEND statutory assessments and EHC plans, the local offer and joint working were judged to have not improved enough.

Progress Review November 2020

• “you have now been able to demonstrate that…..”
• “….you have fully addressed the issues regarding leadership identified by inspectors during the revisit”
• “…the improvements to the timeliness of EHCPs since 2019 is commendable…school representatives confirmed the improved quality”
• “….significant and satisfactory progress in improving the communications with a wide range of stakeholders”
• “….anticipate a particular focus on the progress in implementing you plans for mental health services and the neurodevelopment pathway”

Investment and improvement:

• Establishment of the Local Offer website as a co-produced, accessible information source about the services available for children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities. It achieves well over 1,000 hits per month.
• £45.1m capital programme to create an additional 870 specialist education places over a 5-year period to 2024
• More timely issuing of EHC Plans: 18% in 2016 to 80% for 2020 (national average 58%). Year-to-date performance in 2021 >95%
• Improved quality of EHC plans measured by both internal and external audit
• Development of the Suffolk early intervention offer through increasing the capacity of the Specialist Education Services in 2018 and the ‘Graduated Response’ which describes, for schools, the support available from the LA and the expectations around the school’s duties to accurately identify and assess need, provide high quality learning experiences and implement appropriate intervention.
• Development of the Designated Clinical Officer role and Deputies in 2020 to support further development and integration of SEND in frontline health practice.
• Developed and implemented a revised high needs funding system that provides a fair and equitable system for all education providers
• Success of Activities Unlimited Service which is now supporting 5000 families with activities and short breaks
• £1m additional investment in Speech & Language Therapies by Ipswich & East Suffolk and West Suffolk CCGs.
• The establishment of an Emotional Wellbeing Hub, launched in April 2018, to simplify access to emotional wellbeing and mental health services. Further work is needed to make this as effective as it needs to be
• Co-production and implementation of the Moving into Adulthood person centred plan in 2019 so this in place for all young people with an EHCP age 13 plus
• Development of the Post-16 Transitions Guide. This won a national award in 2020 from NASEN as best publication.

SEND can cover a wide spectrum of needs that affects many aspects of their lives:

• behaviour or ability to socialise, for example they struggle to make friends
• social, emotional and mental health
• reading and writing, for example because they have dyslexia
• ability to understand things
• concentration levels, for example because of neuro-diversity
• physical health needs

FAQs (updated 05/07/21)

Q1: Will the reviewing team from Lincolnshire be meeting with families?

A: Yes. In order to try and represent as many families across Suffolk as possible, we asked a range of organisations to approach families and ask if they would be willing to meet the review team. We also asked the team from the Suffolk Engagement Hub to facilitate a meeting for young people with SEND to give their feedback directly. At the time of writing (05/07/21), three parent carer meetings have been set up with the review team. These will be taking place over two weeks from Monday 5^th July 2021.

The reviewing team will also be attending two sessions during this period to talk with young people and get their feedback directly.

Q2: Will the Reviewing Team be meeting with schools?

A: Yes. We emailed SENDCOs and Leaders from all our Primary, Secondary, Specialist, Alternative, Early Years and Post 16 education provision, inviting them to participate in some online group sessions with the review team. Four sessions have now been arranged, with 28 different education settings represented.

Q3. If I am not part of one of those groups, can I attend a meeting?

A: All spaces at the meetings have now been filled, and we would like to thank everyone who was willing to give their time in this way. We encourage anyone who would still like to contribute to email SendReview@suffolk.gov.uk with their feedback.

Q4: How will the review work?

A: The team from Lincolnshire will look at Suffolk County Council’s SEND processes, policies and performance data. They will also meet with the parties listed above, and will have full access to feedback submitted via the mailbox.

Once complete, the Lead Reviewer will produce a written report on their findings, and will make recommendations as appropriate.

Q5: Who will have access to my information if I email the SEND Review Inbox given above?

A: The Inbox is being monitored by SCC staff that are helping organise the review. These staff are independent from frontline SEND services. The emails go to the Lincolnshire team to consider as part of the review.

For more details on the process, including the timeline, please download the “Final Review Process” document available in the Downloads section on this page.

Suffolk County Council have asked a team from the Lincolnshire SEND system to carry out an independent review into the way parents and carers are communicated with and kept informed of their child’s SEND provision in Suffolk. 

The SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disability) review will focus on the processes, communication protocols and family-facing elements of SEND services within Suffolk County Council. It will not look at specific cases or the provision given to specific children.

The review will start on 21/6/21 and will be completed within six weeks. The report, with any recommendations, will be published on Suffolk County Council’s website, shared with those who contributed to it and also scrutinised, in public, by the Council’s Education and Children’s Services Scrutiny Committee.

The review team from Lincolnshire will consist of two senior officers from Lincolnshire County Council, performance analysts and the chair of the County’s Parent Carer Forum.

If you would like to participate in this review then please share your experiences of the processes, communication protocols and family-facing elements of SEND services within Suffolk County Council by emailing SendReview@suffolk.gov.uk.  This email account is only for review feedback and should not be used to raise specific issues.

To download documents about how the review process will work, please view the Downloads section on the right of the screen (desktop) or below on mobile devices.

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