Evaluation of the SEND Pathfinder Programme: Interim Findings August 2012

Outline The findings reported are based on 1.The second monitoring returns provided by all Pathfinder areas >Are areas own perceptions of progress >Are based around the Common Delivery Framework (CDF), which sets out a series of themes and elements which it was anticipated each Pathfinder would need to address >Covers the period April to the end of June Additional qualitative evidence from the ten in-depth case study areas gathered during a second round of visits undertaken between June-July

The CDM 2 Organisational engagement and cultural change Engagement of stakeholders; Recruitment of staff; Change management; Market development and local offer Engaging and involving families Awareness raising with families; Peer support Setting up the infrastructure - Mapping a Single Assessment and Plan pathway; Development of Personal Budgets; Co-ordination and delivery of the Pathfinder approach; Development of IT resources Risk management and Safeguarding Safeguarding

Overarching Programme progress Half-way through the Programme  Majority of the Pathfinder areas had reached the end of their initial set-up phase  Most were part-way through developing the infrastructure required to deliver the new approaches – but with some distance to go before we can say what is / will work Stronger progress reported against some elements of the CDF, whilst progress against other elements remained at early development stage …emerging findings against each theme of the CDF are illustrated on the following slides 3

Theme 1. Organisational engagement and cultural change Strong progress Vast majority of Pathfinder areas had successfully set up governance structures and project delivery teams Majority of services had committed staff time to support Pathfinder development Limited progress Representation from health remained an issue for many areas On-going uncertainty about the purpose and role the VCS could and should play Engagement of children and young people in development remained very limited Most services have not committed money for development or service provision Success factors Areas that had a dedicated resource to support the development and delivery of the Pathfinder appeared to have made more progress… …developing the infrastructure required to deliver the Pathfinder …developing and delivering change management …raising awareness and recruiting families and young people to take part in the Pathfinder Relationship between project leaders and managers also important 4

Stakeholder engagement 5 There remained a group of stakeholders that were common to almost all areas  Had also seen an increase in engagement from some groups, such as colleges since the previous quarter  …but was still some groups less represented than might expect – but may reflect local focus / circumstances

Market development and the local offer 6 Consultation with providers and development of the local offer remained at a relatively early stage of development – a lot of discussion taking place but issues to be solved Development of the local offer in the most advanced cases implied that areas intended to develop either A broad brush strategic offer setting out their multi-agency intentions Or a provider based directory And…although some progress had been made drawing together the social care and education elements of the local offer, limited discussion appeared to have taken place in relation to health

Theme 1. Majority moving towards completion of their set-up phase 7 12 areas judged at least a two-thirds of the 16 progress measures of this theme to be fully in place Only 4 areas were still in the early stages of developing (or had not yet begun) a third of their progress measures

Theme 2. Engaging and involving families and young people Strong progress All areas had begun to raise awareness of the Pathfinder with prospective families and young people Most areas had begun to recruit families and young people to participate in their Pathfinder – over 300 families recruited by mid- August Recruitment to date included children and young people from across the 0-25 age range and spectrum of educational needs Limited progress Pace and scale of recruitment to date was lower than indicated at the time of scoping There appeared to be a bias towards the recruitment of families that were already accessing services / so often not testing cases coming for initial assessment Recruitment of young people aged 19+ years remained lower than other age groups Success factors Most effective forms of awareness raising were… …events and targeted introductions, which had enabled discussion about the Pathfinder …awareness raising through parent partnerships and forums Is important to raise awareness and explain what is involved before asking families and young people to commit to participating in the Pathfinder 8

Themes 3 and 4. Setting up the infrastructure and Safeguarding and risk management Strong progress Most areas had either fully or partially mapped out their single assessment and plan pathway, with a number also having developed a single plan template Most areas had either fully or partially considered how to coordinate the delivery of their Pathfinder approach, with key working forming a common approach across most areas Limited progress Majority of areas focusing on streamlining the review process for families already accessing services as didn’t feel had time to develop a single assessment process Resourcing and accountability of the single plan had not been fully considered – so may be a risk of plans not being delivered Development of personal budgets, IT resources and safeguarding procedures remained at a formative stage across most areas Success factors Too early to say… 9

Assessment and planning Emerging evidence indicated that the assessment and planning pathways were more commonly expected to consist of…  Assessment – a set of assessments by different agencies being brought together. These are not new assessments, but rather a summary to enable planning  Planning – single planning events and/or the use of a planning coordinator to create the plan with the family and liaise with relevant professionals Evidence from the case studies illustrated a number of commonalities between the developing single plan templates  Key/basic information - containing information about the child/young person and their family and the set of services they were currently being supported by  A headline assessment/pen picture – including an evidence-based picture of the strengths and dislikes (including the identification of needs) of the child/young person and their priorities  The identification of outcomes – a table to record outcomes (both short and longer term) and means of measuring these  An action plan – to show how each outcome would be achieved and which agency/service would be responsible for delivering each action  Appendices – to include supporting information such as assessment evidence 10

Themes 3 and 4. Overall mixed progress made by areas 11

Progress is being made Vast majority of areas have management and development structures in place and the most of the key players involved Many have made good progress in developing their Pathway for families and shaping the Single Plan document Change management, including staff training, and family recruitment has begun, and in some cases are well advanced However, it is still too early to draw conclusions against the four key objectives for the evaluation, which seek to assess whether the Pathfinders  Make the current system more transparent, less adversarial and less bureaucratic  Increase choice and control and improve outcomes  Introduce greater independence into the assessment process by using the voluntary sector  Demonstrate value for money …. ways in which Pathfinders intend to deliver on these issues remain as set out in the March Quarterly Evaluation Report 12

Issues arising 13 Issues around capacity and clarity …lack of capacity in health to support Pathfinder development may limit the testing of multi- agency working and highlights the importance of plans for Joint Commissioning …uncertainty around the role of the VCS may lead to limit the extent to which they are involved during the Pathfinder Some areas where progress seems slow …limited development of the local offer to date means that some areas are unlikely to publish these by Dec 2012 …limited testing of Personal Budgets …partial consideration of accountability and resourcing producing only limited improvements in multi- agency working Some limitations in what is being tested …emphasis placed on recruiting families that were already in the system, combined with scale and pace of recruitment may cause scalability and replicability issues over the longer-term …Non-Pathfinder areas may benefit from initial lessons learnt, but will still need to undertake considerable development work Current pace of progress and associated recruitment of families and young people will limit the evaluation (especially findings around key sub-groups), unless the data collection and reporting period is extended

Contact 14 Graham Thom Director SQW t e. w. Meera Prabhakar Senior Consultant SQW t e. w.