Co-production Six Months On Brian Lamb OBE

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With a little of this…?

The Context 86% of forums are aware of the EHC transition arrangements in their local area but only 71% are confident they will be achieved. 82% of respondents felt either very or fairly confident that the Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) assessment pathway in their local area was fully compliant. 70% of forums are very confident or fairly confident that staff implementing the reforms in their local area have embraced the required culture change. 58% of forums have low confidence that individual parents understand what is being done to transfer and review statements. 1/3 of forums were either very or fairly confident that schools in their local area did have a clear system in place for identifying and responding to SEND. 30% of forums said their Local Authority had appeal arrangements in place. Parent Carer Forums Survey 3: - Implementation of the SEND Reforms Jan 2015

Outcomes “We know that the educational achievement for children with SEN is too low and the gap with their peers too wide. This is a hangover of a system, and a society, which did not place enough value on achieving good outcomes for disabled children and children with SEN” Lamb Inquiry.

Parents at the Centre “Providers must take account of; the views, wishes and feelings of the child or young person, and the child’s parents the importance of the child or young person, and the child’s parents, participating as fully as possible in decisions; and being provided with the information and support necessary to enable participation in those decisions the need to support the child or young person, and the child’s parents, in order to facilitate the development of the child or young person and to help them achieve the best possible educational and other outcomes, preparing them effectively for adulthood” (Section 19 Children and Families Act)

Different Levels of Coproduction At the level of the Local Offer-the overall strategic development of services and information about them At the level of Schools through the Schools Information Report and SEN Policy At the level of individual service provision through the EHC Plan and through the graduated response

Good Parental Involvement? Planning-Parental engagement must be planned for and embedded in a whole school or service strategy. (Schools SEN Policy/Schools Information Report) Leadership-Effective leadership of parental engagement is essential to the success of programmes and strategies. (Schools Accountability Measures/Equality Act/OFSTED Criteria/Schools Information Report) Collaboration and engagement-Parental engagement requires active collaboration with parents and should be pro-active rather than reactive. It should be sensitive to the circumstances of all families, recognise the contributions parents can make, and aim to empower parents. (Assessment/EHCP/parental conversation) Sustained improvement-A parental engagement strategy should be the subject of on-going support, monitoring and development. (School SEN Policy/Schools SEN Report) Goodhall, J. and Vorhaus. J. (2011) Review of Best Practice in Parental Engagement. London. DfE.

Passive acceptance Educating Informing Consulting Involving Co-designing Co-producing Doing To Doing For Doing With Levels of Engagement

Local Offer Parents and young people have been involved in shaping what is in the Local Offer ensuring services are attuned to needs (CoP ) There is clarity and transparency over what parents and carers, children and young people can access and how (CoP 4.29 following) There is more information about Health and Social Care and other relevant services (CoP 4.14/15 and 4.61) Early Years providers, schools and colleges are clearer about their roles and what is they are expected to deliver for their delegated funds (CoP 4.32) and can discuss this with the Local Authority (CoP 4.15) Mechanisms are in place to be able to review the offer and the Local Authority has to responded detailing what action it will take (CoP ) – the content of the Local Offer, which includes the quality of existing provision and any gaps in the provision – the accessibility of information in the Local Offer – how the Local Offer has been developed or reviewed Parents and young people will have the continuing opportunities to participate in strategic decision making. (CoP 4.61)

What has been happening? Parents and young people have been involved in the production of the Local Offer though; – Sitting on strategic committee’s at LA level helping with the content, design and presentation of the Offer – Consulting parents and young people through public meetings, working groups and online consultations – User groups looking at ease of access to testing how well it works – Developing local consultation forums – Linking with local impairment specific forms and groups

Local Offer Challenges Review on at least a yearly basis-how is this going to take place what mechanisms have been put in place? Ongoing comments on the adequacy of the Offer-access to the offer and content of the offer How coproduction is going to take place at a more local level?

EHC Plans “It is vital that a timely process is supported by high quality engagement with the child and his or her parents or the young person throughout the assessment, planning and review process.” CoP 9.7 “Local authorities must consult the child and the child’s parent or the young person throughout the process of assessment and production of an EHC plan…..Planning should start with the individual and local authorities must have regard to the views, wishes and feelings of the child, child’s parent or young person, their aspirations, the outcomes they wish to seek and the support they need to achieve them. It should enable children, young people and parents to have more control over decisions about their support including the use of a Personal Budget for those with an EHC plan.” CoP 9.21

Education, Health and Care Plan: Parent Carer Engagement ‘Effective engagement with parents and carers is crucial in the development of an Education, Health and Care Plan. Structured conversations between parents, carers and teachers were tested as part of developing the overall Achievement for All approach, which was shown to work well, as evidenced by the University of Manchester evaluation of the Achievement for All pilot’ ( SEND Pathfinder Information Packs (2013) 0-25 Coordinated Assessment Process and Education, Health and Care Plan (EHC) Plan: DfE/DOH)

What has been happening-EHC Plans? Many authorities adopting person centred planning approach for ECH Plans-early feedback is that these are more popular with parents but still issues about involvement of Health and Social Care Transition meetings often being done with schools staff-issues of competence and training but schools staff are also often trusted by parents

Challenges Time taken to do new process still a major challenge if LA’s are to deliver new levels of parental and young persons engagement How to write plans which are really Outcome focused not just provision led Examples of how not to do it from recent plans; – Outcome is to get a plan – Outcome is to get a speech therapist – Outcome is to be a ski instructor How to develop personal budgets and direct payments into the approach

Early Changes Right to Review of a statement Extension of Auxiliary Aids duty to Education Training of Assessment Officers in outcomes based assessment Achievement for All pilots Second Round of Pilots on integrated assessments Childs Right to appeal (not just Inquiry recommendation)

Support and Aspiration Additional focus on; Voluntary Organisations being involved in assessment (not implemented) End Bias towards inclusion (very limited change) Integration of Assessment-EHC Plans, joint commissioning, extension to 25 years Focus on reducing Conflict-Mediation Personalisation-Personal Budgets/Direct Payments Change definition (not implemented)

How to Achieve Long Term Change? Increase the level of individual rights because you will never be able to trust the system Or Use strategic legislative nudges to change the culture of the system enhancing trust Reform process has mixture of both but its innovations are more in trying to change culture and recognising the limits of ever greater specification of legal entitlement

Schools Duties Parents must be told when their child is identified as having SEN and a plan must be produced and shared with the parent (CoP 5.15 and 6.39) The focus in the plan must be on children and young peoples outcomes (CoP ) Children and Young People are routinely involved in those discussion where appropriate (CoP 1.1-2) Schools should meet with parents at least three times a year to discuss progress and interventions (CoP ) and schools must provide an annual report to parents on the child’s progress (CoP 6.64) Schools may want to go beyond this and produce regular reports (schools will not be producing IEP’s) SEN Information Report paints a clear picture of what the Schools Offer is for parents, children and young people (CoP 6.79) Parents are involved in the production of the report. There is a clear process for discussing if an Education Health and Care Plan is needed and young people and parents fully involved in decisions about the future (CoP 6.63)

What has been happening? Schools have been extending the principles behind person centred planning to all SEN pupils in Schools e.g. Essex One Plan Schools Information Reports have now been produced by most schools but of varying quality and how many coproduced? Linkages beginning to made with what is available in schools and the local offer-what is routinely available at school level for the delegated budget? Parents still feel vulnerable about raising issues at school level. LA’s coproducing charters or principles for engagement with parents at any level of the system.

Parental engagement

Parental Involvement and Outcomes There is robust causal evidence of the impact of parental involvement in their child’s learning on attainment. Parental involvement has a positive effect on children’s achievement even when the influence of background factors such as social class and family size have been taken into account. (Desforges C et al 2003). “The empirical evidence shows that parental involvement is one of the key factors in securing higher student achievement and sustained school performance.” (Harris 2006.) Studies have indicated that parenting style can account for 19% of the gap in mathematics, 21% of the gap in literacy and 33% of the gap in language. ( J Waldfogel and E Washbrook, Early years policy.) An important predictor of parent involvement is parents’ perceptions of their child’s school and the schools’ approachability (Epstein 2007).

Principles from the Structured Conversation Arrange meetings at times that are convenient for parents Meet outside of school if necessary Ensure the parents have all the information they need before the meeting Agreed length of time for the meeting In the meeting professionals should ask open end questions

Facilitating Meetings Ensures family is able to: express aspirations and concerns about their child have questions answered make real decisions and choices about targets, outcomes and provision. Invites any professional/s or others to join the meeting at the appropriate time. Summarises - if teacher, asks family to choose priorities. Leads meeting into conclusions.

AfA Schools Programme 41% Higher at Key Stages 3 and 4 31% Higher at Key Stage 2

Challenges for next stages How to embed parental engagement as “the way we do things around here” Quality and consistency of engagement in producing and reviewing EHC Plans and support before a plan. How to ensure that the review mechanisms are embedded at each stage in the process from strategy (Local Offer/Joint Commissioning) to each parent and child in the school(Schools Info Report.)

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