What’s working and what’s not? Children’s POET East of England – Achieving Our Ambitions Conference 26th November 2015 Claire Lazarus, Associate, In Control and Siobhan MacBean, Service Development Manager, Cambridgeshire County Council

Today In Control Personal Outcomes and Evaluation Tool – POET Cambridgeshire’s experience Maximising East of England returns

Children’s Programme – evolving into a Whole Life Programme Bespoke support 3 x 2-day residentials held annually Publications The network Resources Projects External facing and members website

What POET gives A way of measuring and understanding performance Local (regional) and national data A focus on process as well as outcomes Datasets big enough to enable us to address questions that could not be investigated using local data only

Evidence from the adult POET surveys - outcomes are better if:- Views fully included when needs are being assessed There is support to plan Views fully included when the amount of budget is set and the personal budget (PB) process is easy Views fully included when a support plan is written

Why POET works Low cost Quick and easy to complete on line or on paper Able to be repeated Asks meaningful questions about what’s working (and what isn’t working) Voluntary Gets views of children & young people, families and carers and practitioners Provides feedback Supports action planning

Children and Young People’s POET – DfE funding to develop A tool to capture:- The experience of obtaining an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) and in some cases a personal budget from the perspective of the child/young person, family and practitioner Outcomes of having an EHCP (and in some cases a personal budget)

SEND Code of Practice “At a strategic level, partners must engage children and young people with SEN disabilities and children’s parents in commissioning decisions, to give useful insights on how to improve services and outcomes.” (3.18) “Local authorities, Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) and NHS England (NHSE) must develop effective ways of harnessing their views.” (3.18)

Measuring success Special educational needs and disability: supporting local and national accountability March 2015

Measuring the success of the SEND system Examples of data and intelligence:- SEN appeals and outcomes EHCPs completed on time LA and parent survey data POET Feedback from Independent Supporters

East of England areas testing POET now – deadline 1 st week in January Bedfordshire Borough Cambridgeshire Central Bedfordshire Essex Hertfordshire Peterborough Suffolk Thurrock

Cambridgeshire’s Experience Local context Why we did it Maximising return of questionnaires What we used results for Lessons learnt What next

Local Context Part of pilot group Not a pathfinder No EHCPs last year so just for those with personal budgets Well established personal budgets in social care Well established good participation with parents and carers Participation for children and young people – we wanted to do more

Why We Did it Wanted robust evidence of what works and what doesn’t Interested in people’s views Added to/complemented things we were doing already To know where to focus our action and energy Asking the questions says something about what we think is important To be involved!

Maximising Returns Involved parent groups in developing communication Individual letters Freepost return envelopes newsletter circulation lists Our own and others Websites Our own and others Attending parents events and promoting

Maximising Returns Large circulation for practitioners – and lots of reminding! Produced accessible versions for young people Lots of opportunities for young people to do it At home Short breaks School Put it on lots of meeting agendas Publicised results – helped this time round Constant commitment and promoting

How we used the results Shared widely - Families, teams, services, boards, groups, councillors, schools On our local offer Promoted positive messages Parents/carers felt listened to and involved Good process Parents/carers felt personal budgets had brought positives for their children Parents/carers and workers felt children and young peoples needs were being met Good PR and motivating for teams

How we used the results Identified some areas to focus on Making sure plans met needs going into the future as well as now Addressing parent/carers own needs Feedback informed some strategies – especially changes to our preparing for adulthood process In local engagement sessions Checked against other feedback loops/processes we have

Lessons Learnt Need a lead Involve parents/carers and young people Make it easy to do Keep reminding and give lots of opportunities to do it – especially workers Mention it loads – and then mention some more! Gets easier each year – people get used to it and just do it Get competitive Promote the results and what you did Promote the national aspect – and the Ofsted angle

What next………? Looking forward to benchmarking opportunity Ability to look at and use own results Can focus on particular areas/themes of relevance locally Can collate at time/s that suits local processes Able to see where responses are coming/not coming from as we go along and address Data and the comparisons gets richer each year Will be using as Ofsted evidence

OFSTED/CQC - Local area SEND consultation Inspectors will expect the local area to understand how effective it is, including any aspects of its responsibilities that require further development Inspectors will test out the evidence that the local area uses in its self-evaluation Inspectors will evaluate how effectively the local area meets the needs and improves the outcomes of children and young people with SEND A wide range of ways will be used during the

OFSTED/CQC - Local area SEND consultation A wide range of ways will be used during the inspection to obtain the views of children and young people with SEND and their parents/carers Effectiveness of personal budgets Process questions

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Maximising the number of returns across the East of England

Thank you POET Web Page