1. Kerry Hancock, Programme Manager Pathfinder Support Team
SEND Pathfinders
Kerry Hancock, Programme Manager Pathfinder Support Team
February 2013

2. Pathfinder core objectives
The SEND pathfinders are working towards the following common objectives:
To develop a new 0-25 assessment process and a EHCP which brings together the education, health and social care services on which children and young people who are disabled or have SEN and their families rely and focuses on improving outcomes;
To explore how the voluntary and community sector could explore access to specialist expertise and introduce more independence to the process;
To develop multi agency local offer;
To ensure the full engagement of children, young people and their parents and families, schools and colleges; and
To improve choice and control for children, young people and their families through the use of personal budgets and direct payments.

3. In addition…
Many pathfinders have chosen to focus on particular issues, including:
Whether a banded approach to funding can improve efficiency in allocating resources;
How best to support parents from different backgrounds; and
How best to support particular groups of children, such as young people going through transition towards employment and looked after children.

4. The SEND Pathfinders

5. Pathfinders Examples of family recruitment₁
68 families
0 – 25 years
Any child with a SEN or disability whose needs are not met by universal services
Existing cases only
Pathfinder 2:
48 families
0 – 25 years
Most complex needs
Both new and existing cases (small % new)
Pathfinder 3:
9 families
0 – 19 years
Those who would receive a statement or LDA
Both new and existing cases
Pathfinder 4:
40 families
0 – 19 years
CYP requiring additional support from any of the 3 services
Both new and existing cases
₁ Recruitment information from Dec2012

6. Assessment and Planning/EHCPs – Overview
Progress made:
Multi agency approach
Working in co-production with parents and carers
Now testing with over 600₁ families
Person centred
Positive feedback from families and professionals
Consistent emerging practice across many areas
₁ Recruitment information from Dec2012

7. Assessment and Planning/EHCPs – Overview
Challenges and areas requiring further development:
Running two systems in parallel
Further testing of paperwork ensuring its robustness when used as a statutory document
Scaling up testing
Increase the number of families involved
Ensure coverage across the age range
Including more new cases
Testing the entire process e.g. reviews, disputes, transition

8. Assessment and Planning/EHCPs: Emerging practice
On-going process, regular person-centred reviews.
A ‘tell us once’ approach to sharing information
Effective co-ordination between education, health and care services, aiming to secure joint agreement on key outcomes.
Practitioners engaged and committed to single assessment and planning.

9. Pathfinder 1 Towards a co-ordinated assessment
Features of the single plan
Referral
Assessment
Planning
All About Me
What do people like and admire?
What’s important to the child?
What’s important for the child?
What’s working well?
What’s not working so well?
Option of first person narrative
Co-produced

10. Pathfinder 2 Example - Assessment and Planning
New integrated model of working across specialist education, health and care services
Aims to improve outcomes for children/young people and their families with SEN/disabilities
Education
Health
Social
Care

11. Pathfinder 2 Example - Assessment and Planning
Phase 2: Listen and understand
(e.g. Home visits, classroom observation)
Phase 1: Preparation and consideration
(e.g. First assessment team meeting)
Phase 3: Analyse and Synthesize
(e.g. Final assessment team meeting)
Phase 5: Monitor and review
(e.g. First review meeting)
Phase 4: Agree and Allocate
(e.g. Bring EHC plan back to Decision Panel)
Includes professionals from education, health, and care services
Clinical Psychologists
Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service staff
Community Paediatricians
Community Support Workers
Community Children’s Nurses
Educational Psychologists
Early Years Support Teachers
Learning Disability Nurses
Occupational Therapists
Physiotherapists
Portage Home Visitors
SEN officers
SEN Personal Advisors
SEN Coordinators
Social Workers
Specialist Teacher Advisors
Speech and Language Therapists

12. Pathfinder 2: Example - Assessment and Planning
This is Tom, he is 2 ½ years old
Due to a premature birth he has
Chromosome deletion resulting
in:
Hearing difficulties
Vision difficulties
Epilepsy
Unsafe swallow
Profound & multiple needs
After he was born he stayed in
hospital for 6 months before
he was able to come home.
This is Tom’s Family
They were very shocked when Tom was born early. Their primary concerns are:
Maintaining his gastrostomy tube feed (safety)
Accessing continence resources
Having ideas for play at home
Respite to gain a good night’s sleep
Time for siblings
Thinking about where Tom might go to pre-school
Conflicting appointments
Having to tell services their story over and over again
Eye Unit
Community Childrens Nurse
Health Surveillance Checks
Therapy Assessments
Epilepsy Nurse
Continence Nurse
Short Breaks Assessment
New-Born Hearing Check
Initial Assessment
Health Visitor
Neurology consultant
Ophthalmology consultant
Continence Assessment
Paediatric Assessments
CCN Assessments
Specialist Teachers – Hearing and Vision
Social Care
Core Assessment
Respite services
Child Development Unit
Portage Assessments
Portage
Community Paediatrician

13. Pathfinder 2: Example - Assessment and Planning
Application made by Community Paediatrician for an Integrated Assessment and EHC Plan
Timely reviews ensure the EHC plan continues to meet Tom’s needs
Key transition points anticipated and planned for
(for example; when Tom starts pre-school)
Single point of contact for Tom’s family during assessment stage
More choice and control for Tom and his family about the services and how they are delivered (for example; Direct Payments)
Health, Education and Social Care Professionals co-ordinating assessments to gain a better, holistic understanding of Tom’s needs
Tell us once approach
“All about me” owned by Tom and his family
Outcome focused planning in partnership with Tom and his family
Clear EHC plan of support for Tom in place PRIOR to entering education
Lead Professional role identified to support Tom and his family for the duration of his EHC plan

14. Pathfinder 3 Example - Assessment and Planning
Emerging practice:
On-going process, regular person-centred reviews.
A ‘tell us once’ approach to sharing information
CYP and families at centre; involved in making decisions throughout.
Effective co-ordination between education, health and care services, aiming to secure joint agreement on key outcomes.
Practitioners engaged and committed to single assessment and planning.
Draft process and plan developed by parents and practitioners from health, education and social care.
Designed to focus on what children or young people feel is working or not working well for them and on what they want to achieve.
Strong emphasis on developing links with the local community and on building family resilience.
Families work together in groups to develop their individual plans: to develop peer support. Group sessions facilitated by person centred planners, who are also parents of disabled children.

15. Pathfinder 3: comments from parents ...
Meeting other parents
Getting support needs –
positive way
Thinking about the
future
Hopes and dreams that
helped me.
Meeting other families
Talking about our
thoughts and feelings freely
WE ARE NOT ALONE!
Thinking about the future it’s not as bleak as
we might have thought
Finding out about services and other things
that are out there to help us
Time to think about o
ur son’s future without constraints
Confidence to take the next step towards planning for our son’s
future in the community ie voluntary supported work placements
Confidence to go forward with personal budgets and direct
payments
I have enjoyed talking about my
little girl in a positive way
Thinking about the future
Using the things I have learnt to
make some changes has helped me
feel more in control

16. What is important for them now and in the future
Examples - Education Health Care Plan
Emerging practice
Person centred, focussed on outcomes, specific about provision.
Clear, concise, readable and accessible
Support preparation for key transition points - “forward looking”
Pathfinder 1, EHC draft contents:
What is important for them now and in the future
What is important for their family
One page profile
what is working/not working
Shared action plan
How we will know outcomes have been met
Testing if it can replace……
Section 139a Initial/core assessment
Community care assessment Statement of SEN
Replacing need for SEN panel Carers assessment
Health assessments
In addition areas are testing how technology can be utilised.
Greenwich is exploring how information technology can help families develop person centred plans, through the development of online ‘wiki’ profiles.

17. Examples - Education Health Care Plan
Pathfinder 2 : EHCP, draft contents
One Page Profile:
What’s great about me
My gifts and skills
What’s important to me
Good support outline
Important people
Family Profile
My history
How I communicate
My dreams for the future (the BIG picture)
My community connections
Working and not working now
From my perspective
From the family perspective
From ‘service’ perspectives
My existing resources
Family, friends and community
Money – benefits, pocket money, grants etc
Education resources
Social services resources
Health resources
Other resources
My outcomes for the next year
Key themes and overview
Education targets and strategies
Home/community targets and strategies
Other targets and strategies
How I will use my resources
Ideas from different perspectives
How I / my family will stay in control
How I/we will make decisions
Action plan
Review dates

18. Examples of key working approaches
All pathfinders testing how families could be supported through the process
Function v role
Terminology - ‘key worker’ ‘mentor’ ‘trained facilitator’, ‘navigator’
Approaches being tested by pathfinders with representation across multiple services, VCS and parent carer representatives
Emerging practice
Keyworking approaches to provide a single point of contact.

19. Examples of key working approaches
Bromley - Expanding the remit of the Early Years Key Worker up the age range. But also testing whether the key worker for young people aged 14+ should be fulfilled by VCS representatives. Each family is being supported by a key worker and the parent carer forum.
Gateshead- Testing how a ‘system navigator’ (provided during the pathfinder by the VCS organisation Children NorthEast) can support families through the assessment and planning process.
Manchester - A plan co-coordinator will support families through the process undertaking the function of key working and providing person-centred planning support. From a range of professional backgrounds, including a head teacher, teaching assistants, Connexions personal advisers, community nurses, adult social care managers and social workers.
Rochdale- A ‘supporter’ will provide the key working function. These ‘supporters’ come from a variety of organisations or backgrounds, for example, social workers, members of the VCS or other parents, each understanding the specific circumstance of that family.
Devon – Testing how a key worker from Devon’s Integrated Children’s Services will support families through the process coupled with a VCS ‘navigator’ to provide independence to the process.

20. Examples approaches - Local Offer
Pathfinders are actively developing their local offer, with many focusing work initially with schools and colleges. In some areas, VCS organisations or parent partnerships services are taking a lead role in engaging services, parents/carers and young people in the development of the local offer:
Emerging practice
Collaborative working with parents and young people from the start
Working with other services to ensure the local offer is informative and helpful (including schools, CCGs and health organisations)
Building on existing requirements
Making information easily accessible
Nottinghamshire and Bexley
Have commissioned VCS to support them in developing their local offer.
Northampton & Leicester City, SE7 and Manchester
Development of the local offer is led by parent partnership services and parent carer representatives.
SE7
A working group of parent carers and parent partnership services has consulted with parent carers and practitioners to a agree a common set of principles for its local offer framework, covering all seven pathfinder authorities.
An agreed set of questions have been issued to all schools and colleges to inform the local offer.
Hartlepool and Darlington
Developing school/college based local offer first. A number published including St Hild’s, all then linked via centre web-based resource.

21. Examples approaches - Local Offer
Trafford- Building on existing and developing incrementally, publishing in real time.
Currently, Trafford’s published early version local offer currently includes:
Local Offer published on Trafford’s existing Child Services Directory website – 20,000 hits a month.
Website includes a ‘shortlist’ function to collate and print relevant information and an ‘area search’ facility.
The website act as hub platform to signpost to school websites and to other parts of the authority’s website.
Trafford’s Local Offer is developed incrementally. The time taken to co-produce its local offer with families, has meant Trafford has focused on publishing its core service offering initially. This core is then being expanded incrementally.
activities
advice & support
money & welfare
education & SEN
holiday activities
transition
travel & transport

22. Trafford Council Local Offer Example
Link

23. Example approaches - Personal Budgets
Emerging practice
Exploring the funding streams, from education, health and social care, where they can offer choice and control.
Testing how this control can be offered through use of notional arrangements and direct payments (including for SEN and health).
Testing the support needed for parents and young people to take up and manage a personal budget.
Pathfinders estimate by March 2013 approx 400 families will have been offered the option of a personal budget.
Offered as a mixture of notional budgets, third party held and/or direct payments.
Expectation of large increase during the pathfinder extension.

24. Example approaches - Personal Budgets
Southampton plan to develop a notional budget for each EHC Plan. They are exploring the use of direct payments and third party payments for: - Continuing health care personal budgets - Statutory Short Break Funding - Aiming High Funding - Home to School Transport Direct Payments - Continence and Health Equipment Direct Payments - Flexible home schooling packages
Bromley & Bexley, Wiltshire, Devon and Medway are developing ‘easy read’ guides and/or have held workshops with families and practitioners.
Devon, Trafford, Greenwich and Southampton are exploring specific brokerage functions to support families.
Kent & Medway – Existing 0 – 25 cross agency wheelchair service. Exploring how to use Access to Work funding from DWP to top-up or jointly commission a wheelchair through the wheelchair service to meet the needs of a disabled person within the context of the workplace offering more flexibility and choice.
East Sussex – 5 pathfinder families with a health PB e.g. young man who will receive a direct payment of £200 per week; he will use this for a personal health care assistant.