1. Transforming culture and practice in social care assessments
for disabled children and young people
Caroline Bennett
Principal Officer, CDC
DfE-SCIP
5 LAs
Wanting to change the way that not only their cyp and families experienced accessing services and having their needs understood but also inform the national agenda

2. Children and Families Act 2014 Section 19 principles Care Act 2014
The National Context
Children and Families Act 2014
Section 19 principles
Care Act 2014
Wellbeing Principle
Social Care Innovation Programme
Rethinking children’s social work
Children’s Social Care Reform (Jan 2016)

3. What we know about the approach to assessment for DCYP and families is that it is based on a safeguarding framework that often isn’t a proportionate response to the needs of these families, is costly, requires families to repeat their stories and does not engage CYP with different needs.

4. And, it wasn’t just families telling us this-professionals told us that their experience wasn’t positive either-and that their was a lot of space for transformation.

5. A four-stage process 1. Discover 2. Define 3. Co-design 4. Test
Find out as much as we can about the problem & the opportunity
Make sense of what we discovered & identify priorities
Share our thinking with stakeholders & develop ideas together
Test the ideas & solutions we have developed & capture what we find out
Used a 4 stage learning and innovation programme over the last 18 months
engage
learn
innovate
engage
learn
innovate
engage
learn
innovate
engage
learn
innovate

6. 3 key concepts
To engage is to… listen carefully and establish meaningful connections
To learn is to… develop new insights, knowledge and skills through study, action and reflection
To innovate is to… create and implement something new (perhaps a product, service, process or system) that addresses wants and needs, or solves a problem in a better way
But what do we understand by them? What do they mean to us?
We need to build a shared understanding and a commitment to these things, and we want to start that process today.
Here are some working definitions. They are a starter for ten. What we’d like to do is get your views now, before we go any further, about what they mean to you in your current work.

7. 4 principles
1. Meaningful co-production with children and young people, parents and carers, and professionals 2. Creative person-centred approaches 3. A seamless service experience 4. Prevention is best

8. A range of activities 1. Discover 2. Define 3. Co-design 4. Test
engage
learn
innovate
4. Test
Investigate the reality of people’s lives and their experience of services
Explore the challenge with stakeholders
Look at how others are tackling the challenge
Bring together research evidence & data
Brainstorm with families and other stakeholders to develop lots of ideas for how things could work differently
Identify the most promising ideas and develop them together
Bring insights & evidence together in one place
Analyse & discuss what you’ve learned
Decide what you think it all means
Test this thinking with key stakeholders
Develop the detail of the best ideas and bring them to life
Get feedback on the ideas and adapt them as you bring in new thinking
Test your idea on a small scale to see how it works in practice
In order to reach these end points, we need to undertake a range of important activities within each stage.
Remember – we are engaging, learning and innovating throughout.

9. What we expected…
That the journey would be exciting, and uncomfortable
No two journeys will be exactly the same (this makes for great learning)
To think, feel and behave differently
this kind of work will be different to their current ways of working.
Get comfortable with uncertainty and discomfort.
Recognise both the similarities and differences in our contexts and the projects as they develop, and exploit the learning from this.
If you are truly engaging with families and being open to learning through this process, you should expect to think, feel and behave in new ways.

10. And a good dose of challenge
The process will, and should, be challenging. Part of CDC’s role is to inject this challenge by holding you all to account around the process itself and also the expectations we all agree to.
If it’s easy, we’re probably doing it wrong.

11. Emerging learning themes
Co-production
Information, preparation and eligibility
Links to the SEND reforms
Training and workforce development
Unexpected Learning

12. Evidence and Evaluation
Evaluation of test phase up to end of September
Interviews with parent carers going through test
Monitoring cases going through test to analyse timescales
Phone calls/focus groups with professionals to find out their views on the test
Evaluation report due at the end of October. Submitted to CDC and to the DfE.
Finding feet – some commented that it took some time at the beginning to fully understand the project’s scope, the stages, who to involve and also that they had big expectations of what could change and then had to manage this
- Senior management buy in vital for legacy of test and co-design – most felt they didn’t have this
- Parents understanding the restrictions of the professionals – better understanding – learnt to be less dogmatic about their particular issue
- Parents involved in co-design – better informed and confident for future assessment
- Strategy across LAs to involve health and education more systematically
- Using co-design to support a change process
WS and Bromley – did not use CDC model with CYP – how to feed in young people’s views – different model for this – what did CDC want??
Learning from other LAs – would have liked more space to do this and one person suggested theming the development days more to help with this

13. Findings so far from all LAs: the process
Children & young people in co-design
Some phases easier than others to engage CYP
One LA felt they would not have been able to engage CYP without the project.
Parent carers in co-design
Felt able to contribute ideas and ideas were treated equally:
“I have not really experienced that kind of team working before … we are actually pulling all this together rather than just talking … it’s nice to be able to feel you’ve got something to contribute … that feeling of parity …” York parent carer
Broke down barriers between parents and professionals
Parent carers understood ‘the system’ better
A big commitment: “A hard slog” but rewarding
Parents found empowering process.
helped them to break down barriers between parents and professionals – in particular understanding the challenges that LAs face in trying to innovate and also seeing that professionals and parents want the same things.
“the relationship between the people we were talking to … you …. When we were in those meetings it was like ‘we are all there’ on an equal footing and there is not the ‘I just need to talk to you about that outside’ .... Open and very inclusive … sometimes when we have gone off track”

14. Social workers’ & other professionals’ views across all LAs
Generally positive about the project – it gave impetus for a change
A chance to look at things from everyone’s perspectives
Helped with joined up working and communication: “more aware of what each other does” (health worker)
Culture of co-production is in pockets -> not much impact yet on wider teams.
Influence on own practice: involving parent carers more
Thought it was helpful that parents see some of the constraints
Would have liked more updates about the project
Generally positive about project.
Opportunity to look at things from everyone’s perspective
Helped with joined up working across health, edu, social care and parents
All hoped that it would have a longer term impact on but conscious of time it takes, needs staff and also some felt that it was used in pockets and hadn't had an effect on teams outside of the group
One social worker said that the project had made them think about their own practice and involving parent/carer voice more and how they run sessions/meetings
Health worked felt that it helped communication and has made social care, education and health more aware of what everyone does
Social workers wanted more updates– recommendation for a ‘launch’ or showcase event for other professionals to see the work of the team.

15. Contact details
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