Lancashire SEND Partnership information and engagement events 2022-2023 feedback summary

In 2022 parent carers said that they wanted more chances to meet the SEND Partnership Team face to face. So, we organised a year of SEND Information Events where you could meet the team, beginning in August 2022.

We asked people who came to the events for their feedback. We also asked the partner agencies that were there to tell us what they thought about the events.

This summary includes:

  • who came to the events
  • what parent carers and partner agencies said
  • what we're doing because of your feedback

Attendance

We held 24 events in all 12 Lancashire districts.

We had a total of 575 attendees, made up of:

  • 211 parent carers
  • 82 children and young people
  • 284 professionals

This table is a summary of attendance for the top 15 events:

Location Number of attendees
Chorley Inspire 51
Skelmersdale CFW, West Lancs 46
West Paddock, South Ribble 39
County Hall, Preston 34
Twinkle House, West Lancs 32
The Park CFW, Hyndburn 28
Fleetwood CFW, Wyre 27
Ansdell Library, Fylde 27
Knott End Library, Wyre 26
Whalley Library, Ribble Valley 24
Kirkham CFW, Fylde 24
Rawtenstall, Rossendale 23
The Exchange, Burnley 23
Leisure Box, Pendle 21
Poulton CFW, Lancaster 16

Partner agency attendance

The partner agencies present at the events included:

  • Children and young people
  • Parent carers and representatives of the Independent Parent Carer Forum
  • Lancashire County Council representatives:
    • manager of the SEND Partnership
    • policy information and commissioning manager
    • local offer development officer
    • designated social care officer
    • short breaks commissioning and development officer
    • educational psychologists
    • specialist teachers
    • children and family wellbeing (early help) representatives
    • SEND enabler from Family Hubs
    • POWAR youth voice professional range youth worker
  • SEND Information Advice and Support Service
  • Health representatives 
    • designated clinical officers
    • autism pathway navigators
    • school nurse
    • children's nurses
  • Education representatives
    • childminders
    • team around the school and settings education partnership officer
  • District council representatives
  • Community, faith and volunteer groups 
    • Home Start
    • Kooth
    • Lancashire Mind
    • Comensus
    • Burnley Youth Theatre
    • Barnado's Young Carers
    • Burnley FC Community Trust
    • Meet n Match
    • Spring into Action
    • PHAB
    • We are With You
    • Key Charity
    • Blackpool FC Community Trust

Partner evaluations

Partners who had attended the events were asked the following questions. Responses were received from three Designated Clinical Officers, two Educational Psychologists and one officer from Family Hubs. 

1. Were the events successful?

I think even if for one parent / carer one of the events has changed something for the better for them that event was worth doing.

  • We believe the purpose of the events are useful and increases the visibility of the partnership.
  • Supports voice and lived experience of children and families to be heard by most partners.

Yes

I think the concept is important so that our services are visible to the public and hosting them in the community makes them more accessible. 

2. Why they were or weren't successful

People attended, and they will feed back to others the information they received, things will potentially have improved for them, they are now more aware of the services available. Practitioners found them incredibly useful (including myself), in regard to networking and understanding the landscape together.

  • Families that did attend were able to be supported – so real opportunity here.
  • Lack of engagement of inclusion services limits partnership opportunities.
  • Events were not big enough to service the option of inviting wider NHS service input.
  • Suitability of some venues eg one event the room option was a lecture theatre with live animals present which was not really appropriate.

Good turnout, positive feedback from attendees

There was not a lot of foot fall.  I could answer their questions and think it is helpful just to have some signposting or reassurance, but I was wary that a lot of the parents were talking about children who are at SEND support and maybe would not have access to an EP (as it is down to the school to prioritise children for consultation).   

3. What parent carers gained from attending the events

People attended, and they will feed back to others the information they received, things will potentially have improved for them, they are now more aware of the services available.

  • Opportunities to signpost / support and advise of pathways.

A chance to speak directly with professionals/ services.

I only had a handful of parents come to speak to me and this was regarding- assessments from EPs (how to get a dyslexia assessment), how to get EP involvement, what support can be offered in school to support emotional needs. 

4. What themes were identified in your conversations with parent carers?

  • NHS sensory services
  • Children’s continence services
  • ASD pathway
  • Complex and escalating ASD needs with no available / commissioned NHS service to support.
  • Complaint regarding local NHS service
  • Advice regarding potential dual diagnosis
  • Support to navigate health system with effect
  • The need for better communication with parent carers
  • Assessments from educational psychologists (EP) (how to get a dyslexia assessment), how to get EP involvement, what support can be offered in school to support emotional needs.

5. What did you as a practitioner gain?

Huge, immeasurable value in networking practitioners across services, user research is telling us loud and clear that finding about the available support via email, poster, flyer isn’t effective as it is flat information and practitioners don’t have the headspace to retain all of it. Events like these bring services and support to life and demystify the systems.

I gained a wealth of knowledge about the SEND landscape, resources were shared, insights gathered, brilliant networking event.

  • Networking opportunities

On the ground feedback about our service and learning what other services are doing

6. Would you suggest similar events are held moving forward 2023-4?

Absolutely, I'd create a roadmap that fits in with a Family Hub Network connectivity roadmap (of course!) that ensures practitioners and families have a clear consistently advertised yearly calendar of recurring drops ins, information sessions and networking events to attend.

  • Sufficient notice needs to be provided to support health /DCO attendance.
  • DCOs do not have capacity to service this number of face-to-face meetings.

Yes

I think the events should continue. It was not a 'waste' of time as I could get on with other work whilst I was there.

7. What alternative if any would you suggest?

  • Virtual options / drop in.
  • We would suggest that events are more streamlined to support optimum professional attendance.
  • Suggest option to host larger scale ‘super’ event (less frequently) to attract wider representation of local education, health, and care services.

I wonder if some virtual events may also be helpful for parents with different services or there could be themed events for parents, e.g. dyslexia, emotional wellbeing that different services could work together on. 

Analysis of the events

At the events parent carers shared their experiences and views on services and how they could improve.

Parent carers often wanted to know about support and activities in their local area.

Some practitioners also came to the events to find out more about services in their area for the families they support.

Families shared their SEND journeys with partner representatives such as:

  • beginning their journey - not knowing where or who to turn to
  • long, difficult, frustrating journeys - they have had to fight to get the right support for their children

Parent carers want:

  • information that is easily available and in clear and simple language
  • someone they can contact to share their concerns
  • to be able to trust the local authority and health providers
  • to work together the local authority and health providers to support their children
  • to be listened to, to be heard, valued, supported, and engaged with; with their child at the heart of all that we do.
  • a confident and knowledgeable children's workforce
  • better training for practitioners supporting their children
  • access to training for parent carers including these topics:
    • education other than at school
    • personal budgets
    • how to apply for an education, health and care plan
    • emotionally based school avoidance
    • autistic burnout
    • pathological demand avoidance

Practitioners also want more SEND specific training.                                   

Actions we're taking

You said

Parent carers want to feel heard and trust that their feedback translates into action.

We did

We've developed the Lancashire SEND Partnership Working Together Strategy 2023-2025. It sets out how we'll work together with children, young people, parent carers and practitioners.

You said

We should support the Lancashire Parent Carer Forum (LPCF) to grow its membership and for more parent carers to join the LPCF development group.

We did

We supported the Lancashire Parent Carer Forum Working Together events in July. These were a chance for parent carers and professionals to give their feedback.

You said

Communication needs to improve and for the SEND Partnership to be more open and transparent.

We did

We held 24 face to face events over the last 12 months and we're working on a new programme of events.

You said

We need to improve training for people working with children and families. Staff need a better understanding of children with SEND needs. They also need to feel more confident putting in place support via the graduated response and Early Help Assessment.

We did

We're working on a new SEN Support webpage to bring together information about the support that is available. We're also planning SEND briefings for professionals.

You said

We need greater peer support and support provided to families who have a child with SEND.

We did

We're linking with the Lancashire Family Hubs Network to provide greater support in the community.

You said

We should work more with schools to help support good practice to improve outcomes for children with SEND.

We did

The SEND Partnership is updating the SEN Support webpage to ensure clarity at how to access multi-agency support. We are planning a series of face to face events for practitioners and parent carers to find out information and meet the team. The SEND Partnership is also developing termly Working Together online events for parent carers and practitioners to listen to each other in an open, transparent way, and share updates. Quarterly Workforce Development Network meetings and SENDCO Network seminars are available for schools to be supported.