SEND support survey feedback 2023

  1. Overview
  2. Observations
  3. Communication
  4. Accessing support
  5. Schools
  1. Health
  2. The local authority and EHC plans
  3. Transitions and post-16 support
  4. Social activities

2. Observations

We had a total of 678 parent carer (PC) responses and 163 child or young person (CYP) responses.

Gender

It's interesting to see that most responses from parent carers were from families where the child or young person is male. This broadly reflects the gender split of need nationally in terms of SEND.

Age

The most common response was from families where the child was age 12, after transitioning to high school.

Involvement and support

Positively, where there is an assessment in place, 68.6% of parent carer respondents felt they were involved in assessments of their child's needs. This increases to 77% where the child has an education, health and care (EHC) plan and 76% where the child has an individual learning plan (ILP) or equivalent.

Close to 50% of children and young people felt they did receive enough help and support from services which reduced to under 30% of parent carers.

Both children and young people and parent carers felt they were listened to by services around half of the time. This proportion was highest for those families where the child has an ILP in place (58%).

Important issues

When we asked about the different aspects of children and young people's lives, the important issues for children and young people were their friendships and social life. For parent carers, the most important issue was mental health.

Generally children and young people and parent carers are in agreement about areas of strength in their lives, including:

  • feeling safe and happy at home
  • having fun and enjoying time away from education or work

Areas that both children and young people and parent carers were less sure on included:

  • the support needed at school, college or work to do their best
  • that the child had plans for their future
  • their mental health

Overall, children and young people generally have a more positive view of different aspects of their lives than their parent carers.

Themes

Some common themes came out of the open questions as part of the survey. We have captured some of your comments and want to let you know what is happening around each of these areas. Please read on to find out more about the following themes:

  • communication
  • accessing support
  • school
  • health services
  • the local authority and EHC plans
  • transitions and post-16 support
  • social activities
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Lancashire SEND Partnership