DBV Phase One
Phase One of the DBV in SEND programme worked with 54 local areas to identify the highest impact changes that can be made to improve outcomes for children and young people with SEND, and to optimise the use of finances.
Phase One of the DBV in SEND programme worked with 54 local areas to identify the highest impact changes that can be made to improve outcomes for children and young people with SEND, and to optimise the use of finances.
The Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) green paper identifies three key symptoms of a system under pressure: poor outcomes for children and young people with SEND and in AP, low parental and provider confidence, and financial unsustainability.
The Department for Education recognises that change is needed but that this will take time. It is therefore currently providing three support offers to local authorities. The aim of all three programmes is to facilitate sustainable management of local authorities’ high needs systems, with support and intervention tailored to the problems authorities are facing.
Prior to the DBV in SEND programme, participating local authorities had already worked extensively with their local partners, and this work was built upon in the diagnostic.
Local stakeholder engagement (including with parents and carers, with teachers from schools and colleges, and with health and social care colleagues) was vital to ensure everyone fed into the plan and bought into the outcomes the local area wanted to achieve together. In Phase One, Newton and CIPFA supported authorities to lead this engagement by providing communications tools, using participatory workshop methods, and where appropriate and asked by the authority, joining stakeholder meetings.
Schools forums were consulted as part of the diagnostic phase, as were local Parent Carer Forums.
Further activities involving partners and stakeholders across the system will be completed in the transition into the implementation phase (Phase Two) in each local area. When it comes to developing implementation plans and deciding what changes to take forward, it is expected that each participating local authority will do this in close conjunction with its local partners.
During Phase One the programme also collated good practice in delivering services for children and young people with SEND into a Toolkit accessible to all local authorities nationally, to support the improvement of their SEND services.
Access the ToolkitData and evidence across all local areas in the programme has been aggregated to understand consistent themes and challenges, to inform future policy, and to support local authorities nationally in the improvement of their local SEND services.
Read findings from Phase OneTo make a lasting improvement to outcomes for children and young people with SEND, local areas need to work out the root causes of their challenges and their opportunities to improve - this is done through a 'diagnostic', which is at the heart of Phase One of the DBV in SEND programme.
Prior to the DBV in SEND programme, participating local authorities had already worked extensively with their local partners, and this work was built upon in the diagnostic.
Local stakeholder engagement (including with parents and carers, with teachers from schools and colleges, and with health and social care colleagues) was vital to ensure everyone fed into the plan and bought into the outcomes the local area wanted to achieve together. In Phase One, Newton and CIPFA supported authorities to lead this engagement by providing communications tools, using participatory workshop methods, and where appropriate and asked by the authority, joining stakeholder meetings.
Schools forums were consulted as part of the diagnostic phase, as were local Parent Carer Forums.
Further activities involving partners and stakeholders across the system will be completed in the transition into the implementation phase (Phase Two) in each local area. When it comes to developing implementation plans and deciding what changes to take forward, it is expected that each participating local authority will do this in close conjunction with its local partners.
Local areas participating in Phase One have provided feedback on their experiences of the programme.
Assistant Director in SEND
DBV local area
Programme manager
DBV local area
Director of Children’s Services
DBV local area
SEND lead
DBV local area
