Have you voiced a concern about your child?
What happened next?
Identifying and Supporting SEND.
The steering group of SPVU decided to focus on what happens when parents raise a concern about their child. Those times when things aren’t instigated by a professional. Issues in this area were mentioned in our welcome survey and at meetings we have hosted or visited.
Back in 2014 changes brought in with the Children’s and Families Bill were supposed to be a step change from the past. The intention was to put behind us the days when parents were seen as an obstacle, not knowing what was best for their child or what seemed to many parents back then, the enemy.
Whether the sentiment behind the bill, is borne out is down to many complex factors. Funding, policy, local priorities, the will of Local Authorities, teachers, head teachers, support services, health and social care.
How has successful has the change from professionals being presumed leaders to equal partners with parents been?
The graduated approach is nothing new, nor is the concept that identifying and supporting needs as soon as possible leads to better outcomes.
The ethos of working in partnership and the early identification and support of special educational needs and or disabilities seems to vary across schools but also within them. SPVU hear wide ranging accounts from our parent carer community.
We hear some great stories about parents feeling listened to informed and valued when working with services to support their child. This is a joy to hear about and we want to shout about it to spread good practice and raise expectations!
Sadly, some of the experiences reported to us are long painful tales which play out over years. In all accounts it’s evident that when children are not adequately supported in their area of difficulty, the impact on the child and their family is greater.
Unlike the EHCP Framework the school based stages of the SEN don’t have clearly defined statutory time frames to adhere to and drive the work. We wonder if this is one reason why we hear of such disparity in the experiences of families across Sandwell.
SPVU have decided to focus their efforts on exploring this area. We want to look across the sectors of health, education and social care and ask;
When you have raised a concern what happened? We want to explore:
Were your concerns listened to?
Were you happy with the flow of information and the responsiveness of the service you were dealing with?
Did anything happen after you raised concerns?
After raising your concern did things improve, stay the same or get worse?
Did you feel involved, engaged and supported?
Did you feel involved in the decisions which were made?
Did you understand what happened and why?
We are hoping to gather your thoughts using a survey. Please join our conversation.
The information we get from this survey will help us to flag up the good and shine a light on the bad. All done to hopefully help drive improvements for all our children.
Your responses will also shape our next actions on this topic.
Respond to our survey
If this is an area of interest to you and you would like to get more involved in developing this work let us know.
Contact us
