Joint LLR SEND Commissioning Strategy – engagement response

In November 2020 we launched a programme of engagement to ask you about our draft Joint LLR SEND Commissioning Strategy, 2021-24.

Watch the Joint SEND Strategy launch meeting

The engagement ran for a period of two months (November and December 2020) and would like to thank you for your contributions.  The feedback and comments received have now been used to amend the strategy which has now been signed-off by all of the partner agencies involved across Leicestershire, Leicester City and Rutland, covering the work of the three local Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) and Local Authorities (LAs).

The following table summarises how your feedback and comments have directly led to changes to the Joint LLR SEND Commissioning Strategy, 2021-24:

“You Said” / “We Did” – How have we changed our strategy

  1. One of our actions was to ‘Look at development of the marketplace for services for young people with ASD’. It was felt that development was needed across the whole market, not just for those with ASD.
    • The action is now listed as ‘Look at development of the marketplace for services for young people with SEND, starting with where we are seeing the greatest need or most pressing changes occurring’
  2. Suggestion that the strategy was not specific, not SMART and didn’t contain enough information on the ‘as is’ position.
    • The action plan developed from engagement feedback contains a set of specific actions, states where we want to get to, where we are now and gives timescales for the work.
  3. A strong message throughout the engagement was about the need to ensure early identification and intervention to try to prevent the escalation of need which will require more intervention further down the line. This would include work with mainstream school settings in particular. As this can apply across many of the actions, this has been proposed as a cross cutting theme.
    • Cross cutting commitment to ask ‘How do we ensure early identification and intervention takes place?’
  4. Priority 2 during the engagement was ‘plan to meet need within available resource, forecast for the future’. Concern was expressed that resource shouldn’t be a limiting factor, it should be legislation i.e. statutory responsibility.
    • The priority has been changed to state ‘plan to meet statutory need within available resource, forecast for the future’.
  5. Text during the engagement read ‘Review our transition/preparing for adulthood plans and approaches, looking for opportunities to work together as a system to improve the transition experience for young people’. One respondent suggested we should be making these opportunities, rather than looking for them.
    • Text now reads as ‘Review our transition/preparing for adulthood plans and approaches, creating opportunities to work together as a system to improve the transition experience for young people’
  6. A request was received from all partners to include an action looking at the IAG provision collectively.
    • This has been added as a new action to year 1.
  7. One of our actions was to ‘Engage with children, young people, and families to understand what their priorities are in terms of service provision / improvement’. Whilst this was obviously very important and formed part of the engagement on the strategy where views were sought on the ranking of actions, it also forms a cross cutting action that should be considered in all pieces of work we do. This has therefore been removed as a specific action and included as part of the cross-cutting commitment.
    • Cross cutting commitment to ask during each piece of work ‘How do we involve children, young people and families in this action?’

In addition, we have noted from your feedback a number of general or cross-cutting themes that we will take into account when progressing the actions in the strategy:

Theme

  • The need to work with and listen to children, young people, parents and carers and to support them in understanding the systems, services and changes. This includes provision of guidance and information about what is available and who can access services and support.
  • The need to work with all partners, including schools, and with each other to ensure we are a joint system, working together
  • The need to consider the holistic needs of children across education, health and social care
  • The need to engage, inform and train the workforce on these processes and any changes made
  • The need to ensure early identification and intervention to prevent the escalation of need.

Attachments