Evaluation of the SEND Pathfinder Programme: Early Findings

1. Evaluation of the SEND Pathfinder Programme: Early Findings Graham Thom and Meera Prabhakar May 2012

2. Outline • Summary of the findings from the first round visits to the 10 in-depth case study areas, which were undertaken in February-March 2012 • First monitoring returns, covering all Pathfinders, will be reported in June • Families now being recruited, but several months until we get feedback • Early emerging findings cover • The nature of the problems that the Pathfinders are seeking to address • Early thinking on the approaches that were to be/being developed

3. The current system(s) • Pockets of joint working and personalisation existed across all the case study areas • … but general agreement that things needed to change • Disjointed assessments • Lack of co-ordination • Poor attendance at reviews • Supply led planning • Unclear responsibilities • Limited involvement of parents and young people • Limited local provision • So, the Pathfinders recognise the agenda set by the Green Paper

4. Progress up until Feb/Mar 2012

5. Planned approaches Majority of approaches were expected to include: The introduction of key worker or lead professional An initial engagement or information gathering stage Coordinated or integrated assessment, involving the prioritisation of key assessment headlines Resource allocation to support the calculation of indicative budgets Single planning, involving both the family and relevant professionals Subsequent and regular review of the single plan Key worker introduced to the family, to coordinate the process and supports the family throughout Initial engagement Referral into the Pathfinder Gathering of existing assessment information or completion of assessments Coordinated/integrated assessment Additional specialist assessments completed if required Assessment headlines prioritised and desired family outcomes developed Coordinated/integrated assessment produced Resource allocation Indicative budget communicated to the family if part of a personal budget Indicative budget developed/calculated Child/family-centred plan developed, with clear responsibility of agencies and the family Single planning Single planning Agreement of plan and associated budget Review Review and learn

6. Issues? • Only a few sites were looking at bringing together assessment processes / episodes / forms • Most planned to join up after the assessments by creating a ‘headline/ summary’ version • The headline assessment documentation is an addition to current practice. It may lead to better planning Key worker introduced to the family, to coordinate the process and supports the family throughout Initial engagement Referral into the Pathfinder Gathering of existing assessment information or completion of assessments • Most focus was on defining the Single Plan • Was unclear how the new approaches would address some of the current problems • Poor attendance at review meetings • Agreeing how to resource multi-disciplinary packages of support and accountabilities between the agencies Coordinated/integrated assessment Additional specialist assessments completed if required Assessment headlines prioritised and desired family outcomes developed Coordinated/integrated assessment produced Resource allocation Indicative budget communicated to the family if part of a personal budget Indicative budget developed/calculated Child/family-centred plan developed, with clear responsibility of agencies and the family Single planning Single planning Agreement of plan and associated budget Review Review and learn

7. Recruitment of families in the case study areas • The identification process had started in most of the case study areas • Anticipated numbers had fallen in several areas • There was a spread of age ranges • Some sites were targeting particular age groups, while others were looking at 0-25 • Most families were to come through an education route

8. Emerging findings 1

9. Emerging findings 2

10. Contact Graham Thom Director SQW t. 07716 916897 e. gthom@sqw.co.uk w. www.sqw.co.uk Meera Prabhakar Senior Consultant SQW t. 020 7307 7151 e. mprabhakar@sqw.co.uk w. www.sqw.co.uk

11. Our overarching approach to gathering data Scoping: map out the shape of the Pathfinder Programme and co-produce the approach Coverage of depth of Pathfinder work Coverage of breadth of Pathfinder work