Annual Report 2021 – 2022
Overview
Local Authorities must arrange for children with SEN or disabilities for whom they are responsible, and their parents, and young people with SEN or disabilities for whom they are responsible, to be provided with information and advice about matters relating to their SEN and disabilities, including matters relating to health and social care.
In North Lincolnshire this service is provided by the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Information Advice and Support Service (SENDIASS).
SENDIASS provides free, confidential, impartial advice and support to children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and their parents.
The service provides an Annual Report as part of its agreement with the Local Authority. The purpose of the report is to provide an overview of service activity, developments and achievements throughout the year.
Throughout the year, demand for the service has increased. We have seen a higher number of referrals from families requesting information, advice or support than the previous year.
The service was well equipped to deal with the increase in referrals and continued to meet the 3-day response time frame for new requests for information, advice and support. Feedback received from individuals accessing the service continues to show a generally high level of satisfaction with the support they received.
As the restrictions associated with Covid 19 came to an end, the service reflected on the benefits of the virtual working arrangements that had been in place over the past 2 years. Subsequently, we adopted a hybrid model of working on a permanent basis, whereby a combination of both virtual and face to face contact could be offered to families. The service sustained their focus on empowering families to self-help, through the development of information available on social media, the team continued to encourage families to access information to help them make informed choices.
Key Strengths and Achievements
During 2021/22, the team received additional funding from the Council for Disabled Children as part of the Information Advice and Support Programme (IASP). Aligned to the funding, two SENDIASS films have been made with the aim of increasing engagement and awareness of the service amongst young people.
The Minimum Standards for Information, Advice and Support Services outline the requirements that Information, Advice and Support Services should provide. In North Lincolnshire, a self-assessment against the Standards was completed and reflects full compliance.
In December 2021, SENDIASS participated in the joint local area SEND inspection. The inspection report published in March 2022, described the service in a positive light with highlighting strong parental appreciation of the service. ”Parents appreciate the personal help they receive from the highly effective SENDIASS”.
The SENDIASS social media presence has grown significantly throughout the year with additional time spent developing and promoting the Facebook page to extend the reach of information shared.
Referrals and Activity
During the Academic Year 2021/2022, the SENDIASS received a total of 283 new requests for information, advice and support. This is an increase of 11% in comparison to the previous academic year and is consistent with a gradual increase over recent years.
Awareness and use of the SENDIASS website has continued to grow, seeing a significant increase in the number of visits, with a monthly average of approximately 150. The Facebook page also saw a significant increase in followers, with approximately 460 individuals now following the page. This suggests that families continue to access information online independently, in some situations mitigating the need to make direct contact with the service.
We continued to promote the service through a number of events for young people, parents and carers. These included a combination of face to face and virtual events such as attending the bi-monthly foster carer meeting, North Lincolnshire’s Parent Forum coffee morning, the local Democracy Day and Youth Council Meetings.
Analysis of referral activity shows a gradual increase in individuals accessing to the service over recent years. Whilst the number of referral reflects the number of families seeking support, it is noted that FIS support/ triage of calls ceased in 2019, increased promotion of the service and the introduction of additional contact methods, has likely impacted upon referral activity.
Further breakdown of referral data shows that this academic year, there was an increase in anonymous calls (whereby an individual chooses not to provide personal details, usually as part of a one off contact). September was the busiest month in terms of individuals seeking information, advice or support from the service. This is consistent with the previous years data and coincides with the start of the new academic year.
Referral categories
Each referral received into the service is recorded within a specific category based on the primary reason for contact, categorising referrals in this way helps the team to identify the most common reasons that individuals seek information advice or support.
Please note that for the purpose of this report, some categories have been grouped together as they refer to similar topics.
- SEN Support – 24% (This category includes all enquiries relating to SEN Support including process enquiries and dissatisfaction with support in place)
- Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) – 23% (This category includes all enquiries relating to existing EHCP’s including plan contents and Annual Review
- (Pre) Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) – 20% (This category includes all enquires relating to EHCP where a child or young person does not have an existing EHCP, including process enquires and support to make a request for an EHC needs assessment)
The remaining referral categories received less than 5% of the total number of referrals. Such categories include – transport, exclusion, making a complaint and requests for information about a service.
Developments
Funding from the Council for Disabled Children, as part of the Information, Advice and Support Programme was received and used to create resources to promote the service to young people and enhance the use of social media to provide easier access to information and advice.
Young People’s Films
Two short films about the SENDIASS were coproduced with young people, with the support of a local film maker. The purpose of the films was to raise awareness amongst young people in the local area of the statutory role of the service to provide information, advice and support. The films have been shared with families and professionals within North Lincolnshire and positive feedback has been received.
Social Media
To enhance the SENDIASS’ social media presence, the team researched and utilised resources focussed on increasing engagement and subsequently, a social media development plan was implemented. The plan includes identifying future content for the page taking into account posts that have been popular and the most common requests for information from families. Content is delivered using a scheduling assistant tool that automatically shares posts at the times the algorithm identifies it will reach the target audience most effectively, such as evenings and weekends. Analytics show the SENDIASS Facebook page has seen a significant increase in page “likes” and “followers” and posts are reaching a wider audience.
Volunteer Engagement
SENDIASS welcomed two new volunteers into the service in February 2022. Their roles have developed through support and training including accessing Level 1 training provided by IPSEA (Independent Provider of Special Education Advice).
Volunteer engagement has positively impacted on SENDIASS capacity and has enabled SENDIASS Officers to focus additional time supporting families. Volunteers have reflected on the positive impact of the volunteer experience, with one volunteer describing their experiences of returning to a work environment as “life changing”.
Service User Voice and Engagement
The Council for Disabled Children provide 6 core survey questions for SENDIASS’ to promote consistency across all Local Authority areas. Locally, feedback is gained via an online questionnaire, the large majority of returns are completed anonymously.
The responses received throughout the academic year are summarised as an overall percentage.
100% – Agreed it was easy or very easy to contact the service
100% – Agreed that the service was helpful or very helpful
98% – Were satisfied or very satisfied with the service provided
98% – Would recommend the service to others
91% – Agreed that the service made a great deal of difference or a difference
89% – Agreed that the SENDIASS were impartial or very impartial
Feedback scores relating to how easy it was to contact the service have improved in comparison to the previous year, this is in part associated with the introduction of an additional method of contact which enables individuals to contact the service via the SENDIASS website.
The feedback scores reflect an overall decrease relating to the impartiality of the service, however, it is noted that the low scores provided are inconsistent with the overall positive feedback/feedback comments provided by the same individuals. Unfortunately, as the feedback questionnaires were completed anonymously, it is not possible to explore this further.
In addition to the core questions, as a method of further gaining the views of individuals who have accessed the service, an additional question is regularly added to the survey. This year, families were asked for their views about the SENDIASS website and the feedback has been positive.
Some of the comments we have received from individuals who have accessed the service are included below:
“Very Helpful Service”
“Excellent support and advice when completing the EHCP application, excellent support in meetings, excellent signposting to different services”
“Previously I wasn’t aware that SENDIASS supported young people so its useful to know there is a service for us”
“The worker has been extremely helpful with all our problems, very good advice very pleasant and professional”
“Used website, helpful information thanks”
“Just want to thank you for being there in that meeting you made me feel less nervous and the support in the meeting was tremendous I really appreciate it”
“I cant begin to express how much she (Officer) has helped me and my son, I now have a very good relationship with the school”
“Excellent support and advice when completing the EHCP application, excellent support in meetings, excellent signposting to different services”
Monitoring and Assurance
A service specification detailing the expectations of the service is in place with SENDIASS and its commissioners from North Lincolnshire Council and the Integrated Care Board (previously CCG). This year, SENDIASS and the commissioners formalised the way in which the contract is monitored, predominantly through bi-annual contract monitoring meetings. These meetings allow the team to share their performance against contractual expectations and to celebrate key achievements.
The SENDIASS provide a monthly update of service delivery to North Lincolnshire Council as lead commissioner, with a more detailed overview provided on a quarterly basis, in line with local assurance procedures.
SENDIASS activity is monitored via a steering group which is independently chaired by a members of North Lincolnshire’s Parent Forum. Membership includes representatives across health, education and social care. The primary functions of the group are to monitor what the service does and how well, to inform and support development of the SENDIASS and to plan for the future.
Internal monitoring processes include analysis of feedback received from individuals who have accessed the service and review of practice via the case audit process (2 per month). A self-assessment against the Minimum Standards is completed on an annual basis, the current assessment reflects that the team are compliant in each of the 4 areas. Self-assessment against the with the Minimum Standards for Information Advice and Support Services.
Data is provided to the Council for Disabled Children as required, typically covering referral activity/ data, user feedback and staffing arrangements. This is collected on an annual basis across all SENDIAS Services to reflect a national picture.
Conclusion
Feedback received continues to evidence that the service is valued by families in North Lincolnshire. The very large majority of people who have provided feedback have indicated that they were satisfied with the service, the information, advice or support received was helpful and that they would recommend the service to others.
There have been a number of service developments aligned to the Minimum Standards for Information, Advice and Support Services. We will continue to build on these over the coming year.
The Young People’s Films will be launched and shared across social media, local services and with post 16 settings
We will continue to support Volunteers to develop their roles as part of our approach to volunteer engagement
The focus on the SENDIASS’ online presence will continue, with further consultation on the website and social media, to ensure that content remains relevant and accessible, and the reach continues to expand.