Reflections from Steve Crocker - 21 March 2025

Hello and welcome to my 14th blog as independent chair of the Oxfordshire SEND Strategic Improvement and Assurance Board (SIAB).

The board met once more on 21 March. 

Chair’s remarks

I began March’s meeting by acknowledging the recent and significant changes for NHS England. NHS England is to be abolished and integrated with the Department of Health and Social Care. There is to be a 50 per cent reduction in the running costs of integrated care boards by quarter three of this financial year (Nov 25 - Jan 26). 

There will be potential impacts for the local area partnership, which are too early to determine, but we will together focus on opportunities for joint working and streamlining processes despite the challenges. 

First on the agenda was Jules Francis-Sinclair, Chair of Oxfordshire Parent Carers Forum (OxPCF) and her colleague Liz Knight.

OxPCF feedback

Jules kicked us off by sharing a number of event updates. The final session in the children and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS) webinar series, run in partnership with the CAMHS neurodevelopmental conditions team, has now taken place. The session focused on the transition into adulthood, and following high attendance and positive feedback, a third series is being planned for September.

Positive feedback has also been received following the listening events on alternative provision and education, health and care plan (EHCP) casework communications. Summaries of both events can be found on OxPCF’s website. And the recent local area partnership SEND Together event for parents carers has also received excellent feedback, with an average event rating of 9.6 out of 10. Over 200 people attended and engagement was high. Jules noted that for next year, there is room to strengthen school and adult mental health team representation. 

She also shared key themes emerging from recent parent feedback, particularly the ongoing challenges families face in accessing medical care for children and young people with SEND. Jules emphasised the need for a joined-up, whole system approach across health services to effectively address these issues. Partnership conversations are currently underway to develop a more integrated and collaborative effort for improving medical care access for SEND families. 

Next on the agenda was Lydia Martin, Senior SEND Project Officer at the county council, who provided an update on the SEND Youth Forum. Jo works in the targeted youth support service. She was joined by Alessandra, a member of the forum who shared her experiences and insights. 

SEND Youth Forum

The last forum session had nine out of 12 young people attending, including new young people from Afghanistan. The forum aims to change the system, provide support, offer opportunities for feedback and make a difference. The session involved a review of its terms of reference; an update on the competition that was held to design a quality kite mark, which will be used to indicate feedback from young people on service provision; and there were supported discussions led by service leads. These included on education otherwise than at school (EOTAS); job opportunities and support for young people; and the SEND strategy to gather young people's views on living in Oxfordshire with additional needs.

Alessandra shared her experiences with the supported employment scheme and her involvement in the SEND Youth Forum. She joined the local supported employment scheme in 2023, receiving help with job searching, interview preparation, and finding suitable job opportunities. The support increased her confidence in applying for jobs and during interviews. 

Alessandra joined the youth forum in June 2024 and after participating in the production of the forum’s video and the quality kite mark logo competition, she has found the forum rewarding, providing insight into other people's challenges and opportunities to share her experiences. 

Jo and Lydia summed up to share that the next meeting in May will include updates on supported employment, including the creation of a SEND employment forum media newsletter, independent travel training and the online Local Offer. Young people will lead their own sessions.

Overall, the forum is making significant strides in engaging young people, gathering their feedback, and involving them in meaningful activities and decision-making processes. 

We then moved on to the SEND transformation programme and key performance indicators.

Key performance indicators

Kate Reynolds, the county council’s Deputy Director of Education, led the update. She was supported by Deborah Smit, Assistant Director SEND and Inclusion at the county council, and Karen Fern, Designated Clinical Officer SEND 0 - 25 at NHS Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board (BOB ICB).

There has been a dip in education, health and care plan (EHCP) timeliness with EHCP completions at 24 per cent for March. The number of tribunals is also increasing. There are efforts to address the backlogs and improve allocation to educational psychologists. 

On educational attainment, Key Stage 4 scores are below national, regional and statistical neighbours whereas Key Stage 5 average point scores have improved, moving from the second bottom to the second top quartile. 

In health services, staffing issues in community paediatrics have impacted data collection. The neurodevelopmental disorder conditions waiting times continue to increase, with 210 referrals for assessment in January, the highest since June 2024. Karen mentioned there had been significant effort in February to reduce speech and language therapy waiting times. 

The dynamic support register (DSR) provides data around children, young people and adults with significant needs and at risk of inpatient admission. February data shows no children and young people recorded as an inpatient in February.  All children and young people (age 0 - 18) on the DSR have an EHCP.  Further analysis of adult DSR data is in progress, with early data showing 11 adults (age 19 - 25) have an EHCP. 

A deep dive into timeliness across the partnership is planned for the next meeting to address EHCP and health service waiting times. 

Following this discussion, Robert Sherwood, SEND Local Offer and Family Help Coordinator from the county council updated on progress on the Local Offer.

Local Offer

A strategic plan has been developed to ensure statutory compliance and improve the Local Offer. The plan includes phases and priorities for updating and enhancing the content. Launched in late September, the youth hub page was developed with input from the SEND Youth Forum. The page includes statutory information and additional content suggested by young people. 

Since December 2023, the Local offer has had 166,000 views and 31,000 users. The majority of users (41 per cent) are accessing the 5 - 15 age group page, followed by the 0 - 4 age group (17 per cent) and the 16 - 25 age group (8 per cent). Specific landing pages show that 17 per cent of users explore further support for children, 10 – 20 per cent explore wider, and 7 - 10 per cent seek funding information. 

Over the next six months the focus is on ensuring statutory compliance and updating outdated pages. Feedback from users will be used to improve the Local Offer's usability and accessibility. There will be promotion of specific areas, such as transitions and holiday clubs, to increase usage and there will be full promotion of the Local Offer once it reaches a more comprehensive and user-friendly state. 

Next, Marc Borja, Co-production Commissioning Officer at the county council gave an update on co-production activity in the council, particularly within adult social care.

Co-production

The county council definition of co-production, developed three years ago, has now been formally accepted and adopted across adult services, children's services, and some other services. The definition emphasises involving both the experts who provide the service and experts by experience who use the service or those who are impacted by the provision in some way. 

Co-production training is available for all children, education and families colleagues, as well as health colleagues. Senior leadership, including directors and managers, have attended the training, demonstrating a commitment to modelling co-production principles. 

Despite progress, there are still challenges in fully embedding co-production practices, with some confusion existing around the differences between participation and engagement and co-production. 

The infrastructure for co-production is in place, and efforts are ongoing to ensure it is understood and implemented correctly. 

A deep dive into co-production practices for SEND is planned to address concerns and improve understanding and implementation. Collaboration with parent carers and other stakeholders will continue to refine and enhance co-production efforts. 

So that’s it from me for now, and I hope, as always, this is useful. We next meet as a board on 24 April 2025. 

If you are a parent or carer and have any thoughts or comments, please share with OxPCF by emailing info@oxpcf.org.uk. If you are a partner, please do feedback through your organisation. You can find a list of the LAP member representatives on the board on the SEND improvement webpage. Also don’t forget to sign-up to receive the SEND e-newsletter if you’re not already receiving it. Parents and carers can also read OxPCF’s SEND Connect newsletters, which include news and information from across the local area partnership.

Until next time. 

Steve Crocker