Practice guides

To ensure high standards in the delivery of Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) and SEND support, Blackburn with Darwen has implemented a comprehensive five-tier quality assurance framework. This approach combines quantitative, qualitative, and impact-based methods to evaluate and improve practice across services. Each tier focuses on a different aspect of assurance—from individual service-level checks and compliance audits using digital tools, to capturing lived experiences, conducting multi-agency reviews, and reporting to governance boards—ensuring a robust and holistic process for continuous improvement.

Cheshire East was identified as an outlier for the number and rate of growth of children with Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) and involved with the Delivering Better Value for SEND (DBV) programme at the time of bidding for Family Hubs funding. The Family Hub partnership group committed to developing a Family Hubs as a SEND Centre of Excellence to trial and develop inclusive practice across all Cheshire East Family Hubs. We collaborated with partners and families to discuss what the centre could look like; this included young people who supported us to design the space. Our Parent Carer Forum (PCF) were key partners on our steering group and regularly informed us about challenges they faced, gaps in service provision, and changes needed to provide effective support.

In Manchester, we have developed a steering group Manchester Inclusive Alternative Provision Strategy
(MIAPS) for both alternative provision and schools. Our rationale is founded on principles of inclusion:

• Ensuring all settings are compliant with all relevant legislation and statutory standards.
• Ensuring that all young people in all settings are safe and visible.
• Ensuring that all young people have access to high-quality provision and education.
• Enabling Alternative Provision (AP) settings to sit as a community asset to support collaborative,
continuous improvement.
• Secure lasting relationships with all stakeholders and support self-improvement through robust
quality processes.

We approached oversight of AP settings by creating a Manchester City Council framework of Approved Alternative Provision Providers. We produced a Manchester guide for schools using alternative provision and developed a quality assurance framework and protocol, which has informed national
guidance. Commissioning of an AP Quality Assurance professional ensured completion quality assurance visits and generation of reports. Alongside this, funding of the IRIS Adapt system enabled schools and provider to support oversight of young people in AP settings.

Sefton’s approach to Alternative Provision (AP) needed to be developed through the principles outlined in the Department for Education’s SEND and alternative provision improvement plan: right support, right place, right time. This required us to align AP with the wider SEND system more fully, ensuring pupils with additional needs received appropriate support within a structured and accountable framework.

There are a higher-than-average number of children and young people in Oldham who have an education, health, and care plan (EHCP) compared to national rates (Oldham: 6.0% and national: 4.8%). The most common type of need for children and young people with an EHCP is autism, although speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) remain a significant area of need, which is shown in the most common primary need for children and young people at the SEN Support level being SLCN. Furthermore, most children at primary transition who move to special schools have primary needs in SLCN and autism. Due of the challenges of rising demand and many referrals for speech and language therapy (SALT) leading to long waiting times, it was important to look at reducing this.

The Changemakers is a youth voice group for young people with additional needs and disabilities aged 11-25. It was created as a working group to feed into Bury’s SEND Improvement and Assurance Board following a 2024 Area SEND Ofsted/ Care Quality Commission inspection. The Changemakers meet fortnightly during term time and have reward trips during the school holidays. Their primary role is to hold the SEND Improvement and Assurance board accountable and assist in Bury’s improvement journey, and they do so by reading monthly reports, attending board meetings, and providing regular feedback to the board through the SEND Ambassador and Inclusion Advocate. Members of the board are also invited to attend Changemakers meetings. The Changemakers sit alongside Bury’s formal statutory democratic youth approach to voice, Youth Cabinet, and members of both groups are invited to attend Full Cabinet meetings with elected members. Changemakers are encouraged to attend Youth Cabinet, to participate and share their views on wider issues and systems/structures affecting young people. This ensures a wide variety of participation and engagement and that the voices of our young people with SEND are heard.

There were not enough appropriate school placements for four-year olds in Reception. This was due to the increasing numbers of four-year-olds with plans and significantly more complex needs. Mainstream schools were not confident at meeting the needs of Blackpool children with special needs (increase in refusals to consultations and placements breaking down). Mainstream school buildings not able to meet the needs of the changing cohort (increase in
capital requests for sensory rooms, toilet changing and break out spaces. Blackpool, in partnership with local schools, sought to create a specialist offer of provision for reception children with EHCPs that can be delivered within mainstream schools. It is a ‘pop-up’ approach which means it reflects areas of the town with the most need at a specific point in time.

Our needs assessment showed duplication, poor data and a lack of coordination when children and young people were accessing mental health support. 43% of referrals to local Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) did not meet the threshold for support. Our vision is that children and
young people in Wirral have good emotional health and know how and when to get extra support. In November 2024 Wirral Children and Young People’s Mental Health Alliance launched Branch - a single point of access for children and young people’s emotional wellbeing.

To make sure children and young people are at the heart of their Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs), we have worked closely with them to design a more meaningful, accessible process. We co-produced a new All About Me section for EHCPs with students from Mill Green School and Carmel
College. The Have a Go, Avocado! book was written, illustrated, and produced by students from the Foundation Learning Department. The book is based on their own childhood experiences – including their worries, struggles, and achievements – and it brings real-life meaning to the pupil voice part of Section A in the EHCP. These young people helped identify the key information that Casework Officers need to create person-centred plans. Their input shaped how we ask about interests, strengths, hopes for the future, and the support that helps them best.

Flourish FE was established in direct response to a gap in local provision identified through consultation with Knowsley Borough Council and a small group of dedicated parents. At the time, there was no specialist Further Education (FE) setting in-borough that could meet the complex needs of young people with Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) transitioning beyond the age of 19. As a result, learners were routinely travelling out of borough — a daily round trip of approximately 36 miles — to access appropriate provision.

Westmorland and Furness children and families service have created a culture that supports innovation in practice, where the views of practitioner’s influence change, the workforce feel safe, and where they are encouraged to learn and develop. The primary purpose of the Children's Social Work Academy is to create a supportive and empowering environment, providing comprehensive training, professional development, and support for frontline practitioners in Children’s Social Care.

In autumn 2017 when 30 hours funded childcare was implemented, the Government recommended that local authorities should pay providers monthly unless an alternative was agreed locally with the sector. Following a consultation at that time it was agreed that Lancashire would move to a nine-month payment model (i.e. three payments per term, paid in the first, second and third month of each term). In 2020, due to Covid, Lancashire temporarily changed the payment terms to one large up front interim payment, with a final balancing payment later in the term. This was implemented to ensure providers received funding on time/in advance to support cash-flow at a time when numbers were exceptionally low. In April 2021, a follow up consultation was undertaken to determine whether providers wanted to revert to the nine-month payment model or stay with the large interim/final balance payment model. The sector opted for the latter. In spring term 2024, the Council received feedback from a small number of nurseries and several childminders raising concerns about the payment terms. This was a particular concern for providers due to the increase in numbers of funded children from April 2024 onwards, and the resulting decrease in 'private' income. Several providers started to request monthly payments. Feedback suggested that the payment terms provided challenges for some providers, particularly childminders, and especially childminders that were in receipt of universal credit. The large interim payment up front means that they lose their universal credit entitlement the month the interim was paid as it took them above the universal credit threshold. Considering the expanded entitlements and feedback received, the Council undertook a consultation during March-April 2024 on the future payment models.