Practice guides

Domestic abuse services have grown rapidly within Cheshire East over the last 5 years, due to enhanced funding from local partners as well as through national funding streams. Over 2024/25, the Cheshire East DA Strategy was reviewed and a full Needs Assessment commissioned, which highlighted gaps in provision as well as the need to focus on early intervention. This development ran alongside the introduction of the Domestic Abuse Act 2024 and the increased responsibility of Local Authorities to support victims of DA, as well as treating children as victims in their own right. The Domestic Abuse Family Safety Unit (DAFSU) team began as an Independent Domestic Abuse Advocate (IDVA) at the ‘Hub’ (an identified referral route via phone and/or an online portal); as well as a small number of high risk IDVAs taking referrals directly from MARAC meetings. The Hub developed into a wider team, offering advice, information and education around DA, as well as risk assessment (using the DASH Risk Assessment Checklist) and onward referral where appropriate. The high-risk team also developed and became a dedicated resource for victims at the highest risk.

Salford has a Flexible Procurement Solution (FPS) for Alternative Provision (AP). We operate a system of commissioning unregistered and registered AP, inviting providers to tender for inclusion on our framework. This is an effective flexible procurement process, which offers wide and varied alternative
education programmes. This was reviewed and updated for September 2024 so that there is a wider offer available. The FPS is used to identify AP providers who can deliver excellent alternative provision for the education of pupils from Key Stage 1 and beyond by offering a flexible response to those not
placed in a mainstream or special school. The FPS is used to commission AP placements for the local authority, including SEND and s19 Education Act provision, and by schools. Most of the pupils will be accessing the alternative education provision, which is delivered alongside the school’s core curriculum offer, on a part-time basis.

At the heart of our development was a desire to enable young people to have a voice and focus on giving young people the opportunity to inspect services they use and give critical and constructive feedback to services, projects, funders, organisations, or bodies that provide services to young
people in the borough. The Young Inspectors programme in Blackburn with Darwen has been developed from national guidance, to better serve our local needs. Young Inspectors contribute positively to improving key local services- thereby directly improving outcomes and experiences. The Blackburn with Darwen Young Inspectors Framework was co-produced with young people – with senior management support and guidance including to develop scoring matrices.

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.