You said, we did

We did/will do: Swindon Borough Council worked with Swindon SEND Families Voice and the Clinical Commissioning Group developed a set of frequently asked questions. These FAQ’S were updated on a daily basis from March to June 2020 as more information became available and/or changed.

A resource page full of activities, videos, easy-reads and links that families can use to occupy, entertain and educate children and young people during the time where educational institutions, activity groups and public leisure facilities are closed or on a reduced service.

During March and July 2020 these pages featured very highly in the most viewed pages list on the Local Offer, which shows the high levels of interest and usage that these two pages received during this time. Moving forward these resources will be moved into the main body of the Local Offer and where the services are still available will be added to the vast range of services and information already on the Local Offer.

The Public Health pages on the Local Offer were also updated regularly throughout COVID-19. An example of some of the updates that was shared on the Local Offer included:

• Information and guidance to support residents’ mental health and wellbeing as well as service updates.
• Communication shared around the impact of smoking and advice on how to quit, which included #QuitforCovid campaign.
• Information and guidance specifically around domestic violence and/or abuse.
• General advice shared around the symptoms of COVID-19, when to self-isolate, how to access food and supplies and NHS Test and Trace.

We did/will do: Swindon Borough Council recognised that some parents and carers had been home educating their children during lockdown and that as businesses reopened parents would be looking for opportunities for their children and young people to safely socialise.

There was a change to the provider for short breaks and respite which meant that the local area needed to look at alternative methods of ensuring those children and young people assessed as eligible were provided with opportunities to access services during the summer holidays. A Summer Activities Programme was co-produced with Swindon SEND Families Voice.

We did/will do: Common terms for the search function have been improved based on feedback provided.

We did/will do: We have extended the phone service to be operational during full office hours (Monday - Thursday 8.00am to 5.00pm and Friday 8.00am to 4.00pm) with one telephone number for the team: 01793 464641.

We did/will do: The SEND Service was reviewed, which specifically looked at the key roles, responsibilities and capacity to respond to enquiries and deliver their statutory duties. The service was subsequently restructured with a new service implemented in March 2020 which resulted in a Delivery Team offering a ‘front door’ into the SEND Service.

A key function of this team includes logging all contact into the team and the performance in responding within 72 hours. Since March 2020, 918 phone calls and 2390 emails have been responded to. Of that total, 946 enquires were responded to in time and 2186 were responded to ahead of time.

As a result we have received the following feedback confirming that positive experiences are now being reported from contact with the service:

“Thank you for helping to improve this, and well done to SENAT.” “Well done to the SENAT team, it isn’t always easy to get things done.”

“Well done and thank you.”

“Good experience here too. I called last Friday as was expecting to have previously received an EHCP outcome but hadn’t heard. I called last Friday and got a call back about 30 mins later. On the initial call, the person did stress to me their service level agreements and when I should chase if I hadn’t heard anything. So overall, very positive, although it felt a little like how I imagine many of the npower staff I used to work with felt when they called our HR support centre. Quite clinical and call centre like. I’m sure that it needs to be like that in our current times”

“I had a same day response to my question from calling one of the mobile numbers. The person told me to call back if I didn’t have an answer within 72 hours. So a good experience here”

We did/will do: We have published the names and case allocation of all EHCP Coordinators on the ‘meet the SEND Service’ page. This can be found by following the link here: Meet the SEND Service.

We did/will do: Swindon Borough Council recognise that it is important that these families are more represented and feel listened to. Policies have been strengthened in relation to personal budgets for EHC Plans and published Core Standards which sets out our expectations of education and support from universal to specialist levels.

There is a commitment to working with the SEND Parent Carer Forum, Swindon SEND Families Voice and the EHE community to ensure they feel represented on the site. David Haley, Director of Children's Services has written an open letter to the EHE community (PDF).

We did/will do: Parents and carers through the consultation of the Transport Policy for 2021/22 raised concerns that medical needs should be met whilst children and young people are travelling to and from school on dedicated transport.

Swindon Borough Council worked with Swindon SEND families Voice and the Clinical Commissioning Group to revise the policy based on consultation feedback. This has resulted in a separate policy for SEND from 2021 onwards.

Key changes have been made in relation to medical needs being met when an individual risk assessment indicates that clinical training is required whilst travelling. A Code of Conduct and FAQ’s are included as appendices to the policy and are co-produced with parents and carers.

We did/will do: The local Clinical Commissioning Group Children’s Programme Manager reviewed the existing referral documentation and criteria with the Designated Medical Officer and Community Paediatrics Consultant Lead and recognised that the existing criteria request for supporting documentation could be more robust for referring professionals.

There are 3 elements of criteria under the Supporting Documentation section that needs to be met for the referral form to be triaged appropriately as part of the revised pathway.