Devon County Council SEND service improvements

Devon County Council admits SEND responses often unclear despite meeting speed targets | DCC

placeholder image — Devon County Council admits SEND responses often unclear despite meeting speed targets | DCC

Devon County Council has acknowledged that families dealing with its SEND service continue to report unclear or unhelpful responses, despite the majority of messages being answered within its target timeframe, with the council now focusing on improving the quality of responses.

Devon County Council has acknowledged that families dealing with its Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) service continue to report unclear or unhelpful responses, despite the majority of messages being answered within its target timeframe.

According to figures published by the council on its website, its SEND Operations team processed around 10,000 communications in July, a total that includes phone calls and emails from families and schools about individual children and young people. Of those, 90 per cent were responded to within five working days.

However, the council said feedback from families indicates that speed alone is not enough. "Families' feedback continues to tell us that not all those responses are good enough," the council said. "They are not clear, or do not answer questions asked."

What's changing

The council said it is now focusing on improving the quality of responses, not just how quickly they arrive, as part of a wider Communications and Relationship Standard introduced for the SEND Operations team.

Since May, the team has been using a new digital system to log and store communications about individual children, which the council says has allowed it to monitor response times in detail for the first time.

To address concerns about clarity, the council said it is changing how staff are trained and supervised, including:

Revising the induction process for new starters
Setting individual development goals around communication
Building communication into staff supervision and case discussions

Changes to how families are contacted

The council has also changed how it handles Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) assessments. EHCP partners, who manage the statutory assessment and review process, are organised by locality across Devon, meaning staff build familiarity with services and schools in a specific area.

Under the new approach, when a child is agreed to need a statutory assessment, an EHCP partner will now call the family directly to explain the process and how they will work with the school and healthcare providers. That call is followed by a written summary of what was discussed and the agreed next steps.

The council said early feedback from families and staff suggests the change is helping build relationships with families earlier and reducing frustration when problems arise later in the process.

How to give feedback

The council said anyone who has recently had contact with the SEND Operations team can share their experience through Devon's Four Cornerstones survey, which the council uses to gather feedback on its SEND services.