7 November 2011SEN and Disability Marketplace

Queen Elizabeth II Conference CentreTheme 4 Workshop 1

Learning from Early Support

Elizabeth AndrewsAssociate Consultant

Council for Disabled Children

Overview

• What the Green Paper says and promises• Early Support and key working at the heart of current

development• What Early Support provides now and planned development in

2011-2013• Resources to help and who to contact• Questions and issues

What the Green Paper says and promises

What the Green Paper says:Early Support

‘Early Support is highly regarded by parents and professionals alike and has been proven to make a significant difference to families… Early Support has been used by many local authorities for families with disabled babies or children under 5, but the approach of clear information and resources with parents holding the plan for their child’s support is relevant to older children too.’Support and aspiration: a new approach to special educational needs and disability

What the Green Paper promises:Early Support

‘The Department for Education will fund voluntary and community sector organisations to maintain the existing Early Support resources, including the training materials, and amend them in partnership with parents to extend their use to families with school-aged children.’Support and aspiration: a new approach to special educational needs and disability

What the Green Paper says:Key workers

‘Parents with disabled children are likely to face higher levels of stress and they value the practical and emotional support of a key worker. Key workers can help to reduce this stress, help parents to navigate the system and help them agree the right support for their child. Most local authorities are already using key working to some extent. Although some local authorities use dedicated key workers, most train professionals who are already in contact with the family, such as a health visitor or social worker, to act as a key worker.’Support and aspiration: a new approach to special educational needs and disability

What the green paper promises: Key workers

‘The Department for Education will fund the voluntary and community sector to provide free training on key working for a range of professionals…and will test the role of key workers in the single assessment process and ‘Education, Health and Care Plan’ in the pathfinder areas as well as their role in supporting parents with increased control over funding for their child’s support.’Support and aspiration: a new approach to special educational needs and disability

How this fits into broader Green Paper principles and working

‘Working together with parents right from the start to support the child’s learning and development and can have huge benefits for the child’s achievement and wellbeing. Learning from parents and sharing information with them can give professionals a much better understanding of how best to support a child.’

‘Services will work together with the family to agree a straightforward, single plan that reflects the family’s ambitions for their child from early years to adulthood, which is reviewed regularly to reflect their changing needs, and is clear about who is responsible for provision.’Support and aspiration: a new approach to special educational needs and disability

The positive impact of Early Support

What do we know about the positive impact of Early Support?

• The evaluation of Early Support commissioned by Government concluded that, ’from the perspective of both parents and professionals, Early Support is a successful programme that has had demonstrable positive effects on the quality of service provision, the wellbeing of families and the appropriate support and development of disable children.’

• It was described as ‘one of the government’s great success stories in relation to disabled children’ by the Parliamentary Hearings on Services for Disabled Children in 2006

People who use it say…

‘Family Service Plans mean that parents go away with a piece of paper that says, “We will do this, this and this” with dates for delivery. That’s been really powerful from the perspective of parents and it’s really helped professionals to come together and work more collaboratively.’Senior Commissioning Manager for Disabled Children and Children with Long Term Conditions

  ‘Care co-ordination for me is about having the Care Plan ...You’ve got it and you’ve got timescales. You know who’s doing what and when they’re doing it by.’ Parent and Chair, Parent Forums

People who use it say…

‘A key thing about Early Support has been the strength of engagement with parents. It led directly to the formation of our Parent Forum, which gives families a collective opportunity to influence and be involved in the development of the services that they require.’Service Manager - Special & Additional Needs

‘Early Support is not a programme. It’s part and parcel of the way services should work with children and young people with SEND. It’s not additional. It’s the way services should be delivered and it should just be a part of what we do.’Service Manager - Special & Additional Needs

Relevance for older children and young people?

  ‘We all recognise the need for a single plan for transition, but we can’t agree yet on how far other processes can be compromised to achieve a single plan. Sometimes there are very entrenched attitudes to be un-picked. We’re trying to use learning from ES Family Service Plans to say, “This is how you achieve it.” The way we deliver Team Around the Child support and Family Service Plans for younger children is ‘multiple assessments, but one plan’ and it works ... the focus is on planning with and for the whole family. At transition, young people will have a more independent voice supported by their family but a single plan at transition should look similar.’Manager of an Integrated Service for Disabled Children

Relevance for older children and young people?

‘What we’ve learnt is that the coordinating role and oversight of multi-agency services is important and highly valued by families. Our Key Workers and Key Worker Coordinators have a newly developed ability to look holistically and more widely at a family’s situation and to maintain oversight of what’s happening with all the different agencies involved. That ability has grown directly from the practice of Early Support with younger children.’Key Worker Coordinator

Early Support and Key Working at the heart of current development

Experience developing holistic support and partnership with families

Single gateway into the system and multi agency referral panels

Experience using

Family Service

Plans

Experience using Team Around the Child approaches

and meetings

Early Support and key working at the heart of developing EHC plans

Early Support principles

and experience

Achievement for All

Transition Support ProgrammeExisting

arrangements for statutory assessment and review

Individual budgets

Single assessment and planning process

0-25

Early Support and key working at the heart of current development

Core element of reform:

A single education health and care plan from birth to 25 years old, focusing on whether outcomes for disabled children and their parents have been improved

Core element of reform:

Strong partnership between all local services and agencies

working together to help disabled children and those with SEN

Core element of reform:

Developing the role of parents and voluntary and community sector organisations in a new

system

Core element of reform:

Personal budgets for parents of disabled children and those with SEN so they can choose which services best suit the needs of their children

The experience, principles and

practice of Early Support help with all of this

Common principles

Early Support Green Paper NSF and AHDC

Working in partnership with families at every level

Giving families control Families routinely involved in making informed decisions about their child’s treatment, care and support and in shaping services

Information for families Giving families control: clear information

Information and transparency

Integrated, multi-agency service delivery

Services working together for families

Holistic, multi-agency and coordinated assessment and services

Help with coordination and negotiating the system, including key working, where appropriate

Supporting families through the system

Assessments should include consideration of the need for a key worker or lead professional

Training Empowering local professionals to develop collaborative, innovative and high quality services

Assessment, referral, treatment and on-going care delivered by staff with the right skills

What Early Support offers now and planned development in 2011-2013

What Early Support provides now

Multi-agency joint planning and decision making with families

Information for families and two-way exchange of information with

families

Help for families with co-ordination, supported by key working where appropriate

Training for professionals working

for Education, health and Social Care services and for

families

All developed in partnership with families and local services and piloted and refined in 45 x Early Support Pathfinder areas in 2005 and 2006 then through a national

programme

Background Information Booklets

Information for Parents Booklets

Developmental journals

Working in Partnership

Training for use of materials like the Service Audit Tool and developmental Journals

Parent Workshops

Fa

mily

Se

rvic

e

Pla

ns

Fa

mily

File

Projected development 2011-2013

Up-dating of all current programme materials for the under 5s

Development of current programme

materials for use with children and young

people

Up-dating of Early Support training and extension for use with families with older children and young people

Development and delivery of

new national training in key

working

All developed in partnership with families, young people and local services and ‘piloted’ in pathfinder areas as part of broader SEN Green Paper testing of the role of key workers in the single assessment process and ‘Education, Health and Care Plan’ .

Resources to help

Resources to help:CDC reflective material

Resources: The Early Support and Key Working Consortium

• The appointment of the Early Support and Key Working Consortium to lead these developments has recently been announced

• The Consortium wishes to establish early contact with all Green Paper pathfinder areas and also warmly invites all local areas and trainers with experience of using and extending Early Support up the age range to make contact with them

• The Director of the Early Support and Key Working Consortium is Kim Bevan

Contact: kim@estrust.org.uk• The Consortium is also represented in the Marketplace today.

Please speak with Gill Haynes or Kim to find out more.

Questions and issues

Who needs what and when?

Universal or mainstream services

Additional or specialist services

More complex, multiple and/or severe additional support requirements

Less complex, multiple and/or severe additional support requirements

More people and agencies involved and

greater specialist service involvement

Less people and agencies involved

More co-ordination and

partnership required

Schools, teachers and Early Years settingsInformation Advice and Guidance ServicesFamily Information Services

What will the scope of Education, Health and Care Plans be?

Support for learning

Medical/health careEquipment

Short breaks Work experience

Assessments/referrals

Support for the family

… and who will be responsible for convening joint planning meetings with young people and families?

How will support for local areas be coordinated?

Early Support principles

and experience

Achievement for All

Transition Support ProgrammeExisting

arrangements for statutory assessment and review

Individual budgets

Single assessment and planning process

0-25

Over to you…