evaluation of the send pathfinder programme: early findings graham thom and meera prabhakar may 2012
TRANSCRIPT
Evaluation of the SEND Pathfinder Programme: Early Findings
Graham Thom and Meera PrabhakarMay 2012
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Outline
Summary of the findings from the first round visits to the 10 in-depth case study areas, which were undertaken in February-March 2012 First monitoring returns, covering all Pathfinders, will be reported
in June Families now being recruited, but several months until we get
feedback
Early emerging findings cover The nature of the problems that the Pathfinders are seeking to
address Early thinking on the approaches that were to be/being
developed
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The current system(s)
Pockets of joint working and personalisation existed across all the case study areas
… but general agreement that things needed to change Disjointed assessments Lack of co-ordination Poor attendance at reviews Supply led planning Unclear responsibilities Limited involvement of parents and young people Limited local provision
So, the Pathfinders recognise the agenda set by the Green Paper
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Progress up until Feb/Mar 2012
Organisational and cultural changeWhat was going well?
Generally good strategic engagement
Delivery teams identified and majority in post
Thinking about the local offer and cultural change / skills development had begun
What were the issues?
Capacity of health colleagues, the VCS and education providers, to effectively engage was raised as a concern
Two initial interpretations of the local offer
1. A high level offer to families setting out how agencies will work together
2. Creation of a provider based resource
Anticipated challenges
Getting operational staff released from current duties to deliver the Pathfinder
Small scale of the Pathfinder in majority of areas leading to limited market change (especially given block contracts)
Information sharing between agencies and with families not yet fully considered
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Planned approaches
Majority of approaches were expected to include:• The introduction of key
worker or lead professional
• An initial engagement or information gathering stage
• Coordinated or integrated assessment, involving the prioritisation of key assessment headlines
• Resource allocation to support the calculation of indicative budgets
• Single planning, involving both the family and relevant professionals
• Subsequent and regular review of the single plan
Gathering of existing assessment information
or completion of assessments
Additional specialist assessments completed
if required
Coordinated/integrated assessment produced
Indicative budget developed/calculated
Single planning
Agreement of plan and associated budget
Review and learn
Init
ial e
ng
agem
ent
Referral into the Pathfinder
Key worker introduced to the family, to coordinate the process
and supports the family throughout
Assessment headlines prioritised and desired family outcomes
developed
Co
ord
inat
ed/
inte
gra
ted
as
sess
men
t
Res
ou
rce
allo
cati
on
Sin
gle
pla
nn
ing
Rev
iew
Indicative budget communicated to the family if part of a personal
budget
Child/family-centred plan developed, with clear responsibility
of agencies and the family
Issues?
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Gathering of existing assessment information
or completion of assessments
Additional specialist assessments completed
if required
Coordinated/integrated assessment produced
Indicative budget developed/calculated
Single planning
Agreement of plan and associated budget
Review and learn
Init
ial e
ng
agem
ent
Referral into the Pathfinder
Key worker introduced to the family, to coordinate the process
and supports the family throughout
Assessment headlines prioritised and desired family outcomes
developed
Co
ord
inat
ed/
inte
gra
ted
as
sess
men
t
Res
ou
rce
allo
cati
on
Sin
gle
pla
nn
ing
Rev
iew
Indicative budget communicated to the family if part of a personal
budget
Child/family-centred plan developed, with clear responsibility
of agencies and the family
• Only a few sites were looking at bringing together assessment processes / episodes / forms
• Most planned to join up after the assessments by creating a ‘headline/ summary’ version
• The headline assessment documentation is an addition to current practice. It may lead to better planning
• Most focus was on defining the Single Plan
• Was unclear how the new approaches would address some of the current problems
• Poor attendance at review meetings
• Agreeing how to resource multi-disciplinary packages of support and accountabilities between the agencies
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Recruitment of families in the case study areas
The identification process had started in most of the case study areas
Anticipated numbers had fallen in several areas
There was a spread of age ranges Some sites were targeting particular age groups, while others
were looking at 0-25
Most families were to come through an education route
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Emerging findings 1
• The intended introduction of key workers and the use of summary documents were intended to make the system more transparent and improve communication …which in turn should reduce adversarial nature
• However, there was a risk that the introduction of a key worker and summary assessment may actually increase bureaucracy as these additions were often in addition to existing roles or documentation
Do the Pathfinders… make the current
support system more transparent, less
adversarial and less bureaucratic
• The areas were seeking to achieve this objective through changing the planning process to be more family centred, and the development of the local offer
• However, although better planning was expected to lead to improved outcomes over the longer term, the specific types of outcomes that may be achieved had not been well defined
Do the Pathfinders…
increase real choice and control, and
improve outcomes
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Emerging findings 2
• This had not been a major focus for the case study areas and limited changes were expected to be made to the assessment processes
• Rather the focus was on the key worker, who may or may not come from the VCS
Do the Pathfinders… introduce greater
independence into the assessment process by
using the voluntary sector
• Costs of change were likely to be significant – even for the small number of families being targeted – and would
include staff time to facilitate cultural change & capacity building for internal and external staff and organisations
• Addition of the key worker role was likely to add a cost to the system, through either contracting out the service or
due to displacement of tasks from existing staff to take on the role…and it may be hard in the short term to show
offsetting impacts and so real savings• … and as yet it was unclear how the new approaches
could be scaled up and resourced
Do the Pathfinders… demonstrate value for
money
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Contact
Graham Thom
Director
SQW
t. 07716 916897
w. www.sqw.co.uk
Meera Prabhakar
Senior Consultant
SQW
t. 020 7307 7151
w. www.sqw.co.uk
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Our overarching approach to gathering data
Core approach (all Pathfinders)
Quarterly monitoring data
SDQ baseline survey
Work and satisfaction survey
Quantitative survey of parents/carers participating
E-survey of providers
Liaison with the support team
In-depth approach (sub-set of Pathfinders)
In-depth case study research
Qualitative research with staff, practitioners and providers
Qualitative research with families and young people
Quantitative survey of comparison group of parents/carers
Cov
erag
e of
bre
adth
of P
athf
inde
r w
ork C
overage of depth of Pathfinder w
ork
Scoping: map out the shape of the Pathfinder Programme and co-produce the approach