Synergy - Enquiry

Bootstrap Case Family Services Directory

We would like to take this opportunity to confirm our approach to parent/carer participation and engagement.

In Barnsley, we want to make sure that all children and young people achieve the best outcomes, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), aged 0-25. To do this we are fully committed to working in partnership with parents and carers as we want to make sure the services we plan, commission and deliver, across education, health and care, meet the needs of children, young people and their families.

We can do this best through a wide reach of active parent and carer participation, which is why we want to engage with parents and carers in ways that work for them. This includes everything from coffee mornings, focus groups, training, meetings and other events to gather feedback about services and how they need to respond to what parents and carers tell us.

The Barnsley SEND Parent Carer Alliance is a DfE recognised parent/carer forum which benefits from funding allocated through Contact. They are a key step in the parent carer participation process. However, we recognise that there is much diversity in Barnsley, and no one group represents all parents and carers, which is why we value the input of all groups and individuals. Our aim is to empower parents and carers so that they have their say on all SEND related matters. We aim to ensure that parents and carers are able to influence the development of local services across the local area and strategic decision making.

Our SEND Participation Officer, Alex Taylor, will continue to work with all groups and individuals who wish to be involved in engagement and co-production activities in the way that works best for them, making sure that everyone is able to shape decisions regardless of how they choose to engage. Everyone’s voice is valued regardless of where it is captured. Alex will also continue to work closely with our SEND Youth Forum to ensure that efforts to capture and act on the voices of children, young people, parents and carers are aligned across the local area.

Joint local area SEND inspection in Barnsley

Barnsley’s local area SEND inspection took place from the 20 to 24 September 2021. The inspection was led by one of Her Majesty's Inspectors from Ofsted, with a team including an Ofsted inspector and a children's services inspector from the CQC. During the week the inspection team spoke with children, young people parents and carers, partners and stakeholders including managers and leaders from the Barnsley’s education, health and social care services.

The purpose was to review how well Barnsley meets its responsibilities for children and young people (aged 0-25) who have SEND, focusing on three areas:

How well we identify the needs of children and young people.
How well we assess and meet needs of children and young people.
How successful we are at getting the best outcomes for children and young people with SEND.

We are pleased that the Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission inspectors highlighted many strengths following our inspection, including the progress that we’ve made over the last two years. Despite this, and other highlights, the inspection also picked up on two areas which were of significant concern, comprising:

The engagement of, and communication with, parents and carers. Local statutory partners need to ensure that the lived experience of families is influencing their strategic plans for services and provision.
Improving the identification of, and provision for, children and young people with SEND but without an education, health and care plan (EHCP).

With our partners and stakeholders, we collaborated to coproduce a written statement of action (WSoA), outlining what we will do to improve in these two areas. We are pleased to announce that Ofsted have now approved our WSoA, which also forms part of our wider SEND Improvement Programme which we are committed to so that we can build on our strengths and the progress that we’ve already made, to transform and improve SEND services in the borough.

We would like to express our thanks to the many people who have been involved in this work so far. We will keep you posted with updates on progress.

You can download the Written Statement of Action below.

Stakeholders	Those who have an interest in
Engagement	Taking part, being a part of
Provision	Education providers