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We offer independent reviews, system design and implementation support, workforce development, evaluation support and more.
At CDC, our goal is to help you strengthen your SEND system, to improves outcomes for every child and young person. We provide expert SEND improvement support for local areas, including independent reviews, system design, implementation support, evaluation, and workforce development.
We work across all services that support disabled children and young people and those with special educational needs – early years, education, health and social care.
Our wide-ranging expertise and flexible approach mean we work with you to identify the support that best meets your needs. Everything we do is underpinned by evidence, collaboration and practical guidance.
Our offer is focused on three main areas:
Learning and workforce development
Rethinking local systems
We work closely with senior leaders and partners to develop tailored interventions that address the sector’s most complex challenges.
We will support you and your teams to build effective partnerships, identify strengths, understand challenges, and plan for sustainable improvements.
We can support you to:
- Strengthen relationships and shared understanding between partners.
- Develop buy-in and shared commitment across agencies.
- Understand current strengths and challenges from different perspectives.
- Learn from good practice and innovation elsewhere.
- Co-produce practical recommendations for improvement.
- Develop clear improvement plans.
- Monitor and evaluate progress.
Strategic SEND improvement
When you need clear priorities, shared accountability, and measurable improvements in experiences and outcomes, we can offer independent service reviews, service re-design, and implementation support. Our focus is on understanding what’s working, why, and what to improve next, providing you and your teams with robust evidence for better-informed decision‑making and commissioning.
For example, we can deliver:
- diagnostic reviews of SEND pathways, demand and outcomes
- co‑designed SEND Outcomes Frameworks and implementation plans
- policy‑to‑practice support for the SEND and AP Improvement Plan.
- senior leadership coaching and programme governance
- reviews of policies, processes, and services.
We look at evidence and take a systematic approach to understanding your local context to identify what is working and make recommendations for improvement, including:
- logic models and outcomes frameworks
- mixed-methods evaluations and impact reporting
- recommendations for service redesign
- a review and summary of relevant research and evidence
- insights into the national context and implications for your local area
Learning and workforce development
We offer evidence‑informed learning for frontline teams and leaders. This can be off-the-shelf or bespoke training to support the skills, knowledge and confidence of your workforce and inclusive practice across settings.
This can include:
- developing and delivering training modules, online or in-person
- train the trainer
- development of e-learning
- adaption of existing training for your local context.
Example topics:
- co-production
- difficult conversations
- Education, Health and Care Plans
- multi‑agency collaboration and culture change
- safeguarding disabled children and young people’s rights
- SEND fundamentals, inclusion, and ordinarily available provision
- understanding the Equality Act 2010 duties and reasonable adjustments.
How we work with you
Step one - Listen and learn
We start with an initial conversation to understand your context, pressures and objectives. We will explore:
- the local context, including strengths, challenges and current improvement work
- specific challenges you want to address
- objectives for the work
- key stakeholders to involve
- your budget and timescales.
We then develop a bespoke proposal for you to review.
Step two - Co‑design
We agree scope, success measures and a realistic delivery plan.
Step three - Deliver and support
We work alongside your teams, modelling inclusive practice and building local capacity for sustainable changes.
Step four - Embed and evidence
We leave you with tools, data and next steps to sustain and continue improvements.
We’re here to listen
Wherever you are in your SEND improvement journey, we can support you.
Briefly describe the challenges you are facing, and we will be in touch to see how we can help.
Frequently asked questions
Who do you work with?
We work with local authorities, integrated care systems/board partners, NHS providers, multi-academy trusts and academies, voluntary, community, and social enterprise organisations and national bodies across education, health and social care.
For example, we have a partnership with IMPOWER that enables us to offer large-scale pieces of work with a greater focus on data analysis and financial sustainability.
Can we partner with other local areas?
Yes. We can work with you to develop an approach that strengthens inter-area learning and improvement. Where you share a common challenge, or have a regional or statistical neighbour, we will work with you to connect and share learning, while respecting your area’s context.
How do you partner with other organisations?
We have a network of partners we work with when required. CDC holds significant expertise in our teams and wider partners bring knowledge that adds to the depth of support we offer.
How much do you charge?
Costs can vary depending on requirements, duration of programmes, number of participants, online/ in-person and level of adaptation required. Get in touch at [email protected] and let us know what support you need and how we can work to your budget.
Do you have a brochure?
Yes! There's a link at the bottom of this page to download it.
Do you work directly with families?
Our commissioned support offer is only for organisations, and we cannot provide individual support to families.
If you are a parent, carer, child or young person seeking individual advice, please try:
- Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Information, Advice and Support – Find your local IAS service
- Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Information Organisations Group (SENDIOG) – Download a SENDIOG information sheet
- Contact (charity providing free advice and information for families with disabled children) – Contact helpline
- Legal advice from Independent Provider of Special Education Advice – IPSEA helpline