Raising Rochdale SEND Team win the Public Sector Children’s Award with CDC

Published

2 Dec 2022

On Thursday 24 November, the Raising Rochdale Integrated Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) team with CDC, won the The Public Sector Children’s Team Award at the Children and Young People Now Awards 2022.

This award highlights the work that Rochdale, with the support of CDC, has undertaken to embed an Outcomes-Based Accountability (OBA) approach to commissioning. In January 2021, CDC began to support the SEND team in Rochdale with their ambitious work to develop an integrated service for children and young people with SEND. Prior to this, Rochdale did not have a Strategic Outcomes Framework in place, so parts of the system were working in siloes without a clear picture of the collective impact their work was making.

Key highlights of the OBA approach to support children and young people with SEND:

  • Rochdale have created a multi-agency alliance to improve support and outcomes for 5,913 children and young people who require SEND support.
  • With the support of CDC, the alliance has mapped out early intervention offers to recognise gaps and patterns and developed a strong information sharing system.
  • Children and young people’s outcomes were at the heart of this work and the team have consulted with families to create a shared vision of the future with a set of outcomes and measures which ensure progress.
  • Since the creation of the alliance, more children are receiving early intervention and support, and more professionals are accessing training.
  • The team have reduced waiting times for autism diagnosis and support, enhanced the input of young people and commissioned three new peer-led projects.

It has been a joy to work with Rochdale. They have such a committed team who have worked tirelessly to improve the way that the SEND system works for children and young people. I know they will see this award not as the end point but as a catalyst to support further improvement

Amanda Allard, Deputy Director, Council for Disabled Children

The Council for Disabled Children has been an asset in working with Rochdale supporting our journey to achieving our SEND vision

Jackie Woodall, Children’s Quality and Safeguarding Manager, Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Integrated Care Partnership

Read more about the OBA approach in the Raising Rochdale case study here

The CDC and Rochdale team with the award in front of CYP Now sign at the awards ceremony

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