Joining up the dots

We know that children and young people with SEND and complex needs often access support delivered by multiple agencies and services, and that often this support is not as integrated as it should or could be. Lots of work is happening nationally, regionally and locally to transform the services for and experiences of children, young people and their families.

What are the big change programmes happening right now?

Click on the links below for more information and resources on each of the national change programmes affecting services for children and young people with SEND.

• The Personalised Care Programme
• The Transforming Care Programme
• Mental Health Transformation Programme
• The changing commissioning landscape

‘Joining the dots’: support for local areas on integrated working

With so much change happening, ensuring that all of this work is integrated or ‘joined up’ is particularly important. This isn’t always easy, but there are a number of ways in which local areas can support more integrated working. The following pages bring together resources, examples of effective practice and more information to help us understand how we can all support greater alignment of services and change programmes to improve outcomes for children and young people with SEND.

• Data and information sharing
• Outcomes-based commissioning
• Personalisation
• Alignment of key change programmes

We've also produced:

• A logic model to show why joined-up, integrated working is so important for achieving the best possible outcomes for children and young people with SEND, and how we can get there. This logic model was developed with small working groups made up of people working in education, health and social care and parent carer representatives from across the country.
• Two webinars summarising our learning on joint working across England, and including presentations on best practice from local areas:
  1. Webinar 1 includes presentations on developing an integrated neurodevelopmental pathway and therapies in schools
  2. Webinar 2 includes presentations on the Emotional Health Academy and developing a joint outcomes framework

Other helpful resources

Read ‘Good intentions, good enough? The Lenehan review into residential special schools’ (Nov 2017)

Read ‘These are our children: a review by Christine Lenehan’ (Jan 2017)

Read our Joint Commissioning Bulletins for information on a whole series of issues relating to the SEND reforms and joint commissioning

Requirements to provide Health Advice within six weeks

Use our audit tools to help assess your progress towards implementation of the 2014 Children and Families Act reforms in relation to disabled children and young people and those with SEN.

View additional resources provided by the Council for Disabled Children's regional joint-working event partners