Derbyshire County Council continue investing in services for children with special educational needs

The council has just started operating a new digital case management system called iDOX to improve efficiency with children’s education, health and care plan (EHCP) assessments - an area where it is already starting to make progress after recently clearing an historic backlog.

The system will also improve communication between the council and families, schools, health and other agencies involved in plan assessments which legally should be completed within a 20-week deadline.

The technology is part of a £1m investment the council recently made in its SEND service, including a complete service redesign, new team set-up, additional staff and specialist training.

Derbyshire County Council Cabinet Member for Education Councillor Alex Dale said: “SEND remains one of our most sensitive, important and complex areas of work which requires working closely with families, schools and other agencies on detailed assessments for each individual child who needs specific specialist support.

“While this can’t be rushed, we’ve acknowledged we must do significantly better and are making progress with our determined efforts to reduce delays which we understand have a significant impact on children and their families.

“As the service settles into the new way of working and we start to use our new case management technology, communication with parents and schools will start to improve.

There’s still a lot to do and as with the introduction of any new technology system and completely new way of working, these things take time to settle in and embed before we’ll see the kind of major improvement we’re confident will be the result. But while that’s happening we’ll continue to work hard, listen to parents and monitor our progress.”

Meanwhile, the council has received its Annual Review Letter of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman 2023/24 – sent to all local authorities each year – which highlights some of the issues it is already addressing with service changes and investment.

"While there’s nothing new in the Ombudsman’s annual review letter, it does provide another perspective to support the improvement journey we started last year,” Councillor Dale added.

“Although the Ombudsman rightly holds local councils to account, there is an acknowledgement in this year’s letter of the difficult financial circumstances and service demands that make improvement a challenge for us.

That said, we’re confident we’re on the right track to progress and as our new service settles in, the levels of dissatisfaction leading to complaints and appeals to the Ombudsman will hopefully reduce.”

As well as making significant changes to SEND service delivery, the council has also invested £11m to create 500 additional special needs school places across the county as part of an ongoing five-year plan.

It has also remodelled other services within its schools and learning service to develop the inclusive capacity of mainstream schools and set up a SENDCo Network and SENDCo Helpline.

Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission recently completed their two-week Local Area SEND inspection of the system-wide partnership covering the council, health services and schools and are currently writing their report which is expected to be published later this autumn.

Councillor Dale said: “While there’s plenty of hard work still ahead, we’re already making progress on several fronts and as with the Ombudsman’s Letter, we’ll use the outcome of our Local Area SEND inspection to further develop and strengthen our services across the partnership and will continue driving forward with improvements.

“We want to give every Derbyshire child, whatever their challenge or ability, the best possible start in life. This is our commitment and this work continues.”

The Annual Review Letter of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman will be considered by the council’s Cabinet on Thursday 17 October.

The Annual Review Letter can be viewed by visiting the cabinet meeting agenda and selecting item 7.