Evaluation of the SEND Pathfinder Programme: Early Findings

Graham Thom and Meera PrabhakarMay 2012

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Outline

Summary of the findings from the first round visits to the 10 in-depth case study areas, which were undertaken in February-March 2012 First monitoring returns, covering all Pathfinders, will be reported

in June Families now being recruited, but several months until we get

feedback

Early emerging findings cover The nature of the problems that the Pathfinders are seeking to

address Early thinking on the approaches that were to be/being

developed

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The current system(s)

Pockets of joint working and personalisation existed across all the case study areas

… but general agreement that things needed to change Disjointed assessments Lack of co-ordination Poor attendance at reviews Supply led planning Unclear responsibilities Limited involvement of parents and young people Limited local provision

So, the Pathfinders recognise the agenda set by the Green Paper

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Progress up until Feb/Mar 2012

Organisational and cultural changeWhat was going well?

Generally good strategic engagement

Delivery teams identified and majority in post

Thinking about the local offer and cultural change / skills development had begun

What were the issues?

Capacity of health colleagues, the VCS and education providers, to effectively engage was raised as a concern

Two initial interpretations of the local offer

1. A high level offer to families setting out how agencies will work together

2. Creation of a provider based resource

Anticipated challenges

Getting operational staff released from current duties to deliver the Pathfinder

Small scale of the Pathfinder in majority of areas leading to limited market change (especially given block contracts)

Information sharing between agencies and with families not yet fully considered

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Planned approaches

Majority of approaches were expected to include:• The introduction of key

worker or lead professional

• An initial engagement or information gathering stage

• Coordinated or integrated assessment, involving the prioritisation of key assessment headlines

• Resource allocation to support the calculation of indicative budgets

• Single planning, involving both the family and relevant professionals

• Subsequent and regular review of the single plan

Gathering of existing assessment information

or completion of assessments

Additional specialist assessments completed

if required

Coordinated/integrated assessment produced

Indicative budget developed/calculated

Single planning

Agreement of plan and associated budget

Review and learn

Init

ial e

ng

agem

ent

Referral into the Pathfinder

Key worker introduced to the family, to coordinate the process

and supports the family throughout

Assessment headlines prioritised and desired family outcomes

developed

Co

ord

inat

ed/

inte

gra

ted

as

sess

men

t

Res

ou

rce

allo

cati

on

Sin

gle

pla

nn

ing

Rev

iew

Indicative budget communicated to the family if part of a personal

budget

Child/family-centred plan developed, with clear responsibility

of agencies and the family

Issues?

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Gathering of existing assessment information

or completion of assessments

Additional specialist assessments completed

if required

Coordinated/integrated assessment produced

Indicative budget developed/calculated

Single planning

Agreement of plan and associated budget

Review and learn

Init

ial e

ng

agem

ent

Referral into the Pathfinder

Key worker introduced to the family, to coordinate the process

and supports the family throughout

Assessment headlines prioritised and desired family outcomes

developed

Co

ord

inat

ed/

inte

gra

ted

as

sess

men

t

Res

ou

rce

allo

cati

on

Sin

gle

pla

nn

ing

Rev

iew

Indicative budget communicated to the family if part of a personal

budget

Child/family-centred plan developed, with clear responsibility

of agencies and the family

• Only a few sites were looking at bringing together assessment processes / episodes / forms

• Most planned to join up after the assessments by creating a ‘headline/ summary’ version

• The headline assessment documentation is an addition to current practice. It may lead to better planning

• Most focus was on defining the Single Plan

• Was unclear how the new approaches would address some of the current problems

• Poor attendance at review meetings

• Agreeing how to resource multi-disciplinary packages of support and accountabilities between the agencies

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Recruitment of families in the case study areas

The identification process had started in most of the case study areas

Anticipated numbers had fallen in several areas

There was a spread of age ranges Some sites were targeting particular age groups, while others

were looking at 0-25

Most families were to come through an education route

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Emerging findings 1

• The intended introduction of key workers and the use of summary documents were intended to make the system more transparent and improve communication …which in turn should reduce adversarial nature

• However, there was a risk that the introduction of a key worker and summary assessment may actually increase bureaucracy as these additions were often in addition to existing roles or documentation

Do the Pathfinders… make the current

support system more transparent, less

adversarial and less bureaucratic

• The areas were seeking to achieve this objective through changing the planning process to be more family centred, and the development of the local offer

• However, although better planning was expected to lead to improved outcomes over the longer term, the specific types of outcomes that may be achieved had not been well defined

Do the Pathfinders…

increase real choice and control, and

improve outcomes

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Emerging findings 2

• This had not been a major focus for the case study areas and limited changes were expected to be made to the assessment processes

• Rather the focus was on the key worker, who may or may not come from the VCS

Do the Pathfinders… introduce greater

independence into the assessment process by

using the voluntary sector

• Costs of change were likely to be significant – even for the small number of families being targeted – and would

include staff time to facilitate cultural change & capacity building for internal and external staff and organisations

• Addition of the key worker role was likely to add a cost to the system, through either contracting out the service or

due to displacement of tasks from existing staff to take on the role…and it may be hard in the short term to show

offsetting impacts and so real savings• … and as yet it was unclear how the new approaches

could be scaled up and resourced

Do the Pathfinders… demonstrate value for

money

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Contact

Graham Thom

Director

SQW

t. 07716 916897

e. gthom@sqw.co.uk

w. www.sqw.co.uk

Meera Prabhakar

Senior Consultant

SQW

t. 020 7307 7151

e. mprabhakar@sqw.co.uk

w. www.sqw.co.uk

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Our overarching approach to gathering data

Core approach (all Pathfinders)

Quarterly monitoring data

SDQ baseline survey

Work and satisfaction survey

Quantitative survey of parents/carers participating

E-survey of providers

Liaison with the support team

In-depth approach (sub-set of Pathfinders)

In-depth case study research

Qualitative research with staff, practitioners and providers

Qualitative research with families and young people

Quantitative survey of comparison group of parents/carers

Cov

erag

e of

bre

adth

of P

athf

inde

r w

ork C

overage of depth of Pathfinder w

ork

Scoping: map out the shape of the Pathfinder Programme and co-produce the approach