Since 2019, Northumberland County Council (NCC) have been working in partnership with Whole Education SEND School Improvement (WESSI) to develop a sustainable, self-improving system of SEND strategic leadership and improvement in the county’s schools, using a peer-to-peer approach of coaching and collaboration. NCC are now continuing this work in-house, with more than 90% of Northumberland’s schools on board. The local authority (LA)/school relationship in the county has shifted away from direct LA instruction around best practice in SEND and inclusion, towards a coordinating role facilitating stronger links between SENDCos to develop, share and evaluate good practice.
The SEND Effective Practice Evidence Framework considers that the “strength of evidence” of this case study is promising – the work has been sustained for seven years, is fully embedded as business-as-usual with over 90% of settings engaged, and quantitative evidence suggests that mainstream schools are integrating more pupils with Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs). The work has had external validation with Ofsted referencing the strength of collaboration across schools as part of its SEND area review reinspection. The “breadth of impact” of this case study is promising – there is evidence of impact in two of the four areas of impact considered by the framework[1]: the lived experiences of children and young people with SEND[2], and positive feedback from professionals.
[1] The SEND Effective Practice Evidence Framework uses two “signal strength” indicators to present the strength of evidence and the breadth of impact of a case study. Each indicator has four bars – emerging, promising, good and robust. The “strength of evidence” indicator is based on how the project has been evaluated and the length of time it has been sustained. The “breadth of impact” indicator is based on whether the case study can demonstrate impact in four broad areas – the more areas of impact, the higher the signal strength indicator.
[2] For ease of reading, we use the term ‘SEND’ to refer to disabled children and young people and children and young people with special educational needs.