With Amanda Allard, Chair of the Council for Children with Disabilities
You may have heard from our recent podcast with Dame Christine Lenehan that we have a new Director supported by the Council for Disabled Children. Taking over from Dame Christine will be a challenge, but long-time CDC staffer Amanda Allard has taken up the challenge.
You know, of course, that we have concerns about the Department for Education’s (DfE) SEND Improvement Plan, particularly its reliance on “usually available provision” without a significant and secured increase in the funding provided to schools for the provision of this service, and their willingness to undertake this.
So what is being done to implement this plan, and how is the Council on Children with Disabilities involved? Amanda Allard joins us today on SNJ to greet you and tell you about the work that is being done to implement the plan.
Amanda Allard, Director of the Council for Disabled Children, on how they are implementing different elements of the SEND reforms
Hello! First, let me take this opportunity to introduce myself. My name is Amanda Allard and I am the new Director of the Council for Children with Disabilities. I am delighted to have the opportunity to put my fingers to the keyboard for the first time in taking over from Ms. Christine Lenehan in what has (as you have said many times before) a very big role.
Matt’s recent blog on the SEND and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan Change Programme raised some interesting points, but I want to provide some clarity about what we hope the change programme can deliver for children, young people and their families.
Opportunities for change
We all know too well that the current system too often fails to deliver adequate outcomes for disabled children and young people and those with special educational needs (SEN). The Transformation Programme provides a real opportunity to explore the impact of proposed SEND and AP improvement plans on outcomes for children, young people and families. We have heard a commitment from Minister David Johnston and the Department for Education (DfE) to seriously test reforms to see what works and what doesn’t.
The REACh (Reaching Excellence and Ambition for Every Child) Consortium is the implementation partner for the change programme, led by PA Consulting in partnership with the Council for Children with Disabilities (CDC), Olive Academy and IMPOWER. REACh will implement a three-phase programme, including a ‘rapid cycle evaluation’ to test and analyse insights, allowing the reforms introduced by the improvement plan to be assessed, refined and disseminated in real time across nine Transformation Programme Partnerships (CPPs), one in each region.
Amanda Allard, new director of the Council for Children with Disabilities
How are parent caregivers involved?
Parent engagement is at the heart of the programme. Part of the role of the REACh Consortium and the DfE’s implementation team is to work closely with the CPPs to ensure that the right partners (including parent carers) are engaged at both the CPP and individual local area level. As a first step, each CPP is in the process of setting up a steering group, which should include parent carers. There is an absolute expectation that each partnership will take a co-productive approach to the reforms they test. That said, there are nine CPPs, including 31 local authorities, and there will inevitably be differences in the maturity of confidence in engaging with parent carers. We therefore expect you to be honest with your CPPs, and with us, about how well you are meeting that target. While the programme is focused on the 31 local areas, we also want the learning to benefit all families and children, and so we need you to work with us to spread this message.
What are your concerns?
It is clear that there are aspects of the improvement plan, such as the customization list, that will cause concern and skepticism among some families. I understand and fully appreciate these concerns, but I also meet families who don’t know where to start in their search for a school that meets their child’s needs. I also meet too many parents who have been disappointed by facilities owned by hedge funds that put their money into flashy brochures instead of decent education. This is a “fur coat and no pants” approach to meeting the needs of our children.
With that in mind, the theory behind the tailored list – that parents receive a quality-assured list of environments where their child’s needs can be met – could potentially address that issue. But it’s clear that the purpose of the change programme, and the REACh Consortium’s role in it, is to test that theory in tandem with the broader proposals set out in the SEND and AP Improvement Plan, to clarify the impact and avoid unintended consequences, and to monitor how the system responds and what that means for children and families. And that leads to the rapid cycle evaluation.
What is Rapid Cycle Evaluation (RCE)?
I have done research and worked with researchers throughout my career and I love doing it. But we can’t wait for the usual research approach and look after the fact at what worked and what didn’t. We need to understand the impact of reforms as “rapidly” as possible. The official name for this approach is “rapid cycle evaluation” and it comes from disaster recovery (I can see some of you chuckling). It’s about gathering evidence in real time to ensure that everything we’re doing is working and has the right focus. Given the importance, scale of the challenge and investment in improving systems for children, young people and families, such an approach seems appropriate for a change programme. Going forward, we will call this approach formally “rapid cycle testing” and informally real-time feedback loops, and will clearly distinguish it from the formal evaluation of programmes commissioned by the DfE.
How does this approach work?
As part of the REACh Consortium, we work with local CPPs and ask them to share their data as they collect it. CDC and our colleagues at PA Consulting, Olive Academy, and IMPOWER formally document their own observations as we work with localities. We analyze the data as we collect it. We then share that analysis with CPPs to see if it aligns with their experiences. Part of that “check” is also done with parent caregivers to ensure their lived experiences are an important part of that analysis.
We don’t grade the homework ourselves. We work with the University of Warwick who ensure the quality of our approach at every stage. Once we are confident we have an accurate picture we share it with the Department for Education and we do so every three months. This gives the Department the opportunity to adjust if necessary. It also helps them understand how best to support the CPP to test changes. It also gives us confidence that we are collecting the right data and allows us to adjust what we collect.
With regard to the REACh Consortium’s ultimate goal – to meet needs at the point where symptoms appear, thereby improving outcomes for children and young people – we understand that some data will take time to emerge. We are therefore very sensitive to “green shoot” indicators that point the way forward. For example, if schools truly welcome children with disabilities and special educational needs, and are clear about what they can offer to meet those needs in special educational support, we should see fewer exclusions. We also expect to see a change in the number of EHC plan requests, because if children’s needs are truly met at an early stage, they don’t need an EHC plan. But our Rapid Cycle Testing approach allows us to pick up those changes, investigate why they are happening, and ensure that it is for the right reasons.
As I mentioned, the Department of Education will also be commissioning more traditional assessments and we will be working with those assessors to ensure they benefit from real-time learning, hopefully giving them the opportunity to focus on the real depth of what makes them successful and embedding learning into every rollout.
And finally
“I am truly honoured to take over the reins from Christine – it’s a responsibility I take very seriously. I look forward to continuing to work closely with SNJ and to advocating for the needs of children and young people with disabilities and those with special educational needs.”
About Amanda Allard
Amanda Allard joined the Council for Disabled Children in 2009. She has worked in children policy for the past 30 years as a researcher and activist, covering a range of areas including youth unemployment, leaving care, homelessness, family support and the issues faced by disabled children and their families. During her time at CDC, Amanda significantly increased the organisation’s engagement with health and research organisations and was one of the lead researchers on a collaborative NIHR funded project with the University of Exeter investigating priorities for parent/carer and child and young people’s health outcomes.
Amanda ensures that policymakers understand the realities of frontline service delivery, that the industry is aware of and engaged with upcoming changes, and that service providers are prepared for the implementation of new regulations and requirements.
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Special Needs Jungle was founded in 2008 by Tania Tirraoro as a personal SEN blog and is now an award-winning, multi-authored site covering special needs, disabilities, mental health and rare conditions for children and young people from birth to 25 years old.
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