Evaluation of the SEND Pathfinder Programme:
Interim Findings
August 2012
1
Outline
 The findings reported are based on
1. The second monitoring returns provided by all Pathfinder areas
> Are areas own perceptions of progress
> Are based around the Common Delivery Framework (CDF), which
sets out a series of themes and elements which it was anticipated
each Pathfinder would need to address
> Covers the period April to the end of June 2012
=
Development
not yet begun
=
Early stage
development
Movement left to right within the
diagrams indicates increasing
progress
=
Partial
development
=
Full
implementation
=
Already in place
prior to the
Pathfinder
2. Additional qualitative evidence from the ten in-depth case
study areas gathered during a second round of visits
undertaken between June-July 2012
2
The CDM
Organisational engagement and cultural change
• Engagement of stakeholders; Recruitment of staff; Change management; Market
development and local offer
Engaging and involving families
• Awareness raising with families; Peer support
Setting up the infrastructure - Mapping a Single Assessment and Plan
pathway; Development of Personal Budgets; Co-ordination and delivery of the
Pathfinder approach; Development of IT resources
Risk management and Safeguarding
• Safeguarding
3
Overarching Programme progress
 Half-way through the Programme
 Majority of the Pathfinder areas had reached the end of their
initial set-up phase
 Most were part-way through developing the infrastructure
required to deliver the new approaches – but with some distance
to go before we can say what is / will work
 Stronger progress reported against some elements of
the CDF, whilst progress against other elements
remained at early development stage
…emerging findings against each theme of the CDF are illustrated
on the following slides
Theme 1. Organisational engagement and cultural
change
Strong
progress
Vast majority of Pathfinder
areas had successfully set
up governance structures
and project delivery teams
Majority of services had
committed staff time to
support Pathfinder
development
Limited
progress
Success
factors
Representation from health
remained an issue for many
areas
Areas that had a dedicated
resource to support the
development and delivery of
the Pathfinder appeared to
have made more progress…
On-going uncertainty about
the purpose and role the
VCS could and should play
…developing the infrastructure
required to deliver the
Pathfinder
Engagement of children and
young people in
development remained very
limited
Most services have not
committed money for
development or service
provision
…developing and delivering
change management
…raising awareness and
recruiting families and young
people to take part in the
Pathfinder
Relationship between project
leaders and managers also
important
4
5
Stakeholder engagement
 There remained a group of stakeholders that were common to almost all areas
 Had also seen an increase in engagement from some groups, such as
colleges since the previous quarter
 …but was still some groups less represented than might expect – but may
reflect local focus / circumstances
6
Market development and the local offer
 Consultation with providers and development of the local offer remained at a
relatively early stage of development – a lot of discussion taking place but
issues to be solved
 Development of the local offer in the most advanced cases implied that areas
intended to develop either
 A broad brush strategic offer setting out their multi-agency intentions
 Or a provider based directory
And…although some progress had been made drawing together the social
care and education elements of the local offer, limited discussion appeared
to have taken place in relation to health
Theme 1. Majority moving towards completion of
their set-up phase
 12 areas judged at least a two-thirds of the 16 progress measures of this
theme to be fully in place
 Only 4 areas were still in the early stages of developing (or had not yet
begun) a third of their progress measures
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Theme 2. Engaging and involving families and
young people
Strong
progress
Limited
progress
All areas had begun to raise
awareness of the Pathfinder with
prospective families and young
people
Pace and scale of recruitment to
date was lower than indicated at
the time of scoping
Most areas had begun to recruit
families and young people to
participate in their Pathfinder –
over 300 families recruited by midAugust
There appeared to be a bias
towards the recruitment of families
that were already accessing
services / so often not testing
cases coming for initial
assessment
Recruitment to date included
children and young people from
across the 0-25 age range and
spectrum of educational needs
Recruitment of young people aged
19+ years remained lower than
other age groups
Success
factors
Most effective forms of awareness
raising were…
…events and targeted
introductions, which had enabled
discussion about the Pathfinder
…awareness raising through
parent partnerships and forums
Is important to raise awareness
and explain what is involved
before asking families and young
people to commit to participating
in the Pathfinder
8
Themes 3 and 4. Setting up the infrastructure and
Safeguarding and risk management
Strong
progress
Most areas had either fully or
partially mapped out their single
assessment and plan pathway,
with a number also having
developed a single plan template
Limited
progress
Majority of areas focusing on
streamlining the review process for
families already accessing services
as didn’t feel had time to develop a
single assessment process
Resourcing and accountability of
the single plan had not been fully
considered – so may be a risk of
plans not being delivered
Most areas had either fully or
partially considered how to
coordinate the delivery of their
Pathfinder approach, with key
working forming a common
approach across most areas
Success
factors
Development of personal budgets,
IT resources and safeguarding
procedures remained at a
formative stage across most areas
Too early to say…
9
10
Assessment and planning
 Emerging evidence indicated that the assessment and planning pathways
were more commonly expected to consist of…
 Assessment – a set of assessments by different agencies being brought together. These
are not new assessments, but rather a summary to enable planning
 Planning – single planning events and/or the use of a planning coordinator to create the plan
with the family and liaise with relevant professionals
 Evidence from the case studies illustrated a number of commonalities
between the developing single plan templates
 Key/basic information - containing information about the child/young person and their
family and the set of services they were currently being supported by
 A headline assessment/pen picture – including an evidence-based picture of the strengths
and dislikes (including the identification of needs) of the child/young person and their
priorities
 The identification of outcomes – a table to record outcomes (both short and longer term)
and means of measuring these
 An action plan – to show how each outcome would be achieved and which agency/service
would be responsible for delivering each action
 Appendices – to include supporting information such as assessment evidence
Number of 'setting up the infrastructure' and 'safeguarding and risk
management' elements responded to in a certain way
Themes 3 and 4. Overall mixed progress made by
areas
15
10
5
0
Development not yet begun
Pathfinder areas
Early stage development
Partial development
Full implementation
Already in place prior to becoming a Pathfinder
11
12
Progress is being made
 Vast majority of areas have management and development structures in
place and the most of the key players involved
 Many have made good progress in developing their Pathway for families
and shaping the Single Plan document
 Change management, including staff training, and family recruitment has
begun, and in some cases are well advanced
 However, it is still too early to draw conclusions against the four key
objectives for the evaluation, which seek to assess whether the Pathfinders
 Make the current system more transparent, less adversarial and less
bureaucratic
 Increase choice and control and improve outcomes
 Introduce greater independence into the assessment process by using the
voluntary sector
 Demonstrate value for money
…. ways in which Pathfinders intend to deliver on these issues remain as set out in
the March Quarterly Evaluation Report
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Issues arising
Issues around capacity
and clarity
Some areas where
progress seems slow
Some limitations in
what is being tested
• …lack of capacity in
health to support
Pathfinder
development may limit
the testing of multiagency working and
highlights the
importance of plans for
Joint Commissioning
• …limited development
of the local offer to
date means that some
areas are unlikely to
publish these by Dec
2012
• …emphasis placed on
recruiting families that
were already in the
system, combined with
scale and pace of
recruitment may cause
scalability and
replicability issues
over the longer-term
• …uncertainty around
the role of the VCS
may lead to limit the
extent to which they
are involved during the
Pathfinder
• …partial consideration
of accountability and
resourcing producing
only limited
improvements in multiagency working
• …limited testing of
Personal Budgets
• …Non-Pathfinder
areas may benefit from
initial lessons learnt,
but will still need to
undertake
considerable
development work
Current pace of progress and associated recruitment of families and young people will
limit the evaluation (especially findings around key sub-groups), unless the data
collection and reporting period is extended
14
Contact
Graham Thom
Meera Prabhakar
Director
Senior Consultant
SQW
SQW
t. 07766 916897
t. 07715 071574
e. gthom@sqw.co.uk
e. mprabhakar@sqw.co.uk
w. www.sqw.co.uk
w. www.sqw.co.uk