Pathfinder Lead Manchester City Council
Wendy Cooke
Head of 16 – 19 Participation
GM Skills and Employment Partnership

Working in Partnership for a
Greater Manchester
• Population of 2.6 million
• Travel-to-work commuter population of 5 million
• April 2011: established as a ‘Combined Authority’

Working in Partnership for a
Greater Manchester:
Key functions of the GMCA
Coordination of key economic development, regeneration and transport functions, including post-
16 learning and skills
BOLTON BURY MANCHESTER OLDHAM ROCHDALE SALFORD STOCKPORT TAMESIDE TRAFFORD WIGAN

Working in Partnership for a
Greater Manchester
Post-16 provider base
• 10 General FE Colleges
• 11 Sixth Form Colleges
• 3 Independent Specialist Colleges (Bridge, Seashell Trust,
Langdon)
• 54 schools/academies with sixth form provision
• 55+ training providers in GM Learning Provider Network
• Special schools with sixth form provision

Working in Partnership for a
Greater Manchester:
• GM approach to Learning for Living and Work pilot in early 2011
• Support and Aspiration: a new approach to special educational needs and disability
• Developing the SEN Pathfinders in GM: building on existing good practice and shared learning
• GM level planning of high cost placements

Working in Partnership for a
Greater Manchester:
• Consultation with all partners around readiness to submit applications
• Capacity issues in some GM areas
• Agreement to cross-reference areas for testing in separate LA bids
• Endorsement from Lord Peter Smith, Chair of the
GMCA

Working in Partnership for a
Greater Manchester:
Extract from Lord Smith’s letter to DfE:
‘We are particularly keen to ensure that children and young people with learning difficulties and disabilities are able to access appropriate learning, health and social care provision to enable them to reach their full potential.
In this context, we support the applications for SEN Pathfinder status from Manchester, Oldham/Rochdale, Trafford and Wigan.
These authorities have committed to work together across a range of areas to be tested and to share outcomes and learning with all GMCA councils.’

Working in Partnership for a
Greater Manchester:
• Request from DfE to form a GM Consortium (only
Pathfinders in NW)
• Establishment of GM Steering Group
• Intention to include all GM areas and other relevant partners, including Transport for GM

Working in Partnership for a
Greater Manchester:
• Trafford:
• Wigan: vulnerable children and parents vulnerable children and parents
• Oldham/Rochdale: age range and parents
• Manchester: 14-25 age range and employment

To establish whether the Pathfinders:
• Increase real choice and control, and improve outcomes, for families from a range of backgrounds with children and young people with SEN/D
• Make the current support system more transparent, less adversarial and less bureaucratic
• Introduce greater independence into the assessment process by using the voluntary sector
• Demonstrate value for money, by looking at the cost of reform and associated benefits

Working in Partnership for a
Greater Manchester:
Pathfinder progress report –
Main focus:
- Single assessment / plan
- Personal budgets
- Moving into adulthood
- Age Range
- Parental Involvement
- Banded Funding

Working in Partnership for a
Greater Manchester:
Pathfinder progress report –
What's working well:
• Local enthusiasm for direction of Green Paper
• Excellent local sign up from parents /schools
• Work on personal budgets progressing well
• Parents on board and actively working with partners on future engagement/approaches
• Buy-in at executive level across agencies

Working in Partnership for a
Greater Manchester:
Pathfinder progress report –
Emerging issues:
• PCTs to Clinical Commissioning Groups - impact on involvement at a strategic level?
• Impact of LA budget cuts/service redesign
• Parental/service capacity to deliver new agenda?
• Timescales - too short to deliver the expectations - an extra year is needed!

Working in Partnership for a
Greater Manchester:
Pathfinder progress report –
Main Focus:
• Development of integrated assessment, coordinated by key worker with mentoring support for parents
• Development of ‘single space’ storage system; privacy impact assessment; compliance with data protection
• Personalisation pilot to include education and health

Working in Partnership for a
Greater Manchester:
Pathfinder progress report –
A work in progress:
• Customer journey mapping – 3 families completed
• Identification of issues arising from current processes
• Communication strategy in place

Working in Partnership for a
Greater Manchester:
Pathfinder progress report –
Key achievements to date:
• 6 families recruited for Phase 1 pilot
• Multi-agency key working team under recruitment with named key worker for each family throughout Pathfinder process
• Development of ‘local offer’ website
• Data and Information group established
• Issues around personalised approach across education, health and social care sectors – lack of ‘fit’ with current models across all 3 domains?

Working in Partnership for a
Greater Manchester:
Pathfinder progress report –
Manchester Vision:
• The Manchester Pathfinder is focused on young people in transition aged 14-25.
• Our vision is to create a single, person centred, aspirational Education, Health and Care plan for all eligible young people, with flexible funding to deliver the plan.
• The plan will be holistic, based on choices from the whole range of options, including employment, leisure and independent living.

Working in Partnership for a
Greater Manchester:
Pathfinder progress report –
Key achievements to date:
• Many consultations with parents’ groups and key partner agencies
• Identified cohort of 40 young people and comparison group
• Started sharing practice with GM partners and other
Pathfinders
• Identifying gaps in provision
• Established governance arrangements

Learning Disability
Partnership Board
RTC
PHB
Single plan and portability
Personal budgets
LDD Programmes Board
Transition Steering Group
Pathfinder Task Group
Young people group
Parent / carer group
Plan Coordinator group
Working Groups
Skills development
Local offer / information
Data and systems
Pathways to employment
Learning from the Pathfinder
Jobs First

• Continue signing up young people and parents/carers
• Continue briefing Plan Coordinators
• First single plans created by end May
• 30 single plans by October
• Young people and families interviewed to evaluate impact from October
• Use plans to inform commissioning
• Share learning

• Pathfinder www.sendpathfinder.co.uk
• Transition Information Network www.transitioninfonetwork.org.uk
• Council for Disabled Children www.councilfordisabledchildren.org.uk
• Contact A Family www.cafamily.org.uk
• Preparing for Adulthood www.preparingforadulthood.org.uk

Working in Partnership for a
Greater Manchester
Questions: