SEND Partnership Annual Survey Report 2024/2025

A huge thank you to everyone who completed the Cumberland Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEND) Partnership surveys earlier this year.

Your feedback has been vital so that we continue to measure how effective our services are in Cumberland. We have summarised some key themes from our survey, as well as actions we are taking to address the feedback provided.

You can also download the full survey report [PDF 956KB].

You can find out more on our You said, we're listening webpage.

Parent/Carer Survey: 155 Reponses

81% selected their child was at compulsory education age (5 to 16 years)
38% selected their child was female
61% selected their child was male
1% selected gender non-conforming
at least one person from each town/city completed the survey
- highest response rate was from Carlisle (43%)
72.6% selected ‘autism’ as a primary need
60% selected their child/young person had an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP)

Child/Young Person Survey : 33 Responses

67% were ages between 11 to 15 years
60.6% selected their nearest town or city as ‘Wigton’ - this suggested a setting in Wigton encouraged children to complete the survey
there were no responses from children/young people who attended a specialist education setting

Key Themes:

EHCPs: 93 Responses

Responses were very mixed, but the most selected answer for most of the questions when asked about different parts of their child/ young person’s EHCP was ‘very dissatisfied.’ The exceptions to this were ‘Completing Section A’ and ‘The contents and support/ provision outlined in your child/ young person’s EHCP’ which both had ‘somewhat satisfied’ as the most selected answer.
Highest levels of ‘very satisfied’ responses related to ‘Annual Reviews’ (24.4%). This is when adjusted to account for ‘NA’ responses. Including these, the highest ‘very satisfied’ responses were regarding ‘Completing Section A’ (23.7%).
Highest levels of ‘very dissatisfied’ responses related to EHCP Coordinators (34%).

When asked for further comments, the survey outlined:

the process is difficult and lengthy
there is a lack of support
poor communication
parents/carers are left feeling they are the problem, and that it is overall a negative experience
a few comments highlighted their child receives great support now that an EHCP is in place

You said, we're listening
Staff at the local authority sometimes lack compassion and empathy. Everything feels like a fight.	Colleagues at the council took part in an ‘effective communications and challenging conversations’ session with Collis Mediation. This included: EHCP coordinators The virtual school's team The session ran for a full day and was delivered by Dominic Collis and Nicola Cleaver, with Nicola being a SEND parent herself. From the learning we will be embedding an effective and compassionate communications policy, to ensure all parents and carers are met with compassion, empathy and respect. The policy will clearly set out how we will communicate with parents/carers. The first priority in our Cumberland Local Area SEND and Alternative Provision Strategy is ‘working together and building trust’. We are committed to ensuring children, young people and their families in Cumberland feel listened to and respected by all professionals.
Communication from the local authority is poor. I was not informed that a member of staff from the council had left.	Going forward, when new EHCPs are issued, we will ask parents/carers to please subscribe to our Cumberland SEND Partnership newsletter. This will inform parent/carers if colleagues from the council are leaving. If the member of staff is an EHCP Coordinator, we will include details on when and how parents/carers will be contacted to inform them of who their new Coordinator is, and how they can get in touch.
My child’s EHCP took too long, and I had no clarification on when I would hear from the local authority.	We are currently producing an EHCP timeline, which will allow parents/carers to track their child/young person’s EHCP application process. Parents/carers will be able to: have a better understanding of when they can expect to hear from the local authority know how to get in touch know what the next steps will be New agency EHCP co-ordinators have been hired to address the backlog of EHCP applications and annual reviews. The co-ordinators will be working to ensure we keep to EHCP timescales.

You said, we're listening
CAMHS is difficult to access, with long waiting lists and barriers to access support.	The Partnership are arranging conversations with CAMHS to: understand the issues the service is currently facing how we can best support the service. The North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB) have recently appointed a new Designated Clinical Officer (DCO), Diane Watson. Diane will support commissioned health services in Cumberland for children/young people with SEND. The Partnership will be working closely with Diane. More information on local and national mental health services can be found in the Crisis support section on our SEND Local Offer. A reminder to always call 999 if someone is in immediate or life-threatening danger.

Health

Responses were again mixed, however the most selected answer by respondents was ‘agree’ when asked questions about their experiences with health services, such as if their child was listened to and respected, if they were listened to and respected, if professionals were overall supportive, etc. ‘Agree’ was the most selected answer for every question.
Highest levels of ‘agree’ were in ‘Aware of primary needs’ (36.9%).
‘Strongly agree’ received a very similar response rate across all questions (approx. 7% for every question).
Highest levels of ‘strongly disagree’ were in ‘I am listened to and respected by health professionals,’ (17.8%).
57% of respondents selected ‘no’ when asked if they felt their child/ young person waited and appropriate amount of time to be seen by health professionals related to a diagnosis pathway.
When asked about specific health services, several respondents for each selected ‘N/A’ and some selected that they were ‘declined service’. Results for Speech and Language Therapy and Occupational therapy were mixed, with both receiving just over 50% positive responses from those who said they had accessed the service.
73% of the responses regarding CAMHS (Children/ Adolescent Mental Health Service) were negative.

When asked for further comments, some said:

health services were very difficult to access
there were a lot of barriers in place
waiting times were long, but the service was excellent when they were seen

Other feedback included:

feeling like they were constantly answering the same questions about their child
parents/carers were expected to discuss their child/young person’s struggles while they were in the same room

You said, we're listening
Professionals in education and the local authority are sometimes not as knowledgeable on SEND as they should be. As parents/carers, we feel the responsibility is on us to research our own rights. We sometimes question ourselves when we are told the wrong information.	We are currently writing a SEND professionals survey to be completed by our colleagues. This survey is being designed to help us spot the gaps in knowledge and understanding, so we can offer support and training to staff. We have also recently hired a SEND Strategic Lead. Interviews took place in late April, and the person appointed has a wealth of experience, knowledge, and best practice. We look forward to introducing them to you once they are in post. We will keep you informed of their workstreams.
My child’s mainstream school are not always supportive and lack understanding.	We are continuing work to promote our ordinarily available guidance for schools and education. The guidance lays out what should be ‘ordinarily available’ for school aged children. The guidance outlines support that schools and education settings should offer to children who have identified with having special educational needs (SEN) or may have SEN. This includes guidance on: reasonable adjustments tools and suggestions for how teachers and education professionals can support children with different needs The guidance outlines the responsibilities of schools and education settings to publish their SEN policy and the support they offer. We will be continuing work to embed our guidance with schools. This will ensure: understanding of statutory duties raising awareness with parents/carers to ensure mutual understanding of the duties of education settings The SEND Strategic Lead will lead on some of this work. We will continue to ask for parent/carer feedback to ensure improvements are being made.

You said, we're listening
We are unaware of the social care offer in Cumberland, and it is confusing to know what services are available for my child.	We have appointed a new interim Designated Social Care Officer (DSCO, sometimes referred to as a ‘Disco’), Alison Mills-Clarke. Alison has practiced social care for over 24 years and brings a wealth of experience working with children and their families. Part of Alison’s role will include overseeing a review of our short breaks offer. Short breaks includes social care provision such as: universal short breaks targeted short breaks specialist short breaks and direct payments We will be consulting with children/young people and their families to find out more about: how our services should support them how we can make this offer more accessible how we can ensure families can be made aware of the support available to them how they can access this
The targeted short breaks service is not inclusive and does not cater to children with higher or more complex needs. Many providers do not offer personal care. We also want activities that are specifically for teenagers/young people, so that they have the option to attend activities with peers of their age.	We have commissioned new targeted short breaks providers and in the process of commissioning more. As part of this, we have commissioned Carlisle Mencap and West House, both of whom are able to offer personal care to children who attend their sessions. West House are also offering some activities on a 1 to 1 basis, so children with more complex needs can attend these sessions. We have commissioned People First, who are offering activities for young people aged 14 to 18 years. These activities are available in: Carlisle Maryport Whitehaven Workington Some sessions will focus on independence and offer young people the opportunity to explore their local community in small groups (maximum 6 per session, 1 staff member to every 2 child/young person). Learn more about targeted short breaks