Dear Parents and Carers,
We are pleased to be able to share with you the results of the recent Dorset Parent Carer Council survey.
The DPCC Steering Group are extremely grateful to everyone who took time to take part and additional thanks go to those of you who shared details about your own experiences and the impact of these.
We have collated all your comments and shared them with the Senior Leadership Team at Dorset Council Children’s Services and with key people at Dorset Clinical Commisioning Group. We are in the process of having conversations with them to explore ways in which your feedback can be used to inform practice and improve trust and confidence with families.
A huge thank you from,
Dorset Parent Carer Council Steering group
“Our Strength is Our Shared Experience”.
To find out more about the reason behind the three surveys please see below.
The background:
Three years ago, in January 2017, Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) did an inspection of the services provided for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). (They looked at services provided in Dorset, not including Bournemouth & Poole.)
Four areas of weakness were found. In brief, these were: · Education, Health & Social Care need to work more closely together; · EHCPs need to be produced more quickly; · Parents and carers need to be more involved in decision making, and get better help sooner; · The quality of what is being done needs to be better monitored and, if necessary, challenged to improve. What has happened since then?
A Written Statement of Action (WSoA) was produced as a result of the inspection, and a lot of work has gone into improving services where this was felt necessary.
In February 2019, the OFSTED and CQC Inspection team returned and carried out a Revisit Inspection to determine if the Dorset Area had made sufficient progress to address the four areas of weakness identified in the 2017 Inspection.
Two out of the four areas of weakness still remain. In brief these were:
· Parents and carers need to be more involved in decision making and get better help sooner. · The quality of what is being done needs to be better monitored and, if necessary, challenged to improve.
Where is Dorset now:
Ofsted and the CQC returned to Dorset in January to see if sufficient is being done to improve the two outstanding areas of weakness highlighted above. The Dorset Parent Carer Council survey was included is part of the evidence shared with representatives from DfE and NHS England during the ‘online’ visit.
More information about the Written Statement of Action & Dorset’s SEND Strategy can be find on the Local Offer - click here.