Local areas are showing that positive changes can be achieved in High Needs in the current operating environment. And whether new legislation or funding come to pass, success will always be about local delivery.

This week's National Children and Adult Services Conference (NCASC) is a great opportunity to raise the profile of important issues and compare notes on what's working locally.

As headline sponsor we are hosting, among other things, a breakfast session on Thursday 3 November to share some of the practical learning so far from our High Needs programme, to improve the experiences and outcomes for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), in alternative provision or excluded from education.

It is a complex system, but its challenges can be distilled into five practical, actionable areas:

Co-production: We look at its importance and practical examples. Working with our High Needs Delivery Advisory Board, chaired by Jenny Coles, we have developed a High Needs Co-production Toolkit to support decisions around if, when, and how to co-produce.

Agree what good looks like: It is vital to co-develop an ‘inclusive ambition' across the system. Of 1,021 parents we have surveyed across nine local areas, only 24% agreed that there is a clear vision for SEND, compared to 49% of 997 professionals, with 71% of parents reporting that support from agencies should be better joined up.

Early intervention: Always a top priority for parents yet, only 33% of those surveyed agree that children's needs are identified at the right time. And in 382 multi-agency case reviews across 10 local areas, reviewers judged that something could have been done earlier to prevent, reduce or delay the escalation of need in 61% of cases. Often, there is local support already available that would have made the difference in the majority of those cases. Strengths-based conversations between school staff and children can identify need and connect families with local support or activities – we share tangible, high impact examples.

Good conversations: Support decisions that ultimately add up to outcomes for families can often be deficit-based and focused on ‘containment and service provision', neglecting the young person's strengths, aspirations and needs. When surveyed, only 44% of 200 parents across two local areas reported that support around children and young people builds on skills/strengths. The programme highlights how to make a cultural shift from transactional process to relational practice.

Needs-led action and provision: Often education, health and care plans (EHCPs) are ‘woolly' about what is needed to meet short-term outcomes and long-term aspirations, making it difficult to consistently match provision to need. As a result, we cannot tell if the provision is helping and therefore whether to adjust it. A system where provision is disconnected from need is fundamentally an unfair one. In response, areas in the programme are implementing our Valuing SEND approach to codify and quantify types and levels of needs. Over the past three years this work has indicated that there is currently very limited correlation between need and how settings are geared up to meet need. Importantly, it has identified opportunities to adapt provision to achieve better outcomes – for example in assisting young people in special schools to access mainstream provision, and targeting support to particular schools.

The key point is that high impact improvements do not depend on funding or policy change – we can hope for those but cannot wait. We will be launching our High Needs Co-production Toolkit at NCASC 2022, visit stand C10 for your free copy. Find out more about our High Needs programme via impower.co.uk.

Al Thompson is delivery director, IMPOWER

@IMPOWERconsult