DBV Phase One
Phase One of the DBV in SEND programme worked with 54 local areas to identify the highest impact changes that can be made to improve outcomes for children and young people with SEND, and to optimise the use of finances.
Phase One of the DBV in SEND programme worked with 54 local areas to identify the highest impact changes that can be made to improve outcomes for children and young people with SEND, and to optimise the use of finances.
Phase One of the DBV programme began in 2022 and finished in May 2024. During this period, the Department for Education (DfE), in collaboration with Newton Europe and the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA), supported the 54 local areas to identify the highest impact changes that can be made to improve outcomes for children and young people with SEND, and simultaneously improve the financial sustainability of local services.
In Phase One, each local area received dedicated specialist support to help them build a locally gathered evidence base which identified opportunities for improvement. They then created a plan to deliver the improvements across their local system.
The video in the next section explains what was involved in a DBV diagnostic.
During Phase One, the programme also collated good practice in identifying and prioritising transformation of services for children and young people with SEND into a Toolkit accessible to all local authorities nationally, to support the improvement of their services for children and young people with SEND.
Access the ToolkitData and evidence across all local areas in the programme has been aggregated to understand consistent themes and challenges, to inform future policy, sector-led improvement, and to support local authorities nationally in the improvement of their local services for children and young people with SEND.
Read findings from Phase OnePhase One of the programme was overseen by a national system steering group, made up from sector leaders across a wide range of partners, including representation from parent carers, healthcare, central and local government. This steering group provided sector-led advice and support to the DfE, Newton and CIPFA in the delivery of Phase One and provided a further route to the wider sector as well as an additional channel of feedback for participating local authorities and the wider sector.
Prior to the DBV in SEND programme, participating local authorities had already worked extensively with their local partners, and this work was built upon in the diagnostic.
Local stakeholder engagement (including with parents and carers, with teachers from schools and colleges, and with health and social care colleagues) was vital to ensure everyone fed into the plan and bought into the outcomes the local area wanted to achieve together. In Phase One, Newton and CIPFA supported authorities to lead this engagement by providing communications tools, using participatory workshop methods, and where appropriate and asked by the authority, joining stakeholder meetings.
Schools forums were consulted as part of the diagnostic phase, as were local Parent Carer Forums.
Further activities involving partners and stakeholders across the system will be completed in the transition into the implementation phase (Phase Two) in each local area. When it comes to developing implementation plans and deciding what changes to take forward, it is expected that each participating local authority will do this in close conjunction with its local partners.
Local areas participating in Phase One have provided feedback on their experiences of the programme.
Assistant Director in SEND
DBV local area
Programme manager
DBV local area
Director of Children’s Services
DBV local area
SEND lead
DBV local area
