About the Phase One Insight Report

The Phase One Insight report aggregates the data and draws out the common themes from the 54 diagnostics completed as a part of the first phase of the DBV programme between 2022 and 2024.
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The report aims to:

Aim One

Summarise the key themes and challenges identified during the diagnostic work in Phase One of the programme.

Aim Two

Demonstrate the views of parents, carers, education providers, SEND specialists, and children and young people with SEND about the SEND system, as gathered through the programme.

Aim Three

Give an overview of some of the ways local areas plan to improve outcomes for children and young people following their diagnostic work.

A few points to be aware of regarding the report

The primary focus of the diagnostic phase was to deliver tailored support to individual local areas, with the opportunity to aggregate the findings as a secondary benefit. As a result, this report should be used to understand the key insights and themes that emerge when aggregating a number of local area SEND diagnostics and provide evidence to support further detailed discussion on the priority areas of SEND system reform. This report should not be viewed as a detailed research paper that answers all of those priority questions for discussion.
It is also important to recognise that as each diagnostic was tailored to the local area, not all local areas will be included in each piece of analysis. Individual local examples are being used to illustrate points where local system factors result in the approach varying area to area.
No single point of evidence in this report should be taken in isolation – it is important to look at the findings together.

It is also important to emphasise that the programme was intended to support local areas to explore what the diagnostic evidence indicates about how they can improve outcomes within the current legislative and operating system. This is the context for the report.

Similarly, there are excellent examples nationally of how local areas are working within the current system to improve outcomes for children and young people with SEND but it was not designed to provide a summary of good practice taking place in the sector.

Download the full report Download relevant chapters

About the Phase One Insight Report

Potential for improvement

Over 1,550 local practitioners and professionals analysed the stories of over 1,650 children and young people with SEND as part of the diagnostic work. The purpose of these case reviews was to explore whether children and young people with SEND were receiving the best possible outcomes. As part of these case reviews, practitioners highlighted that, if the system worked in an improved way, 65% of the children and young people reviewed could have had their needs met in a different provision.

The practitioners involved felt that, if the system was improved, it could lead to:

Over 30,000 more children having their needs met through SEN Support.
35,000 more children having their needs met in a mainstream setting rather than a specialist placement.
Of those 35,000, over 15,000 more children being supported through resourced provision (370% increase).
A significant shift in the use of special school placements away from the independent sector to the state run sector.

Priorities for improvement

Engagement with over 7,400 parent carers through the diagnostics illustrated a view that a range of factors in mainstream schools needs to be improved to support their children. The same factors were mirrored in the views of over 2,500 representatives of education providers on what they felt would improve their ability to support children with SEND and the views of over 1,200 children and young people with SEND on what would improve their school.

The highest impact enabler highlighted by the practitioners to deliver this scale of improved outcomes would be improving parent carer confidence in their child’s mainstream setting.

The diagnostics found that the factors that influence confidence levels and are key levers to improving outcomes were:

Support that meets their child’s needs in a mainstream setting
Responsiveness of healthcare services
Accessibility, understanding and suitability of the area’s ‘Local Offer’
Timeliness and quality of EHC Needs Assessment and Plan review processes

Whilst the weighting of the levers varies by cohort of children and young people, these are the key issues identified across all diagnostics.

When reviewed as a whole, the evidence collated highlights 17 components of local systems that were most prevalent and most impactful in improving support for children and young people with SEND and are most critical in improving support for children and young people with SEND.

Nine of these components relate to the operations, workforce and resourcing in mainstream schools; six relate to local authority or health care services; and two relate to the use of capital to increase capacity of certain provision.

Risks to delivery

The evidence from the DBV diagnostics suggests that improving outcomes for children and young people with SEND requires a genuinely cross-system approach. Implementation will require system partners coming together to deliver complex change despite capacity challenges across the system.

How local authorities are using their one-off grant funding.

The initiatives being taken forward by local areas to address the opportunities identified in their diagnostic work fall into six broad categories:

Uniting the local system by developing and enhancing system partnerships, co-production and engagement, and managing the local improvement programme.
Delivering support to schools by using data to identify specific groups of mainstream schools to focus on. These will receive targeted resources to help support children with SEND more
effectively.
Building a high performing LA SEN Assessment and Review Service by ensuring teams are right sized and processes are efficient and effective.
Building effective targeted services across LA outreach, social care and local health services by ensuring teams are right sized and processes are efficient and effective.
A spine of data and system intelligence to track performance and target efforts as part of business as usual delivery.
Delivery of capital programmes to increase capacity in resourced provision and state run special schools for the demographics and primary needs that need it most.

The majority of the £1m grants (54.9%) allocated to DBV LAs has been allocated to enable ‘Delivering Support to Schools’ initiatives (not through allocating money directly into school budgets).

three illustrated children surrounded by trees

Next steps

All participating local areas are now in Phase Two of the DBV programme – the implementation phase. Local authorities and their partners are being supported to deliver the plans they developed in Phase 1 of the programme.
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The ongoing support for local areas includes:

Monitoring & Support

Ongoing support from DfE officials and Advisers.

The Toolkit

About the Phase One Insight Report

About the Phase One Insight Report

How local authorities are using their one-off grant funding.

Next steps

Downloads

Phase One Insight Summary - full report

Section One - Context

Section Two - Key Findings

Section Three - High-impact focus areas

Section Four (a) - ASC

Section Four (a) - SEMH

Section Four (a) - SLCN

Section Four (b) - Key points in educational journey

Section Five - Key themes & grant expenditure

Stage Six - Next Steps

Section Seven - Appendix

Findings from
Phase One