Partnership thanks parents and carers of children with special educational needs for their views on improving services

Cheshire East Council’s special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) partnership has thanked parents and carers for sharing their views in a recent survey to assess if services have improved following an inspection in 2018.

The Cheshire East  SEND Partnership sought the views of parents and carers whose children have an education health and care (EHC) plan, an EHC assessment or an autism assessment with the NHS.

Parents and carers of children and young people with  SEND are also represented by the Cheshire East Parent Carer Forum. 

The forum works closely with health, social services and education teams within the  SEND Partnership and helped to coproduce this survey.

The January survey, a repeat of a similar survey 12 months earlier, was important  to check if improvements that have been made to services have been seen and felt by parents and carers and ultimately improve the lives of children and young people with  SEND across Cheshire East.

This is the second year that this survey has been conducted with a significant increase in the number of respondents (345 responses received, up from 181 in 2020), indicating more engagement of parents and carers. 

The survey found that many aspects of the assessment process have increased in satisfaction for  EHC plans issued in 2020 and 2021, pointing to a definite improvement in the practices put in place.

The survey findings also concluded that autism assessments conducted in 2020 and 2021 are rated higher than those done earlier. An example of this was that parents and carers were satisfied that they were given information about how to access support while their child/young person was being assessed.

The survey concluded that many aspects of the autism assessment process have increased in satisfaction for those conducted in 2020 and 2021, with more clarity given on areas that need further improvement. 

Jacky Forster, chair of the Cheshire East  SEND Partnership and director of education at Cheshire East Council said: “I’d like to thank everyone that responded to our recent survey and in particular the Cheshire East Parent Carer Forum, whose insight and feedback has been invaluable as we move along our improvement journey.

“The results from this survey are encouraging, as they demonstrate we are moving in the right direction. All the feedback received is being used to help improve the experiences for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities. The information from the survey is invaluable in highlighting where we have further work to do.

“Our vision is that all our children and young people are happy, healthy and safe, and enjoy a life which is filled with fun and opportunities to learn and develop. We remain committed to making our families and communities strong, welcoming and supportive, where differences are respected and celebrated.”

Kate Walters, co-chair of the Cheshire East Parent Carer Forum said: “As a voluntary group of enthusiastic, dedicated parent carers, we are proud to represent parents and carers of children and young people with SEND , across Cheshire East. Our aim is to work in partnership with everyone who can help improve the quality of life for these children and young people. 

“We welcome the results of this survey and thank all those who shared their experiences. We are really pleased to see that parent carers have seen an improvement over the last year. There is more work to be done and we will continue to share our members' experiences of what works and what doesn’t work so well; and to help the partnership focus their efforts on effective, high quality support.”

Read the full survey and conclusions on our consulation webpage.