Tag: SEND

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Consultation Government

Consultation update

Our consultation update includes the current live government consultations, which can be completed by forums or as an individual parent carer.

More details on each consultation and parliamentary inquiry can be found below:

Working Together to Safeguard Children is the multi-agency statutory guidance that sets out expectations for the system that provides help, support and protection for children and their families.

It applies at every level from senior leaders to those in direct practice with families, and across all agencies and organisations that come into contact with children. It gives practitioners clarity about what is required of them individually and how they need to work in partnership with each other to deliver effective services.

Changes are being proposed to the section on the assessment of disabled children.

Working together to safeguard children: changes to statutory guidance Closes 6 Sept

    Information sharing advice for safeguarding practitioners.

    The DfE is gathering a range of views to help ensure that the information sharing advice provides more clarity, is easily understood, and instils confidence to share information appropriately amongst practitioners.

    This includes whether the changes will potential impact those who share protected characteristics such as disability.

    Information sharing advice for safeguarding practitioners Closes 6 Sept

    Oliver McGowan code of practice on statutory learning disability and autism training

    This Department of Health and Social Care consultation considers the extent to which the Oliver McGowan code of practice on statutory learning disability and autism training (the code) provides Care Quality Commission (CQC) registered providers with the necessary guidance.

    CQC registered providers are now required to ensure their staff receive learning disability and autism training appropriate to their role.

    Views and feedback from this consultation will inform the final version of the code to be laid to parliament.

    Oliver McGowan draft code of practice Closes 19 Sept

    Disabled people in the housing sector

    The Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee are examining the role of Government, local councils and developers in ensuring the delivery of suitable housing for disabled people and what the Government can do to support disabled tenants in the private rented sector in England.The Committee is seeking evidence on a number of points that may be relevant to parent carers who need access to accessible and adaptable housing in all sectors of housing. It is also looking at how the Disabled Facilities Grant supports housing adaptions, as well as how government can support disabled residents who do not live in new build homes.

    Disabled people in the housing sector Closes 21 Sept

    Safeguarding vulnerable claimants

    The Work and Pensions Committee is to examine how DWP supports vulnerable benefit claimants and whether its approach to safeguarding needs to change.

    The Committee is looking to hear from people with lived experiences of these issues, and their families.

    The Committee intends to hold a roundtable event with benefit claimants with additional needs to discuss the issues raised in this inquiry.

    Further information on how to register your interest will be published on the Committee’s website.

    The Committee is looking at the main challenges for vulnerable claimants when making a new benefit claim, as well as improving support for the process.

    Supporting vulnerable claimants Closes 13 Oct

    Categories
    Care Quality Commision DfE local area inspections Ofsted

    Co-production and SEND Inspections

    NNPCF logo

    Messages from the eight Local Area SEND inspection reports published July 2023

    We have received feedback regarding the eight area’s who have been recently inspected under the new framework.

    The report highlights that co production is crucial and lies at the heart of everything that is going well.

    There are two evaluation criteria in the inspection handbook that relate to co-production:

    • Leaders actively engage and work with C&YP and families.
    • Children, young people and their families participate in decision-making about their individual plans and support. This includes access impartial information, advice and support to make informed choices about their future and support to understand rights.

    Key messages include:

    A strong voice of the children and young people (C&YP) and them being at the heart of decision making is a common characteristic of local areas that have achieved most favourable inspection outcome.

    Generally inspection reports have commented positively about co-production at strategic and service levels although there have been a couple of references to engagement with children and young people being in the early stages.

    Co-production at all levels.  

    Inspectors are looking for the voice of C&YP at all levels

    • Currently, how the voices of children and young people are heard and acted on at a strategic level is in its infancy. Area leaders have supported the development of the Shout Out for SEND (SOS) group, which is made up of a ‘small but mighty’ group of children and young people with SEND. However, their reach and impact are still growing.
    • The views of children and young people, and of parents and carers, are now being captured more systematically as part of the EHC planning and review processes.  C&YP’s voices matter they take part in decision making. Most reported a trusted adult who listens and acts on views.

    Co-production and the Local Area’s Leadership

    No local area, apart from one,  has this aspect of co-production as an area for improvement with most areas receiving positive comments

    • Co-production with parents and carers is a golden thread that weaves through new initiatives and service redesign. Leaders listen to and value the views of parents, carers, children, and young people. 
    •  The PCF are actively involved with many development projects. Leaders receive regular feedback from parents. They use this effectively when planning and evaluating services.
    • Strengthened work to engage C&YP and families to make improvements. The inclusion the PCF at a strategic level is central. Good evidence of true co-production. Leaders have developed roles for C&YP advocates and mentors for other C&YP to ensure their voices are heard.
    • Area leaders listen to and act on the views of parents and carers. For example, additional provision for young people with SEND was set up within an existing educational setting, following feedback from a parent group. Also, area leaders responded to concerns raised around transport by making relevant changes. Typically, parent groups believe that area leaders listen and respond to their views.
    • Co-production  is a strength. It is embedded in the local culture and is based on a relationship of trust and respect. The voices of parents, carers, C&YP influence strategic development and the commissioning of services. Parent voice is well represented in various panels across the city when considering access to services for individual families. There are many examples of strategic and operational co-production that are working well, for example the Social Communication Resources across primary and secondary school, the school transport policy, and the strategic plan for SEND. All resources that are being developed for the Dynamic Support Register (DSR) have been co-produced.
    • Work between the partnership and the parent carer forum is making a strong contribution to improving the experiences of children and young people with SEND and their families.
    • Careful thought and planning enable children and young people with a vast range of needs to communicate and be involved in service review and transformation. For example, inspectors met a group of young people who influenced the design of a leisure centre to ensure better accessibility and inclusivity

    Nottinghamshire’s area for improvement related to the need for leaders to gather a wider range of views of children and young people and their families so that they can use these views to inform their planning for, and evaluation of, SEND services. Inspectors also commented that work to engage C&YP was in its infancy

    Co-production and individual plans

    Positive examples identified by inspectors of how C&YP and their families are supported to engaged in their individual plans include:  

    • Early help: Highly skilled family support workers know and understand children’s needs well. They act as advocates for C&YP, ensuring that their views inform the development of support plans.
    • Leaders make sure that young people receive effective advice and support as they enter adulthood. Practitioners, including social prescribers, ensure that young people are able to be active members of their community, accessing financial benefits, improving their independence skills and finding suitable accommodation to help them achieve good outcomes
    • The school’s well-being service gives advice to parents, carers and schools about how to meet the mental health needs of children and young people.
    • Young people  generally receive effective careers education information, advice and guidance. This includes useful proactive support for those at risk of being NEET
    • Social workers act as useful advocates to get the children and young people they work with the help and support they need, including at points of transition into adult social care
    • Co-produced direct payment pathway where family support workers help families to manage and review their direct payment package. This means that families receive the right help without the need for social work intervention
    • Area leaders provide parents and carers with useful support and guidance when applying for a personal budget. This works particularly well in the children with disabilities service. However, some parents would value more services to spend their budget on and do not find the process straightforward.
    • Children and young people are supported to share their voices and opinions. Their voices are particularly well reflected across all EHCPs.
    • The Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Information Advice and Support Service, help parents and carers to navigate the local offer and access the right support in a timely way.
    • SENDIASS is highly valued by families. The service helps parents and carers receive useful advice and guidance. This helps families to successfully navigate the SEND system and reduces their anxieties.
    • The SEND Information and Advice Support Service (SENDIASS) provides an effective service supporting children and young people with SEND and their families. SENDIASS practitioners have taken a thoughtful approach to making their service both accessible and impartial. Parents, carers, children and young people do not need to wait for support from the SENDIASS team, as practitioners get in touch straight away.
    • The help and advice provided by SENDIASS is also highly valued.

    Area of concern identified by the inspectors related to the provision information to children and young people to help them help make choices include:

    • Insufficient and unclear access to support and guidance and misunderstanding from families and practitioners of how placements in alternative provision are commissioned.
    • Many parents lack confidence in how well their children are being prepared for adult life because they do not know what support is available.
    • Some children in mainstream provision do not receive clear advice to prepare for moving to their next stages of education so they do not always get the support they require in a timely fashion.
    • Many  C&YP are reliant on schools and families for social activities and to make friends. This is because they do not know what is available for them. This can leave some children and young people isolated.
    • Children and young people do not know enough about the clubs and facilities that are available for them to socialise with others out of school and during the school holidays.
    • Practitioners’ knowledge and expertise are insufficient to support and guide C&YP with SEND. A significant consequence of this is that the services of groups such as SENDIASS and PCF are in high demand. Although many highly regard these services, there is a limit to the level of support they can offer.
    • Parents, carers and professionals report problems with communication. Too often, professionals signpost parents and carers to other services. While this is enough for some families, other families struggle while they wait. A significant number of parents and carers who are waiting for their child to be assessed on the neurodevelopmental pathway reported that they are not updated often enough on wait times. This causes increased stress and worry.
    • Leaders do not promote personal health budgets well enough. This reduces the choice for parents and carers when they require bespoke packages of care.

    The two recommended areas for improvement related to information and communication that need to be addressed in the local area’s updated strategic plan were:  

    • The local area partnership should make sure that parents and carers and professionals receive clear and reliable information about how to access the range of support and services that are available.
    • Leaders across the partnership should establish effective communication across the partnership to improve the experiences for children and young people with SEND and their families.
    Categories
    Integrated Care Boards NHS England

    Integrated Care Boards Joint Forward Plan

    On Friday 30 June, Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) published their Joint Forward Plans.

    These outline their priorities and strategies for the next five years.

    This will be a key document for the development and delivery of health and care services including for children with SEND.

    Parent Carer Forums should review the plans published by their ICBs , available here: https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/find-your-local-integrated-care-board/

    In particular, forums should look for the following themes in the plans:

    • Do children and young people feature prominently in the plan
    • Do children and young people with SEND feature?
    • Do the plans for CYP with SEND reflect local needs, for example:
      • Sufficient community based services to meet need (paediatricians, SALT, Ots, Physio, CAHMS)
      • School nursing
    • The roll out of key long term plan programmes such as the Dynamic Support Register, Care (Education) Treatment Reviews, Key working
    • Transitions to adulthood including things such as annual Learning Disability Autism health checks, LeDeR
    • Recognition of the needs of parent carers and an understanding that these needs are different from other types of carers
    • The principles of coproduction and support for community groups and the voluntary sector (e.g. PCF’s)
    • Plus any other priorities that have been identified locality

    For more information on the development of ICBs please take a look at the webinars and articles:

    NHS publishes guidance for executive lead roles in ICBs – National Network of Parent Carer Forums C.I.C (nnpcf.org.uk)

    What can SEND families and parent carer forums expect from Integrated Care Boards – YouTube

    Categories
    Children's Commissioner SEND Implementation Plan

    Commissioner calls for radical rehaul of the SEND system

    The Children’s Commissioner has expressed her concerns about lack of support for children with Special Educational Needs in mainstream education and long waiting times for EHCPs as demand reaches new highs.

    The NNPCF, welcome this report, which has confirmed what we have said for quite some time, that the 2014 reforms had good intentions, but issues with the systems around those reforms meant that delivery wasn’t carried out to everyone’s expectations.

    The government has looked at the SEND system and the SEND AP implementation plan and been born out of that consultation. We recognise it will take a while to unpick this, trial changes and make any legislative changes needed.

    However, we know from our membership that families are already missing important opportunities.

    We remain solution focused and committed to work with our partners towards the aims set out by the SEND AP Implementation Plan.

    However we do have concerns about the impact on families while this is achieved.

    Find out more on the Children’s Commissioner’s website: https://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/blog/commissioner-calls-for-radical-rehaul-of-the-send-system/?fbclid=IwAR3lV6FqSrbZWaVSBhk1y8RqAAb6LsV7ap3Zk8hGjBKncdVOJhz8_7USn3c

    Categories
    DfE NNPCF work SEND AP Implementation Board. SENDAP

    SEND AP Implementation Board

    Co-chairs Tina Emery, Mrunal Sisodia, with the incoming co-chair Sarah Clarke, recently met with SEND AP Implementation Board. Which was chaired by Minster Claire Coutinho. This was the first meeting to be held.

    The Board will be jointly chaired by the children’s Minster Claire Coutinho and the mental health Minster Maria Caulfield. 

    The Board is made up of various experts across the SEND sector to offer support, challenge and solutions to the work set out in the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) improvement plan 

    The Board will be responsible for challenging the priority areas of work and supporting the rigor and pace that is required for progression of improvement plan.

    The priorities of areas of work discussed at the meeting were:

    • The importance of Local Plans and Partnerships which determine the priorities of an area across all sectors to successfully deliver the plans for improvements. The NNPCF raised the need for Parent Carer Forums and the lived experience to be central to these discussions, so that improvements were coproduced.
    • National Standards and their role in reducing post code lotteries across education and health services ensuring consistent high quality support.  The need for a clear understanding of what ‘good’ looked like and importance of that shared national understanding was also discussed.
    • How workforce capacity and capability played a vital role in determining that there is sufficient workforce in the right areas to support change.
    • The standardisation and digitisation of the EHCP process and the requirements required to implement successfully.

    National SEND and alternative provision implementation board – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

    Categories
    Consultation NHS England

    May Consultation briefing

    There are lots of opportunities for forums to represent the experiences of their members! More details on each consultation and parliamentary inquiry can be found below.

    Currently open inquiries and consultations that may be of interest to forums and included in this briefing:

    Improving support for children missing education

    The Department for Education is seeking views on:

    • how children missing education are identified and supported
    • the challenges in identifying and supporting children missing education
    • how to address those challenges

    The consultation covers a wide range of children missing education including those with SEND. Forums and individual parent carers can access the consultation here.

    Major Conditions Strategy

    The government is currently developing a major conditions strategy for England which will manage the 6 major groups of health conditions that affect most populations in England.

    These are:

    • cancers
    • cardiovascular disease, including stroke and diabetes
    • chronic respiratory diseases
    • dementia
    • mental ill health
    • musculoskeletal disorders

    This call for evidence builds on from the calls for evidence last year on cancer and mental health.

    Forums and individual members can give their views on the major conditions strategy here.

    Categories
    Department for Education

    DfE publishes Academies Regulatory and Commissioning Review

    The DfE recently published the Academies Regulatory and Commissioning Review which aims to set out a ‘framework for growing the impact of the academies system, so parents and carers can be confident that their child will receive a high-quality education wherever they live.’

    You can find the review here Academies regulatory and commissioning review – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

    The review comprises of three main sections:

    1. Regulatory oversight for academies
    2. Trust quality and commissioning
    3. Effective Practice and self-improvement

    The NNPCF were not a part of the review advisory group although we did have extensive contact with the Department for Education including the Minister for Schools Systems Baroness Barren.

    You can find a note of our meetings here Academies Regulation and Commissioning Review – National Network of Parent Carer Forums C.I.C (nnpcf.org.uk)

    We have been very clear that the accountability of the schools system needs a major overhaul. We have consistently called for a closer alignment of the incentives, responsibilities, powers and accountability across the education sector across schools, trusts, local authorities, the DfE Regions Group and the inspectors (Ofsted). Forums tell us that schools are not incentivised to be inclusive and that local authorities and the DfE regions group cannot hold them to account if they are not.

    The ability of the review to address these concerns is limited because since the Schools Bill was withdrawn, there is no legislation to make the changes we are looking for. As a result, it falls short of the tightening and clarification of accountability in schools that we believe the SEND system needs

    However, the review, goes as far as it can to address some of our concerns without legislation:

    • We are pleased that SEND features very prominently in the document – it is made clear from the start that SEND should be a priority for all trusts and there is a strong read across the SENDAP Improvement Plan.
    • The first line of the definition of a high quality trust is “delivering high quality and inclusive education for all pupils”. More detailed descriptions of Trust quality will be published in late April. We are told that these will be clear on the importance of SEND and inclusive practice and will align with the SEND national standards from the SENDAP Improvement plan.
    • Aligned with the review, the DfE has also published the MAT Leadership Development: CEO Content framework which re-iterates the responsibilities of school leaders with regards to SEND Mat leadership development CEO content framework (publishing.service.gov.uk)
    • The document promises a review of the complaints system for parents making it clearer, simpler and less duplicative for them to seek redress. We will seek to work with the Department for Education on this topic.
    • The report also states that the commissioning system will be used to promote high quality trusts. However, there are no new powers to call to account existing trusts that are not inclusive.
    Categories
    Consultation Government Uncategorized

    March consultation briefing



    There are lots of opportunities for forums to represent the experiences of their members this month.

    More details on each consultation and parliamentary inquiry can be found below.


    The NNPCF is also looking for individual parents to help with our case studies, that we can use when working with the Department of Education and other partners, to evidence our shared experiences living with a child or young person with special educational needs and disabilities.
    In particular, this month, we have been asked to feedback on parent carers experiences of their child or young person with SEN being admitted to hospital because of poor mental health, and we would really value more case studies on this topic.


    Currently open inquiries and consultations that may be of interest to forums and included in this briefing:


    Reasonable force and restrictive practice in schools
    Department of Education consultation closes 11 May

    You can read the NNPCF response here:https://nnpcf.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Reasonable-force-and-restrictive-practice-consulatation.pdf


    Accessible transport
    Parliamentary Transport Committee inquiry closes 20 March


    Court reform programme
    Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee inquiry into the roll out of the court reform programme closes 20 March


    Progress in improving mental heath services
    Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee inquiry closes 3 April


    Department of Education use of reasonable force and restrictive practice in schools

    The NNPCF is looking to respond to this government consultation and is looking for input from our wider membership to help inform the response.

    It would be really helpful for forum leads to share our survey on reasonable force and restrictive practice in schools.
    The survey can be found at https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/7QGHVZ3


    Through this consultation the government is seeking to understand how reasonable force, restraint and restrictive practices are used in schools to inform revisions to guidance. The Government has committed to minimising the use of restraint in all schools and in instances where restraint is necessary and lawful, to support school to use it as safely as possible.


    Forum leads and parents are able to respond directly to the consultation themselves here:
    Use of reasonable force and restrictive practices in schools – Call for evidence – Department for Education – Citizen Space


    NNPCF Case studies

    The NNPCF is collecting case studies of parent carers and their experiences for use in meetings with various professionals and to inform our policy development.

    Please can forums let their members know about the opportunity to be involved in this vital piece of national work.

    All case studies will be anonymised and data held securely and confidentially.
    Case studies are currently open in the follow areas:

    Parental experience of children being in residential settings out of their community and about to embark on returning to their local community or now returned to their local community https://forms.office.com/r/A3GDjfnXbQ

    Parent carer views on children’s needs not be met in school, or where they are struggling in their educational setting, for those without an EHCP
    https://forms.office.com/r/Kks9BpB9Mx

    Parental views on children’s needs not being met or they are struggling because of COVID-19
    https://forms.office.com/r/3Urd5fXLWL

    Where school transport is affecting a child’s attendance at school or other educational setting https://forms.office.com/r/wAMjbuKt4F

    Taking a local authority to tribunal for placement issues
    https://forms.office.com/r/D1JY4dnbsL

    Where a child has been admitted to or is at risk of being admitted to hospital because of poor mental health: https://forms.office.com/r/AKAQFCDsxa

    https://nnpcf.org.uk/2022/10/25/case-studies-for-the-dfe-send-review-team/

    Court reform progress review

    Closing date 20 March
    The Public Accounts Committee will be questioning senior officials at the Ministry of Justice, MNCTS and the CPS on the progress HMCTS has made against its plans in the face of changing circumstance, and whether it has planned and rolled out its new digital case management system, Common Platform, effectively.
    The NNPCF has as yet to make contact with anyone who attended an SEND tribunal before the digital system and after its roll out, so we are currently unable to feedback how this has changed the experience for parents of children and young people with SEND. If your forum knows of anyone who
    is willing to share experiences of how the new digital management system for tribunals is working compared to the non-digital system, please contact our policy and consultation lead, Claire Fisher, at consultation@nnpcf.org.uk .
    https://committees.parliament.uk/call-for-evidence/3056/

    Accessible Transport Consultation
    Closes 20 March


    The Parliamentary Transport Committee is currently running an accessible transport: legal obligations inquiry into whether legal obligations on transport operators and local licensing
    authorities are being met across different modes of transport.
    The committee has also developed an easy read version of their terms of reference here.


    Forums and forum members may wish to give their views and experiences of accessible transport in their area.
    There are two ways to respond.

    Personal responses to the question “does public transport work for people with access needs?” can be answered through a survey here.
    The full call for evidence can be accessed here and has questions such as:

    • Are there specific transport modes or kinds of journeys where compliance with legal obligations is especially patchy?
    • Are there differences according to where in the country you are travelling?
    • What difficulties does this cause for travellers with access needs?
    • Do current legal obligations or guidance need to be strengthened?
    • What best practices should transport operators be following to improve their performance on access and inclusion for users?
    • How effective is the Government’s Inclusive Transport Strategy, and how well does it influence decision-making across transport policy?
    • How could it be improved?

    Please see the government website for more information:
    https://committees.parliament.uk/work/6805/accessibletransport-legal-obligations/

    Progress in improving Mental Health Services
    Closing date 6pm 3 April
    The Public Accounts Parliamentary Committee will be questioning senior officials at the
    Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England on whether the government has achieved
    value for money in its efforts to date to expand and improve NHS-funded mental health services.


    Questions will include whether the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England and Health
    Education England:

    • have a clear understanding of how initiatives to date contribute to the longer-term goal of
      closing the gap between mental and physical health services;
    • have met ambitions to increase access, capacity, workforce, and funding for mental health
      services, and improve service standards;
    • are well placed to overcome the risks and challenges, including the impact of COVID-19,
      to achieve future ambitions.

    Forums can give submit their views on their area here.

    https://committees.parliament.uk/work/7315/progress-improving-mental-health-services

    Categories
    Department for Education Education Minister for the School System NNPCF work

    Academies Regulation and Commissioning Review

    Earlier this week, our co-chairs Tina Emery and Mrunal Sisodia met with the Minister for the School System, Baroness Barran, to discuss the Academies Regulation and Commissioning Review.

    The meeting covered the NNPCF’s input into the Academies Regulation and Commissioning Review . This group has been looking at the accountability framework for academies.

    The current accountability regime remains very unclear. The division of powers, responsibilities, regulation and enforcement between schools, multi-academy trusts, local authorities and the DfE Regions Group is confused. We hear too often about schools that do not make reasonable adjustments or promote inclusion that parents and local authorities are powerless to hold to account.

    We asked the minister to ensure that the Academies Regulation and Commissioning Review closed these gaps and enforce that schools, local authorities and Integrated Care Systems meet needs.

    The success of the SENDAP Improvement Plan published last week depends on whether the Academies Regulation and Commissioning Review can address these concerns.

    In particular, we raised three main issues with the minister:

    • The inability of individual families to seek redress when they believe that a school is not promoting inclusion. For example, if they are failing to make reasonable adjustments. In these cases, parents have to use the school or trust’s complaints process, something that a delegate at our 2023 conference described as “marking their own homework.”
    • The need to align the powers, responsibilities and accountability between schools, multi-academy trusts, local authorities, the DfE Regions Group and Integrated Care Systems. There are huge gaps which mean that no-one has the authority to effectively hold schools to account.
    • Greater clarity on what inclusive practice is and what good looks like. The Schools Bill defined a strong trust as being “inclusive”. We asked for clarity on what these means and how it will be assessed.

    Unfortunately, following the shelving of the Schools Bill, the ability to make regulatory changes may be constrained and we are concerned that the scope of change that the Academies Regulation and Commissioning Review may bring will be limited.

    The team promised to meet the NNPCF steering group to further develop these points.

    For our previous work on this area please see:

    NNPCF Steering Group meet with Minister on Schools White Paper – National Network of Parent Carer Forums C.I.C

    Initial NNPCF response to the Schools White Paper – National Network of Parent Carer Forums C.I.C

    Categories
    NHS England NNPCF NNPCF work Policy

    New NHS England policy published

    NHS England has published the new Dynamic Support Register (DSR) and Care (education) and Treatment Review C(E)TR policy

    February 2023

    At the end of January, NHSE published its new DSR and CETR policy.

    You can find a link to it here: PR1486-Dynamic-support-register-and-Care-Education-and-Treatment-Review-policy-and-guide.pdf (england.nhs.uk)

    There is also an easy read version here: Easy-read-version-of-the-Dynamic-support-register-and-Care-Education-and-Treatment-Review-policy-and-guide-Jan.pdf (england.nhs.uk)

    The policy will be rolled out in April 2023.

    Some definitions:

    A Dynamic Support Register (DSR) is the tool used in a local area to identify individual children, young people and adults with a learning disability, autism or both who are at risk or may become at risk of admission to a mental health inpatient setting without specific and timely Dynamic Support

    Note: the term “At Risk of Admission Register” was originally used, this term continues to be used in some areas. Similarly, the Dynamic Support Register is also known in some local areas as a Dynamic Support Database (DSD)

    A C(E)TR is a meeting bringing together those responsible for commissioning and providing services (including nurses, social workers, local authority representatives, such as from housing and education, and health and social care commissioners) together with independent clinical opinion and those with lived experience of learning disabilities and/or autism, which includes people with a learning disability and/or autistic people and their family carers.

    The aim of a C(E)TR is to check that a person who is either at risk of being admitted or who has already been admitted to a hospital setting is receiving appropriate care that meets their individual needs and that, where possible, challenges are overcome to support discharge to or continued care in the community.

    The policy outlines the new process for the implementation of DSRs and C(E)TRs. The NNPCF did not have direct input into the development of the policy but we were involved in broader conversations about the issues with DSRs and CETRs in the current system, the experiences of children and young people and their families and some of the changes that we wanted to see in the new policy.

    We are working with NHSE to ensure that parent carer forums are engaged in the implementation of the new policies: