Quality of practice framework

The Borough’s Children and Young People’s Plan 2024-2025 sets out our ambitions for all children and young people. This includes those with SEND, and their families. This Quality of Practice Framework will help us to understand the impact we are having and to see how far we are achieving those ambitions.

A safe life where:

• Children and young people are protected from harm;
• Children and young people live in safe communities;
• Children and young people are supported and cared for within their family and wider networks.

A happy life where:

• Children, young people, and their families are empowered to be resilient;
• Children and young people are happy in their schools and settings;
• Children, young people, and their families thrive. They have strong support networks and are connected to their communities

A healthy life where: 

• Children and young people experience better emotional health and wellbeing;
• Those who are neurodivergent live in inclusive communities where they feel comfortable;
• Children, young people and their families have the best start in life and have improved health outcomes;
• Children young people and families experience reduced health inequalities.

Achieve in life: 

• Children are ready for school;
• Children and young people are safe in education supported by strong attendance;
• Children, young people and adults experience a high class, inclusive education. They maximise their capabilities and they have control over their lives.

North Tyneside needs an experienced and stable workforce across social care, education and health. This is so we can deliver on these ambitious plans for children and young people with SEND and their families. We want our workforce to have the knowledge, skills and values to make strong, meaningful relationships with the people they work with. We extend the same commitment to our workforce. We have high expectations of them in a highly supportive working environment. In turn we will give them the best opportunities to learn, so they will be effective in their practice and will thrive as practitioners. Our workforce will work to a set of practice principles. These are the foundations by which we can deliver on our ambitions. These principles outline what children and young people can expect from us, and how we will make sure we achieve those expectations. The eight practice principles are:

1. that children and young people will be listened to;
2. they will have people important to them involved in making things better for them;
3. their needs will be clearly understood and described;
4. there will be a plan in place regarding how these needs will be met;
5. we will only be involved in the lives of children and young people as long as we need to;
6. they will understand what is written about them;
7. we will follow the rules in what we do;
8. our workers will have support and guidance to help them do a good job

We will use three elements - figures, feedback and findings to form the basis of our framework. We will think about what these are telling us to get a clear understanding of where our practice is making a positive difference for children and families. We will also understand where we need to improve.

We already collect and keep a range of figures so we can understand how we are doing compared to other areas and to our previous performance. Figures can help us identify patterns and trends. The Council’s Policy, Performance and Research Team supports us to capture and provide the data necessary to answer our critical questions. ( ‘how often?’, ‘how many?’ and ‘how much?’ ). All leaders across education, health and care use figures to understand the current position and any trends. This informs our strategic plans, including local planning in schools and settings, and in teams across health and social care. Leaders look at themes to understand where particular pressures are and to understand what we do well and what we should celebrate. We also use figures to understand where we might not be doing as well as we could, so we can make plans to improve.

Figures are captured from

• Workforce data
• Key national performance indicators (SEN2)
• Regional benchmarking reports
• Partnership data
• Financial reporting
• Locally agreed performance indicators
• Single agency / team level data

We get feedback from those we work with and those who work with us. It is very important to the partnership that we understand the experience of people who use our services and support. We want to know, did we make a difference? We will use a variety of tools to support children, young people and families to share their views, and we will capture feedback in different ways. We want to use feedback to understand from all angles the impact of the SEND partnership. All the different sources of feedback play a part in helping us to understand the quality of our practice. A key priority is to explore the experience of the children, young people and their families who receive our services. We want to capture the wishes and feelings of every child and young person we work with. This helps us to understand their experience, which informs plans and decisions to make things better. We can get feedback in many ways including:

• Direct work, either as part of an assessment or ongoing intervention;
• Feedback given, such as part of a review or assessment/advice;
• Targeted initiatives to involve and collaborate with children, young people and their families to inform priorities and shape practice. (Including Parent Carer Forum and Youth Forum events);
• Supervision, including group supervision;
• Management oversight;
• Complaints or compliments;
• Feedback solicited as part of audit activity

All our staff have a role in improving the lives of children and young people and they must work in partnership to achieve good outcomes. We want to understand the interface between all partner agencies. Some of the places in which this feedback may be captured include:

• SEND Youth Forum;
• SENDIASS;
• North Tyneside SEND Strategic Board meetings (executive and sub-groups).

We know our staff are our greatest asset to deliver on our ambitions for children and young people. We have high expectations for the quality of work our staff do, so it’s only right that we seek to understand how they experience working for us. We will regularly ask if they understand the expectations and if they have the support and resources to deliver them. We collect this feedback through a variety of opportunities including: 

• Staff surveys and health checks;
• Practice weeks
• Supervision;
• Staff meetings;
• Observation of practice
• Evaluation of training

We will use our findings to look at our practice across education, health and care, through the lens of experience. We will review information from the wider SEND Partnership along with research, and reports to help us understand what is working and what isn’t. This will help us to understand our practice in comparison to other areas and to consider what excellent practice should look like. Some of the findings we regularly review include:

• Audits undertaken, including collaborative EHCP audits, single agency EHCP audits and multi-agency EHCP audits;
• Audits of statutory advice informing Education, Health and Care Needs Assessments;
• Audits of SEN Support Plans;
• Whole School SEND Audits;
• Inspections across schools and settings, and in health and social care;
• Reports about complaints and compliments;
• Research;
• Sector-led improvement activities;
• Self-evaluation;
• Partnership work;
• Consultancy

So we understand the quality of our practice, what do we do with this knowledge?

The partnership will use figures, feedback and findings to create a holistic understanding of the impact of the services we deliver, and the education children and young people receive. We will gain a clear picture, which we will use to decide the next steps in our continuous learning and improvement journey. We are proud to promote a learning culture and proud to say we always strive to be better. Our Quality of Practice Framework gives us the tools to take forward and drive continuous improvement across the service. We have plans at different levels (including child level or service and system level. ) All our plans will aim to improve outcomes for every child and young person involved with our services. We will make sure that those elements that are working well will continue to happen. We will also take action to address the elements that are not working as well in order to make these better. We want to continuously learn and improve. We will bring our colleagues, our partners and most importantly our children, young people and families along this journey with us.

We know everyone learns differently. Learning therefore should be delivered in a way that enables engagement from practitioners and leaders across education, health and care. For this reason, we will use a variety of tools and strategies to deliver this learning. These tools and strategies may be developed, delivered, and attended by single agency or multi-agency staff groups. We will also take the learning from this framework to inform strategic and operational planning. Learning may come from a complaint received, or action plans following particular audit activity. Learning may also inform broad partnership planning and strategic priorities. The Quality Assurance subgroup will collect and monitor evidence in line with the forward plan. They will share this with Delivery Board through quarterly reports which will then report into SEND Strategic Board. In North Tyneside we are unapologetically ambitious in our commitment to improve the lives of children and young people. This framework captures the various efforts we will take. It should be relied upon as a guide so we can assure ourselves that we have the mechanisms in place to achieve these ambitions.

Where and how learning will happen

• Learning journey record
• Briefing notes
• Practice guidance emails
• Espresso / Bitesize training events
• Supervision
• Words and pictures
• Team meetings
• Video
• Management meetings
• Commissioned training
• Reports to SEND board
• Reports to SEND groups
• Action learning sets

The Children and Young People Partnership Board brings partners together to address the biggest challenges facing children, young people and families in our borough. This includes those with SEND. It is responsible for the delivery of the Children and Young People’s Plan. The SEND Delivery Group is responsible for the local area partnership’s SEND Improvement Plan. It reports into the SEND Strategic Board, which in turn reports into the Children and Young People’s Partnership Board. The SEND Quality of Practice sub-group is responsible for delivery of this Quality of Practice Framework. It reports into the SEND Delivery Group.

Rebecca Eden

Senior Manager, SEND Quality of Practice

Telephone: (0191) 643 7376

Children, Young People and Learning

North Tyneside Council

Feedback about SEND support service or anything related to this framework can be emailed to SENDfeedback@northtyneside.gov.uk