Lincolnshire's Inclusion Strategy 2025-26

We want children and young people and their families to feel they belong, are valued, visible and included in their communities.  We aim to ensure that children and young people and their families participate and are actively engaged in decision making about their plans and their support.

 What we have achieved so far:

• Lincolnshire Parent Carer Forum (LPCF) membership has increased massively as more and more parent/carers join their membership; over the last 12 months it has risen by 23%, further strengthening their insights, knowledge set and expertise    
• LPCF has continued to deliver a ‘week of SEND’ event each January, which has been further supplemented by a variety of workshops throughout the year.  These have continued to be aimed at parents and carers of children with disabilities and additional needs and professionals who work with them    
• LPCF continues to be a joint partner, coproducing local authority strategic decision making and developments for children and young people with SEND. For example, lincolnshire’s inclusion strategy, Lincolnshire’s SEND Ofsted improvement plan, and the review of Lincolnshire’s ladder of behavioural intervention to name but a very small few
• LPCF have developed a working group that benefits from the expertise of parent and carers, lived experience, SENCos, and school leader experience.  The mix of experiences across their volunteers means their discussions and findings are robust, evidence-based and constructively challenging.  The group is working with stakeholders to fully explore the reasoning behind why some parent and carers see an EHC plan as a ‘golden ticket’ and lack confidence in mainstream school
• the LPCF state of SEND Surveys were published in January and stakeholders across the local area, including the local authority, health, schools and charitable organisations all helped to publicise the survey.  The findings provide invaluable insights into our local area and informs decision making
• LPCF produce a quarterly parent voice report that they share with partners in the local authority.  LPCF highlights that this information and evidence is consistently responded to, demonstrating how LPCF feedback is valued           
• Lincolnshire young voices (LYV) researched and developed resources around transport and independent travel training, based on student interviews and research.  Their transport survey had over 600 completions, the group held meetings with LCC transport managers and bus operators, and the findings were shared at the highways and transport scrutiny committee. As a result, some coach operators have changed their policy regarding transport for people with a disability and are installing additional disabled space.  Resources have been developed and are available to download on the family services directory
• the bullying alliance states that around 37% of children and young people with SEND experience bullying.  LYV’s have worked with schools to seek insight, views and experiences.  As part of anti-bullying week, LYV delivered a series of workshops to Lincolnshire special school settings; 16 anti-bullying sessions in 7 settings to over 170 students.  Workshop feedback was positive with sessions both informative and interactive.  LYV produced a range of school-based resources that are available on the family services directory, and schools are encouraged to use them
• Liaise have continued to review how calls and emails into their service are handled, using data analysis to enable them to continue implementing meaningful improvements that maximise the support available to parents and carers.  They have developed and implemented a yearly quality assurance programme and reviewed how they process and support referrals into the service.  The findings identified areas for improvement and the actions and changes implemented as a result
• Liaise have continued to widen their offer and support, developing links and engagement with special schools and day care centres.  They have further developed and improved their accessibility for young people, including embedding stronger links with FE colleges and ensuring Liaise caseworkers have up to date robust knowledge of post 16 processes and provision.  LYV have reviewed the Liaise online contact form and provided feedback to support amendments.  These have been completed, and bespoke training delivered to the service to embed knowledge of post 16 law
• we have continued to analyse our data to inform developments regarding appeals lodged with the SEND tribunal.  SEND performance meetings take place monthly with data analysis supporting senior manager decision making.  SEND caseworkers are working closely with families to try and resolve disagreements at an earlier point to ensure that this adversarial route is avoided where possible for families 
• the gathering and evaluation of EHC plans and processes level of satisfaction feedback has continued to be strengthened.  Collaborative working with LPCF has enhanced practices, with evaluation of the LPCF surveys part of business as usual.  We have developed surveys that are live and linked to letters sent to families from the electronic EHC hub.  Themed development days take place from the feedback to develop the SEND workforce  
• the SEND team have set up a screening process for mediation requests to try and resolve disagreements at an early stage to prevent escalation. The team also aim to manage any complaints with more contact with families to discuss concerns and implement actions to resolve issues and try to prevent further dissatisfaction  
• we have worked with the regional mediation advice, mediation and disagreement resolution service and used both local and regional data to identify trends in SEND related disputes. This insight is being used within the review to guide our decision-making ahead of any extensions and to help us improve how we support children, young people, and families
• where a child or young person requires a bespoke package of support we have continued to develop and implement robust processes to ensure consistency and oversight of risk management for unregulated providers.  The educated other than at school (EOTAS) panel has been established.  It sits weekly and has oversight of all packages to ensure consistency and risk management. The SEND team also work closely with commissioning to monitor these providers and ensure checks are undertaken. All packages have management oversight and agreement
• all schools in Lincolnshire have signed up to work with the attendance team, to improve school attendance. Working in collaboration with multiple service areas, the attendance team provide support for all schools and facilitate cluster meetings across the districts. Cluster meetings bring together a range of professionals and services who are working in partnership to address barriers to attendance

What we need to do next:

• LPCF are a key partner in developing and embedding a robust quality assurance framework to ensure EHC plans consistently meet a high standard.  They will continue to provide crucial insight and constructive challenge from their experiences, knowledge and skills that will inform robust decision making and developments
• LPCF will publish the findings from their state of SEND surveys and present them to partners across the local area and key stakeholders.  These will be used to inform and coproduce service developments
• aspirational thinking among families of children with SEND is a recognised focus for LPCF and they will continue to encourage this.  They will also design and deliver an additional workshop within the juggling the joys of parenting’ series          
• LYV will work closely with SEND to explore how children and young people experience EHC plans, needs assessments, annual reviews, and the support they receive in education. LYV has developed a survey to gather views from children and young people, with support from school staff where needed
• The feedback will be used to:
  • identify how well children and young people feel involved in shaping their plans and support
  • highlight areas where LYV can develop resources to promote greater inclusion and participation
  • ensure future tools and approaches are accessible, meaningful, and reflect the voices of children and young people in Lincolnshire
• LYV will complete a project around accessibility of parks across Lincolnshire.  They will report their findings to each local council responsible for each park, to inform developments and actions to take forward
• LYV will work closely with the SEND team to explore how professionals communicate with children and young people.  Suggestions will be explored and rolled out to the SEND team to support and strengthen their interactions  
• Liaise will continue to develop and improve their accessibility for young people, working directly with young people and building on joint working taking place with LYV.   They will undertake a project with LYV to support young people to refer into the service, including redesigning the young people's area of the new Liaise website.  They will also develop a young people's zone on their website, working directly with young people with SEND on the content and style of it
• we will ensure the voice of children and young people informs all commissioning reviews and helps shape service decisions, developments and services improvement
• Liaise will develop links with family hubs, to promote the service, and to support both professionals and families to understand how we can further enhance our work with families in Lincolnshire.  They will trial Information sessions for parents, carers and expand these out across the family hubs
• we will continue to develop and embed a robust quality assurance framework to ensure EHC plans consistently meet a high standard.  This includes improving the quality of information that informs each plan so that it reflects the full breadth of child or young person’s current needs, accurately captures their voice, and supports effective provision planning.  We will focus on ensuring plans are informed by up-to-date reports and evidence, and preparation for adulthood and transition planning is clearly considered and delivered in a timely and meaningful way
• we will continue to monitor and support the use of attendance data, ensuring all educational settings actively work to prevent poor attendance through collaborative, multi-agency approaches. The focus will be on strengthening early identification of emerging trends and patterns, ensuring timely, school-based support is available
• we will review and improve collecting and reporting mediation and SEND appeal data to ensure meaningful analysis and trends can be identified. This will help better understand the experiences of families, and inform more inclusive and responsive decision-making across commissioning, service planning and workforce development
• we will continue to monitor and analyse complaints to identify gaps in service delivery and understand the lived experiences of children and young people with SEND, and their families.  This will inform inclusive, responsive and person-centred improvements to our services, and enable us to implement targeted developments to strengthen practice, reduce escalation, and build confidence in the SEND system