Improvements to the SEND information hub - January to March 2022

We take your feedback seriously and always look at ways we can improve our SEND information hub. We're pleased to show you all the improvements and changes we're making based on your feedback and conversations we've had with you.

Find out how you can get involved in improving the SEND information hub.

Your feedback is shaping how we are improving our online support. We will let you know every 3 months what we have done to improve:

the SEND information hub
the community directory
communications between you and us.

Ofsted inspection feedback

You said	We did
Parents do not know how or where to receive independent advice and guidance, and that you did not know of the local offer (SEND information hub).	Together with Kent PACT and Information Advice Service Kent we run the SEND information roadshows. Our roadshows enable us to come and visit parents at schools to inform them about the SEND information hub. So far they've told us the roadshows are: "definitely worth attending" "an amazing service" "really helpful" "of an excellent standard" "they're essential for finding out information". We have also created a poster which can be shared across schools and health professional sites to let parents know about us more. Download and print our poster (PDF, 110.1 KB). In the next few months we will be taking these out to almost 80 schools who have told us that they would like us to come and share this with their families. Read your school newsletters or information boards and let us know what you think by emailing yourvoice2@kent.gov.uk.

You said

We did

Parents do not know how or where to receive independent advice and guidance, and that you did not know of the local offer (SEND information hub).

Together with Kent PACT and Information Advice Service Kent we run the SEND information roadshows.

Our roadshows enable us to come and visit parents at schools to inform them about the SEND information hub. So far they've told us the roadshows are:

"definitely worth attending"
"an amazing service"
"really helpful"
"of an excellent standard"
"they're essential for finding out information".

We have also created a poster which can be shared across schools and health professional sites to let parents know about us more.

Download and print our poster (PDF, 110.1 KB).

In the next few months we will be taking these out to almost 80 schools who have told us that they would like us to come and share this with their families.

Read your school newsletters or information boards and let us know what you think by emailing yourvoice2@kent.gov.uk.

Working collaboratively

As well as working collaboratively with our partners in the NHS and IASK to improve our SEND information hub, we have also been working with Kent PACT.

Together with Kent PACT, SEND improvements are now embedded in a whole range of projects and plans. In recognition of this we, alongside Kent PACT, were awarded The Healthwatch Recognition Award for listening to people’s views about the service. Healthwatch recognised that “Kent PACT have been working hard to give parents and carers a voice about changes to school transport for children with special educational needs and disabilities”.

Find out more about how we work with our partners.

Your online feedback

We continue to gather your feedback about our website to keep improving the look, tone and content of the information and we can tell you what we are doing with this information.

This feedback is confidential and you don’t have to leave your contact details. However, we would encourage you to. We will not share this with anyone else but if we are able to contact you, we can get in touch with you directly to let you know what we have done with your comments and views or to ask for more information.

For a quarter of all feedback received we have not had enough information to act on the comments, so let us know as much as you can to help us improve further. From the comments we received, a quarter of those told us that the website was good, so thank you.

"The website is full of information and support. I've only looked at a few pages, but I can tell I'll be coming back to read more!"

Parent in Kent

A quarter told us about frustrations or issues with service delivery and the remainder were to report technical difficulties.

17% of feedback received concerned the content of information, that it either wasn’t good enough, accurate or there was information missing.

You said	We did
Most of our of feedback concerned technical difficulties, such as links or broken links.	Issues regarding the website functionality are answered and actions immediately. The quickest response recorded was within 7 minutes. Any requests that come in over the weekend are actioned first thing on Monday morning where we know comments were not responded to after 24 hours.
You had frustrations or issues with the service delivery.	These have now been reported to the responsible service such as transport and Area SEN Teams.
17% of feedback received were concerned about the content of information. The content was either not good enough for your personal circumstances, accurate or there was information missing.	We are working with our partners to improve this information. For example, we were told that the information on the school admissions page wasn’t helpful for children moving between schools with an EHC plan, so we are working with the admissions team to get this better. You felt that the tone on the autism pages needed to be more inclusive so we are working with Kent PACT to improve this.

You said

We did

Most of our of feedback concerned technical difficulties, such as links or broken links.

Issues regarding the website functionality are answered and actions immediately. The quickest response recorded was within 7 minutes.

Any requests that come in over the weekend are actioned first thing on Monday morning where we know comments were not responded to after 24 hours.

You had frustrations or issues with the service delivery.

These have now been reported to the responsible service such as transport and Area SEN Teams.

17% of feedback received were concerned about the content of information. The content was either not good enough for your personal circumstances, accurate or there was information missing.

We are working with our partners to improve this information.

For example, we were told that the information on the school admissions page wasn’t helpful for children moving between schools with an EHC plan, so we are working with the admissions team to get this better.

You felt that the tone on the autism pages needed to be more inclusive so we are working with Kent PACT to improve this.

Feedback from parent focused groups

Over the past few months we have run a number of virtual parent focus groups, where you were able to let us know in a group or invidually what you thought about the SEND information hub.

You said	We did
You have requested that the SEND newsletter can be added to all school websites in Kent.	We are working with schools to request them to add links to their websites to the SEND information hub and to our newsletter.
You wanted to have more control over your own EHC needs assessment and you wanted to be kept in the loop with communications about your child.	We have passed on this information to the relevant SEN teams and colleagues. We are running our SEND information roadshows to talk to parents at schools about the support available without having to apply for an EHC plan, which may be more suitable for their children.
You have said you think the SEND information hub needs more visuals to make it more user friendly and appealing.	More images have been added to the website to hopefully make it more visually appealing. The images age appropriate according to the different age sections and topic of content.
Health providers did not tell us about support available whilst waiting for diagnosis.	We have sent out a promotional resource to all GPs, which can be shared with parents whose children are on the diagnosis waiting lists. This means they can find support on the SEND information hub, through IASK and Kent PACT.

Feedback from interviews with deaf young people – National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS)

At the start of the year we joined in on some one to one interviews run by NDCS with deaf young people.

You said	We did
The SEND information hub was well sectioned out and clear. You would look at the website again to look into more information about sixth forms and university.	We are constantly updating the young people section (16-25) to make sure the information is up to date and clear. There is information about lots of different options for what young people want to do next in their lives
You would like to see more videos using British Sign Language (BSL).	We are planning to meet with NDCS and the BSL Community and look into the possibility of having BSL videos but there is a lot to consider with adding them to our website.
You told us you did not know what the SEND information hub or local offer was.	We plan to build extra capacity into the youth hubs across Kent so there can be more time spent with young people with SEND. We are running our SEND information roadshows where we will be attending events in schools and colleges. This will help us spread the message about the information and guidance available on the SEND information hub (local offer).

You said

We did

The SEND information hub was well sectioned out and clear.

You would look at the website again to look into more information about sixth forms and university.

We are constantly updating the young people section (16-25) to make sure the information is up to date and clear.

There is information about lots of different options for what young people want to do next in their lives

You would like to see more videos using British Sign Language (BSL).

We are planning to meet with NDCS and the BSL Community and look into the possibility of having BSL videos but there is a lot to consider with adding them to our website.

You told us you did not know what the SEND information hub or local offer was.

We plan to build extra capacity into the youth hubs across Kent so there can be more time spent with young people with SEND.

We are running our SEND information roadshows where we will be attending events in schools and colleges. This will help us spread the message about the information and guidance available on the SEND information hub (local offer).

Feedback from SEND information roadshows

Since the start of the year, we have been taking our roadshows to events held at schools and colleges for parents.

You said	We did
Many parents and carers are still not aware of the amount of information and guidance available on the SEND information hub.	We will continue to attend the rapidly growing in popularity SEND information roadshow events. We have sent a promotional resource to SENCOs and GPs to share with families about our website. We will look to reach out to parent groups to talk to them about the support available from the website, IASK and Kent PACT
Parents do not seem to be aware of the different support options available to them and think EHC plans are the only answer.	We will continue giving our presentations and handing our promotional merchandise at the events we attend to raise awareness about the different support options available at mainstream education settings.
Some parents struggle to use the local offer directory on their mobile phones.	We are happy to show any parents how to use the directory and have given out our email address for any queries or engagement requests yourvoice2@kent.gov.uk.

You said

We did

Many parents and carers are still not aware of the amount of information and guidance available on the SEND information hub.

We will continue to attend the rapidly growing in popularity SEND information roadshow events.

We have sent a promotional resource to SENCOs and GPs to share with families about our website. We will look to reach out to parent groups to talk to them about the support available from the website, IASK and Kent PACT

Parents do not seem to be aware of the different support options available to them and think EHC plans are the only answer.

We will continue giving our presentations and handing our promotional merchandise at the events we attend to raise awareness about the different support options available at mainstream education settings.

Some parents struggle to use the local offer directory on their mobile phones.

We are happy to show any parents how to use the directory and have given out our email address for any queries or engagement requests yourvoice2@kent.gov.uk.