Improvements to the SEND information hub - June 2021 update

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
Ofsted and the CQC told us in 2019 that you did not know about our local offer (SEND information hub).	We have promoted our SEND information hub through a new: social media campaign for families, young people, health, education and social care email signature for our SEND teams and wider partnerships. We presented to young people and families the SEND information hub at: team meetings with Integrated Children's Services local children's partnership groups SENCO forums early years provider networks. We have been working alongside Kent Libraries. Their staff are trained to assist anyone without internet access, to find information about our SEND information hub. As well as their onsite staff, the Ask a Kent Librarian Service can also support families online

You said

We did

Ofsted and the CQC told us in 2019 that you did not know about our local offer (SEND information hub).

We have promoted our SEND information hub through a new:

social media campaign for families, young people, health, education and social care
email signature for our SEND teams and wider partnerships.

We presented to young people and families the SEND information hub at:

team meetings with Integrated Children's Services
local children's partnership groups
SENCO forums
early years provider networks.

We have been working alongside Kent Libraries. Their staff are trained to assist anyone without internet access, to find information about our SEND information hub. As well as their onsite staff, the Ask a Kent Librarian Service can also support families online

Your online feedback

There have been 3 times as many comments left by our website users this term than last term. If this trend continues, it could mean that more families are finding out about our website.

From the comments we received, a quarter of those left their contact details. We were able to get in touch and respond to their comments directly.

You said	We did
You told us that our website is improving: "it's easy to navigate" "very clear links and instructions" "content was very good" "I feel much more informed and prepared now after reading the information provided on the website"	We have been working on improving the look, tone and content of our SEND information hub (local offer. We can see that these improvements are starting to have an impact. We will continue to gather your views and act on them. Your feedback allows us to give high quality information, advice and guidance.
Where we received feedback that was rated as 'poor', we were informed of a technical issue.	Most of the errors were related to a specific part of the website. The issues were fixed within 24 hours of receiving the feedback.
You told us that there is not enough information about specific learning difficulties (SLD).	In Kent, 16% of of children and young people have a SLD as their primary need, with 13% having a SLD as their secondary need. We are currently developing a new SLD page. We are also asking parents for their views on SLD through a letter sent via their schools. For more information visit our inclusion page.
You said that the information about personal budgets and Direct Payments were incorrect. This also includes a missing personal budget policy.	We have now rewritten the personal budget and Direct Payments information.
We have received a number of comments asking why there isn't enough local information on activities and events for children and young people.	Our community directory is available on our SEND information hub. Here you will find over 4,000 entries ranging from: activities and events advice and support respite care and short breaks health and wellbeing specialist schools. Organisations have contacted us to include their details on our community directory. As a result the number of activities has increased.
A GP contacted us to update their information on our community directory.	We provided the information within 24 hours of the request.
Some families have told us that their experience of using the website is 'average'. This tended to be because they had found the information they were looking for, but it either: didn't meet their needs was of poor quality was not detailed enough.	We are working on improving the directory of services. All old and out of date records have been cleansed which means on our directory there are now: 1,456 - activities and events registered across Kent covering all local communities 387 - advice and support entries for a variety of organisations offering information, advice and support for a range of ages and needs 751 - health and wellbeing entries offering a range of wellbeing information, advice and 189 - respite care and short breaks registered on the Directory 29 - special schools and schools with specialist resource provision are captured within the Directory of Services Our community directory can be found on the SEND information hub page, as well as across other sections of our website.
You requested general information, advice and guidance.	We provided the information within 24 hours of the request.

Education health care (EHC) plan survey

We received a small number of comments stating that we did not provide enough support for their child.

You said	We did
From the surveys you said that: you did not find the information useful it was not easy to access the information you needed you had not any support yet	We are working with Kent PACT to make sure that we have the right information for you. We want to make sure that our SEND information hub is easy to use and all links are working correctly. Approximately 40% of the responses we have received are related to the support and delivery of SEND service or schools. These comments are passed to the relevant teams, to inform them what is working and what needs to change.

You said

We did

From the surveys you said that:

you did not find the information useful
it was not easy to access the information you needed
you had not any support yet

We are working with Kent PACT to make sure that we have the right information for you. We want to make sure that our SEND information hub is easy to use and all links are working correctly.

Approximately 40% of the responses we have received are related to the support and delivery of SEND service or schools. These comments are passed to the relevant teams, to inform them what is working and what needs to change.