Making Participation Work
Sutton: Engaging Young People in the Local Offer
July 2021
1. KIDS Foreword
KIDS have been jointly commissioned with Council for Disabled Children (CDC), Contact and the National Network of Parent Carer Forums (NNPCF) to deliver a national programme called Making Participation Work (MPW). This programme is funded by the Department for Education (DfE) and focuses on enabling the effective participation of children and young people (CYP) with a special educational need and/or disability (SEND).In June 2021, a representative from Sutton local authority contacted KIDS after attending a CDC shared support session where the MPW offer was explained. It was identified that KIDS could support Sutton to gather feedback from young people around their local offer. ( As per the Children and Families Act 2014 (section 30) the local authority must keep its Local Offer under review and make provision for the consultation of children and young people with SEND and their parents and carers). To support in the development and delivery of the project KIDS engage with young people from across England and have an evolving collective of CYP who support this work. (The Collective is an assembly of forums and participation groups supporting children and young people with SEND to have a voice across England and from outside of KIDS services, funded by Department for Education). Groups are given opportunities to participate in activities that aim to upskill CYP, enhance their knowledge and understanding of the wider issues affecting CYP with SEND and empower them to exercise their right to be heard.
This report will document the process and delivery of the session attended by young people at Orchard College in July 2021 and offers constructive conclusions and recommendations to further develop Sutton’s local offer.
2. Executive Summary
This support offer was delivered through the Department for Education funded Making Participation Work project which KIDS delivers alongside consortium partners CDC, the NNPCF and Contact. Representatives from KIDS Aisia Howard (participation manager)and Heather Harper (participation coordinator) - takepart@kids.org.uk) worked with local offer coordinator (Samantha Clark - localoffer@sutton.gov.uk) for Sutton local authority to develop and deliver a support package that met the acknowledged needs of the area (as identified below in the support overview).
Sutton support overview;
- Guidance and support around working with CYP and legislation to support participation.
- A young people’s session to gather feedback on Sutton’s local offer Information about the session content is in the following section of this report.
Recommendations
Throughout this report we have made several recommendations based on;
- Feedback and information gathered from young people during the session.
- Our extensive experience of delivering participation including over 5 years working on participation with local authorities through this DfE funded programme
- Input from CYP from across the MPW Collective
Recommendation 1: Local offer officer to continue to build the relationship with the college and YP moving forward from this work.
Recommendation 2: Take action and make the changes to the local offer based on the feedback from young people
Recommendation 3: News and events to publish and promote should be engaging for YP.
Recommendation 4: Ensure opportunities that young people can be involved in are shared; enabling voices of a wider cohort to be heard.
KIDS would like to maintain contact with the Local area, sharing appropriate resources and support from across the MPW network and be kept informed of progress against the above recommendations.
3. Support Offer
Development
The team at KIDS were contacted by Samantha Clark; Sutton’s Local Offer Coordinator, after attending a CDC shared support session where the MPW offer was explained. She described the ongoing issue with the collection of YP views on Sutton’s local offer. It was agreed that KIDS could provide bespoke support, through the MPW programme; engaging a group of local YP in appropriate activity. An outline agenda for the engagement opportunity (appendix 1) was developed based on KIDS’ previous experiences of involving CYP in the local offer and Sutton’s identified priorities. This, along with KIDS training agreement was authorised and agreed by Samantha.
KIDS identified opportunities for Samantha to build relationships with ‘gate keepers’ improving her future development work with CYP. Following on from this she contacted a local college (Orchard College, Mavis Pert building, Carshalton College Campus, Nightingale Road, SM5 2EJ), a date was set for the workshop and together coproduction on content continued (Thursday 8th July 2021 0930-1430).
Throughout the development of this support package, KIDS have offered guidance around the legislation that supports participation as well as other opportunities for development across the area; with specific references to the SEND Code of Practice; 0-25 section 4 on the Local Offer. With the support of the college to initiate this work directly with young people who attend their setting, opportunities to develop this further should be maximised.
Recommendation 1: Local Offer officer to continue to build the relationship with the college and YP moving forward from this work.
Developing and maintaining this relationship could prove to be fruitful in on going work on the local offer. This should include feedback to young people with updates of developments and improvements to the local offer from their input. Sending information in accessible formats will also facilitate a more responsive relationship.
KIDS sent the college a CYP friendly agenda (appendix 2) and also a workbook in advance of the day to improve engagement during the workshop and support the working relationship with YP/college. The workbooks were coproduced with CYP from KIDS Collective (workbook available on request) and designed to support CYP’s understanding, allow time to process thoughts and have proved to be very successful since KIDS adopted this approach.