SEN reforms threatened by lack of key worker support

Draft legislation to reform support for children with special educational needs (SEN) and disabilities was published at the start of this month. The government’s proposals – as set out in the Support and Aspiration green paper – seek to create a more joined-up system, built around the needs of children and families.

At the heart of the changes is the suggestion that key workers play a role in co-ordinating services for families, from the new birth to 25 education, health and care single plans, to advice for families using personal budgets. But the ability of local authorities to provide these key working services – which act as the vital intermediary for support from multiple agencies – is facing scrutiny.

Widespread misunderstanding
Freedom of information requests sent to every local authority in the country by the campaign group Every Disabled Child Matters (EDCM), and answered by 124, have uncovered widespread misunderstanding of key working and a complete lack of any provision in a third of councils.

The responses also reveal that the age range of the children able to access key working is currently limited in many areas. Key workers are restricted to families with children from birth to age five in 33 per cent of councils, while only 19 per cent offer key working to young people up until the age of 17 or older.

Information on services was also found to be patchy. Of the councils that provide key working, only 40 per cent said their eligibility criteria for support is widely available to families.

Peter Hardy, campaign officer at EDCM, says this lack of information will be something that councils have to address, if government plans to require councils to publish “local offers” for disabled children and young people are made law.

“SEN and disability provision is undergoing huge reform and key working has quite a prominent place in the proposals, but most families still say that they are unable to access key working and there is very little information around about it,” he explains.

“There is a long distance to travel for local authorities to fulfil the government’s aspirations, because many are not even meeting the minimum standard you would expect of providing services or basic information.”

Hardy argues that too much of key working support is focused on children in the early years, and that it must be extended to older children and young people as well.

“There’s not enough access to key working at really important points such as transitions to adulthood,” he says.

“Evidence shows that key working is one of the best approaches that can be used to overcome problems with multi-agency working. Often children with complex needs can be accessing between 20 and 30 services. The stress and burden of having to arrange all of them is extraordinary.”

Julie Jennings, chair of the Special Educational Consortium, says that families of children with SEN and disabilities have been calling for key working services for years.

“Practices have developed, for example with the team around the child model, but it really needs embedding within a dedicated government approach,” she says. “I think the reason that it hasn’t been supported by all local authorities is because they feel it is going to be costly and time-consuming for professionals. What we really need is an evaluation of the efficiency savings that key working can yield.”

Jennings doubts whether the new single assessments and plans can succeed without some form of key working.
“It’s all very well having paperwork in place such as the single plan,” she says. “But the process that supports that has to involve many professionals at different levels.”

Jennings argues that the opportunities to train the children’s workforce in key working do exist, and must be exploited. “I had a meeting with one of the officials who is leading on the transformation of the health visiting workforce,” she explains. “She is fully committed to the idea of key working and really wanted to support us in enabling health visitors to carry out that role where appropriate.”

Vital emotional support
Sue Cawkwell is regional director of the disabled children’s charity, Kids. The organisation has been providing key working services to families in Hull and Wakefield for more than a decade.

“Parents tell us that key working is the best thing that has ever happened to them, because key workers get them through to the right people and get things done more quickly and easily,” she says. “They say it has given them the confidence to do things for themselves, as well as giving them vital emotional support.”

Cawkwell, who is also a parent of two disabled children, argues that the importance of assistance to navigate the children’s services system cannot be underestimated.

“Without a key worker it can be an unfair system because the parents who have a greater knowledge and understanding of what’s available get the services,” she says. “A key worker helps to bring equity to that and make sure that everything gets put in place for a family. Unfortunately, access to key workers remains a really mixed picture across the country.”