Getting to know the new SEN2 survey requirements at a ‘person-level’

The new survey replaces the similarly named, but very different, “Special Educational Needs Survey”. 

The retired survey was a form that was completed on the DfE’s website. The form asked for counts for various characteristics of children in the process of applying for, or in receipt of, an Education, Health, and Care Plan (EHC Plan). 

For the past several years, Liquidlogic has provided a report that performed the calculations required to complete the survey form.  

The DfE provided guidance that was clarified and tweaked each year, and we used that guidance, combined with our knowledge of how information is recorded in the Liquidlogic case management system, to produce the relevant numbers that could then be typed into the government department’s form. 

The new person-level survey doesn’t require any of the maths expected from the original return. Instead, the survey asks for detailed information for every child who either had an EHC Plan or was in the process of applying for an EHC Plan during the previous reporting year.  

Enough information is provided to the DfE for it to work out the statistics independently. The burden on local authorities is therefore to provide the person-level data, rather than the counts that they were providing before. 

Person-level returns provide greater consistency 

From Liquidlogic’s point of view, it is much better for us to provide the required data for analysis, rather than the final counts.  

No matter how much guidance the DfE provides, there will always be scenarios that don’t quite fit the guidance and are open to interpretation. We receive quite a few support requests each year asking us to further examine our calculations and often two different authorities will disagree.  

Providing the data directly to the department bypasses any misunderstandings and means that they can apply their own definitions to their own calculations.  

We have been supportive of the survey changing to person level since the DfE first consulted on the idea several years ago and are still confident that this is the best solution for local authorities, the DfE, and us. 

Moving towards providing person-level information 

Liquidlogic is helping local authorities to understand the requirements from the DfE for the new survey. We have a long history of working with the department to produce the reports they need and over thirty customers have our EHC Plan solution. The steps we have taken have mitigated some of the anguish that a new government return can introduce to already stretched authorities.  

Person-level challenges 

Providing data at a person level, however, introduces its own challenges.  

The definitions provided by the DfE are exact. They have helpfully provided guidance regarding each field, and technical documentation to explain how the data should be put together.  

Our systems, on the other hand, have forms and workflows which are fully configurable.  

The information recorded in different Liquidlogic systems needs to be translated to fit into the same rigid structure to be sent to the DfE.   

Thankfully, we have previous experience of doing this from within our similarly customisable social care systems.  

The Children Looked After return and Children in Need census for social care have similarly rigid structures and we have been supporting local authorities in creating these returns for decades. The DfE has been helpful and available to answer any questions we have had. 

New information 

Surprisingly, the new survey requires additional data items that weren’t needed in calculations for the previous aggregated survey. Some of these items are straightforward, for example the local authority a child has moved into, if they moved during assessment. Other new items are more complex.  

A new part of the survey requires the unique reference number of any schools attended or named in the child’s plan. These fields have provided their own challenges as local authorities may not be recording this information in a reportable format.  

The person completing the plan may not know a school’s unique reference number or even how to search for it, and before the new survey required this information, they may have simply typed the name of the school into the correct box on the plan.  

These new fields have required a technology solution. Sometimes this has just been to ensure that all local authorities have the right question in the right form, but for others we’ve needed to create new elements of the system to accommodate them.  

For example, for the schools named in the plan we have introduced the ability to search for schools within the system, storing their unique reference number in the background tables to be used in the survey.   

One of our fundamental strengths is our partnership working with customers and to support this, we have held several seminars to demonstrate new functionality and crucially, ensure that they are happy with the direction that we have taken. 

Mitigations 

From our customer conversations, it was clear that some local authorities faced a daunting task to record some of the new fields. We agreed to take these concerns on behalf of the authorities to the DfE.   

From their own conversations, the department showed a real understanding of the challenges that local authorities faced and published some concessions to their initial requirements.  

We went on to include these mitigations within our system design and users are able to choose whether they go with the mitigations or original requirements. 

Reporting and validation 

The final piece of the jigsaw is the report itself. The new survey allows for all the person-level information to be uploaded in a particular format to the DfE’s secure portal. The report can be generated from within the Liquidlogic system and the file is uploaded to the portal.   

The DfE has also published the rules that it uses to validate the survey once it is uploaded.  

We therefore include a validation report within the system which will validate the survey in the same way without it needing to be uploaded first to check for errors, thus removing another layer of the administration process. 

Joined-up EHC Plans and education management  

Many local authorities are using the Liquidlogic EHC Plan functionality alongside our Early Years & Education System (EYES).  

These authorities require a joined-up approach for the new survey. Where early years settings, school enrolments, post 16 placements and SEN needs are recorded in EYES, the information is included in the new SEN2 survey.   

EYES is also able to automatically collect pupil-level information from the source (settings and schools), validating, cleansing and integrating this information throughout our systems. 

An opportunity to inform and shape much-needed future reform 

The introduction of the new person-level reporting requirements is a significant change in working, but in this case it is a change for the better and something which we are supportive of. 

The collaborative way in which we work with both customers and the DfE along with our flexible system means that we are well placed to support the changes which will come with the new Special Educational Needs Person Level Survey.   

Person-level reporting offers greater consistency which in turn, produces higher quality returns.

At this point, it’s important to remember the bigger picture in all of this. The returns are used by central government to monitor policies and their effectiveness and superior data will play a more sophisticated role in informing and shaping future reform.