Developing an Alternative Provision and Belonging Strategy
North Northamptonshire had been experiencing a significant increase in the number of children and young people with Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) and, in relation to Alternative Provision, had seen an increase in the number of pupils being excluded from school. Alongside this, when exclusions happened, pupils were experiencing delays in allocation to provision with insufficient placement options to meet needs and too few pupils returning to school.
The Council commissioned 31ten to develop the approach and vision for a radical alternative model for meeting the needs of children and young people across North Northamptonshire focused on developing an inclusive, integrated system within mainstream settings.
This work culminated in the development of a new Alternative Provision and Belonging Strategy for North Northamptonshire Council (NNC).
The Role
Our work was primarily focused on large scale stakeholder engagement. We delivered a series of summits to engage with NNC staff, schools, colleges, service users (or their carers), NHS and FE providers to co-develop and agree a joint vision, and to identify specific opportunities for innovation that can be taken forward to shift the status quo and fundamentally recalibrate their local SEND provision.
Alongside the summits, we carried out specific engagement with a range of stakeholders to gain views regarding the future of Alternative Provision in NNC including Head Teachers / CEOs, SENDCOs, parent /carers and providers. This included:
- Online surveys for Head Teachers / CEOs, AP providers and parent / carers
- Head Teachers / CEO forums were attended to gain views and promote the surveys alongside online engagement sessions with school representatives and providers
- Working group with NNC staff was in place to drive forward the development of the Strategy
- Alongside engagement activity, we also reviewed existing strategies from elsewhere and analysed local data to inform the process
Key Outcomes
Our work resulted in the successful engagement of approximately 400 stakeholders, and these views were used to inform the development of a fully designed and agreed strategy for North Northamptonshire that captured the aspirations of the Council for their children and young people who needed additional support.
