Improving Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) services for children, young people and families across Derbyshire
News update – December 2025
New values will help to drive service improvement
Derbyshire Parent Carer Voice (DPCV) has been leading the creation of a shared set of values across service providers in Derbyshire for families and carers whose children have special educational needs or disabilities (SEND).
Five workshops have been held, for Parent Carers and professionals working together. More than 60 people took part in events held in Chesterfield, Belper and Tideswell during November and December, with two events also hosted online.
DPCV asked their members to share their experiences of education, health and social care related to SEND.
Using these stories as case studies, they posed several questions:
- What shared values can improve this experience?
- How should it feel?
- What could we expect from each other?
- What's important here?
Together, parent carers and professionals chose key words or phrases that mattered to them when considering these family stories.
Here are a few of the most common ones:
- empowerment
- respect
- personalisation
- openness
- empathy
- care
- compassion
- consistency
- listening
The aim for the shared values is to adopt and integrate them across the partnership. These will shape our interactions, expectations and responsibilities, and be really clear to everyone.
Claire Walsh, chair of DPCV, said: "The values need to reach everywhere, so that's what we'll do!"
"They will not just be words on a piece of paper, but we are working to bring them to life in every aspect of our 'SEND journeys'."
"As volunteers, we are clocking up the hours, collaborating with service partners, challenging, always questioning, as we are ambitious for all our kids!"
"The values won't mean anything until you feel them."
"I should feel like a partner in this, and whenever possible, my child too."
"To be seen as an individual family is vital, as our worlds can fluctuate day by day."
"When I meet professionals who want to build relationships and work together to make informed decisions, that’s huge."
"These values are intended to guide service providers and parent carers, as well as children and young people, in building strong relationships, improving communication, and aligning expectations."
Claire added: "It doesn't cost anything to behave in a way that follows these values, but families' experience of services would improve so much if they were applied consistently."
The quality of communications between families and services providers was heavily criticised by the joint Ofsted and CQC report into Derbyshire's SEND partnership.
The partnership's communications strategy aims to tackle this by committing service providers to provide better "customer service" and to ensure the "voice" of families is heard in decision-making.
Deborah Glassbrook, independent chair of SEND Improvement and Assurance Board, took part in the workshops herself.
She said: "This is such a fundamentally important piece of co-production between families and professionals."
"We know the way that services are delivered - the values and behaviours of the people who interact with families – makes such a difference to the way the family feels."
"We know what it feels like when it's done badly, and also how supported people feel when it is done well."
"These new values will provide a set of aspirational and achievable standards for all service providers."
"They will also allow us all to challenge ourselves to meet those values at all times."
Derbyshire Parent Carer Voice are working with the children and young people participation team at Derbyshire County Council.
They will explore how the proposed values will thread throughout the whole SEND system in Derbyshire, before they are formally adopted by Partnership members.
Council to strengthen SEND teams
Staffing in key SEND teams at Derbyshire County Council will be strengthened with a £1.3m investment aimed at reducing backlogs and improving the experience of families.
The council’s Cabinet approved the use of reserves at a meeting earlier this month to support the SEND improvement plan and to temporarily expand staffing capacity.
The investment will help to increase the rate of Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) being produced, speed up reviews and strengthen communication with families.
The money will be used to employ:
- 4 SEND officers to focus on EHC, ensuring the timely issuing of EHC assessments and plans
- 2 SEND officers to focus on the processing and completion of annual reviews of EHC Plans
- 6 tribunal officers to focus on ensuring that appeals to the First Tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) are progressed and resolved as early as possible to improve the experiences of families
- 6 staff members to focus on enhancing work with vulnerable learners
- 2 business support staff members to focus on responding to enquiries and complaints to ensure families receive timely communication from the council.
It is hoped the additional staff will ensure the council’s compliance ahead of the anticipated Ofsted reinspection in summer 2026 by securing sustainable improvement for Derbyshire’s SEND provision.
Families and teams help build new strategy
Derbyshire's SEND partnership has been gathering and analysing information about the needs of children and young people with SEND in our area.
This information – alongside the input of parents, carers and professionals gathered over the autumn – will be used to create a new inclusion strategy.
This will set out how Derbyshire County Council and its partners plan to support children and young people who have SEND.
It will guide partners, using all the evidence, over where and how to invest in SEND services.
Over the autumn, partners have also held a number of workshops with key people, supported by an organisation called the Council for Disabled Children.
They have been listening to children and young people, and their parents and carers as part of this work through a series of workshops over the autumn.
Information gathered over the autumn includes:
- perspectives from parents, carers, children and young people
- needs of children and young people with SEND in the early years
- segmentation of need by gender, ethnicity, deprivation and the amount of support provided in an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP).
This data will help add to a document that already exists, called the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA).
The JSNA is a way for partners to understand the needs of children and young people with SEND.
The information in the JSNA - alongside the views of parents, carers, children and young people - will also be used to develop the inclusion strategy.
Young people share their views
Groups of young people are giving their view on the services that support them and helping to shape improvements.
A Derbyshire-wide group – the Derbyshire Youth Inclusion Forum – is meeting monthly to give their views. To support this forum, a number of already established SEND young people’s groups have joined as satellite consultation groups across the County. Schools, special schools and colleges are linked into the forum through the Derbyshire Youth Network through their youth council.
The groups have been looking at issues including:
- transport
- transition
- improving communication
Members of the Derbyshire Youth Inclusion Forum are part of the wider East Midlands Youth Inclusion Forum hosted by Derby University and are fully involved and engaged in this regional work and in February will be participating in a National conference in Birmingham.
Young people have attended the SEND Improvement and Assurance board and this is a direct connection to senior leaders and managers to ensure that the voices of young people can be heard and considered in decision making and planning.
Have your say on home to school transport and adult education proposals
Derbyshire County Council has launched consultations into future options for two services we deliver which might affect parents and carers of children and young people (aged up to 25) with special educational needs and disabilities.
Please give your views on proposals to change travel policies for eligible school children aged 5 to 16, Post-16 learners, and students with special educational needs and disabilities.
It follows updated legal guidance from the government providing greater clarity on the role councils play in helping to transport children to school, giving an opportunity to consider updating current policies to make them more inclusive and promote independence.
To find out more about the proposals and to fill in the questionnaire online, please visit:
Derbyshire County Council - Home to School Travel Survey
If you need help filling in the online questionnaire or would like to request a paper copy please email admissions.transport@derbyshire.gov.uk or telephone 01629 537479.
Derbyshire County Council is also asking for views about the Adult Community Education Service.
The options being considered aim to ensure the service is fit for the future and has the greatest impact on the lives of people who need the most support.
Changes to the way the service is funded provides an opportunity to look at how it could be more flexible and responsive, supporting even more people to gain qualifications to help them achieve.
To find out more information about the proposals and fill in the questionnaire, please visit:
Derbyshire County Council - The Future of Adult Learning in Derbyshire
If you need help filling in the online questionnaire or would like to request a paper copy please email future.daces@derbyshire.gov.uk or telephone 01629 531241.
The council is finalising dates for the series of face-to-face and online engagement events for both consultations in the new year and will share those when they have been arranged.
Both consultations will run until midnight on Sunday 22 February 2026.