DEVON County Council (DCC) have introduced a new way of working in its SEND Operations team.

The aim is to improve the timeliness of finalising Education, Health and Care plans (EHCP) and to reduce the number of plans that are outside of the statutory timescale.

Since the end of June, DCC focused part of the team on improving timeliness, and the other part of the team on addressing out of timescale EHCPs.

And the task approach is showing some early signs of success, the council says.

The council’s Assessment teams finalised 161 plans in the first month, compared to 100 plans the previous month.

Decisions to Assess are also being made earlier, and the Decision to Assess panel is trialling new ways of working that will strengthen decision making, the Mid-Devon Advertiser understands.

Feedback from the multi-agency partners on the panel is positive, the council says.

‘We know that we’ve a long way to go until most parents feel the changes and improvements, but we see these changes as a good thing that are starting to show positive improvements’, a spokesperson for DCC said.