Plymouth's Education Co-Production and Participation Framework

Improving SEND Services In Plymouth Panel

In June 2023, the City of Plymouth received a Local Area Inspection of services for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). The Inspection assessed the services provided by the Local Authority, Local Health Organisations and Education Settings. After the outcomes were released, it was noted that co-production and participation is critical to ensure service users are at the heart of all improvement plans whether at a strategic, service/establishment or individual level. This became a core aim for the Local Area SEND Improvement Plan to ensure children and young people and their parents and carers were supported to share their voices through genuine co-production and participation.

Plymouth Parent Carer Voice (PPCV), the Parent Carer Forum for Plymouth, have been a critical friend throughout the entire Local Area SEND inspection process and when Plymouth was offered training from the NHS England (NHSE) Southwest team, PPCV took the lead and began devising the best approach for how organisations within Plymouth should work with parents are carers.

PPCV, working with NHSE, adapted the training for Plymouth and led a co-production all-day training event. The event was well attended with representatives from many organisations alongside parents, carers and young people. Building on the work produced at this event and using the feedback from ongoing conversations the event initiated, PPCV has established this Co-production and Participation Framework.

Although the quality of the information provided to parents, carers, children and young people through resources such as the Local Offer and newsletters is important, the emphasis is very much on how practitioners support children, young people and families to use their voice to create services and provisions that meet their needs. From the outset co-production is to be the primary consideration in any participation activity.

The aim of this document is to act as a guide to anyone wishing to co-produce with their community. It looks at what co-production and other participation options are, and what it means to those who use the services in Plymouth. Children, young people, parents and carers told us that co-production and participation leads to better inclusion and a sense of belonging. Therefore, the benefits of co-production and participation, as well as potential barriers and how to overcome them, are also explored in this framework.

There is already considerable participation activity in Plymouth, however, there is acknowledgement that more could be co-produced. This framework captures where activity is already happening and provides ideas for future opportunities so organisations and practitioners can create their own plan for participation and co-production. Planning ahead helps everyone engage more effectively and efficiently. A template is provided in Appendix 1 to support your co-production planning. Initially, this Co-production and Participation Plan has been developed to guide the City to improve SEND services aligned with the Local Area SEND Improvement Plan priorities. This work will exemplify the approach outlined in this document. The future intention is that it will continue to evolve to include wider participation activity across the city as Plymouth continues to respond to the future needs of our children, young people and their families.

Our Plymouth Young Safeguarders have produced a booklet called 'The Why and How' which sets out why their '10 Wishes' (see Appendix 2) are important to all children and young people and how we can all strive to realise their wishes in practice. Particularly, they have told us that they want "professionals to ask them what they need and not to assume". This message is reflected in our approach to co-production and participation. Please review the booklet and see how you can start making a difference and act on the wishes of our children and young people...it's really important to them.

The children and young people have made a film to support the booklet so you can hear from them in their own voices. You can find the booklet here and watch their film by following this Vimeo link.

Through the co-production of the Local Area SEND Improvement Plan, parents and carers told us 'What good would look like' when we delivered everything required in the plan. This can be found here and in Appendix 3. They provide organisations, practitioners and service providers with the success criteria to support them with their monitoring and oversight of decision making and plans, at both strategic and individual levels.

Many young people, parents, carers and practitioners have given their time and expertise to support and co-produce Framework. We set out to model our approach to co-production whilst developing this document. This helped identify the fundamental principles to describe the approach needed in Plymouth. These have been clearly set out in our 'Co-production and Participation Charter'. This Charter will be a reference point for all organisations within Plymouth to reflect upon, when they embark on working with children, young people, parents and carers.

As you use this Framework and Charter, we hope that you will feedback to us how the process went and the outcomes that you achieved. When the time comes for re-inspection, we hope that you will be able to respond to the call for evidence and case studies with your work.

On behalf of PPCV, we would like to say a big thank you to everyone who has engaged, participated and helped to co-produce this document. A lot of people hours have gone into making this a useable framework for Co-production and Participation in Plymouth.

Whilst PPCV have led the development of this Framework and the Charter, it is wholeheartedly supported by Plymouth City Council, health organisations within One Devon and Schools within the city and the third sector.

Download and read Plymouth's Education Co-Production and Participation Framework (PDF, 808 KB)

Claire Paddon Tara Vassallo
Chair of Plymouth Parent Carer Voice Co-Chair of Plymouth Parent Carer Forum

Plymouth's Local Offer is organised into four main categories covering the following age ranges:

Plymouth Local Offer homepage

Is the information correct?

Let us know if the information on this page is wrong and needs to be updated.

What Is The Local Offer Promotional Quote