Suffolk SEND Local Area Partnership Quality Framework

It has been developed collaboratively by partners from education, health, social care, parent carer representatives, and children and young people, reflecting our collective ambition to improve experiences and outcomes for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).

The framework and associated Quality Assurance & Improvement (QAI) Tool provide a consistent approach to understanding, evaluating and improving quality across the Suffolk SEND system. The framework supports a culture of reflection, collaboration and continuous improvement, helping services and settings to identify strengths, celebrate effective practice and target areas for development.

Why We Developed the Framework

The Suffolk SEND Local Area Partnership is committed to ensuring that children and young people with SEND, and their families, receive high-quality, inclusive and effective support regardless of where they live, learn or access services.

The framework has been designed to:

• Create a shared definition of quality across the Suffolk SEND partnership
• Support self-evaluation, quality assurance and service improvement activities
• Promote consistency in practice and decision-making
• Identify and share strengths and effective approaches across the local area
• Support partnership working and collective accountability for improving outcomes
• Ensure that the voices of children, young people and families remain central to quality improvement

Using the Framework

The Quality Framework can be used by individual services, teams, settings and partnership groups to support quality assurance and improvement discussions.

Alongside the framework, the Quality Assurance & Improvement Tool provides a structured approach to evaluating practice against the agreed quality standards. It can be used to:

• Support self-assessment and peer review activity
• Inform service and setting improvement planning
• Identify areas of effective practice and learning
• Monitor progress over time
• Strengthen partnership understanding of quality across the system

The framework is intended to support improvement rather than compliance. Its purpose is to encourage meaningful reflection, constructive challenge and shared learning across the Suffolk SEND partnership.

Our Shared Commitment

This framework reflects the collective expertise, experience and commitment of partners across Suffolk. It represents a shared ambition to continually improve the experiences and outcomes of children and young people with SEND through collaborative working, evidence-informed practice and a focus on what matters most to children, young people and their families.

We are proud of the partnership approach that has shaped this work and look forward to seeing the framework support quality improvement across Suffolk in the years ahead.

Documents

• Suffolk SEND Local Area Partnership Quality Framework
• Suffolk SEND Quality Assurance & Improvement Tool

For further information and/or guidance about the framework or to share your findings, please contact the SEND Quality Assurance Team: SEND.DataQA@suffolk.gov.uk .

Together, we are committed to driving continuous improvement and ensuring that children and young people with SEND in Suffolk are supported to achieve positive outcomes, fulfil their potential and have their voices heard.