Consultancy for the redesign of the EHCP service in Children Services SEND

The consultant shall undertake the implementation of the signed-off EHCP proposal and recommendations for a redesign of the service and the pathway development in line with requirements set out below.\r \r Governance\r • Adhere to the governance arrangements of the programme to ensure sign off at each stage of the service redesign. \r • Attend the Spend Redesign project boards every 6-8 weeks, and present to the programme board and leadership teams as required. \r • Provide status reports and briefings to inform the project/programme highlight reports. \r \r Stakeholder management \r • Engage with the SROs of the JAN & High Needs Transformation Programme, the programme team and workstream leads to develop an understanding of the local context of work and in particular the JHNTP objectives.\r • Engage and drive change by gaining buy-in and ownership of the EHCP team through a collaborative and coproduction approach.\r • Engage users of the service to ensure the pathway development of the service redesign is coproduced. \r • Communicate with the wider Children Services directorate throughout the contract period the developments in the service changes and utilising the existing web channels, webinar forums and boards. \r Interdependencies\r • Coordinate the interdependencies of the Banded Funding initiative and integrate the Graduated Pathway to the EHCP redesign to enable early intervention. \r • Thresholds for agreeing to assess and for agreeing to place into special and independent special schools.\r • Contributions of social care and health to plans\r • Volume of Tribunals/reason for these and position of the LA and quality of defensible position.\r Digitalisation\r • Optimise digitalisation of case work and the service as a whole whilst ensuring integration to the wider system and interfaces. \r • Integration of a compliance module to the EHCP Capita1 system for statutory requirements to be digitalised. \r Evaluation and outcomes framework \r • Benchmark other local authorities EHCP services for innovation and new approaches to inform and shape the re-design including regional and national scoping to measure GCC position against other LA's in terms of plans, costs, approach.\r • Establish the baseline data and onward meaningful data dashboards for the service, including appropriate benchmarking tools against the national profile, including forecasting of emerging trends. \r • Establish a performance management and competencies framework for the service that aligns to PDRs and training requirements and engenders a child centred approach. \r • Identify knowledge and skills gaps and arrange the delivery of any relevant training. \r • Establish an evaluation, quality assurance, and continuous improvement cycle and approach for the EHCP service.\r \r 2. Detailed deliverables\r \r EHCP Pathway Redesign\r • Redesign the EHCP pathway from assessment through to planning and review, removing unnecessary steps, improving communication flow, and ensuring that the voice of the child, yo