Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICB
An innovative approach to capturing special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) data for children and young people in Nottinghamshire is gaining national recognition.
The team from the System Analytics Intelligence Unit (SAIU), which is based at NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, have developed a live data dashboard which is enabling professionals to understand more about the demographics of children and young people with SEND.
The dashboard can help teams to spot trends in healthcare data such as urgent care admissions and co-morbidities such as asthma and epilepsy. It also incorporates educational data including absence rates, exclusion rates and progress scores in reading, writing and maths.
This dashboard, which is being used to measure the impact of SEND improvement work in Nottinghamshire, is now attracting interest from other SEND partnerships across the country. Representatives from the SAIU have presented their work at a meeting of national executive leads for SEND and at a national SEND improvement board meeting which is developing a standardised dataset to be used in future.
Following these meetings and presentations, the SAIU have received multiple requests to go through the methodology and data from various organisations around the country to aid in their SEND data development
Simon Frampton, Head of Quality, Performance and Insights at NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, said: “When we first became involved with the SEND improvement work, we didn’t have any joined up data as a partnership. We had some information on different systems but couldn’t see in one place who was on our various waiting lists for assessment or support.
“Bringing all the information from different organisations together into one dashboard has been a huge effort but we are now seeing those rewards. We can now provide accurate and holistic information about children and young people with SEND which is helping us to get the right support in the right place for them.”
Rosa Waddingham, Chief Nurse at NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, said: “We know we’re putting in a lot of resource and effort into improving SEND services in Nottinghamshire, but this data dashboard now gives us the means to measure whether we’re making a difference to the lives of children and young people.
“By being able to track figures such as school absences, exclusions, GP appointments and frequent A&E attendances, we can see whether the SEND improvement work is making a positive impact on children’s outcomes.” Find out more about the SEND improvement programme in Nottinghamshire
