On Friday, Oria and I (Caroline) attended a training day with the SEND Operations Team as part of the launch of the new Communication and Relationship Standard.
Thank you to everyone who continues to share their experiences and feedback — it truly makes a difference.
You can read more about the launch of the new Communication and Relationship Standard on the DCC SEND News page.
We were pleased that Cheryl, one of our new Parent Carer Partners could join us too. We were there to share not only our own lived experiences as parent carers, but also the wider views gathered through local groups, our Ambassador Volunteers, and the anonymised responses we had received so far to Question of the Week (5).
On Friday I attended a training day as a Parent Carer Partner with the SEND Operations team at Devon County Council. The focus of the day was on communication and relationships, following the launch of their new Communication and Relationship Standard.
I went in carrying not just my own experiences, but yours too. The frustration. The exhaustion. The feeling of having to fight to be heard.
What I didn’t expect was to sit in a room full of professionals who are, in many ways, just as frustrated with the system as we are.
They are currently managing double the national average caseload per person. Several people I spoke to were visibly upset that they cannot give every family the time they want to. It didn’t feel like a lack of care. It felt like people working in a system that is stretched beyond what it was ever designed to hold.
The new standard, which will be implemented from April, sets out clearer expectations:
- Early contact to understand family views
- Responses within five working days
- Short written summaries after conversations
- Updates if staff changes
- Clearer, more accessible communication throughout EHC needs assessments and amendments
They revisited their Four Cornerstones — Welcome and Care; Value and Include; Communicate; Work in Partnership — and spent time really reflecting on what those words should look and feel like in real life for families.
And I have to say — it felt different. It felt like they were listening. Not defending. Not explaining away. Just listening.
Claire Merchant-Jones, Head of SEND Operations, was incredibly open to everything I shared — the positives and the hard truths. There was no defensiveness. Her passion for culture change genuinely shone through. If someone is going to push for things to be better, I truly hope it’s her.
This doesn’t erase the experiences many of us have had. Trust isn’t rebuilt in a day. Words on paper don’t change reality overnight.
But I did come away feeling something I haven’t felt in a while when it comes to SEND — a sense that there are people inside the system who care deeply, who know it isn’t working as it should, and who genuinely want to reset the culture and rebuild relationships with families.
April will be the real test. That’s when these commitments need to show up consistently in our lived experience.
For now, I wanted to share that I saw honesty in the room. I saw emotion. I saw a willingness to change.
And that feels like a starting point
Cheryl
