Children and Families Charter and Service Standards in SEND for those requesting or with an Education Care and Health Plan

At the heart of our SEND children and families customer charter is our commitment 
to improving the quality of life of our SEND children, young people and families. We 
strive to get it right first time, every time.

We believe that our children and families have the right to know what level of service 
they can expect from us all the time - even when we fall short of the very high 
standards, we have set ourselves.

Our staff are here to support you and acknowledge that this can be a difficult and 
anxious time for you, we aim to work in collaboration with you and ask that respect is 
given to both parties. As with all public services, abusive language and 
behaviour will not be accepted and could result in ending a call, see our Managing Unreasonable Behaviour Protocol.

Our SEND Service is committed to:

• improving the speed of response in handling enquiries from parents, young people, carers and families and all associated education settings or providers
• providing responsive and reliable services 
• providing a consistent, coordinated, and proactive service
• treating our children, young people, parents and carers with respect, courtesy, and friendliness, being receptive to customer feedback
• providing systems for those accessing SEND services to provide feedback easily, through customer surveys, focus groups, feedback, consultations, and improved complaint handling
• ensuring that our employees are skilled and able to provide high quality services
• working with other council departments and organisations to achieve a joined-up and seamless approach to service provision

Service standards

Our SEND teams in Dorset support over 3,200 children and their families. On average, a SEND Provision Lead has around 200 children on their caseloads. This means that there may be times when Provision Leads are unable to respond within a working day due to work commitments supporting children in the County, for example, attendance at Annual Reviews and associated deadlines. The service standards below have been designed to consider the requirements of the role and our ability to support our communities so that we are transparent with you regarding our service standards.

Our SEND Teams Explained

The following roles exist in each of our localities in Dorset. You and your family or carers will be served by one of our locality teams, these are illustrated in the map below.

Find locality contact information.

Our customer service standards

Contacting us by telephone:

• every Provision Lead has a telephone number with a messaging facility. We expect our Provision Leads to respond to a phone call within 3 working days
• when answering the telephone, staff will clearly state their name
• the Provision Lead who answers your call will aim to answer your enquiry there and then. If we cannot answer your enquiry, we will take information and commit to appropriate next steps which are time bounded and explained to you
• when returning your calls, staff will clearly state their full name, their role and their reason for calling
• when returning your calls, the caller identification to mobiles may show as 'withheld' and a message will be left where possible if you are unavailable
• our Provision Leads hours are generally between 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday.  Our service standard is that we will not contact you outside of this time, equally our Provision Leads’ numbers are only in use during these hours

Contacting us by email:

• we aim to respond to all emails received by our Provision Leads and SEND Team Managers within 3 working days
• if you receive an 'out of office' notification to your email advising that the staff member is unavailable; the notification will include contact details for urgent enquiries and a date when the staff member will be available to reply
• if your Provision Lead is on long term absence their emails will be forwarded to identified colleague in the SEND teams
• if your Provision Lead moves role you will receive an email which states that the individual has left and an onward contact point for your use. Email boxes for staff who have left the organisation are reviewed for 90 days and then email accounts are closed

Contacting us by letter:

• if you contact us by letter, we will try to respond fully within ten working days unless, for example, your query is complex or involves several service areas
• in this case, we will acknowledge your letter within seven working days of receipt and let you know who is looking after your query, what action we are taking, and when a reply can be expected

Comments and Complaints

See our comments, compliments and complaints policy.

Compliments

We look forward to receiving compliments on our services and the support we give you. Send these to your Provision Lead as we can share these across the teams and learn from when we get things right for the children and families we serve.

Informal complaints

If you are unhappy with the support you are receiving, please email directly to your Provision Lead and explain your concerns. Often matters can be addressed locally and prevent the need for a formal complaint to the council. If you feel that your complaint or concern has not been addressed, please share why and our team will work with you to resolve any issues.

Formal complaints

We aim to respond to formal corporate complaints within 20 working days. If we need longer, we will tell you why. We will also let you know who is dealing with your complaint and when we will reply. Find out more about raising a formal complaint.

Freedom of Information requests

See our Freedom of information guidance.

• we will supply information requested in Freedom of Information requests within 20 working days, except in exceptional circumstances
• in such circumstances, we will contact you to let you know why it is going to take longer than 20 days to collate the information requested, or if there are reasons why it is not appropriate to release all the information requested
• we will explain why we are not releasing the information, if that is the case, and explain the appeal process

Subject Access Requests

A subject access request (SAR) can be used by an individual to access personal data that is held about them, or someone they have authority to act on behalf of, by an organisation. Get more advice from our subject access request - guidance for requester page

How do I submit a SAR?

If you wish to request personal information that is held about you, you will need to provide us with the following:

• your contact details
• a description of the information you seek
• proof of your identity (copy of two of the following - passport, driving licence or birth certificate). This is so we can be reasonably certain that we only provide personal information to the individual who is entitled to receive it. Should you be unable to provide the above examples of identity, there are other options available (e.g., utility bills)
• a SAR will only be valid if it contains all the information we need and we have received proof of your identity

View our SAR form.

We cannot insist that you use this SAR form, but it does include all the information that will help us deal with your request efficiently. If you choose not to use the SAR form, you should provide in writing (email or letter), all the information that the SAR form asks for and send it to our Data Protection Officer.

Translation and interpretation

If English is not your first language and you need some help in understanding any of the services the council delivers, we offer telephone or face-to-face language interpretation services. Please link with your Provision Lead who can help you in this regard.