“Ensuring every learner with SEND is seen, supported and empowered to thrive.”

When Bury Council received an Ofsted/CQC SEND Improvement Notice in February 2024, it marked a pivotal moment for the local area. There was a clear recognition that meaningful change was needed not just to processes, but to how the entire system worked together in supporting children and young people with SEND.

At the time, EHCPs varied significantly in quality. There was no shared definition of what “good” looked like, and professionals across education, health and care were working within fragmented approaches. For families, this meant inconsistent experiences and plans that didn’t always fully reflect their child’s needs.

Rather than pursuing quick fixes, Bury chose a more ambitious route: a whole-system transformation built on genuine partnership.

Building a shared vision for change

Bury Council formed a strategic partnership with Invision360, combining local system leadership with national expertise in quality assurance and audit transformation.

Together, they set out to co- design a new approach from the ground up, one rooted in collaboration, transparency and shared accountability. A joint leadership group internally brought together voices from across the system, including local authority, education settings, health services, social care and parent carer forums.

This wasn’t a consultation it was co-production in action. Partners collectively shaped the solution, developing a Priority Action Plan that everyone owned. This collaboration was critical in building trust, aligning expectations and embedding a culture of continuous improvement across the partnership.

A key commitment was to redesign the EHCP quality assurance framework, creating “a robust single and multi-agency approach to audit and assurance.” Invision360 was to play a central role in enabling this transformation through the implementation of our nationally recognised EHCP audit module. This would create a cultural shift from fragmented, manual processes to a consistent, transparent and data-driven model, enabling real-time insights and shared learning across all agencies.

Recognising that successful implementation required cultural as well as technical change, the partnership required to develop and deliver a comprehensive onboarding and training programme. This was to support professionals across education, health and social care regardless of digital confidence to engage with the new system, build capability, and apply consistent quality standards in practice. This emphasis on workforce development was to ensure the system was not only implemented, but embedded.

For the first time, professionals across all services were working to the same standards, using the same language.

Shifting culture, not just systems

While the introduction of new tools and frameworks was important, the real transformation has been cultural.

The partnership moved away from a compliance-driven mindset towards a developmental approach that encourages learning and continuous improvement. A new grading model replaced traditional judgements, allowing practitioners to see quality as a journey rather than a pass-or-fail exercise.

Multi-agency moderation sessions quickly became a powerful driver of this shift. Bringing professionals together to review and discuss practice not only strengthened consistency, but built trust and shared understanding across the system. These sessions are now consistently rated 9.7 out of 10, with participants valuing both the insight and collaboration they create.

Participants highlight their value in building shared understanding, strengthening relationships and embedding accountability: “Engaging and insightful… a fantastic session to support multi-agency working.” – Social Care Practitioner

A key achievement has been a clear cultural shift towards genuine multi-agency ownership. Schools and settings are now fully integrated into the quality assurance process, strengthening collaboration and bringing vital frontline expertise into audits. This ensures EHCPs are practical, deliverable and grounded in real-world experience.

Schools and settings are now consistently reporting that the improved clarity and precision of plans have strengthened their ability to implement provision effectively, resulting in more confident practice and better outcomes for learners.

“Our experience of the local area’s EHCP Quality Assurance framework has been overwhelmingly positive. The consistency and clarity of the QA process has strengthened the quality of our EHCPs, with plans that are now more precisely drafted, better formulated and easier for practitioners to interpret and implement. This has had a direct impact on the quality of provision in our settings, enabling staff to deliver support that is timely, targeted and aligned with each learner’s needs. In my roles as acting CEO, headteacher and active member of the local areas SEND and Improvement Assurance Board, I have observed how the improved quality of EHCPs is helping schools deliver more targeted, effective support that makes a tangible difference to our learners.“ CEO & Headteacher, Bury Local Area School  

Delivering measurable results

The impact has been both rapid and significant.

This graph demonstrates a considerable improvement in the quality of EHCPs over three audit cycles. The proportion of plans audited as ‘Silver’ standard (fully meeting statutory requirements with clear description of all needs, outcomes, and provision) has risen from 0% to 36%.

At the same time, plans audited as having ‘Significant Gaps’ (indicating failure to meet at least one or more statutory requirements and contains significant weaknesses across key sections) have been reduced dramatically from 64% to just 12%.

Crucially, where prior to this partnership no EHCPs were audited as meeting either ‘Gold’ or ‘Silver’ standards, nearly half (48%) now achieve these benchmarks within just three cycles.

Overall, the partnership between Bury and Invision360 is delivering measurable, sustained and system-wide transformation.

Perhaps most strikingly, this improvement in quality has not come at the expense of timeliness. Bury now issues 99% of EHCPs within the statutory 20-week timeframe, demonstrating that it is possible to deliver both consistency and efficiency.

Putting families at the heart of the system

For children, young people and their families, the difference has been tangible.

EHCPs are now clearer, more detailed and easier to understand. Professionals are better able to translate plans into meaningful support in real-world settings, and families report greater confidence in how decisions are made.

The introduction of a dedicated feedback platform through the Invision360 experiential data feature has been transformational in ensuring that lived experience directly shapes ongoing improvements. Rather than being a one-off input, the voices of families now play a continuous role in refining the system.

As one parent shared:

“The EHCP is clear and detailed, and I felt it genuinely reflected my child’s needs and helped the school understand how to support her.  Staff can read the document, understand and know how to help. The whole process felt supportive and now my child is thriving socially and academically.  It’s been amazing to see. She’s happy at school now.”

A model built to last

What makes this work particularly powerful is its sustainability. The changes introduced are not temporary fixes, but part of a long-term shift in how the local area operates.

There is now a shared professional language around quality, underpinned by continuous audit cycles and robust data for decision-making. Relationships across agencies have strengthened, and there is a clear sense of collective responsibility for outcomes.

Bury is continuing to build on this foundation, expanding audit capacity, increasing the use of lived-experience data and exploring opportunities for benchmarking with other local areas. The ambition is not just to improve, but to lead.

Why this matters

This partnership demonstrates what can happen when local leadership, national expertise and a public-private collaboration can come together with a shared purpose. A powerful example of how purposeful public–private collaboration can deliver measurable, system-wide change for children and young people with SEND

It shows that improvement is not about isolated interventions, but about aligning people, processes and insight around a common goal. Most importantly, it proves that systems can become more consistent, more transparent and more responsive, without losing sight of the individual child.

As Wendy Young, Head of SEND, reflects:

“True leadership in education is not measured by individual impact, but by the collective difference we make.  When we work together with empathy, purpose, and shared vision, we create a world where every learner, including those with SEND, is seen, supported and empowered to thrive.” 

Start the conversation

Every local area faces its own challenges, but the principles behind this transformation are widely applicable.

If you are looking to strengthen EHCP quality, respond to inspection outcomes or build a more joined-up SEND system, Invision360 can help you take that next step.

Get in touch to find out how we can support your local area.