In May 2019, Shropshire Council, Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and the Shropshire Parent and Carer Council (PACC) jointly hosted a workshop to review the Shropshire SEND Strategy. The workshop was a huge success and brought together children and young people with SEND, parent carers and professionals from education, health and social care who deliver SEND services across Shropshire.

The event was led by Poppy Chandler and her team of Education Psychologists (EPs) and involved developing a PATH* activity to explore the collective aspirations of Shropshire children and young people with SEN. The activity also identified the actions that we  need to take so that aspirations could be transformed into reality. The event was very well attended by children and young people facilitated by their school or college and also by parent carers as well as practitioners. The key messages that were shared on the day were that children and young people with SEN hoped for a life that reflected the expectations of all children and young people. These included to get a job, go to college,  join in with activities within the local community, live independently in their own home, have friends, have choice and control over their own lives and live a healthy life.

Everyone was then asked to think about what their dream future would look like and what needed to happen to enable them to achieve this. The session gave young people a voice and a platform to share their views.  We used this information to update and develop the strategy using the shared vision and outcomes collected to make a difference in Shropshire.

PACC has produced a participation report on this workshop which gives more information about the workshop and captures the feedback collected on the day.