- About
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The Coventry Way is a set of standards made to encourage partnership working between professionals, parents, carers and children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.
Every professional working with parents, carers, children and young people has a responsibility to work to the Coventry Way, and we will make sure that this happens.
The Coventry Way was created together with parents and carers and it’s promoted for professionals. The standards also work alongside the statutory Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice.
Professionals will:
- listen to you and your family • support relationships that will help you
- communicate openly so that you have the information you need
- identify what you need as soon as possible
- agree personalised support that meets your unique needs
Children, young people and families are asked to:
- work together with professionals
- tell us about changes and/or new information about you as soon as you can
- provide feedback about your experiences with services.
What this means:
- By listening to you, your families and carers, we (professionals) will be able to understand your needs better, which will create trust between us and help us to support you in the best way.
- When we agree what will happen in partnership with each other, everyone involved will have a shared understanding of what needs to be done, and by when.
- Directing families to voluntary and community groups who offer independent support, advice and guidance means that families can choose if they would like some more support from places other than Education, Health and Social Care.
- Actively involving parents, carers and young people in every part of services will mean that our services that are fit for purpose – because they have been shaped by you.
- When we get feedback on what has changed as a result of parent, carer, and young people’s involvement we will share it through the Local Offer website.
- Telling families about what is happening in a variety of different ways will make our messages clearer. We’ll make sure we communicate with you on time and effectively.
- This will also include the clear communication of changes of people or services that may affect your family.
- The Coventry Local Offer will provide families with clear information on services and support which are available to them in Coventry. This information should be kept up to date and checked to make sure it is right.
- Involving your family as early as possible to plan and review support which meets your needs.
- Support should be flexible and reflect the identified needs of your family. This should then be put into a plan which is regularly monitored and reviewed.
- We will make sure that all of our practitioners (the people that deliver services) are trained in The Coventry Way so that they work to it. Families will also be able to take part in relevant training.
Monitoring the Coventry Way
Managers need to share this information with their staff and discuss how the principles are being met within team meetings.
Children, young people, parents, carers and practitioners can help to monitor and evaluate how closely we are working to these standards by completing monitoring forms (paper copies available upon request from schools and services).
Co-production is a relationship between a service provider and a service user – e.g. a parent carer or a young person - that draws on the knowledge, abilities and resources of both to develop solutions that are:
- successful
- sustainable
- cost-effective
…and that changes the balance of power from the professional towards to the service user.
What is the difference between consultation and co-production?
Co-production
Parents/carers and young people:
- involved at start of process
- start with ‘musts’ from regulations
- all ideas have equal value and validity
- jointly agreed final decisions
Consultation
Parents/carers and young people:
- involved part way through process
- professionals come with and present ideas
- professionals give advice
- final decision with professionals
- parents are informed of decisions
Co-production video
Here's a short film about co-production by HeadstartFM Wolverhampton.
