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An evaluation of key working for families of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities
Author(s) -
Mengoni Silvana,
Bardsley Janet,
Oates John
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
british journal of special education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.349
H-Index - 38
eISSN - 1467-8578
pISSN - 0952-3383
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8578.12102
Subject(s) - key (lock) , special education , context (archaeology) , special needs , special educational needs , public relations , psychology , pedagogy , medical education , medicine , political science , computer science , psychiatry , paleontology , computer security , biology
Key working is a way of supporting children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities ( SEND ) and their families, and is highly regarded by families and practitioners. However, there is a lack of up‐to‐date research exploring key working in the current context of policy reforms in E ngland. This article reports an evaluation of key working in four sites in E ngland, with a particular focus on the SEND policy reforms. Key working resulted in a number of positive outcomes for children and young people, families and services, including helping services to meet the requirements of the SEND reforms. Challenging aspects included managing transitions and the relationship between key working practitioner and family, but successful strategies were identified. Key working supports the implementation of specific aspects of the E nglish SEND reforms along with more general cultural change in services to align with families' needs and well‐established aspects of good practice.