Imosphere

What decisions are local authorities making without the full picture?

Every SEND and adult social care assessment, review and funding decision contains valuable insight about changing need, demand, and future pressure.

The challenge is turning that information into something leaders can actually use.

That's why we're introducing Insight Toolkit - a new capability designed to help local authorities move beyond individual cases and build a clearer understanding of need, demand, variation and future pressure across SEND and Adult Social Care.

From SEND spend, funding patterns, and projected demand, to care cost trends, carer capacity, and placement forecasting, Insight Toolkit helps reveal the patterns that are often hidden within day-to-day activity.

We're particularly excited about the future opportunity to connect insight across SEND and Adult Social Care, supporting a more joined-up understanding of need as young people transition into adulthood.

We're now looking for a small number of local authorities to join our partner programme, to help shape what comes next.

If you'd like early access, the opportunity to influence development priorities, and a direct role in shaping the product, we'd love to hear from you.

https://www.imosphere.com/post/what-decisions-are-you-making-without-the-full-picture

What decisions are you making without the full picture? Introducing Insight Toolkit: a new way to understand need, demand, and future pressure across SEND and Adult Social Care.

Congratulations to Rachel on her 5th Imoversary! 🎉

Since joining in 2021, Rachel has supported new customer implementations as well as their ongoing Imosphere journey, building strong relationships throughout. The delicious home-baked goods she brings along to team days are an added bonus! We’re so glad to have you on the team, Rachel!

The latest reporting from Children & Young People Now suggests some councils are already seeing a significant increase in requests for EHCP assessments following the government's SEND reform proposals.

If that trend continues, it raises an important question: How do services maintain quality and consistency when demand is increasing and teams are already under pressure?

Much of the reform discussion understandably focuses on future models of support. But between now and implementation, local authorities still need to assess need, produce high-quality plans and make defensible decisions within the current system.

This is one of the reasons we're seeing growing interest in areas such as:

• Strengthening the quality of EHCP advice and plans
• Improving consistency across multi-agency contributions
• Identifying gaps, contradictions and missing evidence earlier
• Supporting practitioners without adding more administrative burden

The challenge isn't simply managing more assessments. It's ensuring quality remains high as volumes increase.

An interesting read for anyone involved in SEND reform planning: https://www.cypnow.co.uk/content/news/councils-report-very-significant-surge-in-ehcp-assessment-requests

www.cypnow.co.uk

ICYMI: We recently launched Inside EHCP Genie: The Spotlight Series – where we shared what we’re learning from working alongside local authorities to strengthen EHCP quality in practice.

Across five short videos, we’ve explored some of the most common challenges councils have told us about – and how teams are addressing them in practical, manageable ways, including:

• The Golden Thread
• Specific and quantified provision
• SMART outcomes
• Gaps, inconsistencies and contradictions
• Retaining local templates and workflows

Catch up on all five episodes here: https://www.imosphere.com/post/improving-ehcp-quality-in-practice

Improving EHCP quality in practice Inside EHCP Genie: The Spotlight Series.

What’s really stopping Adult Social Care Direct Payments uptake?

We recently brought together councils from across the country to discuss what’s happening with Direct Payments in practice - and the conversations were incredibly honest.

Confidence was repeatedly raised. Not just practitioner confidence, but confidence across the wider system - confidence in processes, local support options, flexibility, and having better conversations earlier.

Councils also spoke openly about:

• The ongoing pull back towards “time and task” models
• How difficult outcomes-focused practice can be to embed consistently
• Variation between teams
• Local market and supply pressures
• Direct Payments still being introduced too late in the journey

The strongest takeaway was that the future of Direct Payments is about far more than process. It’s about creating conditions for more creative, personalised, and outcomes-focused support.

We’ve summarised the key themes and emerging insights in the carousel below.

Sign-up to be notified when our full Insights Report is ready: www.imosphere.com/dp

Laura, Philippa & Mark are at the System C today - always a valuable opportunity for networking, innovation, and learning aimed at connecting care.

Local authorities are increasingly looking at how SEND funding decisions can become more consistent, visible and defensible in practice.

For many councils, the challenge is no longer whether a funding framework exists. It is whether decisions can be applied consistently across growing demand and increasingly complex cohorts.

We are seeing growing interest in approaches that help councils:

- Improve consistency without disrupting existing practice
- Strengthen rationale and audit visibility
- Build better cohort insight
- Create more connected funding workflows ahead of reform

Here we explore two approaches councils are taking: digitising existing local frameworks or adopting a structured needs-led model already used across England’s local authorities.

Learn more: https://www.imosphere.com/send/funding-decisions

Mark & Jonathan are at The Access Group Social Care Conference today! If you’re attending, stop by and say hello - we’d love to catch up with existing customers, meet new faces, and hear more about the challenges and opportunities across the sector.

We’re excited to be attending The Access Group Social Care Conference!

If you’re attending, come and visit us at our stand to chat about how we’re helping providers improve outcomes, streamline processes, and support frontline teams with smarter digital solutions.

We’d love to catch up with existing customers, meet new faces, and hear more about the challenges and opportunities across the sector.

See you there!

Last week we brought together councils from across the country for our latest Adult Social Care Community Practice Network session to explore what’s happening with Direct Payments in practice.

The conversations were open, practical and honest, and several themes came up repeatedly:

• Confidence remains one of the biggest barriers
• Outcomes-focused practice is still difficult to embed consistently
• Direct Payments are often introduced too late in the conversation
• Variation between teams remains significant
• Local market supply and community support options matter more than ever

What several councils said, in different ways, was that the issue now goes beyond process and paperwork.

It’s increasingly about creating the conditions for better conversations, more creative support planning, and stronger practitioner confidence across the wider system.

We’ve pulled together the key themes and emerging insights from the session here: https://www.imosphere.com/post/emerging-themes-from-our-direct-payments-community-practice-network

Emerging themes from our Direct Payments Community Practice Network What councils are telling us about Direct Payments in practice.