What We Did
The West Midlands Regional Partnership was accountable to the 14 West Midlands Local Authorities through the Directors of Children’s Services. The Partnership was funded by grant monies from the DCSF and was supported by the Government Office for the West Midlands (GOWM). It was steered by a multi-agency Management Consortium (WMRPMC).
Objectives
To promote inclusion, positive outcomes and facilitate good practice in the provision of services and support for children with SEN and/or disabilities, looked after children or children leaving care, children in need and other vulnerable children by:
- Co-ordinating activity where the opportunity for the regional joint commissioning of services has been identified
- Bringing partners together on a voluntary basis to enable the sharing of best practice regionally and nationally
- Supporting the development and delivery of key areas of national policy
- Working in partnership with ADECS, DfES and GOWM on the delivery of regional policies
- Helping to co-ordinate local authority children’s services across the West Midlands region
- Providing regional oversight and support for authorities in their performance management responsibilities
- Supporting the development of more inclusive policies and practices
To liaise with other significant outside bodies and promote partnership working in the best interests of children.
All the Regional Partnerships had to have a Strategic Action Plan and a one year Action Plan. Regional Partnership Action Plans for 2007 – 2008 were informed by:
- The DfES priorities framework document
- Regional priorities arising from Local Authorities’ Annual Performance Assessments (APAs), Joint Area Reviews (JARs) and Children and Young Peoples Plans
- Regional priorities arising from regional action planning meetings involving key local and regional stakeholders
- The SEN Adviser’s regional and national reports
- Government Office (GO) business plans
To see the WM Action Plan for April 07 - March 08 click here to go to the Action Plan section.
For further information about the Regional Partnerships including links to their websites, go to the Who We Are page and click on the link: Regional Partnerships
Evaluation of the Regional Partnerships
The effectiveness of the Regional Partnerships have been independently evaluated by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER). To view the report published in April 2006, click below
If you would like see the executive summary only of the NFER report click below