Purpose

Bristol City Council has a statutory duty to commission an Information, Advice and Support Service (IASS) to provide free, impartial, confidential and accurate information, advice and support about education, health and social care for children, young people and their parents, carers or family on matters relating to special educational needs and disability (SEND).
At the Children and Young People Committee on the 16 October 2025 the committee authorised the Executive Director for Children and Education in consultation with the Chair of the Children and Young People Committee to procure and award a new contract necessary for the implementation of the SEND Information, Advice and Support Service in-line with the report.
During the recommissioning process Bristol City Council Children’s Commissiong Team undertook engagement with Parent Carer Forums across the three local authority areas and incorporated their feedback into the revised service specification. As part of that process, a decision was taken that the performance framework Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) would be developed post-award through a co-production process involving commissioners, the provider and Parent Carer Forum representatives. This approach was intended to ensure that performance measures reflected what children, young people and families value, whilst also providing commissioners with more meaningful measures of service quality, reach and impact.
This decision seeks approval of the co-produced KPI framework for inclusion within the SENDIASS contract management and performance monitoring arrangements.

Decision

To approve the co-produced Key Performance Indicators for the SEND Information, Advice and Support Service (SENDIASS), in accordance with the approach approved by the Children and Young People Committee as part of the SENDIASS recommissioning programme.

Alternative options considered

No alternative options were considered appropriate.
The alternative would have been not to approve the co-produced framework, which would not deliver the approach agreed during recommissioning and would delay implementation of the contract's performance management arrangements.