About Us
The Southwest Regional Improvement and Innovation Alliance (SW RIIA) is a group of networks that collaborate across the region to provide and support improvement work in the Children’s Services sector. We are linked across all 15 local authorities and the 7 Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) in the Southwest and support the sharing of practice examples and delivering programmes of development.
The South West Children’s Services website is a central regional space where we can share information and resources to interested parties. Some of the information is informative about the organisation and our networks, such as objectives, areas of work, people involved, agendas and minutes. Some of the information is more generic about children’s social care, health and SEND such as key reports, changes in legislation, or articles. The website includes a restricted member areas protected by a login process to provide a space for work in progress to be shared.
It is intended that the website will reduce the number of emails sent to officers in boxes and will provide an organisational memory of important work and developments over time. The website will improve regional communication, facilitate collaboration and sharing best practice.
Latest News
December 18, 2024
This is a public bill presented to Parliament by the Government. The Bill was introduced to the House of Commons and given its First Reading on Tuesday 17 December 2024. This stage is formal and takes place without any debate. What happens next? MPs will next consider the Bill at Second Reading. The date for […]
December 16, 2024
A report by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) finds that local areas are working hard to improve support for young people with SEND, but systemic challenges are limiting their ability to prepare these young people for adulthood.
November 25, 2024
England’s Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) issued a triennial review report. Every three years, LGSCO surveys its complaints caseload and makes recommendations to central and local government about what it sees The report states that it sets out a series of low cost, low intervention changes that would increase access to, and awareness of, […]
November 19, 2024
DfE publication of the policy statement setting out their plans for whole service reform of Children’s Social Care
October 21, 2024
The DfE has published new research about the use of TAs in state funded primary, secondary and special schools. It explores use and deployment of TAs as well as roles, motivations and barriers and enablers to usage
October 21, 2024
New research from the Children’s Commissioner shows around 400,000 children in England were still waiting, at the end of 2022/23, to receive their first appointment after being referred to Community Health Services and Children’s Mental Health Services. This equates to around 3% of England’s total child population.
August 27, 2024
School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024 is now in force, meaning that it is now statutory that LAs hold regular meetings with schools to discuss attendance concerns, absence fines and thresholds have become standardised, and schools must share attendance figures with government. This has also resulted in updates to a number of existing guidance […]
August 19, 2024
The Department has published its latest analysis and links to data sources on children and young people with special educational needs (SEN) or a disability in England.
August 14, 2024
Staying Put is a scheme that enables young people to remain with their foster carers, if both parties agree, from the age of 18 to 21. We evaluated how this reduces the risk of homelessness in care leavers.
July 29, 2024
The LGSCO has published its Annual Review of Local Government Complaints in England for 2023-2024. The report pulls together the national picture of trends and common issues that have arisen from complaints over the last year.
Get in touch…
If you’ve any questions, or would like to reach out to the SW RIIA team, please don’t hesitate to get in touch via our ‘Contact Us’ page.
Children’s Services Authorities in the South West of England:
