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See how data dashboard AWS Quick is helping Southwark Council move beyond data capture and into meaningful, sustained improvement.
When it comes to improving EHCP and EHCP annual review quality, having the right tools in place is only part of the story. The real impact happens when data turns into action.
We recently caught up with Southwark Council’s Audit and Learning Lead, Emma McDonald, to hear how their journey with the Invision360 quality assurance modules and data dashboard AWS Quick is helping them move beyond data capture and into meaningful, sustained improvement.
At the heart of Southwark’s quality assurance approach is a strong commitment to triangulation, learning, and continuous improvement.
Their quality assurance process isn’t just about assessing quality it’s about understanding it, challenging it, and improving it.
“At Southwark, our quality assurance is driven by learning, improvement, and next steps.”
Southwark Council has been working in partnership with Invision360 since September 2024, embedding a more consistent and robust approach to EHCP and EHCP annual review quality assurance.
Using Invision360 as a vehicle for quality assurance has enabled the team to establish a clear, shared understanding of what “good” looks like. But as Emma explains, the real transformation began when the team started using the insights from the data dashboards to drive learning and improvement:
“Invision360 quality assurance is the vehicle but the real journey starts when you use the findings to shape what you do next.”
Southwark’s SEND team’s improvement results speak for themselves (in just ten cycles with the EHCP QA module!)
📈 A 20% increase in EHCPs graded ‘Silver’ since the initial benchmarking audit
📉 A 42% reduction in plans identified as having “significant gaps”
✅ Consistent progress across all areas of the plan, keeping them on track with KPIs
Rather than one-off improvements, these changes reflect a steady upward trend across multiple audit cycles showing that quality is not just improving but being sustained.
Like many local authorities, Southwark was already seeing gradual improvement in headline data with the quality of their EHCP annual reviews, more ‘Silver’, fewer ‘Bronze’, and stable ‘Gold’.
But that raised an important question: What’s actually driving this change in the quality of EHCP annual reviews and what’s holding us back?
Emma reflected on this turning point:
“We were seeing the general trends - more silver, less bronze, gold is static -and we could drill down into themes. But we started asking ‘so what?’ What’s the next step? What’s stopping us getting more Gold quality annual reviews?”
This shift in mindset marked a move from observation to action.
Previously, identifying the root causes behind EHCP annual review performance meant hours of manual work reviewing individual audits and collating findings.
That changed with the introduction of Invision360’s AWS Quick dashboard.
“AWS Quick provides me with the criteria-level data that I was previously taking hours to collate manually. Our EHCP annual review improvement data had plateaued, but now I can pinpoint exactly which criteria are preventing further progress and build a targeted action plan from that insight.”
“Every month now I do exactly what the instructions tell me on AWS Quick, and I’m able to pull out the specific criteria that are causing us a problem.”
Instead of broad assumptions, the team now works with precise, actionable data.
Each month, Emma and the team:
“I’m now able to present in my data set to our stakeholders what is going really well, being met in the majority of audits, and then I’m able to identify some really clear next steps which really supports us with action planning”
For Southwark, the journey hasn’t just been about technology it’s been about collaboration.
“I’ve been on the Invision360 journey since the start and I love the flexibility and openness of Invision360 to work with. The move to AWS Quick has been really supportive.”
When Emma initially considered manually tallying criteria gaps, the Invision360 team stepped in with a smarter solution already built into the platform.
“I said I was going to go through every audit and do a tally chart. Invision360 stopped me and said that’s going to take you ages, we’ve already got something that will do that.”
That responsiveness has made a tangible difference:
“AWS Quick has been a game changer for me. It’s made my life a lot easier, and it’s helped us focus our energy where it really matters.”
By combining consistent auditing, criteria-led insights, and targeted action planning, Southwark Council is building a model of EHCP and EHCP annual review quality assurance that doesn’t just measure performance but actively improves it.
Their journey shows what’s possible when:
For teams working on a monthly or even quarterly quality assurance cycle, the impact of this approach can be even more powerful making progress more visible and easier to communicate to stakeholders.
As Emma puts it:
“I look forward to sharing the progress with senior leaders”
