Negative feedback from users required disability support

[Lilith-Palmer]

When developing the tool, there were several iterations that addressed special needs in more detail. These were ultimately abandoned in favor of directing parents and carers to local schools, on advice form the disability, learning and support unit. The basis for the decision was that support classes are flexible, and schools need to hear from parents in order to have resources allocated effectively.

Since launching, two parents have got in touch to query why they are unable to see existing support classes. I spoke with one of them today. She explained that she had already been in touch with her local school. However after seeking their advice, the issue of where her child should attend schooling was not resolved - she needed more options. We discussed what could be helpful from the school finder, and she suggested including existing support classes as a filter. This creates a starting point for her to reach out to other schools.

We did create a code version that included this feature. The question is, if this was added, would it prevent parents and carers from reaching out to their local schools? I suspect not - interested to hear other people's thoughts.

@reekypete @techieshark @Rustuma

[techieshark]

@Lilith-Palmer interesting question!

I could speculate but it'd be just… speculation. Definitely seems like a case where more user testing and discussion with affected parties is in order. But a few thoughts:

1. If users need it and it makes their lives better, I'd push for providing it. Especially if we're talking about people who already have enough challenges in their lives!

2. That said, perhaps I didn't fully understand previously, but I thought we removed this because staff at the Department thought the best experience for these parents would be served by calling their school, and their school would get them the support they need. It sounds like that isn't happening? Can we find out why -- and/or fix that? If it isn't happening, maybe CESE could facilitate a meeting between Department staff, the school(s) in question, and the parent(s) with this issue and the best solution can be sorted out (whether that's the schools better serving* these parents or CESE reintroducing the option to support classes search / info).

3. Assuming we did decide to reintroduce support class features to the tool, we'd probably want to get more input from affected parents / teachers / Dept staff about how the tool can best support parents without giving them the wrong impression about how to get the support they need.

* hopefully this isn't a burden, because the tool is saving school's support staff time that can now be used to better serve parents that need more one on one help.

Cheers,
~ P

[Lilith-Palmer]

Hi @techieshark. I agree with your first statement - the parent I spoke with described the tool as 'completely cutting out' parents with disabled children. That's the opposite of what we want to do!

Definitely interested in compiling these incidents and informing disability, learning and support. There are certainly instances of parents not having the best experience by visiting their local school. this may not be a large amount of cases - but having some remedial measures in the school finder, such as including support classes in the filter, was described as being a huge help.

Regarding your third comment - yes, more research is required. From my single phone, I was given the impression that visiting the local school is the default approach anyway - it's what happens afterwards that we can help out with.

[techieshark]

One idea: maybe we ask front and center (like before) what help they need, then say something like:

"Your local school currently has support classes for ____ [thing they looked for]"
or
"Your local school doesn't currently have support classes for ___, but they may be able to arrange that for you. You might also be interested in looking at schools with support for that nearby, and you can use the map's filter to find those."

This way, we make it clear that we've taken steps to support them, and clarified the local school's role in the process for them.

[Lilith-Palmer]

I'm not sure this adds any value - it's presenting the same information in a different way. As I mentioned above, this parent had contacted her local school, and needed more information than currently available in the school finder. Specially, a filter option for support classes. we have a filter option for SSP's - is it that different?

[techieshark]

[parent] needed… a filter option for support classes [not currently available in the school finder]. we have a filter option for SSP's - is it that different?

@Lilith-Palmer yes, that's different.

So the filter option I believe you are referring to is the nearby schools type filter within the nearby schools control built into the map, shown below.

Selecting Schools for Specific Purposes (SSPs) limits schools shown on the map to just SSPs.

Support Classes, on the other hand, could exist on any school. The README still actually has an example of the kind of filter which let users look for [general purpose] schools that provided specialized support:

I'm not sure this adds any value - it's presenting the same information in a different way.

I think one of us is misunderstanding the other. Hopefully the description above clarifies the difference between the support classes filtering and the SSP filtering, and hopefully it's obvious how that presents value separate from what we have now. If I misunderstand what you meant, please clarify. Thanks!

[Lilith-Palmer]

Yes, we are thinking of different things. I am referring to an additional filter, possibly under the 'with feature' section:

The map would alter to show schools currently with support classes, which could be differentiated when users hover.

[techieshark]

Oh. Thanks for clarifying @Lilith-Palmer. So you are proposing that we bring back the special learning needs support filter that we have (the one in the image from the readme, above), but instead of having choosing the specific support you need be step two or whatever it was (before being shown the map), we'd:

1. have the filtering available through the map's nearby schools control and
2. just have on radio button in the 'with feature' group labeled something like 'Special Support Classes' and
3. schools without support classes would be removed from the map, and those remaining would show the specific type(s) of support offered when the user hovers over the map icon.

Am I understanding you correctly?

[Lilith-Palmer]

Yep @techieshark

[techieshark]

@Lilith-Palmer great, thanks.

It's totally doable, but we'd want to check with @Rustuma I think -- I'm curious if we'd still run into the issue where we're presenting information which is either out of date or confusing (people may assume these support classes are fixed, and my understanding is that one reason the data may be out of date is that the support classes may change as often as is necessary to accommodate parents, which could be multiple times per year for any given school).

[Lilith-Palmer]

@techieshark This concern formed part of the reasoning for the decision to not include support class information. I think, based on feedback, we need to give parents some credit, and also consider how we could present the information to make it clear that the classes are not (necessarily) fixed.

[Lilith-Palmer]

Update: Our friends at disability, learning and support have been getting lots of enquiries for support class listings. We met with them today, and they are keen to make a list available to parents. Some disclaimers would be required, explaining that parents should still use the school finder to locate, and discuss options with, their local school.

A disclaimer, with a link to a nightly updated dataset on the datahub, is their preferred option.

[techieshark]

Thanks for the update @Lilith-Palmer!

and they are keen to make a list available to parents.

Just to clarify,

1. did you ask them about the proposal we discussed above, and that's what you mean by 'they are keen to make a list available'?

A disclaimer, with a link to a nightly updated dataset on the datahub, is their preferred option.

2. Was there a discussion of where they think parents would expect to see such a disclaimer?

3. Is there already a dataset being published and updated nightly, or is that a new requirement to be addressed elsewhere?

Thanks!

[Lilith-Palmer]

So we ran through some options, and there was a definite desire for a list output - something parents can sort by area, or class type (or a number of other filters), and view options side by side. This has been requested over and over again by parents.

Re the disclaimer - We think a few sentences within the schoolfinder, including a link to the dataset, as well as some further information in the dataset description, eg:

Finally, yes, we will need to create a new dataset, and link it to the ERN database for updates.

[techieshark]

Thanks @Lilith-Palmer.

So is that previous proposal still on, or are we working out something else entirely?

[Lilith-Palmer]

@techieshark something else entirely