Announcements, MPs, Home School & a Super Moon 3rd December 2017 Dear All It feels rather like the world of SEND could be followed just by Twitter this week… NB: If this is the first time you have received this; please note that you can unsubscribe by following the link at the end of this newsletter.
National Conference for Parent/Carer Forums Two of us spent a day and a half in sunny [not] Manchester with parent/carer representatives from most of the parent/carer forums nationally.
#1 What is a Parent/Carer Forum? A Parent/Carer Forum is a group of (usually) volunteers that seeks to represent parents and carers of children & young people with SEND within their borough/s – to the service providers such as the Local Authority or the Health providers. https://contact.org.uk/get-involved/parent-carer-participation/what-is-a-parent-carerforum/ Locally, SEND Family Voices take this role and it is where most of our funding comes from. As a steering group, we are all volunteers and all parents – although we receive additional funding from other sources. As a group of volunteers, we believe that we must take responsibility for our actions and be thoroughly ethical in our approach; we work to the Nolan Principles of public life (see our Policies on our website). We recently worked out our combined steering group reach exceeds 4000. And… importantly… in the same way that all children and young people are different, and SEND covers a massive arena… We acknowledge that no disability specific group, nor collective forum can absolutely represent all parents. We just do the best we can. Please contact us if you would like to know more, or to contribute to our work.
#2 So what did the Conference cover? Lots! Once we have the slides, we will put these onto our website. In the meantime, here are some highlights… • The sponsor was the SeaShell Trust, we heard from their CEO and you can read more about them here: http://www.seashelltrust.org.uk/ • We had a video address from Minister of State for Children & Families, Robert Goodwill MP. (it was said more than once in the room, that due to the Government’s majority being small, MPs were not allowed to go too far from Westminster mid-week should there be some urgent vote). In the past, the Minister has attended. •
This was followed by a very sensible presentation from Ann Gross, Director of Life Skills, Disadvantage and SEND, from the Department of Education. Slides to follow. On new policies: “I think it is unthinkable that we [government] would take
forward major policy change without involving families”
•
We heard from Nigel Thompson, Head of Inspections – with regard to the SEND Ofsted/CQC inspections.
“We do a lot of pre-work before inspections. We expect the local area to have mechanisms in place to listen to people.” It’s worth noting that at the same time a Local Authority gets ‘the call’ from the Inspectors, so does the local parent/carer forum – we are expected to reach out to as many parents as we can.
“Parents are not handpicked by inspectors. We invite all parents and carers” Feedback from forums that had been inspected was positive – parents are listened to and the reports, post-inspections, makes a difference. “We do not expect local areas to prepare…” (these mechanisms should already be in place) Next up, was a panel… • Andre Imich, SEN & Disability Advisor, DfE • Stuart Miller, Deputy Director SEN & Disability, DfE (Ann Gross is his boss) • Gareth James, from the Department of Health • Lorraine Mulroney, from NHS England • …and this was chaired by Lara, from the National Network of Parent Carer Forums
From left: Lorraine Mulroney, NHS England, Gareth Jones, Dept. of Health, Stuart Miller and Andre Imich, Dept. for Education and Lara, NNPCF SEND Family Voices, like many forums, submitted questions to the panel in advance. In the event, there were so many questions, they were taken away and a document will be circulated. We will share this when we have it.
Announcements were made…
Announcements These were made to the Conference 2 days in advance of the published announcements (on 30th November). Here is a summary – these figures are to be divided nationally: • This financial year, “a further £29 million to support councils and their local partners to continue pressing ahead with implementation of the reforms to the SEND system;” • This financial year, “£9.7 million to establish local supported internship forums, which will create work placements for young people with SEND to provide them with the
• •
skills and confidence they need to move into paid work. The funding could also be used to train job coaches, who are vital to the success of supporting those with learning difficulties into paid work; and” For the next 2 years, “£4.6 million for Parent Carer Forums, which bring parents together with local decision makers and help to provide them with a voice in the process.” [this equates to 15K per forum, per borough] “The Minister also confirmed that further funding would be available to build capacity in the system and support the ongoing delivery of the SEND reforms over the next two years. Invitations to bid for these contracts, which will include providing families with access to information, advice and support, continuing support for the SEND workforce, and expert support to local areas, will be published online shortly.”
This last bullet point means that services like the Independent Supporters will continue - but as a re-modelled service – which means that providers would have to re-bid for the work. If you would like a copy of the full announcement, please reply to the is e-mail. It’s all in the public domain.
This informal Announcement got the most applause!! Plans for the next two years are… “There is to be a change to Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). QTS will not be given until after 2 years of practice – and that will include evidence that the teacher can cope and work well with pupils with SEND.” Stuart Miller This means that there has to be a change in the teacher training programme – it will take probably two years to implement this. It’s still in discussions and we expect parents to have the opportunity to contribute (probably via DfE surveys).
SEND Forum with local MPs - 1st December We haven’t yet hand counted the attendees – we reached close to 100 in the room. We will send notes and Actions to all in the next week or so… in the meantime, here is a very short summary… The notion of placing the child, young person and their family at the centre of support around them is the right idea, ie these the SEND Reforms are the right reforms. However, it's clear that the thinking, planning and implementation, coupled with limited funding, is having a detrimental effect on families - and it is our children that are the guinea pigs and suffer as a result. We’d like to thank Vince and Ed for attending, for listening and for responding.
From Left: Cathy Maker, CEO Ruils with Vince Cable MP and Ed Davey MP
#BBCsend Last week, from 27th November to 1st December, the BBC featured SEND on it’s breakfast news programme daily. Possibly the easiest way to catch up on these articles is to follow the #BBCsend link below. (we haven’t read them all ourselves yet…) https://twitter.com/hashtag/BBCsend?src=hash There you will find articles on….
Nov 27 – Homeschooling The number of children with special educational needs being schooled at home has more than doubled since 2013. #BBCsend The number with no school place at all, has also more than doubled in the last 5 years.
Nov 27 – video 2.20minutes A heart-warming insight into the lives of young people with special educational needs and disabilities.
Nov 28 – video - 22 seconds More parents of #SEN children are taking their local council to tribunal, in order to get the right support. #BBCsend @BBCBreakfast has found parents win 80% of cases. Deanne fought for her daughter…
Nov 30 – video – 57 seconds Difficulties with speech, language and communication [SCL] are known as “hidden disabilities”. Azita Zohhadi is a head teacher at a school in Leeds, she says with the right support children who have these disabilities do have potential. #BBCSend #SEN
Observations… SEND is not niche. 40% aged 5-16 have Special Educational Needs in England Early intervention is everything. It changes outcomes. Invest early, give children with disabilities & SEND the therapies, education, health & social support they need to progress. Less outlay is needed later. It’s proven, it works but still LAs & Gvnment don’t listen. #BBCSend
SEND Myths ‘17 From the Council for Disabled Children – November 2017 This is a useful document on the Top Myths (and Facts) around SEND and EHCPs. You can find it on our website under Useful Documents and the original article is here: https://councilfordisabledchildren.org.uk/information-advice-and-support-servicesnetwork/what-send-information-organisations-group
@SENDFamilyVoice A very busy week nationally for SEND - so much was captured on BBC Breakfast's SEND week which achieved the programme's highest ever audience involvement ratings (see article above).
Some other twitter highlights: Ofsted puts up short film clips onto YouTube about LA area inspections: https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLq-zBnUkspPs6MvziaG4mMIcblAqNaT1 It's no good having a great EHCP if there are no post-16 options http://blog.optimus-education.com/making-transition-reviews-count Big opportunity for parents & CYP to feed into national '10 research priorities in physiotherapy' survey - let's widen the research http://www.csp.org.uk/professional-union/research/james-lind-alliance-physiotherapypriority-setting-partnership/top10 A tale of lost childhood https://theloneautismparent.com/2017/11/29/a-tale-of-la-skullduggery-a-lostchildhood/amp/ At last!!!! Supporting people with profound & multiple learning disabilities: core & essential service standards: http://www.thesensoryprojects.co.uk/PMLD-service-standards
Caring & Short Breaks This came as a Tweet – but it’s so much more than that… Contact publish report today, Caring More Than Most, a report on parent carers - some very thought-provoking stats & findings “A quarter of UK parents of disabled children provide an unimaginable 100 plus hours of care every week. This is the equivalent of working three full-time jobs simultaneously and without any of the usual benefits like regular or sick pay, holidays or a pension.” https://contact.org.uk/caring-most “Sign our petition calling for a review of current funding for short breaks and help us take the first step to address this growing crisis in health and social care for disabled children.” The link on the Contact page is currently broken, here is the live link: http://www.e-activist.com/page/14147/petition/1
Christmas listings on the Local Offer The Local Offer is THE online repository for information, events and queries for all SEND related matters. As Christmas nears, this is the website to check… • For Families – please keep checking the Local Offer pages or ask via the Contact Us page for information. • For Providers – please contact the Local Offer to make sure your events are listed! E: sendlocaloffer@achievingforchildren.org.uk W: www.afcinfo.org.uk/local_offer
More on Changing Places Great video from BBC here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOCupH2ouNs&feature=youtu.be&app=desktop More news to follow next week. We think it’s good news on local services!
Home Schooling Support Group Me too & Co is pleased to host the Home Schooling Support Group for parents of children with additional needs. Tuesday 12th December from 2.30 to 4pm MeToo&Co, the Crossway Centre, Twickenham, TW1 2PD E: info@metooandco.org.uk E: hounslowpcf@gmail.com If you would like to attend, please email both the addresses above. “While the parents are sharing ideas and supporting each other, the children and young people can join in with the activities we have on that day, such as cookery, music therapy and even have their hair cut! There is a special class from the Kids Cookery School at 2.30pm which is small and quiet, so parents are very welcome to book their children in for that. This group is being organised by Aldona Zywicka-Thorton, of Hounslow Parent Carers Forum, and is open to parents who live in any borough and is not linked to any Local Authority.”
Super Moon Nothing to do with SEND. But it’s a free show… and appealed to us! “Robert Massey, of the Royal Astronomical Society, said this supermoon will appear brightest at midnight - when at its highest point above the horizon. Nasa has called this weekend's sighting the first in a "supermoon trilogy" over the next two months, with others to come on 1 January and 31 January.” http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42211288 As ever, if you have any queries at all, please ask and we'll always do our best to find an answer. With best wishes, Caroline North (for Kingston) and Romany (for Richmond) Phone: 07469 746 145 www.sendfamilyvoices.org