Sen ofsted & the local area, surveys & news

SEN Ofsted & the Local Area, surveys & news 11th July 2015 Dear All A reminder of the Local Offer launch (which should be fun) and the arrival of Ofsted for SEN…

Sorbet & Ice Cream (again) The Local Offer ‘belongs’ to the community – and is funded & facilitated by Achieving for Children. The family friendly launch…

Monday 13th July – 4pm to 7pm Langdon Down Centre, Teddington Short formal presentation at 5.30pm, from: Simon James, Associate Director SEND, Achieving for Children …plus ‘the face of the Local Offer’ and others      

Demo stations of the Local Offer (and how to make it work for you) Free refreshments, including cake, sorbet & ice creams (there’s a lovely outside area) Art Activities for children and young people (run by both adults and young people) A social media zone run by young people (wristbands too) A photo booth (for you and…?)

Lots and lots of information from local services, support groups and further education

Please book onto the Local Offer launch event here: http://www.afclocaloffer.org.uk/events/14352-official-launch-of-the-local-offer-for-kingstonand-richmond?date=2015-07-13 Erratum: In a previous bulletin, we stated that if you sent a query into the Local Offer feedback page, your enquiry would be kept anonymous. For the moment, that’s not the case. Please specify if you would like your query (and personal details) kept anonymous.

SEN Ofsted & the Local Area Getting ready for the SEN Ofsted inspectors is something that will focus the minds of Achieving for Children and others over the coming ten months. Central Government decided that in order to support successful implementation of the SEND Reforms, it would be a good idea to develop an SEN Ofsted inspection framework (it’s never been done before).

The first of these inspections are planned to take place in May 2016 – and the inspection framework is expected in December. This means that every Local Authority must be ready

by May just in case they are the chosen for inspection.

What is really good news is that qualitative Parent Participation forms a major part of the inspection (2 days out of a 5 day inspection); this means talking directly to families about what is working and what is not.

The SEN Ofsted will focus upon the following points: 

“How effectively does the local area identify children and young people who are disabled and/or have special educational needs?” (most specifically, this



include children and young people who have additional needs, but do not have a Statement or EHCP) “How effectively does the local area meet the needs and improve the outcomes of children and young people who are disabled and/or have special educational needs? “

I’ve underlined the words Local Area in the points above. This is a Local Area inspection – not Local Authority. However the LA, (in our case Achieving for Children) are the people measured on how well the Local Area supports children and young people with SEN (not an easy task – being measured on areas over which you have no direct control).

What does Local Area mean… it means ‘what is it like to live in Kingston or Richmond if you have SEND?’ This might include the schools, the parks, the buses, housing, the doctor, the hospital etc etc Here are the (current) five bullet points that will be judged: “How would your area demonstrate it effectively meets the needs of disabled children and young people and those who have special educational needs and improves their outcomes?  progress made, towards high expectation targets  progress to higher education or employment  independent living  participating in society  being as healthy as possible in adult life” This kind of framework will encourage everyone involved in supporting children & young people with SEN to work together. So that includes education, the council, the adult services, health and more.

Unfortunately, the framework isn’t finalised (and won’t be until December) and in the meantime, we must all work towards understanding what the five points above actually mean.

Attached is the presentation, given by Her Majesty’s Inspector on the SEN Ofsted… should you want more details on the unknown!

Surveys Trailblazers Public Transport General Survey 2015 “ As part of our campaign to improve the accessibility of public transport, it’s important that we gather as much information as possible about how well public transport is meeting the needs of young disabled people.

The information you give us will be used by Muscular Dystrophy UK and Trailblazers to support our call for a more accessible public transport system across the UK. We will name you in our report, unless you tell us you don’t want to be named. ” https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/tbtransport2015 SEN Reform survey from the National Deaf Children’s Society “Last year, the Government in England made a number of big changes to how the education system is meant to work for children with special educational needs (SEN) and disabilities.

Have the changes been positive or negative? We need to hear from you about your own experiences of these changes.

Don’t worry if you don’t know what these changes are – we still want to hear from you!

We’ll be sharing your views with the Government in a report later this year as part of our ongoing campaign work to make sure that deaf children get the support they need.” https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SENreformsurvey2015?utm_campaign=SEN+reform+survey +2015&utm_source=emailCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content Childcare and SEND, from Every Disabled Child Matters (EDCM) “We are calling for equal access to childcare for disabled children through the launch our new campaign 'Levelling the Playing Field: the childcare campaign for disabled children.'

'Levelling the Playing Field' follows on from our involvement in an independent Parliamentary Inquiry into childcare for disabled children in 2014, which concluded that families with disabled children are being failed by childcare at every step.

Get involved with our parent survey and read our legal resource here: “ http://www.edcm.org.uk/campaigns-and-policy/childcare

News #1 …extending the transfer timescale (from the National Network of Parent Carer Forums) “ SEND Minister Edward Timpson has just announced the government are extending the transfer timescale to EHC Plans from 16 weeks to 20 weeks from 1st Sept 15. Also extra help, support and advice for local areas 'In his speech to the Association of Directors of Children's Services Conference earlier today, Minister Edward Timpson announced two measures to support the effective transfer of Statements of Special Educational Needs and Learning Difficulty Assessments (LDAs) to Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans.

Firstly, he has asked our delivery support partner - a consortium led by Mott MacDonald and the Council for Disabled Children - to provide further advice, help and support to local areas in managing this transition period, primarily through a series of events with the regional networks. These sessions will be run by our SEN advisers and will aim to help authorities learn from each other, drawing on the most effective practical approaches that local areas are developing to carrying out transfer reviews in a timely and person-centred way.

Secondly, in the autumn the Government will extend the maximum timescale for transferring individual statements from 16 to 20 weeks, matching the timescale for new assessments. This will take effect from 1 September 2015.

The Minister will be writing to Directors of Children's Services about this next week. We will be asking LAs to ensure the letter is widely publicised. The Department will also publicise it widely, working with our partners and using our networks.' “

News #2 …Contact a Family on the Budget A view on what the budget could mean… http://www.cafamily.org.uk/news-and-media/summer-budget-what-does-it-mean-forfamilies-with-disabled-children/

Watch this…

This is inspiring… with a lot of support, this young woman with Down’s is “living her dream” http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-33447655 As ever, if you have any queries at all, please ask and I'll do my best to find an answer.

With best wishes, Romany RSFV phone: 07469 746 145 www.richmondsendfamilyvoice.org