SEND Engagement Day

June 2013

Welcome and Introduction

Annemarie Blackshaw Head of SEN/AEN Provider Services

Our Speakers today:• Brian Lamb• Tim Coulson• Simon Morgan

Our guests today• Councillor Ray Gooding• Councillor Paul Honeywood

Programme10.30 Welcome and Aims for the day – Annemarie Blackshaw

10.35 Some ‘thoughts’ on SEND - Video clip

10.40 Presentation on National Context – Brian Lamb

11.00 The issues for Essex - Tim Coulson

11.10 Key Messages from SEND Consultation - Simon Morgan

11.25 Developing the SEND Priorities - Annemarie Blackshaw

11.35 First session - Workshops

12.30 Lunch and networking

13.30 Second session - Workshops

14.30 Summing up and next steps – Annemarie Blackshaw

Aims of the day

• Provide an update on the Children and Families Bill • Identify what the Essex SEND strategy needs to

address• Summarise the key messages from  the recent

consultation and engagement sessions  • Use workshop sessions to further develop the six

key priorities • Provide a focused session on the local offer

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http://www.essex.gov.uk/Education-Schools/Schools/Special-Education-Needs/Pages/Local-offer.aspx

Some ‘thoughts’ on SEND

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The National Context

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Overview of the Changes to Special Needs Brian Lamb OBE

What's in the Bill?• New Plan to replace the statement covering Education, Health

and Social Care• School Action and School Action plus disappear to be replaced

by new school based category • Local Offer-includes all Stakeholders• Mediation-but not going to be compulsory• Personal Budgets for those with a plan • Joint Commissioning of Services

Not changing

• Definition of SEN stays the same• Admissions Code-but greater clarity that Academies are

included-cannot refuse child with SEN accepted under very specific circumstances

• General principle of inclusion in mainstream schools• SENCO must be a qualified teacher working at the school• Plan contains same legal protections around Education as the

Statement

EDUCATION, HEALTH AND CARE PLAN

How Statements are being replaced

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Education Health and Care Plan

• Replacing SEN statements and Learning Difficulty Assessments (for 16- to 25-year-olds) with a single, simpler 0-25 assessment process and Education, Health and Care Plan from 2014.

• Threshold for triggering a plan does not change• Rights for triggering a plan remain the same, there will be timescales

and others can also trigger a plan and it will have to be reviewed• EHC plans extend statutory rights into the further education and

training sector for the first time• New duties in relation to health but not yet social care in relation to

the plan (CSDPA/Social Care requirements still remain)• Duty to jointly commission services

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THE LOCAL OFFER

Addressing confidence in the SEN system?

Government Bill-Local Offer

• Parents, children and young people must be involved developing the local offer

• It must set out what families can expect from local services and where they have eligibility criteria and/or thresholds for accessing services

• What services are available to support those without Education, Health and Care Plans, including what children, young people and parents can expect schools and colleges to provide from their delegated funds

• What specialist support is available and how to access it and to give details of where parents and young people can go for information, advice and support.

• Each service will be accountable for delivering what is set out in the local offer and if families are unhappy with what they receive or what is available they will be able to take this up with those services.

• The local offer will give details of how to complain about provision and about rights of appeal.

• It must be reviewed

ADDITIONAL SEN SUPPORTWhat replaces school action and school action plus?

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School Based Category?

• School Action and School Action Plus to go - new name Additional SEN Support (this may yet change!)

• School based category poses the question of what the school offer should look like to achieve better outcomes

• New Funding guidelines-Schools responsible for provision up to £4,000 + £6,000.

• Currently different models of intervention-what is the evidence base for different approaches -effective use of TAs a major issue

• A number of models look to develop teacher based expertise supported by specialist provision. This is what the New Code now expects - increased responsibility on teachers and schools

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Early Identification-New Code • Consider their core teaching and adapt that to meet needs of the

cohort as a whole• Ensure that parents of children are fully engaged, consulted and

informed and agreement is reached on how the child’s needs will be met

• Ensure that the child or young person is fully engaged, consulted and informed and agreement is reached on how their needs will be met

• There should be a plan that focuses on what outcomes are expected and the support that the school, college and any relevant agencies will provide

• Reviews of progress should be held at least once a term• Where relevant, external services and providers should work with

settings to meet the needs of children and young people with SEN

and• Settings should review the effectiveness of what is happening and

consider the need for a further assessment and whether there should be changes to the support provided

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“We know that the educational achievement for children with SEN is too low and the gap with their peers too wide. This is a hangover of a system and a society which did not place enough value on achieving good outcomes for disabled children and children with SEN”

Lamb Inquiry.

OUTCOMES

THE EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE SHOWSTHAT PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT IS ONE OF THE KEY FACTORS IN SECURING HIGHER STUDENT ACHIEVEMENTAND SUSTAINED SCHOOL PERFORMANCE

(Harris 2006).

Challenges

• Moving to the Education Health and Care Plan• Getting the Local Offer right• What does a good school offer look like for SEN?• How do we ensure better outcomes for children?• What expectations should we have of classroom teachers and

what is the role of professional support and when should it be deployed?

• What is the evidence for different approaches?• How do we ensure that parents and young people are fully

engaged?

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Important Links

• http://www.education.gov.uk/childrenandyoungpeople/sen/a0075339/sengreenpaper

• http://www.education.gov.uk/a00221161/children-families-bill• http://www.afa3as.org.uk/ • http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20091207163458/dcsf.gov.uk/lamb

inquiry/

• http://www.education.gov.uk/complexneeds/ • http://www.sendpathfinder.co.uk/ • http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/cm84/8438/8438.pdf• http://

www.education.gov.uk/schools/pupilsupport/sen/a00209601/send-materials-advanced

CONTACT DETAILS

Brian.publicaffairs@gmail.com

The issues for EssexTim Coulson

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Our Vision

In Essex, our vision is to ensure that all Children and Young People with SEND have a full range of support and opportunities available to them. We will work together to ensure that all children have opportunities in learning and to maximise their life chances, goals and aspirations. To achieve this will require professionals and local communities to work effectively together. We also want to ensure that parents and carers have greater confidence by giving them better access to information and greater opportunity to participate in decision making. We will strive to make our SEND processes more flexible and transparent.

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Our Principles

Our vision is underpinned by a number of shared principles that guide the commissioning and provision of services for children and young people with SEND. • Information on SEND should be easily accessible to all.• Parents / carers are the experts on their children’s needs . • All children and young people have a right to be involved in

decision making that affects their lives. • The needs of most children with SEND can and should be met in

a mainstream setting.• There should be equality of access to services .

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Our Principles cont.…

• There should be a range of mainstream and specialist provision . • Special Schools should play an important role in supporting

mainstream schools to include pupils with SEND.• Raising achievement and narrowing the gap in attainment for

children with SEND must be the aim of all education providers in Essex.

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Our Issues

What we need to focus on:-

• Increasing confidence in the system• Identification of SEN• Focusing on early intervention and prevention • Funding and resourcing for pupils with SEN• Working in partnership • Improving the school experience for pupils with SEN• Securing attainment and progress • Increasing  specialist provision • Increasing confidence in what we can achieve in Essex

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SEND Strategy Consultation Findings June 2013

IntroductionTo obtain views on the future delivery of SEND services and shape

the development of a SEND Strategy

862 online responses received (127 additional face-to-face

responses)

Proposed Priorities

1. Ensure all schools and educational settings offer good or outstanding provision for pupils with SEND.

2. Strengthen and coordinate our approach to preventative work and early intervention programmes.

3. Working in partnership to produce the Local Offer.4. Ensure pupils with SEND follow a planned pathway through

transition into adulthood that supports their progression.5. Improve the organisation and delivery of SEN assessments,

placements and services, including joint assessment and funding arrangements for C&YP with residential and/or exceptional health needs.

6. We want to ensure there is a range of provision in place to support children with SEND.

Strong support for all priorities

Parents and Carers School Employees Other0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100% 96% 99% 98%

Parents and Carers (525)

Priority areas of need where services should be targeted:

To ensure that there are no gaps in health and social care provision suggested areas of focus included:

Don't know / Not appli-

cable

Very poor Poor Neither good nor

poor

Good Very good0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

34

5 6

18

26

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Where transport is arranged through the local authority parents consider

this to be:

How could transport arrangements be improved?

School Employees (216) and Other (248)What else we could do to improve progress and achievement for children and young people with SEND: -

What services do we need to target at early intervention: -

School Employee Other

Appropriately qualified and well trained teachers/ practitioners

Access to professional support, advice and information

Improved school understanding of expectations re. SEND

More funding and improved access to funding/transparency

Multi-agency collaboration and information sharing

School Employee Other

Speech, language and occupational therapy

Specialist teaching provision (especially at pre-school)

Early years support Health services – often the first point of contact

What can we do to improve the way schools, health and social care work together to support children and families?

How can we ensure transition planning achieves the best possible outcomes for young people

School Employee Other

Information sharing and communications (so parents can make informed decisions)

Multi-agency join up / thinking beyond the school

A single point of contact/Key worker Involving families when considering long term needs of child

School Employee Other

Information sharing/signposting/communications/understanding parent and child views

Understanding of the importance of multi-agency working (with equal footing for agencies) and Introducing keyworkers/coordinators

More training Removing bureaucracy

What things do you feel could be done differently to improve the statutory assessment process: -

What would improve their confidence in the range of provision in place to support children with SEND in Essex schools: -

School Employee Other

More training (minimum level for all staff) and more specialist teachers

Joined up support/multi-agency working

More SEN Places and choice/Increased teaching capacity

Special provision made for children with severe ASD

More information on what free schools will provide

School Employee Other

Speed up the process (but not at the cost of quality)

More support to complete complex forms (online and in plain English)

Families better able to inform the process (clear communication)

Progress information provided throughout/Greater transparency

Assessments carried out early and reviewed/amended regularly

.

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Next stepsOn-going consultation through these engagement sessions -

Informed by this consultation analysis

Consider how this analysis will influence our new SEND strategy for Essex.

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Developing the SEND Priorities • The SEND strategy has been planned by a multi agency

strategy reference group• Throughout the process all plans have been reported to

Elected Members through the Policy Scrutiny Committee• The priority areas consulted on reflect the new SEND

legislation and address the Essex context• Each priority area has been assigned a multi agency

project team to detail the main areas for development and develop action plans of what we need to do in Essex

• We want to take this opportunity to gain your views on developing the priorities further

Workshop Sessions

The aim of each workshop is to work in partnership to inform and develop the six priority

areas in the SEND strategy.

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Developing the SEND PrioritiesWe now have 2 sessions for workshops one before lunch and one immediately after lunch. There are 6 workshops; you were asked to choose 3 that most interested you. The project team have endeavoured to allocate according to your preferences.

Workshop 1 – Ensure all schools and education setting offer good or outstanding provision for pupils with SEND.

Elizabeth Cornish – Assistant Lead Strategic Commissioner – SEN Inclusion

Room: Blue Room

Workshop 2 – Strengthen and co-ordinate our approach to preventative work and early intervention programmes.

Chris Perkins – Manager - Specialist Teaching and Pre-school Services

Room: Dining Hall

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…..continuedWorkshop 3 – Working in partnership to produce the Local Offer

Professor Brian Lamb OBE

Room: Red Room

Workshop 4 – Ensure pupils with SEND follow a planed pathway through transition into adulthood that supports their progression.

Julia Ammar Seraie –Service Development Officer Transition Pathway Service

Room: Board Room Morning Only

Workshop 5 - Improve the organisation and the delivery of SEN assessments, placements and services, including joint assessment and funding arrangements for child and young people.

Alison Stanford – Manager Statutory Assessment Service

Room: Main Hall

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……continued

Workshop 6 – Develop a continuum of provision to meet a continuum of need.

Gary Bloom – Manager SEN Provision Development

Room: Board Room Afternoon Only

Remember to go straight to your second workshop after lunch!

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Summing up and next stepsReflection on the day……..

Next steps• Reviewing and incorporating all of the feedback (July/Aug`13)• Working with the Policy Team to produce the SEND Strategy

(Aug`13)• Final on-line consultation (Sept`13)• Development of action plans by the multi-agency SEND project

groups (2013-14)• Publication of Local Offer (Sept `14)• Web portal for Local Offer (Sept`14)• Embracing the e-culture.• Living the commitment to work in partnership and improve

confidence.

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http://www.essex.gov.uk/Education-Schools/Schools/Special-Education-Needs/Pages/Local-offer.aspx