Special Educational Needs and Disability Termly Newsletter
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Special Educational Needs and Disability Termly Newsletter Summer Term 2017 Special Education Needs (SEN) Service Education, Learning and Skills London Borough of Lambeth 0207-926-7754 and 0207-926-9460 [email protected] 10th Floor International House Canterbury Crescent Brixton, SW9 7QE Dear Colleagues I am pleased to present the second in our new termly SEND Service Newsletters for schools. I hope that you will find it a useful way of receiving service updates and news from the team. There have been many changes within SEND over the last year including a complete restructure to the team. I am confident the changes will allow us to continue to support our schools, improve communication, and allow us to better meet our responsibilities in light of the recent SEN reforms. Unfortunately we have been badly affected in recent months with a Congratulations to Nusayba from Wyvil number of officers on long term sick leave, and one of our senior staff Primary School whose artwork has been chosen for our Parent Engagement members having to leave due to family issues. We are a small team, and campaign. The theme was ‘Being heard.’ we still have some key positions that still need to be recruited to. We appreciate your patience with us while we go through these changes. Adam Yarnold SEND Head of Service SEND Newsletter Summer Term 2017 http://www.younglambeth.org.uk/local-offer/landing- Page 1 of 12 pages/local-offer.html Special Educational Needs and Disability SPECIALISTTermly BOOKLET Newsletter We are now updating this for 2017/18 Special Heads and Resource Base leaders have been asked to provideSummer updated Term info and 2017 pictures. Copies were sent around to all schools, hopefully you have all seen this and it has been a useful information source. Feedback from schools and families has been extremely positive. Please ring the SEND team if you would like more copies or email Claire Kirwan: [email protected] Copies can also be found on the Local Offer: http://www.younglambeth.org.uk/local-offer/landing-pages/schools-and-education-5-16.html EHCP The EHCP team continues to work incredibly hard undertaking requests for new assessments in Lambeth. There have been a significant increase in requests since the move to EHCP process and the team of 4 are working to meet the statutory duties, working with families and school to ensure a successful assessment for our children and young people. Can I please remind all schools that EHCP requests should be sent in throughout the school year. Leaving them until the end of the summer term could mean that schools will not be involved in the EHC Plan because of the statutory timelines. MONITORING TEAM The team continues to work with schools and is split into two areas 0-14 and 14-25. We will be recruiting to vacant positions within this team over the next months to ensure we can meet the demand that is ever growing in Lambeth. We are currently supporting a cohort of approximately 1800 children and young people, so it is impossible for staff to attend all reviews and school meetings. SEND Newsletter Summer Term 2017 http://www.younglambeth.org.uk/local-offer/landing- Page 2 of 12 pages/local-offer.html ANNUALSpecial REVIEWS Educational Needs and Disability As you know it is a legal requirement that each pupil with an EHCP or statement must have a yearly review. It is Termlyour role to remind Newsletter you that this must take place and formal termly reminders should be reaching you. Please can you make sure that all your pupils have had a review in the last 12 months and that the Lambeth Summer Term 2017 SEN service has received all relevant paperwork. CONVERSIONS We now have less than 12 months to ‘convert’ all remaining statements to the EHCP format. Please can all schools ensure that any remaining pupils who still have a statement have the conversion held as soon as possible in order to meet this deadline. SEND TRANSPORT Independent travel training and travel buddying What is Independent Travel Training? Travelling independently is an important part of your child’s development. Travel Training gives children with Special Educational Needs the skills and confidence to travel independently on public transport. How does it work? The child or young person will be paired up with their own experienced travel trainer. The trainer will conduct full risk assessments on a safe route to school or college and then accompany your child as they travel on public transport. On the way, they will pass on skills, hints and tips to help them get ready for making the journey on their own. Who is it for? The Travel Training programme is for young people who: Are aged 11-19 Live in the London Borough of Lambeth Currently use specialist transport Have an Education and Health Care Plan What do I do next? If you know of a child who could benefit from Independent travel training and meets the requirements please speak to their parents or E-mail [email protected], or Call 020 7926 6839 You can download a leaflet on independent travel training (Click on link) or for further information visit www.younglambeth.org.uk/local-offer/landing-pages/travel-assistance.html SEND Newsletter Summer Term 2017 http://www.younglambeth.org.uk/local-offer/landing- Page 3 of 12 pages/local-offer.html Special Educational Needs and Disability LOCALTermly AREA INSPECTION Newsletter UPDATE The Children and Families Act 2014 places responsibility on the local area, which includes the local authority, healthSummer commissioners Term and 2017 providers (e.g. schools), to identify and meet the needs of children and young people and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities aged 0 to 25. Ofsted have been commissioned by Minister Edward Timpson to work jointly to deliver a program of local area inspections over the next five years to inspect local areas and evaluate how well they are fulfilling these duties. All 152 local areas will be inspected over a five-year period starting in 2016, so Lambeth could be inspected at any point during the next four years. Inspection teams will include one of Her Majesty’s Inspectors (HMI) (lead), a Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspector and an Ofsted Inspector (OI). Inspectors will focus on three key questions: • A: How effectively does the local area identify children and young people who have SEN and/or disabilities? • B: How effectively does the local area assess and meet the needs of c&yp who have SEN and/or disabilities? • C: How effectively does the local area improve outcomes for c&yp who have SEN and/or disabilities? Ofsted have now published 25 inspection letters, 8 of which have been identified as having serious concerns and therefore requiring the local area to produce a written statement of action. The published inspection letters can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-area-send-inspection-outcome- letters#history Ofsted have also produced a power point presentation giving an overview of the inspection and summarising the findings to date. This is available from: https://www.slideshare.net/Ofstednews/localareasendinspections210217 SEND Newsletter Summer Term 2017 http://www.younglambeth.org.uk/local-offer/landing- Page 4 of 12 pages/local-offer.html Special Educational Needs and Disability Termly Newsletter LAMBETHSummer LOCAL Term OFFER 2017 Lambeth sets out in its Local Offer the support available for children and young people with SEND. This is published online on the Young Lambeth website at http://www.younglambeth.org/local-offer. We ask that all schools include this link on their websites and within their SEND information reports. We are currently holding focus groups with parents and carers, to make changes to the Local Offer to make it easier to navigate and ensure that it contains the information they are looking for in an easy to find and read format. We would also like to get the views of children and young and it would be great if schools could help us to get the views of children and young people at school, we have suggested some questions below, If you could email response to Claire Kirwan, [email protected] we will collate them and let you know responses to them in the next newsletter. 1. Do you know what the Lambeth Local Offer is? 2. Did you know there is a website? 3. Where do you go to find out information about the support available for you? 4. Where do you go to find out about things to do and places to go in Lambeth? 5. Have a look at Lambeth’s Local Offer - http://www.younglambeth.org/local- offer/landing-pages/local-offer.html 5a. Now you know this website exists will you use it? 5b. If not why, and what needs to change? 6. How old are you? 7. Which school do you go to? SEND Newsletter Summer Term 2017 http://www.younglambeth.org.uk/local-offer/landing- Page 5 of 12 pages/local-offer.html PARENTSpecial AND CARER ENGAGEMENTEducational Needs and Disability We will be having SEND and Children With Disabilities Social Care coffee mornings on the third Wednesday of everyTermly month at We Newsletter Are 336, Lambeth Accord, 336 Brixton Road, London SW9 7AA. TheseSummer are for parent Term and 2017 carer’s to drop in if they need to speak to someone in the SEND department. Wednesday 17th May 2017 10:30 – 11:30 Wednesday 21st June 2017 10:30 – 11:30 Wednesday 19th July 2017 10:30 – 11:30 Evening Meeting Wednesday 5th July 18:00 – 19:00 Please encourage your parents to come along.