Cambridgeshire SEND Update - December 2022

Cambridgeshire County Council sent this bulletin at 02-12-2022 10:45 AM GMT

Welcome to the second edition of the Cambridgeshire SEND newsletter.

In this edition we are focusing on the Cambridgeshire County Council SEND Transformation Programme, with updates on some of the SEND Transformation workstreams aimed at improving support for children with SEND and their families. In addition, an update on Phase 2 of the SEND Strategy – Making SEND Everybody’s Business.

If you would like to receive future editions of the SEND Update, please click on the subscribe button below and sign up via the online form.

Toni Bailey 

Assistant Director of SEND & Inclusion

Quick Links to articles

Autism Toolkit
SEND Transformation in Cambridgeshire
SEND Ordinarily Available Provision Toolkit
Plans to increase available school places for children with SEND
SEND Transport
Preparing for adulthood
New SEND Case Management System
SEND Strategy - Making SEND Everybody’s Business Phase 2 Update
Cost of Living Support
Further information and support

Autism Toolkit

The Autism Toolkit is a self-assessment tool for organisations, providers, services, teams and employers, irrespective of them being autism specific/focused, to self-assess their autism accessibility. It encourages them to make reasonable adjustment and improve accessibility for children, young people and adults with autism.

The Toolkit was created as part of the All-Age Autism Strategy development, aiming to increase the accessibility or organisations and businesses across Peterborough and Cambridgeshire. It will be included in commissioning processes going forward, and is also freely available for any organisations to complete.

Once completed, organisations can be added to an Autism Accessible Directory, which will be available on the two Local Offers, and gives organisations the opportunity for shared learning of best practice with other organisations.

More information on the Toolkit can be found on the Peterborough and Cambridgeshire Local Offers, and also through the video link below:

SEND Transformation in Cambridgeshire

What is the SEND Transformation Programme?

The SEND Transformation Programme is a highly aspirational plan for improvements to SEND across Cambridgeshire. Funding for SEND has not kept pace with the growth in demand for services. This means we cannot continue with our existing arrangements and need to consider better ways to deliver better outcomes using the resources we have available. It is not a programme of cutting support but looking to support children in different ways in their local community. We are focusing on investing in early years and earlier prevention, embedding a focus on outcomes, developing a system wide view and working with partners to shape and deliver change.

For further information on SEND Transformation, including our key areas of focus please take a look at our SEND Transformation FAQ

The words "We Need You!" in white, green and black text

SEND Transformation Needs You!

The following areas have been identified as requiring parental input and co-production:

Descriptors of Need
SEND Support and Ordinarily Available Provision
EHCP Improvement Plan
Preparing for Adulthood
Parental Portal for our new case management system (Statutory Assessment).

We know you have so many ideas and experiences. We want to hear from you.

If you would like to get involved, please email: SEND.Transformation@cambridgeshire.gov.uk

SEND Ordinarily Available Provision Toolkit

Cambridgeshire County Council is in the process of creating a resource for schools called the SEND Ordinarily Available Provision Toolkit.  

Ordinarily Available Provision can be defined as the provision made for children whose special educational needs can be met from the resources generally available to the school or setting.  This will apply to all children without an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP), but children with an EHCP will also benefit from this type of provision in addition to the provision written in their plan.

The toolkit is not designed as a checklist, and schools and settings will not be expected to implement everything within it, but to work with parents to identify appropriate actions from the comprehensive but not exhaustive list of support.  The toolkit will be launched early in 2023

We would like you to complete our parent/carer survey to let us know your thoughts on the SEND System.  Your views will help inform what the Toolkit looks like.

Plans to increase available school places for children with SEND

Cambridgeshire County Council is committed to ensuring access to the right support, in the right place, at the right time for all children with SEND. A foundation block in achieving this is the provision of local school places that meet the needs of our children and young people.

There is growing demand both nationally and across Cambridgeshire for school places that meet the needs of children with SEND. The local authority is developing an ambitious expansion strategy which, over the next 5 years, aims to ensure that each child receives the appropriate level of support through a graduated scale of available provision.

SEND Transport

As part of the SEND Transformation Programme we are embarking on a period of investment, review and change of SEND transport. We want to review the way we currently deliver our service and set a plan for improvement. This includes a review and re-tendering of all routes serving the 13 Cambridgeshire special schools across the next three years.

Find out more on the Cambridgeshire Local Offer website.

Preparing for adulthood

Photo of young people outside a school. Two boys are sitting on a bench talking to each other

Preparing for adulthood means preparing our children and young people for employment, higher education, independent living, friends, relationships, and community and health.

Our SEND Transformation Preparing for Adulthood (PfA) workstream has some key aims outlined on the Cambridgeshire Local Offer website.

We will be holding a Preparing for Adulthood event for parent carers in March 2023, we will provide more information on this in the new year.

For preparing for adulthood tools and resources, take look at: Preparing for Adulthood: All Tools & Resources - NDTi

New SEND Case Management System

Cambridgeshire County Council and Peterborough City Council are working with IMPULSE Nexus to implement a new SEND Case Management System to include an online parent portal for Education, Health, and Care Plans (EHCPs).

Find out more on the Cambridgeshire Local Offer website.

SEND Strategy - Making SEND Everybody’s Business Phase 2 Update

A illustrated stamp with a tick icon and the words "Making SEND everybody's business"

On 12 September 2022 separate workshops were held to agree the focus for the next 12-month period of the SEND Strategy Action Plan, which will be Phase 2 of the overall strategy. Phase 1 took place over the period of time where the pandemic was the focal point and while much progress was supported across the action plan in Phase 1, Phase 2 will now represent the focus on change at pace with more specific action points for partners to work on during the next 12-month period.

Separate workshops were undertaken for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, recognising that while we agree that the focus priority areas should remain shared, the specific actions needed to support each of the authorities need to be different to support the individual needs of Peterborough and Cambridgeshire.

Co-production has remained a key focus, hence the stakeholder approach that has been followed. Following the initial workshops, the focus areas for Cambridgeshire were agreed as:

Theme 1: SEND is Everybody’s Business

Information about SEND System is clear and accessible to parents / carers and processes are as straightforward as possible, particularly in relation to SEN Support.
Information and training is available to support parents / professionals / young people / wider stakeholders
There is a range of ways of engaging well with parents / professionals / wider stakeholders.

Theme 2: Identify and respond to needs early

Needs are identified as early as possible and addressed with effective SEND support processes
Integrated working provides a high quality EHC needs assessment, plans and annual reviews that conform to statutory expectations and requirements
Health organisations are well managed, and the impact is minimised as much as possible
Transitions are well managed

Theme 3: Deliver in the right place at the right time

Local needs are understood, and information is in easily accessible formats so that it informs strategic commissioning and planning
Effective quality assurance processes are in place that ensure provision of services are high quality, value for money and meet agreed outcomes.
The criteria for and use of personal budgets across education, health and social care is clear and understood

The final action plan with details of actions and timescales will be finalised and shared on the SEND Information Hub (Local Offer) in November and regular updates will be provided in future newsletters.

Cost of Living Support

Are you worried about the rising cost of energy bills, food and transport?

You are not alone; the cost of living crisis is affecting many of us.

You may want help accessing grants and debt advice, support getting all the money you're entitled to, or simply want to know more about the government's recent support measures. Whatever your money worries may be, we've put together some helpful information in the links below to help you.

Support with the cost of living - Cambridgeshire County Council
This page on the Local Offer has a section on ‘Money Matters’ aimed at parent carers: Support, advice and information for parent carers and carers - Cambridgeshire County Council
This page has information that may be relevant to everyone: Money and benefits - Cambridgeshire County Council

Further information and support

Pinpoint - Local Parent Carer Forum and hub for information, signposting and events for all things SEND

SENDIASS - Special Educational Needs or Disability Information, Advice and Support Service provide free, confidential, and impartial information, advice and support to parents and carers of children, 0–25 years old, with SEND

Speak Out Council - for anyone in Cambridgeshire who is aged 14 or above, and who is autistic, or has a learning disability.

Local Offer - Cambridgeshire County Council  information about how children and young people who have special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are supported in Cambridgeshire.

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