Cumbria County Council sent this bulletin at 20-12-2019 12:30 PM GMT
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We hope you can come along!
We're hosting four mini-conferences in January across the county for parent/carers. We want to give you the opportunity to share your experiences, and to work with you to improve SEND services. The focus is firmly on how we can move things forward for children and young people. We hope you can make it. And please share this invite with other parent/carers.
"So important we learn from your experiences."
"The whole aim of these conferences is to start talking face to face with as many people as possible about what needs to improve and how we can work together to make that happen. This is about moving right into the nitty-gritty of how specific services work (or don't work) for people.
"We're clear that learning from your experience is so important if we're going to create services that really meet people's needs. I hope to see you there."
Dan Barton, Assistant Director - Education & Skills at Cumbria County Council and lead officer for the SEND Improvement Programme
Book your place now
All events take place from 10.30am to 2.30pm and lunch will be provided. The events are free to attend.
If you are unable to book online or have any special requirements, call People First on 03003 038037.
Event Details
The events will involve a mixture of presentations and workshops where attendees can get involved and talk about key issues. The aim is to get a better understanding of the challenges facing parent/carers in terms of accessing services and start agreeing the activity that needs to happen to make improvements, and how we will work with parents/carers to do that.
Workshops include:
Autistic Spectrum Disorder Diagnosis and Support
Therapies
Preparing for adulthood
Education, Health and Care Plans
Additional workshops may be added based on feedback from the parent/carer surveys which are currently being conducted (see below).
Speakers include (date dependent):
Dan Barton - Assistant Director - Education and Skills, Cumbria County Council
Hilary Fordham - Chief Operating Officer, NHS Morecambe Bay Clinical Commissioning Group
Greg Everett - Senior Commissioning Manager, NHS North Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group
Linda Clegg - Independent Chair of the SEND Improvement Board
Julia Westaway - Population Health and Children’s System Senior Manager, NHS Morecambe Bay Clinical Commissioning Group
Since the start of November we've been running a survey to capture the views and experiences of parents/carers and children/young people.
If your child has an EHCP you will have received a questionnaire in the post. Thank you if you've been able to complete and return it.
If your child receives SEN Support in school, but does not have an EHCP, you've been invited to complete an online survey. There's still time if you/your child haven't had a chance yet.
We're hoping to get all the questionnaires returned and analysed with results available early in the New Year. We'll share the results in this eNewsletter.
Easy Read action plan
The action plan which sets out how we are responding to the recommendations from our Ofsted/CQC inspection is called the Written Statement of Action (WSoA).
Cumbria County Council is currently consulting on proposals for changes to Resourced Provision in Cumbrian schools. Resourced Provision schools receive extra funding to help them support pupils with additional needs.
The proposals for change aim to make the system fairer and more consistent across the county.
The Cumbria SEND Improvement Programme has been created by Cumbria County Council, NHS North Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group and NHS Morecambe Bay Clinical Commissioning Group, working with Cumbria Parent Carer Forum, to respond to recommendations from Ofsted/Care Quality Commission following their 2019 inspection of SEND services in Cumbria.
