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Welcome to the latest Cumberland SEND & AP Partnership newsletter for parents and carers.
Know any parents/ carers who aren't currently signed up to receive our newsletter? Please send them this link!
Please see an introduction from Natalie Bevan, our SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement and Transformation Lead for Cumberland Council below:
"Hello all - for those who don't know me, my name is Natalie Bevan and I am the SEND and AP Improvement and Transformation and Improvement Lead for Cumberland Council. To give a bit more information about myself, I have over 15 years of experience in managing and improving services for children and young people with SEND, and have expertise in strategic planning, service delivery, and effectively bringing together groups of professionals, parents and carers, and children and young people to work together to improve services. I have been working in Cumberland for around 9 months now, and am introducing this newsletter as I am about to run sessions for parents/ carers on the current SEND Reforms - please see the first item in this newsletter for information.
"I wanted to introduce myself prior to this to say how keen I am to work with you all, and to acknowledge that we know national SEND reform can feel complex and, at times, uncertain for families, schools and partners. I want to offer reassurance that, here in Cumberland, we are approaching these changes with a clear focus on what matters most – improving outcomes and experiences for children and young people with SEND and their families.
"Much of the national direction of travel aligns closely with the work we already have underway. Across the SEND Partnership, we are working to strengthen inclusion, improve consistency in support, and to build a more sustainable system that better meets local needs. This includes developing our SEND improvement plan, enhancing our multi-agency working, and continuing to invest in early identification, quality assurance and workforce capacity.
"In the first item of this newsletter we have an update on our local developments in line with this national reform. As mentioned, I am hosting information sessions this week and next which will go into further detail about what we have done so far in Cumberland and what more there is to do. I hope to see as many of you as possible there, however we will record one of these sessions for those who cannot make it and will share this in our next newsletter, which will be sent shortly after May half-term. Please accept my apologies that these are being held at such short notice - our local reform plan has a very tight timescale, and I want to ensure to meet as many of you as possible before we have to submit this to the Department for Education.
"We know how important communication is, and we are committed to keeping you updated on the work we are doing across education, health and care to improve services and support for children and young people with SEND. We are currently developing a Communications Strategy and Working Together Charter for the Cumberland SEND & AP Partnership; these documents will contain our commitment to how we communicate and work with our partners, including our children and young people, parents, carers, and families. We want your input on these documents - how can we best work together? You can let us know in our survey in the second item of this newsletter.
"We know there is more to do, and we are committed to working openly and collaboratively as we continue this journey. I look forward to seeing many of you on the upcoming information sessions."
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Parent/ carer information sessions - Schools White Paper and SEND Reforms
You will likely have heard about national changes being proposed through the Schools White Paper and SEND reform consultation.
This section of our newsletter explains what we know so far, what is not changing yet, and what will happen next locally.
We would like to reassure families that nothing is changing right now:
- there are no immediate changes to existing support, EHCPs or school provision
- children and young people will continue to be supported under the current SEND Code of Practice
- any future changes will be introduced gradually and we will keep families informed as changes are introduced
- we will involve families wherever we can in any decision making or changes to process etc.
- children and young people will continue to be supported throughout
We know how important consistency is for children and families, and we want to be very clear that your child's current support remains exactly the same.
This means your child's support will continue under the current law, with the current proposals stating these will be protected until at least 2029. This includes:
- Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP)
- support in school
- therapy provision
- rights to assessment
- rights to appeal/ tribunal
We understand that any potential changes can feel worrying when they affect your family and particularly our children and young people. We currently don't yet know exactly what the final plans will look like. Any future changes will take time to introduce and will often come with further guidance. We're committed to keeping families informed and making sure you're supported and kept updated as things develop.
Every local authority area is now required to develop a SEND reform plan, setting out how it will strengthen and improve its SEND offer over the next three years.
We are currently developing our local SEND Reform Plan. This work is focused on:
- Making support available earlier
- Increasing support within mainstream settings
- Improving the quality and consistency of services
- Making sure families have a better experience of the system
This plan is being developed in partnership across education, health and social care, and we are working closely with SENDAC and other partners to ensure the voices of families are heard, however we want to hear from our families directly too.
We are kindly asking families to please complete our Cumberland SEND Reform Survey.
Your views will play an important role in shaping Cumberland's Local SEND Reform Plan. All responses are anonymous. We invite you to share your general thoughts and experiences, rather than detailed personal stories, and we kindly ask that you don’t name individual professionals.
Now is a really important time to consider joining our parent/ carer forum, SENDAC, or our participation and engagement group for young people with SEND, Unique Voices. You can find information on both groups below in the 'getting involved' section.
We appreciate this is an unsettling time for families with children with SEND. We are offering information sessions on the following dates for parents/ carers to receive more information about future plans for Cumberland and our plans for reform.
Both sessions will take place on Microsoft Teams and will be delivered by Natalie Bevan, the SEND Transformation and Improvement Lead.
You can join the sessions on Teams below at the times listed.
We will record one of these sessions for parent/ carers who cannot attend - please note all attendees will have cameras and mics off while we record the session.
Please note we have put one session during half-term; this is due to the time limit we have to return our plan for reform, but also to provide parents/ carers who may work during term time an opportunity to attend the session if they wish.
A reminder that the SEND consultation closes TODAY 18th May. You can give your views here.
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Communication Strategy and Working Together Charter
As part of our ongoing transformation work, we have been developing a Communications strategy and a Working Together charter for the Cumberland SEND Partnership.
Communications Strategy - this strategy outlines how the partnership (including all colleagues in Cumberland Council teams) will communicate with children and young people, parents and carers, as well as agencies across the partnership such as health, schools and settings, and other organisations. When we say 'communication' that covers a wide range of interactions - it includes wider communications like this newsletter and our Facebook page, as well as individual communications to families, such as letters and phone calls. We want to ensure that all communication across the Partnership is compassionate and has the child/ young person at the center of everything we do.
Working Together charter - this charter outlines how we will work together with our families to ensure their voice is heard and that we develop our services, processes and make decisions with our families in Cumberland.
We have co-produced the following four values of our Working Together charter with SENDAC, the statutory parent/ carer forum.
- Everyone feeling valued, included, and respected
- Everyone feeling welcomed and cared for
- Clear communication and a culture of openness and honesty
- Working in partnership
We want to hear your thoughts on how we communicate with you and what our working together values mean to you. We kindly ask parents to please complete our Communications and Working Together survey
Your input will directly inform our Communications Strategy and Working Together charter, documents which will inform how the Cumberland SEND & AP Partnership communicates and works with our partners, including our children and young people and parents/ carers. We will share a draft of these documents with parents/ carers and families in upcoming newsletters following this survey closing.
This survey will take approximately 10 minutes to complete.
This survey will close on Friday 19th June at 5pm.
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Who are our Education, SEND and Inclusion teams?
You said:
It would be useful to have an overview of who teams are, what they do, and how to get in touch.
We did:
We have produced a one-page spread of who several of the teams are, what they do, and how to get in touch! We are now making progress on updating our Local Offer to ensure information is clear and accessible on there about who are teams are, but please see this sheet in the meantime. Most teams in the council can be accessed by discussing any concerns with your school or setting's SENCO, who can submit a Request for Involvement form if they feel your child or young person needs additional support in school.
Please note there are additional teams not covered in this poster who can provide information and support to families:
Family Hubs
Please see our item below for more information on Family Hubs, or click on link above to access their website.
The Neurodiversity and Emotional Wellbeing Team
The Neurodiversity and Emotional Wellbeing Team are available for anyone to refer a child or young person aged 0-25. They also have a website full of information and resources on neurodiversity and emotional wellbeing.
Youth Justice Service
Providing support for children and young people aged 10 - 18 who are at risk of offending or have committed a crime.
Youth Homelessness Service
Providing support for children and young people who are at risk of, or experiencing homelessness.
Youth SAFE
Providing support for young people with issues related to substance abuse.
Early Help Support
Statutory guidance document ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children 2026’ defines Early Help as support for children of all ages that improves a family’s resilience and outcomes or reduces the chance of a problem getting worse. It is not an individual service, but a system of support delivered by local authorities and their partners working together and taking collective responsibility to provide the right provision in their area.
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Staffing updates
We are committed to being transparent with our families and promised we would keep families up to date with staffing changes.
EHCP Coordinators Rachel Woodward and Rachel McConnell will shortly be leaving our Statutory SEND Teams. We wish them all the best in their future endeavors. If either Rachel Woodward or Rachel McConnell were your EHCP Coordinator please do not worry, we are currently looking to recruit to new coordinators and will introduce our new colleagues when they are in post. Upcoming reviews will be covered by one of our current team members in the interim.
The current Statutory SEND Team structure is shown below:
 Please note that we are currently short on staff in our statutory SEND Team. We are committed to improving our timeliness and communication around EHCPs and SEN support, and really appreciate our families' patience and cooperation with us.
You can get in touch with the Statutory SEND Team at SENDSubmission@cumberland.gov.uk.
We would also like to politely remind all parent/ carers that the easiest way to access their child or young person's EHCP is through the Citizen Portal. If you are not signed up to this already we would strongly recommend doing so; it is the quickest and safest way we send amends to you following agreeing to issue or annual reviews. If you have applied for a child’s school place online you will already have an account on the Citizen Portal and can use that to access your child’s EHCP.
New Request for Assessment forms for EHCPs
You said:
We have had feedback recently from both parent/ carers and schools to say there is a lack of input from relevant healthcare professionals for during EHCP assessments and annual reviews. This means that health professionals involved with children and young people are unknown until a later stage, not invited to meetings or not consulted related to their EHCP.
We did: We are introducing new EHCP Request for Assessment forms following May half-term. In these forms we will request health information, including health teams or professionals involved with your child/ young person. This allows us to have a greater understanding of your child/ young persons health needs from the earliest opportunity to ensure the right professionals are consulted for future reviews.
We will also be adding a feedback survey about the EHCP assessment process to all communications to parents/ carers following the assessment taking place. This means we can receive timely feedback on the process from parents/ carers immediately following assessment, so we can review and act on your feedback quickly to implement changes.
The new Request for Assessment forms will be held on the Local Offer and will replace the old forms.
Recent Cumberland SEND Conference
We recently hosted a new Cumberland SEND Conference for our schools and education settings.
The conference included providing schools and settings an opportunity to hear our plans for schools and settings around SEND reform, share inclusive practice, as well as receive some introductory training from our teams on areas such as Emotionally-Based School Non-Attendance, and our SAT mini-modules which offer a focus on transition and neurodiversity.
This week has also seen a practice week taking place at Cumberland Council for internal colleagues. This has included a series of training sessions across Children's Services to inform wider teams of processes within individual teams; this included sessions on Access and Inclusion, EHCP myth busting and an introduction to the Positive Regard approach which has been rolled out across our schools.
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New SENDAC Representatives needed
SENDAC is an independent, parent carer led organisation known as a Parent Carer Forum.
They are run by, and for, parent carers of children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) across the Cumberland local authority area.
Their primary role is to be the collective voice of SEND families. They do this by reaching out, listening, and gathering views, experiences, and feedback from families across Cumberland. They use what parents/ carers tell them to build a broad picture of how local services are working for children and young people with SEND from education and health to social care and beyond.
What makes Parent Carer Forums like SENDAC different is that they work strategically and independently. They are not part of the local authority or the NHS, but work with them, as equal statutory partners, to make sure that parent carers have a genuine voice at the table where decisions are made. SENDAC has worked hard to build and strengthen constructive relationships with key decision makers in Cumberland Council, as well as representatives from the NHS including Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB) and North East and North Cumbria ICB. These strong working relationships are essential to making sure that the parent carer voice is not only heard but also respected and acted upon.
As mentioned at the conference, SENDAC are looking for new members and representatives to support them and allow them to continue to do the fabulous work they do. SENDAC representatives are volunteers; they are equal and statutory members of the partnership, and we could not function as the Cumberland SEND & AP Partnership without them!
If you are interested in becoming a member or representative of SENDAC, please visit their website.
You can also email SENDAC at hello@sendac.org
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🌿 Welcome to the Park Nature Trail!
Get ready for a special adventure where you can look closely, listen carefully, and explore together over May half-term. Spot what nature has to offer and collect your free library card, as well as the chance to win a book token! 👀👂
As you walk, keep your eyes open for exciting things to spot and enjoy talking about what you discover along the way.
Find your trail and see your spotter sheet here!
You can access maps from the Hiking Household website for the following parks on their website:
🌳 Chances Park (Carlisle)
🌿 Castle Park (Whitehaven)
🌼 Vulcan Park (Workington)
What to do
✔ Complete your spotter sheet as you explore
✔ Take your finished form to the library
✔ Get signed up for a FREE library card
✔ Pop your entry into the box for a chance to win a book token! 📚
Where to collect & return: spotter sheets are available at: Workington, Whitehaven and Morton library. Morton library is open every day, 9am–5pm and will be staffed on Tuesday and Friday during half term.
Contact: Information on parental responsibility when a child turns 18
Contact; the charity for families with disabled children have a range of information and advice on navigating the transition from childhood to adulthood for families with disabled children and young people.
As disabled young people approach adulthood, many families are surprised to learn that parental responsibility changes once a child turns 18.
For some young people, this may mean families need to think about things like:
- Mental capacity
- Deputyship
- Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA)
- Appointeeship for benefits
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National Deaf Children's Society - meet your Community Connector, Vonn!
We recently introduced Vonn McCourt, the community connector for the National Deaf Children's Society in Cumbria.
"Hi, I'm Vonn McCourt. I am your community connector for the National Deaf Children's Society in Cumbria.
"I'm here for you - offering support, sharing my experience, and helping you access local resources and services, including those from the National Deaf Children's Society, while also connecting you with other parents and deaf children in your community.
"As a parent of a deaf child, I know how important it is to have the right support and people around you.
"Our connection is on your terms - at your pace, in the way that works best for you. Whenever you need support, I'm here, and I look forward to connecting with you.
"Email me at vonn.mccourt@ndcs.org.uk or call on 07977058341."
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Family Hubs - Time Together Sessions
Time Together is a relaxed drop‑in support group and play session for children with additional needs and their families.
It’s a friendly, understanding space where children can play and explore, and parents and carers can spend time together, share experiences and feel supported.
There is no pressure and no expectations. Just time, space and support.
Sessions running locally:
Carlisle
- Tuesdays
- 11 am to 12 pm
- Harraby Community Campus, Edgehill Road, Harraby, Carlisle, CA1 3SN
- For children aged 0 to 5
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Workington
- Wednesdays
- 3.30 to 4.30 p m
- Westfield Family Hub, Moorclose Road, Workington, CA14 5AP
- For children aged 0 to 7
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Family Hubs May Schedule
A reminder that Cumberland Family Hubs have loads of sessions on for families in addition to the Time Together sessions, and many have sensory rooms that are available to book!
You can download their May schedule here.
Family Hubs also have an abundance of information and resources on their website for families; this includes support for children's development, health and learning.
You can also keep up to date with Family Hubs by following them on Facebook.
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New Emotionally-Based School Non-Attendance Support Session for parents and carers
Assistant Educational Psychologists Tamsyn Charters and Kirsty Harrison have been delivering a series of training on Emotionally-Based School Avoidance/ Non Attendance, often abbreviated as EBSA/ EBSNA.
This training has been delivered to multiple schools and settings in Cumberland, as well as internal teams in Cumberland Council.
Tamsyn and Kirsty have recorded also now recorded a parent/ carer session for parents/ carers whose child or young person is showing signs of, or currently experiencing EBSA/EBSNA.
This session includes:
- How EBSA/EBSNA can present in different children and young people
- The impact of anxiety on a child/ young person
- How parents and carers can support their child/ young person through active listening and regulation activities
- Advice and guidance on returning to school
You can watch the parent/ carer session on YouTube now - we are also in the process of updating our information on EBSA/EBSNA on the Local Offer and will share this in our next newsletter.
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A reminder of our new Local Offer and providing your feedback!
You can access the new site here: Cumberland's SEND Local Offer | Cumberland SEND
What is the Local Offer?
The SEND Local Offer is a resource that all Local Authorities must have. It compiles local SEND information, provision, and resources in one place – ‘setting out in one place information about provision they expect to be available across education, health and social care for children and young people in their area who have SEN or are disabled, including those who do not have Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans,’ (SEND Code of Practice, 2015).
The Local Offer has two key purposes:
- To provide clear, comprehensive, accessible and up-to-date information about the available provision and how to access it, and
- To make provision more responsive to local needs and aspirations by directly involving disabled children and those with SEN and their parents, and disabled young people and those with SEN, and service providers in its development and review
How does this affect me?
We hope that our new Local Offer will become a central digital space for children and young people with SEND and their families for all information, resources and news about services and provision in Cumberland. We will also use it in future to promote engagement events, how you an give your feedback and views, and most importantly, what we are doing with the feedback you provide us.
Please note if you run any local events, support groups or charities related to SEND, any links to the Local Offer you provide will need to be updated to the new link: https://cumberlandsend.co.uk/cumberland-send
We have chosen to move the website for several reasons, including:
- The new site offers easier navigation, making it simpler for families and professionals to find information and resources they need. We consulted with families on how the new website should look and feel following Local Government Reorganisation in Cumbria, and have co-produced the new site with SENDAC, the statutory parent/carer forum for Cumberland.
- The site uses the same platform as the Family Hub website, meaning there is more consistency and familiarity across websites hosted by Cumberland Council.
- The new site platform is simpler and easier to update, so we can keep information and resources as up to date as possible.
We hope families will help us spread the word about the new Local Offer - please do pass this message on to any other families who may use the Local Offer!
Got any feedback for us about the new website? Please let us know your thoughts at: Cumberland SEND Local Offer Feedback | Let's Talk Cumberland
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