 SEND Update
Important information and action required by schools
Dear Colleagues
Having
recently undergone some organisational change at Devon County Council, I
have now taken on the Chief Officer Children (COC) role, and I’m
writing to give you an update on some important changes taking place
across services for children with Special Educational Needs and
Disabilities (SEND).
In
Devon, we have been implementing the SEND reforms and have recently
refreshed the way in which we monitor our performance against SEND Code
of Practice 2014 to ensure that we improve outcomes for children and
young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities and
their families. This is monitored and overseen by the SEND Improvement
Board – a partnership that aims to improve the engagement of all
agencies and ensure we work in collaborative way to identify and meet
the needs of children in Devon. Some of you will be directly involved in
this work.
A new Local
Offer website was introduced in April 2016 and is developing to provide
information about the provision available across Education, Health and
Social Care for children and young people with special educational needs
and/or disabilities, including those without an Education, Health and
Care Plan.
The Minister of
State for Children and Families has tasked Ofsted and the Care Quality
Commission (CQC) with inspecting the effectiveness of local areas in
fulfilling their new duties, which started 1 May 2016. Ofsted and CQC
have jointly published the new Local Area SEND Inspection Framework and
the SEND Inspection Handbook. This carries with it a number of
requirements in terms of preparation by the local area partners, and
also the identification of individuals and groups who will be
interviewed by the inspectors; including young people, parents,
providers and key representatives across education, health and social
care.
We do not know when
Devon will be inspected but it is important that we ensure partners are
aware of the proposed process and content of the Inspection. The new
inspection framework gives us a very helpful template to enable us to
add focus to our practice improvement, working together across the
partnership to improve outcomes for children, young people and their
families.
All SEND partners across the local area should:
* Ensure that their leaders and staff are aware of what the inspection will entail
* Review how data on outcomes is captured and shared with partners
*
Think about how they can ensure that children and parents are at the
centre of the Ofsted visit if they decide to visit as part of the
inspection process.
* Ensure their website includes a link to the SEND Local Offer
* Review how data on outcomes is captured and shared with partners.
Schools
should ensure that the SEN Information Report has been updated annually
and is present on the school website, in line with the requirement set
out in the SEND Code of Practice 2014.
To
ensure we are as prepared as possible for our inspection of SEND, Devon
has requested a peer review from the Local Government Association (LGA)
and this is now scheduled for 22 to 25 November 2016. Preparation for
the review is currently underway. The main focus of the peer review is
to improve our practice and ultimately outcomes for Devon children with
SEND. The important thing is getting this right for children with SEND.
This
review will be an ideal opportunity to gain some external perspective
and challenge on our SEND provision, including our Local Offer.
While
not an inspection, the Peer review will offer insight into our
arrangements for assessing need, how we communicate with schools and
families towards the creation of an EHCP, the quality of those EHCPs and
our Early Help and Graduated Response policies.
We
know that meeting the new Statutory Code of Practice is going to pose
some challenges in Devon, with increased demand for new assessments and
an extension of the age range to age 25. While there is still work to do
achieve a multi-disciplinary and co-produced set of EHCPs for our
children and young people, the new SEND improvement board is helping to
shape this work and ensure a collaborative and strategic approach.
The
peer review team is likely to consist of a mix of educational, health
and social care peers and managers including a headteacher.
More information is available on the Devon Local Offer website, including frequently asked questions.
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Best Wishes,
Jo Olsson | Chief Officer Children
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