Welcome to our new Children and Young People’s Workers!

We recently welcomed Anna and Maria to the DiAS team where they’ll be taking on a new role as Children and Young People’s workers. Between them they have lots of experience working with and supporting children and young people and as part of their role they’ll be offering direct support. Their role is to:

• Work with children and young people individually to gather their views.
• Help children and young people understand what meetings are happening and how they can be involved.
• Provide accessible information and advice.
• Signpost to other services that offer different help and support.

You can find out more about how we directly support children and young people on our web page.  If you want to get in touch with Anna or Maria, contact us.

Got a school meeting coming up? We can help!

We know that many parents and carers sometimes find meetings hard or feel that they don’t get as much out of them as they would like. So, we got together with parents and SENCOs to find out what works best for them. We put their advice, and the advice we give to parents, into one place - our new range of information and support materials to help you get the most out of meetings. It includes top tips, questions to ask, helpful advice from parents and SENCOs and a meetings form. It’s all freely available on our website.

Demystifying SEND information sessions

Our demystifying SEND sessions (delivered by DiAS as part of the Ambassador Volunteer project and in partnership with Parent Carer Forum Devon), have been hugely successful.  

The sessions explain SEND systems and support, how parents and carers can get more involved, and how to find information and services and linked to the Devon Local Offer web page. We ran six virtual sessions across November and December. All sessions sold out and we ended up giving information and support for around 100 families. 

Due to such a great response, we’ve added three more sessions in January 2021.  Book your place on Eventbrite. 

Getting the most from your relationships with professionals

If you have a child with special educational needs or a disability (SEND), one thing is certain – you’ll be meeting and working with lots of professionals over the years.

Good relationships with the people who support your child are really important – they help your child and family to get support that makes a real difference and they help to keep stress levels down for everyone.

That’s why we’ve launched some new information aimed at helping parents and carers get the most from their relationships with professionals day to day. There are lots of practical strategies to use, advice on building good relationships and tips to help you deal with issues that come up day to day.

DiAS volunteers

We have an amazing team of volunteers supporting us in all kinds of ways – from helping with our administration to research for our information resources to supporting parents and carers directly. Many of them have given support in on-line meetings during lockdown. We are always on the look out for more volunteers and have online training sessions being planned for the new year. If you’re interested in becoming a volunteer for DiAS you can find out more on our volunteer web page or contact us.

There’s lots of new and updated information in the pipeline. Coming in the next few weeks and months we have:

A guide to checking a draft plan using the Hub. We are asking parents to use this draft information sheet, so we can make sure it works before we publish it. If you need to check a draft plan for your child using the Hub, get in touch with us and we can send you to draft guide to try out.

A film to help you apply for an EHC Needs Assessment using the EHC Hub.

Web information about being specific in an EHC plan, the different types of SEN and key SEN terms and words.

New special school in Okehampton

A new special school for Okehampton has been backed by county councillors. The school, which can take up to 100 primary and secondary pupils, would be built on the East Okehampton Business Park. It is intended that the school will be open by September 2023 at the latest, subject to planning. It will cater for children with social, emotional and mental health needs and those on the autism spectrum.

EHCP Charter

As part of trying to clarify what a good Education, Health and Care plan (EHCP) should look like, professionals across education, health and care have worked alongside the Co-chairs of the Parent Carer Forum to agree a set of standards about what it should be. This is called the ECHP Charter. This gives a common set of principles that people are agreeing to work with and use to measure the quality of future EHCPs.

SEND Strategy video for children and young people (and parents)

Devon County Council has been working together on a new strategy for Special Education Needs and Disability (SEND) in Devon. And if you’re a young person with SEND, or a family member of someone with SEND, they would love to hear from you about the work they’ve done so far.

The new strategy has been written by staff at Devon County Council in partnership with NHS Devon CCG and the Parent Carer Forum Devon. They have also had input directly from children and young people with SEND themselves. They have created a video about Devon’s new SEND strategy. It includes a newly developed vision and priorities for us to support children and young people with SEND, and their families, in the best way possible.

Special school places

In 2017-18, Devon County Council (DCC) published a review of SEN Place Planning, which set recommendations to ensure that SEND Special School places matched the increased need across the county. To date, new schools have opened in in Tiverton and Newton Abbott, and there have been expansions to schools in Exeter and North Devon.

DCC has recently approved the building of a new special school In Okehampton, as well as further expansion of places in Barnstaple and Dartington. Further proposals are being worked up in preparation for investment in the new financial year. In total, an estimated 600 new special places will be provided across the County between 2018 and 2023.

Changes to social care support guidance and policy

The Disabled Children's Service has published some new guidance and information for parents and carers:

Eligibility Criteria – this is what the Disabled Children's Service use when considering referrals, how to make a referral and the assessment process.

Parent Carer Needs Assessments - This is available for all parent carers of children who meet the eligibility criteria for the Disabled Children's Service.

Direct Payments Policy - In April 2020 a temporary, more flexible direct payments policy was introduced. This policy remains in place and has recently been reviewed with some minor changes. You can read the policy on their website.

Ofsted report on the effects of coronavirus on children and young people

Ofsted published its second report in a series looking at the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic across the sectors it inspects and regulates, from early years and children’s social care, through to post 16 education. The report finds that some children, of all ages and backgrounds, have lost some basic skills and learning as a result of school closures and restrictions on movement.

Ofsted carried out more than 900 visits to education and social care providers during September and October. Across all age groups, they found that children with SEND have been seriously affected in both their care and education, as the services that families relied on – particularly speech and language services – were unavailable. 

Young people’s tips for virtual meetings

FLARE, the young people’s advisory group supported by the Council for Disabled Children, are a group of 13 - 25 year olds from across England. Each member is passionate about ensuring disabled children and young people, and those with special educational needs, have an equal say in issues and decisions that affect them and their families. 

With virtual engagement increasing to reflect the needs and development of participation, FLARE have created their top tips for people who are communicating online with children and young people. 

Your views on access to speech and language therapy

The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists wants to find out how the COVID-19 pandemic and the UK-wide lockdown (March-June 2020) has affected people’s access to speech and language therapy. They’ve designed a survey to help them understand the issue better and plan to use the results to make the case for more speech and language therapy support.

The closing date for the survey is 5pm on Friday, 5 February 2021.