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Thank you to everyone who recently completed the baseline survey. The survey has provided rich information which is currently being analysed and a report will be published in September. We will respond to the themes in your feedback, and share what actions we are taking as a result of it.
Children and young people have said that they want to see an increase in relevant communication, either face to face or through a dedicated young people’s website. They want a quicker process that supports them sooner.
It is clear that parents and carers remain concerned about SEND in Devon and are seeking more communication, quicker and improved processes with greater involvement, and partnership working at all stages.
Across the local area partnership we are committed to listening to parent carers’ voices on how we can improve their – and their children’s – experiences of SEND support and services.
Julian Wooster, Interim Director of Children and Young People’s Futures at Devon County Council
Jo Turl, Director of Commissioning Primary, Community and Mental Health Care at NHS Devon
The Devon SEND Improvement Partnership Board met on Wednesday 19 July. You can read the minutes online.
The Board is not meeting in August, but will start again in September with a longer than usual meeting.
SEND performance data
NHS Devon and Devon County Council are working to build a joint data dashboard and will be bringing back detailed plans in September. This is part of the Improvement Plan’s focus on the delivery partners working together more closely and being able to report on key performance indicators.
The Board also reviewed data showing how the Devon local area has been performing against our statistical neighbours – other areas who have a similar population - and the average across England.
Devon County Council SEND services
The Board received an update from the Quality Performance Review Meetings set up by Devon County Council. These meetings look at how a range of teams across the council are working to improve the experiences of families, children and young people with SEND. As well priorities from the SEN Statutory team (often known as the 0-25 team) and Disabled Children’s Services, there were reports from Schools Transport, Public Health Nursing, Adult Social Care Transition, Inclusion and Wellbeing and more.
Communications
The Board is asking for presentations about progress on each of the four areas of weakness identified by Ofsted: this month the presentation covered communications. This ranges from high level communications about the service down to how individual families feel they are communicated with about their child or young person’s needs. Progress was reported on:
- How young people and parent carers need to be involved in co-production as part of everyday working across the partnership.
- How a set of core competencies can be updated following the pandemic, and how staff can be trained and coached to improve individual communications with families.
- How work on the SEND Local Offer website needs to be accelerated.
Get involved
Champions for Change round-up
The Champions for Change network provides a range of ways for children and young people with SEND to have their say on SEND. We've rounded up some of the work from the last term:
- The Champions heard from 60 young people who attend special schools as part of the Raising Aspirations of Employment project. This projects aims to enable more young people from special schools to have the opportunity of a paid job after leaving school.
- The Impacts group for young people aged 12 to 25 now have a dedicated space within the council offices and are developing a co-working agreement with and for professionals.
- The Echoes group for children in mainstream schools has been looking at how school councils are elected so children with SEND are more adequately represented. A new Echoes group will be starting in Mid-Devon in September.
Devon Information Advice and Support summer newsletter
Devon Information Advice and Support (DIAS) have published their summer term newsletter. They introduce their new Ambassador Volunteer Co-ordinator, their latest guide to SEND in schools and their jargon-buster.
Read the summer edition online, and subscribe to receive it by email.
Let’s Get Chatting
Is your child starting school this September? Livewell SouthWest is sharing a range of tips and advice on ways to help prepare a child for school. You can see all the tips at Let’s Get Chatting on the Livewell SouthWest site.
Secondary school admissions reminder service
Do you have a child who is due to go to secondary school in September 2024?
The secondary school admissions process will open on 1 September 2023, and you will need to apply for a place by 31 October 2023.
The way Devon County Council (DCC) notifies families that the admissions window is open is changing. We will not be sending letters by post to every family. Instead you can now sign up to get a text or email reminder when the application window for secondary schools opens on 1 September.
Sign up for a reminder from DCC.
Grants available to groups giving their community a helping hand
The Pelican Project, based in Exeter, supports learning-disabled adults as they transition from school to adult life and from child to adult services. They have received a grant from Devon County Council’s Growing Communities Fund (GCF) which will support their plans to increase capacity by 20% over the next academic year. The GCF has been created to support local communities through the cost-of-living crisis.
Learn more about the Growing Communities Fund and how community groups may be able to apply for funding on the DCC website.
Autism Central – South West hub launches
Bristol Autism Support are the regional hub in the South West for the Autism Central project. This is a new programme, co-designed to provide high-quality and accessible autism information, education and coaching for families, and carers, and co-delivered by autistic people, families and carers. The project is run by leading not-for-profit organisations supporting families and autistic people and has been commissioned by Health Education England.
The South West Regional Hub can provide support for families and carers in Devon, and already have some group and one-to-one sessions available to book. Bristol Autism Support are also recruiting peer educators across the South West, including Devon.
Learn more at the Bristol Autism Support website.
North Devon Academy praised for Outstanding SEND provision
Devon’s cabinet member for children’s services, Councillor Andrew Leadbetter, has praised Yeo Valley Primary School, an academy based in Barnstaple, for its ‘outstanding’ teaching of children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).
Following the inspection in May, inspectors gave the school a rating of ‘good’ in three of five areas – but singled out the quality of their SEND and Early Years provision, ranking both as ‘outstanding’.
Read more on the Devon County Council newsroom.
Finally, we would like to wish all our SEND families and colleagues a wonderful summer break and look forward to seeing many of you in the new academic year.
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