Autumn Term | 29 September 2023
Children's Commissioner's visit to Devon
During the Children’s Commissioner for England's visit to Devon she is speaking to young people about her latest project, The Big Ambition. The Big Ambition is a survey for all children aged 6-18 and parents of young people aged 0-18 across the country. She hopes to use the survey to hear about what children want for the future, their hopes, dreams, and aspirations. The Commissioner wants to ensure that the children and young people of Devon have their say through The Big Ambition and is particularly keen to reach as many different groups of children and different types of settings in Devon as possible.
Dame Rachel would welcome your support in sharing The Big Ambition with the children, schools, and services in your area. It would be wonderful if you could share the survey with the children you work with.
You can access the survey by visiting:
http://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/thebigambition.
Further resources are available here.
 School Funding Arrangements 2024-25
In 2024-25, as in previous years, the local authority will continue to set a local schools’ funding formula, in consultation with its schools, under what is known as a ‘soft’ National Funding Formula (NFF).
To explain the detail of the funding formula schools will be invited to 3 online drop-in sessions to give schools the opportunity to ask questions:
Wednesday 4 October 2023 13:30 and 14:30
Thursday 5 October 2023 10:00 and 11:00
Tuesday 10 October 2023 16:00 and 17:00
Consultation responses are requested to be submitted no later than 11:45 pm on 15 October 2023.
Further information on the consultation and how to book your place, please visit the DCC Schools Consultations web page where more detail will be added shortly.
DfE releases details for national professional qualification (NPQ) courses
Details about several NPQ courses have been published, including guidance on how to apply, eligibility, funding and course content. Click here to see the full list of courses.
Devon have listened to families and expanded their SEND improvement plans to create system-wide change. This follows a recommendation by the Children’s Scrutiny Committee SEND Task Group and reflects what families have shared about the current system of SEND support.
The commitment, made by the Devon SEND Improvement Partnership Board on 14 September, means that Devon will look at not just areas of weakness identified by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission but at the whole experience. READ MORE
For more news from the SEND Improvement Partnership Board Click here for the latest newsletter.
 Devon SEND Update
Click here for the latest information on Devon SEND.
Educational Psychology early intervention work returning to Devon schools with greatest inclusion need
Devon County Council’s Educational Psychology (EP) service will gradually return to early intervention work with schools and settings from January 2024. This part of the focus on getting the right help in place early on so that children and young people are supported to attend their local schools as much as possible.
This early intervention work needs to be balanced with reducing the time children and young people are waiting for EP advice as part of their education, health and care needs assessments (EHCNAs). Initially the in-school support is being offered to the 100 schools identified as having the highest inclusion need. READ MORE
Secondary SEND Forum
This term Devon Education Services are piloting a secondary specific SEND forum. This is an opportunity for SEND leaders, and other colleagues, from Devon secondary schools to come together, in person, to discuss common themes and concerns related to supporting students with SEND and, more importantly, share ideas, solutions and good practice with each other. READ MORE
 Click here to read the latest news from DiAS.
New Prevent Guidance
The Prevent Guidance has been updated and will, subject to Parliamentary approval, come into force on 31 December 2023. READ MORE
The aim of Prevent is to stop people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. The objectives of Prevent are to tackle the ideological causes of terrorism, intervene early to support people susceptible to radicalisation and enable people who have already engaged in terrorism to disengage and rehabilitate.
This guidance replaces the Revised Prevent duty guidance: for England and Wales (2015). However schools must continue to have regard to the 2015 guidance until the new guidance comes into force. No new responsibilities have been added for schools.
A risk assessment template can help schools demonstrate an awareness and understanding of the terrorism threat in the local area, the phase of education and the size and type of setting. The use of these templates is not mandatory, but the guidance does refer to statutory requirements of the Prevent duty.
Devon Safeguarding Children Partnership
From 5 September 2023, the Partnership will be changing its name from Devon Children and Families Partnership (DCFP) to the Devon Safeguarding Children Partnership (Devon SCP).
This name change reflects a re-focus of the Partnership to place stronger emphasis on safeguarding and child protection – the Partnership previously held a much broader scope of delivering the Children and Young People’s Plan 2019-2023. READ MORE
Safeguarding Newsletter
Bringing you the latest information on safeguarding in Devon. READ MORE
 A message from Devon Music Education Hub
It’s that time of year that schools need to complete their Music Education Grant (MEG) funding applications. As you know, this is also vitally important for the Hub in terms of gathering the necessary data to inform the annual return to DfE/Arts Council England, so we want to ensure as many schools as possible engage with this process. It looks a little different this year as we have updated the Schools Music Development Plan self-evaluation tool to reflect the requirements of the new National Plan for Music Education, so that’s another reason for us to try to ensure that we have good baseline data to inform our support for schools over the year ahead.
https://www.musiceducationhub.org/site/schools/school-music-education-plan/
Read YOUR latest Hubdate from Devon & Torbay Music Education Hubs HERE
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Education Support Newsletter
Click here to view the latest newsletter from Education Support.
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DAG Newsletter
Click here to view the latest newsletter from DAG.
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Keep up to date:
Contact: Fran Butler Early Years and Childcare Sufficiency Lead, DCC
E-mail: fran.butler@devon.gov.uk
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