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Autumn Term - 21 November 2024

DSLS Autumn Schools Leadership Briefing 14 November 2024 Thank you to everyone who attended and contributed to last week's Briefing event at Sandy Park Conference Centre. We hope that you found the speakers informative and helpful. Links to presentations as referenced at the event are now available to view/download below.

Kellie Knott, SEND Strategic Director, DCC "Devon’s Education and Learning Update" Presentation Slides

Read the SEND Strategy special edition newsletter

Read the November's Devon Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) newsletter

Hannah Chamings, SEND Advisor, DCC "Implementation of Devon’s Ordinarily Available Inclusive  Education Framework" Presentation Slides

Upcoming training opportunities:

• An Introduction to Ordinarily Available Inclusive Provision | DES
• Relational Practice as part of Ordinarily Available Inclusive Provision (OAIP) | DES
• Supporting School Attendance: Understanding Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA) and what to do about it | DES

Sarah McGinnis - Senior HMI - Assistant Regional Director, Ofsted "Latest Inspection updates" Presentation Slides

DSLS Key Updates for Devon Schools

To coincide with a communication form  Donna Manson Chief Executive regarding leadership changes within DCC, Jack Newton the new incoming Interim Deputy Director of Inclusion and Learning introduced himself to school leaders attending the DSLS Briefing.

Leadership changes in Children and Young People's Futures, Devon County Council - Message from Chief Executive, Donna Manson

There are several developments in our Children and Young People’s Futures Directorate that I would like to share with you.  

Stuart Collins, who has been our Director of Children and Young People’s Futures since September 2023, has been appointed to Corporate Director of Children, Young People and Education at Croydon Council. Croydon has the largest population of children in all the London borough councils and is about to embark upon a new Transformation Programme which Stuart will lead. This work is starting imminently so Stuart will be joining them from Monday 25 November 2024.  

Many of you will have previously worked with Julian Wooster, who was our Interim Director of Children’s Services from January 2023 to September 2023.  Julian is returning to us with immediate effect to oversee our continued improvement journey in Children’s Services. He already knows both Devon County Council and our Children and Young People’s Futures Directorate well, enabling us to provide consistency and pace for our teams. 

Education and Learning Service 

We are changing our approach to be more focused on inclusion and learning. To reflect this, the Education and Learning Service will now be known as the Inclusion and Learning Service.

Keri Denton, the County Council’s Director of Performance and Partnerships, will take the lead in overseeing Education and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and the Safety Valve, and will join the Children’s Leadership Team.    

We are also delighted to announce that Kellie Knott, who has been leading SEND transformation for us on secondment from the Department for Education since July 2023, has now been permanently appointed to SEND Strategic Director.   

Providing additional focus in this area, Phill Adams, who was most recently Service Manager for Employment, Skills and Learn Devon, has been seconded as SEND Improvement Assistant Director to lead the delivery of the Safety Valve.   

Jack Newton has also joined us in an interim capacity to lead the development of our Inclusion and Learning Service. A senior leader with a background in the education and public service sector, Jack is an experienced executive headteacher including holding the position of Chair of the London Association of Headteacher Ambassadors for the Youth Sport Trust. He facilitated intensive school improvements as a Principle Challenge Advisor and was part of a Local Authority Improvement Board focused on improving the partnership between schools, early help and social care.  

Jack is taking over from Ceri Morgan who finished his role as Interim Deputy Director of Education and Learning earlier this month. Ceri led work on our systems and partnerships, building on our ambition of delivering the best outcomes for our children and young people. We thank Ceri for his work on these priorities and wish him all the best for his next role.  Read the full update here.

Schools Funding Consultation Drop in Sessions – Save the date

In 2025-26, 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).

The schools revenue funding consultation 2025-26 will run from Monday 25 November 2024 until Sunday 8 December 2024. 

Three consultation drop in sessions have been arranged to answer any Funding Consultation Questions you may have.

• Wednesday 27 November 10.00am - 10.30am
• Thursday 28 November 2024 1.30pm - 2.00pm
• Tuesday 3 December 2024 4.00pm - 4.30pm

More information and links to join the drop in sessions can be found here.

Access - LA School Budget Software - Error in Teacher Pension Fund Employers Contribution Rate

At the end of the Summer 2024 Term, DCC finance consultants brought to our attention that Access Group, who provide the budgeting software for our maintained schools, incorrectly applied the 5% increase on Teachers Pension Employer Contribution Rate in 2024/25 to some employees only.

Thirty-three school or federation budgets were affected by this system issue which did not correctly update teachers' pension employer contribution rates. These schools have since been notified and an update outlining the position was published by DCC Education Finance here: Administration 144: Finance Data - HCSS Access: Teachers Pension Employer Contribution Rate Error - Support for schools and settings.

However, the financial impact for some schools is quite significant, not only affecting the 2024/25 financial year but has been compounded beyond into the 3 year budget plan.

DSLS representatives on Schools Finance Group (SFG) will be meeting with Access Group alongside DCC Finance Officers and if there is any school that has been impacted by this error and requires support please contact either Jamie Stone or Christopher Tribble.

Further to Funding 88: Schools Funding Consultation Dates – Support for schools and settings and Administration 127 : Mutual Fund Closure – Consultation – Support for schools and settings, the consultation on the Closure of the Mutual Fund will be conducted at  the same time as the Schools funding consultation and will run from Monday 25 November 2024 until Sunday 8 December 2024. Consultation documents will all be in the same place and will be published on Monday 25 November 2024: Consultations – Support for schools and settings

Please be aware that if the decision is taken to close the fund, no further payments would be made after 31 March 2025 and claim cut of dates will be the same as for any other Mutual Fund Year End. No legacy payments will be made after this date.

DfE School Based Nursery Funding

The DfE has published new non-statutory guidance on ‘Establishing school-based nursery provision’. It outlines key considerations and requirements that schools should consider if they want to open or expand a nursery on their site, such as assessing the condition of school buildings and the space available. The guidance follows the DfE’s School-Based Nursery Capital Grant, the funding recently made available for schools seeking to add or expand a school-based nursery in their setting. Schools will be invited to bid for a share of £15 million of capital funding (up to £150,000) to deliver upgrades to spare spaces in primary schools to meet the target of up to 300 school-based nurseries in the first round.

Childcare Expansion Capital Grant

DCC are happy to share with you the Application Form, Terms and Conditions, Information and Guidance and Scoring Matrix for the Childcare Expansion Capital Grant.

If you believe there is a need for:

• More childcare places for babies from 9 months of age
• More childcare places for 2 year olds
• More breakfast club places for primary school aged children
• More after school places for primary school aged children or
• More accessible childcare places

You should visit the Childcare Expansion Capital Grant webpage to find out more.

There is a lot of information on the webpage, and it is important to read everything before starting to complete the application form. You will see there are ‘prerequisites’ –conditions that must be met before you can apply.

DCC suggest you consider the scoring matrix to see how highly your application might score if you are eligible to apply. It is important that the funding is allocated where it is most needed; we particularly welcome applications from existing and new providers where there are not enough high quality places at the moment or there will not be enough places from September 2025 when the new 30 hours funding comes into effect. The need for places for babies and two year olds in particular is expected to increase. As the funded places are for working parents, we expect that most families will need provision all year round.

Please take the time to read the documents on the website. Devon has £1,482,972 of funding to expand childcare. This grant will ensure that new places are available for years to come. DCC is very much looking forward to receiving your applications.

SACRE Events for Holocaust Memorial Day 2025

The theme for HMD 2025 is: For a Better Future.
A number of events will be taking place in Exeter on Monday 27 January 2025. Details can be found here.

Safeguarding Audit 2024/2025

The S175/157 audit is open with a deadline for completion of 1 February 2025. This audit is divided into two parts: part one addresses statutory processes and practices, while part two covers responses to questions from partners and sub-groups. Access the audit here.

This is a time-consuming task but is one that forms an essential part of how education is represented as part of the Devon Safeguarding Children’s Partnership (DSCP). If you have any queries or would like to discuss the audit in any way, please do get in touch at jonathan.galling@devon.gov.uk

DSLS Spring Leadership Briefing Online Bookings are now open for the DSLS Spring School Leadership Briefing on Thursday 13 March 2025.

Don't miss the opportunity to attend the next DSLS Leadership Briefing to hear updates and please encourage colleagues within your networks to attend as well.

DSLS Annual School Leadership Conference 2025 16 & 17 October 2025 Saunton Sands Hotel, Nr Braunton, North Devon EX33 1LQ Bookings are now open BOOK ONLINE HERE More details about the conference programme and delegate pricing to follow. Check the website for regular news and updates.  One booking form per delegate required. Terms and conditions apply, please see the online booking form for further details. Target audience: primary and secondary school leaders and other members of the school leadership team.