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The end of the school year is always a good time to reflect on how the past year, and the last term has gone. This term has certainly been a busy one, with an average of 20-25 enquiries every day through our enquiry line, 9000 visitors to the website, a drop-in session in North Devon, five training sessions for parent carers and lots of networking with professionals and parent groups across Devon.
The last year hasn’t been a slow or quiet one either. We launched our new training programmes, Making Sense of SEND and Making Sense of EHC plans, both of which have had very positive feedback from attendees. We said ‘hello’ to Abi Gascoyne, our new ambassador volunteer coordinator and to Emily our Children and young people’s worker, and ‘goodbye’ to Sarah Lord who has moved role to champion the Four Cornerstones in Devon. We also published new web pages about suspension and exclusion, our first piece of Easy Read information, and three new template profile documents for parents to use when recording and sharing information.
As you will see from the news story below, we have also updated our website just this week. As some of you may have noticed, we started having technical problems with the existing site, which were severe enough for us to need a reboot. The new site has a different look, but we hope you’ll still find it as informative and helpful as before.
If you need to talk to someone or get advice over the summer holidays, remember that our enquiry line is open Monday to Friday 10am-3pm, and our website is there 24/7. We wish you all a peaceful and hopefully happy holidays, and let’s hope the sun shines warmly, but that we get a little rain too!
New DIAS website
The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed we have a new look website! Launched last week, the site has a great new look but retains all the content from the previous site. We have added an events page which shows you upcoming SEND training, information events and drop-in sessions. There is a new look home page and all of the site pages should be quicker to load with a better user experience, whatever device you’re using. We hope you like the new look – we would welcome any feedback.
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Welcome to our new Ambassador Volunteer co-ordinator!
Abi Gascoyne has taken over from Sarah Lord as Ambassador Volunteer Coordinator. Starting in her new role this month, Abi said “I’m really pleased to be joining DIAS as the new Ambassador Volunteer Coordinator. I have a background in community engagement and volunteer management and have spent the last few years working across health-based community engagement projects in Devon. Through this I’ve seen some of the challenges local families can face when trying to navigate systems and access the SEND support they need. I’m really looking forward to rolling up my sleeves and getting involved in all things Ambassador Volunteer!” If you want to find out more about the AV programme, have a look at our website or contact Abi.
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New EHC plans training
This summer term, DIAS launched the next part our new our ‘Making Sense of’ training series for parent carers – Making Sense of EHC plans. Many of the parents we support sometimes get a bit lost when it comes to EHC plans, what should be in them and what they are used for. These training sessions give lots of tips and practical information to help you get to grips with it.
Split into two online sessions, the training aims to help parent carers understand their child’s EHC plan and what’s in it, how it is used and how to take part in the review process. The focus is on answering the questions parents often ask about EHC plans and helping you feel more confident about the contents of the EHC plan and your role in the review process. Details of next terms session and dates are on our website.
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Making Sense of SEND is coming to Newton Abbot next term!
Our Making Sense of SEND training helps parent carers understand some of the most important information and the most useful skills to develop when supporting a child with SEND. It explains special educational needs, SEN support and how the SEND system works and helps parents to feel more confident about speaking up for their child and working with professionals. You may find it most useful if you’re new to SEND or have a child being supported without an EHC plan, but anyone is welcome to join! Details of next terms virtual sessions and the in-person event in Newton Abbot are on our website.
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DIAS goes to the Devon SEND conference
Every year we go to the annual SEND conference with our stand to tell professionals about the work we do and help them support parent carers, children and young people with our information, website, training, ambassador volunteer programme and enquiry line. This year the event was at Sandy Park in Exeter and was attended by 300 professionals with an interest in SEND. Our former AV coordinator was a speaker, telling delegates about the Four Cornerstones Approach, emphasizing genuine partnerships between families, practitioners, and young people. Lots of professionals came to the stand for a chat and staff went to some of the workshops and presentations too.
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Local area networking
DIAS Officers work together in teams of two and each pair has an area of Devon where they network with parent groups and professionals to raise awareness of the service and to find out what’s happening in communities. The Exeter and mid team have been out and about in schools the last couple of weeks. Steph went to a SEND coffee morning at ISCA for their new parents (current year 6) Steph, Janet and Cathryn (volunteer) went to Community coffee morning at Clyst Vale community college and Janet and Cathryn visited St. Peters in Exeter for a SEND coffee morning. From our South team, Sarah went to Decoy Primary school and Glendinning special school for parent SEND coffee mornings and to the local SENCO network meeting.
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New web page about post 16 options for young people
We have published a new web page for young people about apprenticeships, internships, and work. It includes information about
- Finding career advice and guidance in Devon.
- Discovering different ways to gain the skills needed for a paid job.
- Finding out about being paid while they train and gain experience in the workplace.
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New system across Devon to support children’s speech and language development
This year will see a change in the way that the children and young people across Devon and Torbay access speech, language and communication support. NHS providers, together with Devon County Council are using The Balanced System. It's a framework designed to make sure that everyone, including children and young people and their support networks, have the right support, at the right time to develop and improve speech, language and communication skills. Support will include drop-in sessions for children under 5 across Devon, therapists linked to schools, settings or a cluster of settings, training for the wider workforce and direct therapy.
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New information for parents about dyslexia, physical disability and sensory impairment
Devon County Council has added some information to the SEND Local Offer about how parents can support a child with dyslexia. It includes advice about supporting spelling, reading, homework and working memory. There is also a new section of the site about physical or sensory needs. It includes details of the services available for children and young people with visual, hearing and dual sensory impairments, as well as the support for physical difficulties, including education, equipment and home adaptations. There are also resources for parent carers to use at home to support a child.
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Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme is still open for bookings for this summer holiday
The Government-funded scheme provides activities and meals over the holidays for children aged five to 16 who receive benefits-related free school meals. And if your child is not eligible for benefits-related free school meals they still may be able to access activities under Devon County Council's ‘extended criteria.’ You can find more information about the extended criteria on their webpage, but it includes young carers and children with an EHC plan.
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New vocational profiles for young people
Devon County Council has developed a new career advice tool for young people. It’s called vocational profiling, and it's a digital document that allows young people from 12 years old and upwards to keep track of their goals, identify job interests, aspirations, what they enjoy or feel they are skilled at, their work experience, their achievements, and what kind of support helps them best.
Young people will be encouraged to take ownership of their vocational profile where possible, with support where it's needed. Keeping the profile up to date is a joint responsibility for the young person and their school or college while they are in full-time education.
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Increase in post-16 places for young people with SEND
Work has begun at Petroc College’s campus in Barnstaple and will begin at the college’s Tiverton campus within the next few weeks, to create extra post-16 education places for young people with SEND.
Petroc and Exeter College are working with Devon County Council to make more post 16 education places available, across the two colleges, in Barnstaple, Tiverton and Exeter, for young people with SEND. At least 350 additional places will be created at the colleges, with funding from the Department for Education and Devon County Council. The plans involve creating new on-campus facilities at the three sites with dedicated, purpose-built spaces designed to meet the needs of young people with a range of additional needs.
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Department for Education data shows increase in suspensions and exclusions for the fourth year running
The Department for Education has recently released data about the number of suspensions and permanent exclusions in England. The number of suspensions increased by 21%, from 787,000 in 2022/23 to 955,000 in 2023/24. Before the pandemic, the number and rate of suspensions had been increasing gradually. Since the pandemic, the rate of annual increases has accelerated. The number of permanent exclusions has also increased by 16%, from 9,400 in 2022/23 to 10,900 in 2023/24. The largest increase for both was in primary schools. The most common reason given for suspension and permanent exclusion is persistent disruptive behaviour. Children and young people with SEND are significantly more likely to be suspended or permanently excluded than those without.
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Reading well for families
The Reading Agency, in partnership with Libraries Connected and Society of Chief Librarians (SCL) Cymru, has launched Reading Well for families, a new booklist available across public libraries in England and Wales. The scheme recommends helpful reading to support the mental health and wellbeing of families during pregnancy and the early years (from conception to age two).
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