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Welcome
Welcome to the second issue of Sheffield Special Educational Needs News - a new half-termly briefing about changes and developments in SEND in Sheffield.
The briefing is for professionals, parents, carers and anyone with an interest in Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). We welcome ideas and contributions so please get in touch if you have feedback or thoughts about what information would be helpful.
Please also encourage other professionals and families to sign up to receive Sheffield Special Educational Needs News.
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New Inclusion & SEND Strategy
We are producing a new Inclusion & SEND strategy to help us prioritise work over the next five years to best meet the needs of our children and young people. This will build on the work we are currently doing in response to the SEND inspection held in November 2018. We are working on this in partnership with other organisations, including the Sheffield Parent Carer Forum, schools and health services.
We have been consulting with parents, carers, young people and frontline workers to find out what is most important to them. This will run until 22 September and includes:
- A parent/carer survey - please complete the survey before 22 September if you are a parent or carer, or help promote it to the families you work with: bit.ly/sendsheff
- Young people – we have been running discussion groups and are keen to speak to more young people. If you are able to help with this please get in touch.
- Frontline workers – we have been attending team meetings to hear from our practitioners and will be visiting a small number of schools to speak to teachers and teaching assistants. (We also have a lot of feedback from school headteachers and SENCOs given at last year’s SEN conference). Please contact us if you are a front line worker who would like to contribute.
We will hold a meeting after this consultation to review the feedback and use it to co-produce the strategy priorities. This will take place in October and will involve young people, parents and carers, frontline workers and local leaders.
Please let us know if you would be interested in hearing about future opportunities to be involved in developing Special Educational Needs, Inclusion and/or Disabilities services in Sheffield.
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Update on Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plans
We have been improving the rate in which EHC Plans are developed and in July, 96% of new EHC plans finalised in the month were issued within 20 weeks. Our year to date average is now 79%.
We are also improving our systems and have a new digitised EHC Plan annual review process. This means notifications, letters and other information will be sent out in a timely manner.
People have told us they want better information about the processes around EHC Plans. To help with this we have developed:
A new guidance document explaining the annual review process is being created and will soon be shared.
There have also been some recent changes to staffing in the SEND Statutory Assessment & Review Service (SENDSARS), the service responsible for the administration of EHC Plans.
This includes changes to the service manager following our previous post holder, Tarun Ghosh, moving to a more senior position at another local authority. His replacement is due to start in the coming months. Please see our updated SENDSARS staff list for details. (Click Inclusion Services)
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New Bumblebee Centre opens
Our third Bumblebee Centre is now open and is part of our plans to increase our inclusion and SEND education provision.
The Bumblebee centre is a type of ‘nurture provision’ which offers short-term focussed support for primary and now secondary pupils with particular social, emotional and behavioural needs.
The centre, based at the Herdings Community and Heritage Centre in Gleadless Valley, will support pupils who need extra support to help them be successful in their mainstream school. It is the first to extend the offer into Key Stage 3 and will support eight to ten pupils at any one time.
Sheffield’s Bumblebee centres are commissioned by Sheffield City Council, with expertise from Locality Headteachers, and run by Sheffield’s Inclusion Centre. They tailor their education to meet the needs of individuals, and provide a comfortable and nurturing space for learning – our new centre includes a quiet space, a garden to grow vegetables and flowers, and kitchen to prepare and learn about food.
Pupils usually access Bumblebee centres for part of the week and for a maximum of two terms before they are supported back full-time into their school. They can be referred to the centres via the Primary Inclusion Panel (PIP) or the Secondary Inclusion Panel (SIP) which meet monthly.
We are aiming to provide more nurture placements and develop this offer within existing settings. We are also looking to increase other elements of support to mainstream schools, increase the number of Integrated Resources, and open two new special schools:
- Our consultation with professionals about increasing the number of Integrated Resources will continue this term.
- The Department for Education has invited academy trusts to apply to run the second new special school. (It has already agreed that Nexus Multi Academy Trust will run the first one which is planned to open in 2021).
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New information and guidance about SEND in Sheffield
We told you about our new SEND information and guidance in our first newsletter. Read it online if you missed it.
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Coming soon
Our city SENCOs are finalising the SENCO training programme for this year. We are also creating training videos so you can catch up again on key points.
Details will be published soon.
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Children's services in Sheffield rated good by Ofsted
Sheffield City Council has been awarded an overall ‘good’ rating by Ofsted following a three-week inspection of its children’s services. Read more
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Useful links
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Local Offer website: Provides information about the support and services for children and young people with SEND aged 0 to 25
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SENDIASS: Impartial, confidential information, advice and support to parents/carers of children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities
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Sheffield Parent Carer Forum: A parent-led charity that provides support, shares information and influences policy and practice
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Sheffield Carers Centre: Offers support and information to all unpaid adult carers
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Council for Disabled Children: Champions the rights of children, young people and their families and challenges barriers to inclusion.
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NASEN: Supports education professionals by providing resources and training to help meet and identify needs of individuals with SEND
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Special Needs Jungle: Provides parent-centred information, news, special needs resources and informed opinion about SEND
We have provided these links as a source of support for families. Each issue we will provide new links to current information and other support.
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Contact us
Please let us know if you have any feedback about this newsletter, or ideas about what you would like to see in future.
Look out for our next Sheffield Special Educational Needs and Disabilities News in November.
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