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SEND News
Your update on Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) in Sheffield. For parents, carers, professionals, and anyone interested in SEND.
This issue covers:
- SEND Review: Consultation on green paper
- Sheffield’s SEND area inspection revisit
- Family information
- Update on Sheffield’s Speech, Language and Communication Transformational programme
- Transition Principles
- Early Years - Updated Transition Record
- SEND network briefings for schools and education providers
- Training for professionals and practitioners
- Useful links
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SEND Review: Consultation on green paper
The Government has published its green paper about the changes it wants to make to the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and alternative provision (AP) system in England.
It is asking for views on the proposals by Friday 1 July 2022 and wants to hear from:
- Parents and carers
- Children and young people
- People working in the SEND and alternative provision system.
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Sheffield’s SEND area inspection revisit
Ofsted and Care Quality Commission have published their report on Sheffield’s SEND area inspection revisit. Their inspectors found Sheffield has made sufficient progress in six of the of seven areas of significant weakness identified in 2018.
Making these improvements involved a huge amount of work across council and health services, in schools, and working with partners including the Sheffield Parent Carer Forum. But we have more to do, and we are continuing the pace of our SEND improvement work. We are also increasing our focus on the remaining area of weakness. This is multi-agency support at transition points in children and young people’s lives.
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Family information
Preparing for Adulthood drop-in event – 27 April
Come talk to officers from education, health, social care, transport, and advice services.
- Wednesday 27 April, 10am to 1pm at Chapeltown and Burncross Community Centre. Orchard Court, Burncross Rd, Sheffield, S35 1TH.
Find out more on Sheffield’s Local Offer.
Weekly information sessions from Sheffield SEND Information, Advice, and Support (SSENDIAS)
SSENDIAS is running weekly information sessions for young people, parents, and carers. The sessions cover:
- Looking at SEN Support.
- Checking a draft Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP).
- What is a Needs Assessment for an EHC Plan?
Sessions take place on Zoom and are free to attend.
Call 0114 2736009 or visit the SSENDIAS website to book your place.
Stress-busting activities for parent carers
Sheffield Parent Carer Forum is offering taster sessions for stress-busting activities for parent carers. So far, they have run sessions on mindfulness, yoga, fused glass art, Christmas crafts and printmaking.
The idea is that parent carers can try different activities and hopefully find something they would like to do long term. Perhaps with others they have met at the sessions.
The next sessions are on:
- Japanese hand stitching (29 April, 10am-12.30pm)
- Collage (25 May, 12-2.30pm)
Find out more.
Ambitious Youth Network – for autistic young people
The Ambitious Youth Network is a space for autistic young people, between ages 16-25, to meet other autistic young people, take on new paid opportunities, and join a group panel. The network is a fun and friendly space for autistic young people to be themselves.
Find out more.
Support for young people with a visible difference or disfigurement
Changing Faces is a charity that provides mental health, wellbeing, and skin camouflage services. It works to:
- Transform understanding and acceptance of visible difference.
- Campaign to reduce prejudice and discrimination.
The charity runs events and offers a 1-2-1 emotional support service for children and their families. This can help look at issues they may have around looking different. For example, handling staring, teasing and bullying, and support in transitioning to a new school.
Find out more.
Parenting support
Sheffield’s Parent Hub runs seminars, discussion groups and programmes to give parents practical help and advice. Some have been specifically developed for families of children and young people with SEND.
Find out more and book places.
Support groups
Find details of support groups on Sheffield’s Local Offer.
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Help shape support for families with children who have neurodevelopment needs
12 May, 10am – 12noon, online
Parent carers of children and young people with neurodevelopmental needs – and staff who work with families across education, health, and care – are invited to the next workshop of Sheffield’s Neurodevelopment Programme.
The programme covers neurodevelopmental needs including ADHD, Autism, Developmental Language Disorder and Learning Disabilities.
Sheffield NHS organisations and Sheffield City Council, together with the Sheffield Parent Carer Forum, Schools and Healthwatch have heard from the engagement completed so far - that support in Sheffield needs improving for parent carers of children with neurodevelopmental needs.
The workshop will:
- Review the feedback received from parent carers about support.
- Identify the challenges and gaps in support.
- Develop the support parent carers need in Sheffield, understanding what is available now and is being planned.
- Attendees will also hear about the changes that have already taken place due to previous feedback.
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Update on Sheffield’s Speech, Language and Communication Transformational programme
Sheffield-wide Speech Language and Communication Transformational Programme
We know that schools are facing challenges with supporting children and young people in schools with speech, language, and communication needs (SLCN).
Sheffield Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), Sheffield City Council (SCC) and Sheffield Childrens Hospital are working in partnership with Schools and Sheffield Parent Carer Forum to address these issues. This is through the Sheffield-wide Speech Language and Communication Transformational Programme.
The programme is developing the system wide offer of support. Four workstreams are providing focussed work in priority areas.
Updates on key actions will be reported in this newsletter. Please contact Harriet Myers if you would like to hear more.
Updates
A mapping exercise has been completed which outlines all the support and services available for families and schools in Sheffield. This has direct links to bookings and resources.
This is currently being finalised and will be shared with schools and parents once formatted online.
Workstream 1 – Early Identification
This workstream is focusing on developing the Explore, Play and Learn pathway. This pathway helps families with strategies and activities to promote language and communication.
Our aim is to ensure more children are referred and supported after their one-year Ages and Stages review if they score moderately low, so their SLCNs are supported as early as possible.
Support for children on this pathway is provided in family centres.
Workstream 2 – Schools Speech, Language and Communication Needs Framework
This workstream is focussing on developing the universal offer of support for speech and language needs in schools.
It includes testing an online programme which provides:
- A standardised screening of all children in key years (reception, year 3 and year 7) to identify children with mild/moderate SLCNs and those with more severe SLCNs.
- Resources and activities for schools to support children's mild/moderate speech and language needs.
- A system to monitor progress at an individual, group, class, and whole school level.
We are looking for schools to take part in a free two-week trial of the programme.
Please contact Harriet Myers for more information, or if your school would like to take part.
Your involvement is really appreciated and will help us evaluate if the tool would be beneficial in schools across Sheffield.
Workstream 3 – Post-16 and Transitions
A Post-16 and Transitions workstream is being set up to improve access to Speech, Language and Communication support for 16-25 year olds in education and employment.
Workstream 4 – Specialist
The specialist workstream is now reviewing pathways for children and young people supported in schools by the Sheffield Children’s Hospital SALT specialist services.
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Transition Principles
Transition Principles have been co-produced in Sheffield.
They aim to help us create best practice as we support children and young people going through significant transitions.
The principles have been developed to particularly support those with additional needs. This is because children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities will need earlier and more detailed planning for transition to be successful.
Work will now take place to implement the principles across education, health, and care.
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Early Years - Updated Transition Record
Sheffield's EYFS Transition Record has been updated.
This record supports children’s transitions into, from and between early years settings at all points, from birth to starting school. It is for completion by early years practitioners. This includes professionals working in nurseries, pre-schools, schools and childminding.
The form has been updated to best:
- Facilitate professional dialogue and information sharing between settings.
- Place children and families firmly at the forefront.
- Consider the individual needs of children, including special educational needs, and families.
The form has been updated working with PVI settings, schools, the local authority, and Sheffield Parent Carer Forum.
It was shared with all schools, PVI settings, pre-schools, nurseries, and childminders at the end of March.
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SEND network briefings for schools and education providers
SEND Network briefings are delivered free to Sheffield schools and education settings in November, March, and June.
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Training for professionals and practitioners
SEND Awareness Training for health professionals
The Council for Disabled Children has developed a training catalogue for professionals on key areas of SEND support and assessment processes.
The training aims to enhance your knowledge to:
- Write good quality advice and outcomes
- Supporting annual review processes
- Better support families.
The training is not currently mandatory. But we want to monitor take-up to show how engaged our workforce is in working with children and their families with SEND and delivering high quality services.
Therefore, we encourage all health professionals to please undertake the training and complete the questionnaire after.
Please visit the Council for Disabled Children's Training Catalogue and complete this form to record your training.
Final training session for the year – SEN assessment toolkit, 15 June
We have rewritten the SEN assessment toolkit to better align with the MyPlan and how to assess different areas of needs. The assessment materials are all available on the Learn Sheffield website and will be covered in the updated training.
The final training session for the year is on 15 June.
Book now.
Transition to Secondary School – New training from Educational Psychology Service
These 60 minute live virtual sessions are aimed at both Primary and Secondary School staff. They will explore:
- Why a successful transition to Secondary School is important.
- Key issues experienced in transitioning to secondary school.
The sessions will guide you through a six-session program which can be implemented to support a successful transition. Plans and resources for the six-session program will be shared with all session attendees, following the training.
The sessions are on 26 April at 9.30 to 10.30am and 12 May at 3.30 to 4.30pm.
Book now – click Educational Psychology Service.
SCERTS workshops
Workshops 3 and 4 are running this term as part of the SCERTS training.
For those supporting cohort 3 – secondary school pupils and primary upper key stage 2 pupils – the workshops will use Sheffield based case studies to:
- Focus on the emotional regulation aspects of SCERTS.
- Focus on practical strategies for SEMH difficulties, emotional regulation, anxiety, disengagement, and school refusal.
The workshops for cohort 3 take place on:
- 4 May, 2-4pm
- 14 July, 2-4pm
Please note the change in time.
Cohort 1 and 2 dates and times remain the same, we will be using Sheffield based case studies to consider next steps and form outcomes using the Sheffield Support Plan format.
If you have not booked but would like to join, please contact Evelyn Priestley who will add you to the cohort. The cost is £50.
The workshops are for mainstream and special school staff and supporting agencies.
Birmingham Toolkit refresher
An extra session is running on 19 May for any schools that would benefit from refresher training.
Book now.
Preparation for Adulthood
The live training sessions have all been delivered and received good feedback. But you can still watch the recorded sessions on the Learn Sheffield website.
Foetal Alcohol Syndrome – Training sessions May to July
Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is the most common, non-genetic cause of learning disability in the UK.
Sheffield Children’s Safeguarding Partnership is delivering training sessions to professionals as part of Sheffield’s Drymester campaign. This aims to:
- Increase awareness around the harm that can be caused by drinking alcohol during pregnancy.
- Reduce the number of alcohol exposed pregnancies and new cases of FASD in Sheffield.
Training sessions are running May to July. Book now.
More information about FASD is available for:
- Educators
- GPs and healthcare professionals
- Social workers
Click here.
SENCOs: Watch video about raising the fact a child has FASD with a parent.
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