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SEND News

Your update on Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) in Sheffield.  For parents, carers, professionals, and everyone interested in SEND.

This issue covers:

• Accelerated Progress Plan for Multi-agency Transitions
• Information event – Year 9+ Preparing for Adulthood at Sheaf Training
• What is MAST?
• Discovery Academy opens
• Annual Health Checks
• Health Needs in Education
• Developmental Co-ordination Disorders (DCD)
• FLARE project
• International Developmental Language Disorder Day
• Latest News from Sheffield Parent Carer Forum
• Training, support and resources for professionals and practitioners
• Useful links

Accelerated Progress Plan for Multi-agency Transitions

Services in Sheffield are working to a 12 month Accelerated Progress Plan to improve transitions for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.

The Accelerated Progress Plan links to the Sheffield Inclusion Strategy.  This involves all services working together. It focusses on preparation for adulthood which covers all transitions, linked to the 4 areas of:

1. Education, Employment and Training
2. Independence
3. Community and friendships
4. Health

(You may see these phrased in other ways, but these are the main areas.)

Improvement areas

We are 4 months into the plan. Five workstreams have been set up and we are working across services and agencies to strengthen multi-agency working.

The workstreams are

1. Preparation for Adulthood, - evidence of discussion through EHC Plans and Annual Reviews.
2. Post 16 opportunities
3. Transition processes
4. Co-production, communication, and information
5. Multi-agency staff development

Get involved

Please get involved and:

• Read more about the Accelerated Progress Plan and the work we are doing.
• Read Sheffield’s Transition Principles to understand our commitment to supporting children and young people in times of change.
• Find out more about Preparation for Adulthood and how we can support children and young people with educational needs (SEN) and disabilities – at all ages and stages.
• See what to consider when supporting children and young people preparing for adulthood.   
• Watch out for further training, guidance and information about transitions and post 16 opportunities – we will share this as soon as possible.

Please get in touch if you would like to know more and get involved. 

Preparing for Adulthood Year 9+: Information drop-in event  

Attend the first “Preparing for Adulthood: Year 9+ Pop-Up Surgery” of the academic year at Sheaf Training on Friday 23rd of September. Drop by any time between 9:30am - 12noon.

The event is for young people with special educational needs and disabilities in Y9+ and their families.

Come and talk to officers from education, health, social care, transport, and other services about options for young people going into adulthood. There will be a chance to ask questions, access support and seek guidance for any individual situation.

If you cannot attend this particular event, a series of these “Pop-Up Surgery” events will be running at various locations across Sheffield throughout the next academic year.

For further information on how to get there and contact details:

Sheaf Training Centre

Norwood Drive

Sheffield

S5 7BH

Sheaf’s Facebook page

Public transport timetables and information on how to get there.

Discovery Academy Opens

Discovery Academy, Sheffield’s new special school, is now open!

The school is for children aged 7– 16 who either have a diagnosis of autism, or are on the diagnostic pathway. They may also have related Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) Needs. Some children may also have specific learning difficulties (SPLD) which results in them working below age-related expectations in some subjects.

Pupils are allocated places by the Statutory Assessment and Review service (SENDSARS).

The Discovery Academy has space for 80 children, in total, during the first year 60 children will start with them, all places are now filled. On 19th September, the children who’s Education, Health and Care Plan name the school will start attending. 

• Read Discovery Academy’s latest newsletter.
• Read about Discovery Academy’s transition support. 

What is MAST?

Sheffield City Council’s Multi Agency Support Teams (MAST) work across the whole city and offer a wide range of support to meet families’ needs. In this video Jane, Lucy and Harriet discuss what MAST is, what support is available and how families can access it.

Annual Health Checks for Young People with Learning Disabilities

If your child has a learning disability and is aged 14 and over, their GP should offer them an annual health check.

This is because people with a learning disability often have poorer physical and mental health than other people. It also gives your young person a chance to get used to visiting the doctor. They should have an annual health check even if they are under the care of a hospital paediatrician.

The annual health check is an opportunity, when your child is well, to meet a nurse or GP and go through a checklist to try and avoid problems getting missed. Management of conditions such as asthma, epilepsy or constipation can be discussed. It is a time to check healthy eating and weight, and screen for conditions such as diabetes or high blood pressure. It is a time to arrange blood tests if needed and to plan vaccinations for flu, tetanus and Covid, both for your child and yourself as a carer.

Sheffield Parent Carer Forum have some tips to help you get the most out of the appointment. 

If your child is eligible for an annual health check but hasn’t been invited

Although most GPs now offer annual health checks, they don’t have to. If you think that your young person should have been invited:

• Contact your GP and ask if your child is included on their learning disability register. This register helps practice staff to identify patients who may need extra help or support. Anyone with a learning disability can ask to go on it. It is for people of all ages, and you don't need to have a formal diagnosis of learning disability.
• If your child is not on the register, ask the surgery to include them and offer them an annual health check.
• If their GP is unable to offer an annual health check, ask if you can go to a nearby surgery to have it done.

If you are unable to access an annual health check for your child, email syicb-sheffield.childrenscommissioning@nhs.net

Health Needs in Education (HNiE)

• The HNiE service aims to provide early intervention for health care needs on young people. It will put in place useful support and help in schools and colleges. This will reduce absence and increase inclusion.  They will help avoid the development of longer-term complex conditions.  This will improve educational outcomes for Children and Young People.
• The service is currently rolling out across the city for referrals and to help develop Health Champions in an individual school (a person based in the existing school). It is currently working in:

1. Localities A, B and E.
2. All special schools based within Sheffield
3. The Tapton School Academy Trust.

The HNiE service may be able to offer consultation services to other Sheffield schools,  for urgent cases.

• It is open to any child or young person attending or planning to attend an education setting (0-25 years) within the Sheffield area.
• The service is currently unable to accept referrals for children and young people with social, emotional, mental health and behaviour problems. This may change as the it develops.
• For more information, including when and how to make a referral, please contact: Sinead Plangaj (Service lead/Clinical Nurse Specialist)

Developmental Co-ordination Disorders (DCD)

The DCD physiotherapy and occupational therapy team, at Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, work with children who have DCD and other related developmental disorders.

Two workshop groups were held in the summer term of 2022 for Year 6 children on the DCD waiting list. The aim was to help them transition well to Year 7 while still waiting for a full DCD assessment.

FLARE - Friendship, Learning, Achieve, Reach and Empower

The Council for Disabled Children are looking for disabled young people and young people with special educational needs aged 12 – 25 years old to be part of its young people’s advisory group FLARE. FLARE stands for Friendship, Learning, Achieve, Reach and Empower.

FLARE represents the views and voices of young people with special educational needs and disabilities all over England.

FLARE works to share their views and experiences to help the Department for Education and other teams understand how disabled children and young people and those with SEN want to receive the support and services they need.

The deadline for applications is Monday 26th September.

International Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) day

A date for your diaries!

Its International Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) Day on Friday 14th October.

There will be information shared on social media on that day to raise awareness. 

If you want to learn more about DLD and more about International DLD day to see how you can get involved please click on the button below!  It will take you to the RADLD (Raising Awareness of Developmental Language Language Disorder) website.  If you are in a school there are specific resources for you to use to promote and raise awareness of the day and DLD.

Latest news from Sheffield Parent Carer Forum

New peer support service for parent carers

A new Peer Support Service will soon be available for all families with children and young people 0-25 years old with additional needs.  The service is employing a number of part-time Peer Support Workers who will offer parent carers:

• Information and advice, signposting to services that can help them to meet their child’s needs. 
• 1-1 confidential, support.  Flexible appointment times can be agreed to suit individual needs.

• Opportunities to share questions and concerns. Information sessions will then be offered on the areas where families need the most support.

• Drop-in sessions where people will get the chance to meet other parent and carers who may face similar challenges.

Please note, at this point the Peer Support Workers will not be able to:

• Help individual parent carers complete paperwork.
• Provide individual support in meetings.
• Contact, or make referrals to other services on behalf of parent carers.

Information sessions will be delivered monthly from September in local venues.  The project will operate more fully from October when the Peer Support Workers come into post. Parent carers will then be offered 1-1 support via phone calls, video calls or face to face in a community space. 

Network briefings for schools and education providers 

SEND Network briefings are delivered free to Sheffield schools and education settings in November, March, and June.  An extra session has been scheduled for the 28^th September to go through timelines, moderation plans, funding, training and important points to note for the year.

To attend this session, please use the Zoom Meeting link below:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85322355693?pwd=WmVraXJRZHJCT1JueVRoM1lqbGkzUT09

Meeting ID: 853 2235 5693

SEND Funding

This year Sheffield City Council are making some changes to how mainstream schools in Sheffield receive high-needs funding to support children with SEND. This change is the first step in a review of how we fund SEND provision in schools and colleges. This review won’t affect the funding schools get in their budget for delivering SEND Provision for children, which is called their ‘Notional funding’ this is only money which would be over this amount.

It is a temporary change that will help us to build a new funding model in the future.  You can find more information about the funding model on the SEND Support section of the Learn Sheffield website.

247 Grid – Tool to support young people with preparation for adulthood

Sheffield City Council has purchased the training for the 247 Grid. This tool will be used across Education, Health and Care to help support young people with SEND when they are preparing for adulthood.

The 247 grids was developed by a family carer, Rachel Mason, to coordinate the services around her two sons with Autism and Learning disabilities.

Our local authority license allows schools and colleges in Sheffield to use the grid free of charge. The grid:

• Is designed to encourage young people and their families to get more involved in preparing for adult life. It helps young people and families visually map their day-to-day life skills in preparation for adulthood.
• Helps families and professionals around a young person. It mutually identifies areas where more focused support is needed. This will help the young person achieve the adult life they want.
• Helps to coordinate the services around a young person (through the EHC Plan). This makes the referrals and pathways more meaningful to them and their families.

We are inviting schools and colleges in Sheffield, who support learners with EHC Plans, to start using the 247 grid. Initially with young people in Year 9 and above as part of their annual review, building any areas highlighted in the grid into their learning plans.

We are also training teams including social care and SEND statutory assessment and review service

Please contact us to find out more and to arrange training.

Autism in Schools

• The Autism in Schools project has been awarded a further year’s funding.
• In the coming academic year, Sheffield Parent Carer Forum will work with the existing 10 mainstream secondary schools to continue running and then supporting parent groups.
• The young people’s groups will continue being delivered until December 2022. A train the trainer model will be delivered with school staff so that they can continue running young people’s groups after this date.
• The project will be rolled out to more secondary schools in the next few weeks.
• The training is now available to access for school staff from the existing schools and will be rolled out across all schools in the coming weeks.

Wave 2 Speech and Language interventions

The LEAP (Language Enrichment Activity Programme) is a wave 2 language intervention, for children in need of language nurturing, who are developmentally below an Foundation 2 level.  

The NIP (Narrative Improvement Programme) is a wave 2 language intervention for children in Key Stage 2 and 3, aimed at developing narrative skills and emotional vocabulary.

Learn how to use the LEAP and NIP to run language groups in your setting by working through virtual modules available for free through Learn Sheffield. 

Click to access the learning.

Contact Learn Sheffield directly to request the password at enquiries@learnsheffield.co.uk.

The VIP (Vocabulary Improvement Programme) is a wave 2 language intervention for children in Key Stage 1 and 2 who need support with their vocabulary learning skills.  The Speech and Language Service aim to run face to face training enabling school staff to run this group on 1^st November 2022.  

Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) training 

Sheffield’s Speech and Language Therapy Service is offering free online DLD training.   

This was previously offered as a two-day training course. It is now online and split into modules to allow more SENCOs, teachers, and Teaching Assistants to take part.

Developmental language disorder affects at least one in thirteen children. Training will help you support those with diagnosed and undiagnosed DLD needs.

Module one is split into four sections of 30 minutes. It covers

- What Speech, Language and Communication needs (SLCN) are

- What a Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) is

- Impacts of having a DLD

- How to support children and young people with DLD in the classroom

Secondary schools may access this module.  There will be specific follow up events for secondary school staff.

You must have completed the module before attending any Question and Answer (Q&A) and in-person training sessions.

View module one.

When you have completed the module:

• Join a Virtual Q&A session to further develop your learning.
• Attend a one-day in-person training session where therapy approaches, and support strategies will be discussed in more detail.

Virtual Q & A on 10th Oct 2 - 3.30pm

Practical session Mon 17th Oct 1 - 3.30pm at Learn Sheffield

A new vocabulary module will be released in September 2022

This new module follows the introductory DLD module.

In this session we will cover difficulties encountered with learning new vocabulary and word finding difficulties - these are both common areas of difficulty experienced by children and young people with DLD.

Again, there is a Q & A session as a follow up to the module and then a face to face practical session looking at both 1;1, small group and whole class approaches to supporting children in these areas.

The online module is yet to be released.  Learn Sheffield will be sending out information when it does go live.

Virtual Vocabulary Q & A follow up session - 7th Nov 1-3pm

Face to face Vocab Practical session, at Learn Sheffield on 21st Nov 2-3.30pm

The training sessions, for both modules, will be available to book at Learn Sheffield.

Developing Successful Interventions for Students with Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD)

FASD describes a spectrum of disorders caused by prenatal exposure to alcohol.

Three or more domains of the central nervous system are impacted when you are living with FASD.

Children living with FASD have a brain- based disability.

The FASD visual strategy highlights some useful strategies and things to consider when working with children and young people.

Useful links

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.

 Useful links

1. Learn Sheffield. Information and guidance for SENCOs in Sheffield.
2. Local Offer. Information about support and services for children and young people with SEND.  The look and feel of the website is about to change - watch this space!
3. Sheffield Parent Carer Forum. A parent-led charity that provides support, shares information and influences policy and practice.
4. SSENDIAS. Impartial, confidential information, advice and support to families.
5. Sheffield Children’s Hospital – patients and parents information.