Welcome to Shropshire’s Covid-19 SEND newsletter, co-produced by Shropshire Council, Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group and PACC.  The newsletter aims to provide easy access to key information for SEND families during the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as an opportunity for parent carers to hear from each other about their experiences.

This edition is particularly looking at returning to school safely, and provides key information on school transport, which we know is currently a hot topic for the SEND community.

This newsletter also includes information from a number of local services to support children, young people and their parent carers – including the announcement of a new Understanding your child with SEND course

Our thanks go to the parent carers who have provided photographs of what they have been doing during the summer, they have been great to see.

Please do continue to provide feedback on this newsletter, we want this to work for you and we are keen to hear what you think of it. You can email us at local.offer@shropshire.gov.uk

Shropshire Council’s Specialist School Transport Service are working to return the specialist school transport network back to ‘normal’ from September 2020. As they continue to respond to the national emergency, Covid-19 related measures for transport arrangements will be tailored to the needs of individual SEND pupils. They have produced this information leaflet for parents.

If you have any queries you can contact them on special.transport.team@shropshire.gov.uk

As the Coronavirus (Covid-19) emergency continues, Shropshire Council is working to re-activate all its home to school transport for entitled pupils from September 2020. The passenger transport team have updated their website with their plans on how to do this. There is a specific section for SEND transport.

If parents have any queries or questions you can call 0345 678 9008 or email passtrans@shropshire.gov.uk

In September it is expected that all children will return to school. Many children will be looking forward to seeing their friends again and re-establishing the routine and structure provided by school, but this can be an anxious time for parents, children and young people. Children and young people who are struggling to return to school as a result of ongoing anxiety, will be supported by their school.  Schools will be required to work with families to support your child in returning to education. They will need to develop an individualised risk assessment and an engagement plan in partnership with you.

There may be scenarios where your child is asked to isolate,  during these periods the school will be responsible for providing a quality education taking into account specific provision within the EHCP or if there is no EHCP,  ensuring education is appropriately differentiated and similar to the education package your child receives in their school.  This is likely to mean a blended learning approach where there is access to suitable IT for children to engage in lessons remotely.

The Parenting Team at Shropshire Council are running a virtual Understanding Your Child with SEND. This 11-week course will promote an understanding of children’s behaviour within the content of how a child develops, and will promote the development of the parent/child relationship. The aim of the course is to give parents an understanding to increase confidence and self-esteem in both parents their children.

The course starts on Wednesday 11^th November and will run from 10-11am. To book on please contact the Parenting Team on parenting.team@shropshire.gov.uk or call 01743 250950.

Early Help is about children, young people and families getting the right help at the right time, to prevent issues from getting worse. Support is available in Shropshire for all children and families, but we recognise that some will need more support than others depending on their needs. There are different stages of Early Help support available which include targeted support delivered by a Family Support Worker.

During the COVID-19 pandemic Early Help Family Support Workers have continued to offer support to families and children who have assessed needs but do not meet the threshold for Social Care. Our work has been taking place virtually via telephone and video calls and we are now starting to meet families for face to face support when needed.

To find out more information about the stages of Early Help, the role of Family Support Workers and how to access support please follow the link to the Early Help pages on the Local Offer:

https://www.shropshire.gov.uk/the-send-local-offer/early-help/

If you feel that you need some support you can contact Shropshire Council’s First Point of Contact on 0345 6789021 and ask for Early Help.

Shropshire Council has also got a Multi-user Licence for a variety of online courses to support parents with managing and understanding their children’s behaviour. These courses can be accessed for free and using google translate, can be translated into over 100 languages.

To access:

1. Click on the In Our Place website. https://inourplace.heiapply.com/online-learning/
2. Then put the access code DARWIN18 in the box
3. Choose from the following courses

• Understanding pregnancy, labour, birth and your baby
• Understanding your baby
• Understanding your child
• Understanding your teenager’s brain
• Understanding pregnancy, labour, birth and your baby: for women couples

You can also contact the Parenting Team for further information by calling our Parenting Team office on 01743 250950 or email parenting.team@shropshire.gov.uk

BeeU children and Family services are operating as normal through the current Covid-19 Pandemic.

The BeeU Access team continues to accept and triage referrals from both Shropshire and Telford professionals and offer appropriate care to the young people and their families.  Due to the pandemic and associated restrictions, the majority of appointments which would normally have been offered via direct face to face contact are now arranged via video consultation instead. However, face to face appointments are still possible where necessary and appropriate.

We have set up a 24/7 urgent ageless NHS mental health service providing telephone support and advice.  If you live in Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin the number is 0808 196 4501 - free from all landlines and mobile networks. Please note that by contacting this number you will not be able to self-refer a young person into mental health services as referrals are still required to be completed by professionals ie. GP, school and social workers. However, appropriate advice and support will be provided.

Beam, BeeU’s partner service has been operating on a call back system as the drop in centres have been temporarily closed due to Covid- 19 restrictions. Beam can be emailed directly on AskBeam@childrenssociety.org.uk with request for a call back.  No professional referral is required.