Welcome to the latest edition of Shropshire's 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, as well as an opportunity for parent carers to hear from each other about their experiences.

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, and what articles you'd like to see in future editions. You can email us your thoughts at Local.Offer@Shropshire.gov.uk

PACC update us on their involvement in work that is taking place around SEND systems in Shropshire. This includes a co-production development day to ensure that any service uses co-production to inform and influence decision making across their service, and that parent carers and young people’s experiences and feedback are being used to influence decisions which affect our families lives.

They also update us on the In Touch course, a jointly hosted update to the Neurodevelopmental Pathway with Autism West Midlands and their ‘Sense of purpose, and a home of my own’ discussions about the transition from children’s to adults’ services. It’s far to say It’s been a busy start to the school year!

The brand-new Keystone Academy is due to open its doors in Shrewsbury in September 2022. The Keystone Academy will be a Special Educational Needs school for 120 children with Education, Health & Care Plans (EHCPs) who experience Social, Emotional & Mental Health (SEMH) challenges. The school will provide an education to children from reception right up to Year 11 (in classes of maximum 10 pupils). Find out more about this new development here.

The NHS Long Term Plan sets out the government’s intention for every part of England to have an Integrated Care System.

Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) are partnerships that bring together commissioners and service providers of health services with local authorities and other local partners to plan and design health and care services for their communities.

The aim of an ICS is to improve outcomes in population health, tackle inequalities, provide better value for money, and support social and economic development.

Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin started operating as an ICS on the 1^st April 2021 to plan and work towards becoming a statutory organisation from 1^st April next year.

But what does all this mean for our children and young people with SEND? 

Find out more here.

“It’s the most wonderful time of the year…” is a phrase that is frequently used over the Christmas festive period. However, large celebrations (e.g Christmas, Eid, Diwali) may mean different things for different people and for lots of young people (and adults) large celebrations might bring up different feelings and emotions. For people with mental health and/or SEN this can be even more difficult. We have some top tips to consider over festive periods

Healthwatch Shropshire want to know about the experiences of children and young people who have received care and/or treatment either in hospital or in the community because they were in ‘crisis’ with their mental health. As well as asking for feedback from young people, they also want to hear from the people who are supporting them, family, carers, health care professionals, social workers, school/college staff or volunteers, who might have ideas about improvements that could be made where things haven’t gone so well. Have your say on the Healthwatch website.

Shropshire’s Information Advice and Support Service (IASS) support parent carers of children aged 0- 25 years who may, or may not, have a special educational need or disability.

They update us on their service, especially their work to engage and support young people directly. They are lucky enough to have a qualified youth worker on the team, Lynne, and her role within IASS is to work with young people directly. You can read more here.

The Vaccine Data Resolution Service (VDRS) aims to resolve missing or incorrect vaccination records for people vaccinated in England who have a current NHS number and are registered with a GP practice in England.

The service has been established by NHS England and NHS Improvement, in partnership with NHS Digital, and is delivered by both the South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit (SCW CSU) and by South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS).

The service consists of two main elements:

• Outbound service: A pilot of outbound calls was launched on 3 August to patients identified as having a second dose but where no first dose is showing on the national immunisation database (NIMS). This service continues to operate.
• Inbound service accessed via 119: Referrals to the VDRS can be made via any of the services accessed via 119.

Please note: 119 and VDRS call agents will not provide clinical advice and cannot assist at this time with queries related to vaccinations received overseas. If the query relates to personal information that is incorrect on the patient record (e.g. name, address), these will still need to be resolved by their GP practice.

If a member of the public believes they have missing or incorrect COVID-19 vaccination data, please advise them to call 119 and ask the call agent to make a referral to the VDRS team on their behalf. The VDRS team will then call the person back within 5 working days

Cross-Border Issues:

Vaccination data from Wales and Scotland now flows through to the NHS COVID Pass service, so you would be able to use the Pass if one of your vaccinations was in either of those countries. However, this is not yet the case for Northern Ireland.

The citizen now needs to call 119 to go through to Covid Pass Service and ask for referral to the Vaccination Data Resolution Service (VDRS) to have their records investigated.