Welcome to the latest edition of Shropshire's SEND newsletter, co-produced by Shropshire Council's SEND Local Offer, Shropshire PACC (Parent Carer Council) and NHS Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin. 

The newsletter aims to provide easy access to key information for SEND families.

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

Short Breaks offer essential time for children and young people with disabilities to socialise and engage in fun activities, providing them and their families with a break and the confidence that their child is well-supported. 

Shropshire Council is collaborating with PACC and other key partners to review and develop the council’s short breaks program for disabled children, young people, and their families. We need to ensure future services continue to meet the needs and desires of children, young people, and their families by offering meaningful activities and overnight stays that support them from early years through to adulthood.

We have made positive strides in understanding how to shape our future short breaks model.

We are pleased to announce that our Actio, Community, and Overnight short breaks services have been extended until March 31, 2026. This extension provides more time to consult with children, parent carers, and partners for better decision-making. The new model will start on April 1, 2026, supporting children and young people. This means that all arrangements currently in place will remain until March 31, 2026. 

This will enable us to build on the progress already made. 

We are eager to hear your views, as your feedback and suggestions are invaluable to us in shaping the future of our services. 

If you would like to make any suggestions, please email commissioning@shropshire.gov.uk

Meet n Chat SEND drop ins are a chance for families of children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) to get support with general SEND enquires.

You can chat with people from Early Help, Education, Health and the Parent Carer Council (PACC).

The sessions are free to attend and are next being held:

Bridgnorth Library, WV16 4AW - Tuesday 25 March 2025, 12.30pm-3.30pm

Oswestry Library, SY11 1JN - Wed 9 April 2025, 9.30am-1pm

You can find info of these and other drop-ins for families on the Shropshire Family Information Directory

Parenthood can be extremely rewarding and enjoyable. It can also be demanding, frustrating and exhausting. In Shropshire the Parenting Team offer workshops and groups for parents which provide easy to implement, proven parenting solutions.

These SEND groups are for parents/carers of children who might have special educational needs and disabilities, no formal diagnosis is needed to attend the groups.

Starts: 30th April 2025 from 12:30pm - 2:30pm – Shrewsbury

Or

Starts: 2nd May 2025 from 9:30am - 11:30am - virtual

The groups encourage parents and carers to identify the most important issues in their relationship with their child and to reflect on why things sometimes go well and sometimes do not. It is about looking at what you are already doing well and building on that to make it even better. It is then easier for you as a parent to identify how to work together with your child.

You will explore issues like:

• Having Fun Together
• Behaviour Difficulties
• Sleep
• Communication
• Development Needs
• Parenting Styles

The group aims to:

• Promote understanding of children’s behaviour within the context of how a child develops
• Promote the development of parent/child relationship
• Increase confidence and self-esteem in both parents and children
• Give parents a strategy for repair when things go wrong
• Promote reflective, sensitive and effective parenting.

Groups are aimed at parents of children and young people and are free to attend. 

To find out more or to book a place please contact the Parenting Team on 01743 250950

Or email Parenting.team@shropshire.gov.uk

This 5 week workshop aims to support parents and carers to make positive changes to their child’s sleep patterns. Life can be difficult when children have sleep issues. Our aim is to support families to get a better night’s sleep by using a behavioural approach to sleep and work in partnership with families, as we know that they are the expert on their children.

Workshops provide parents and carers with the opportunity to meet other families in similar situations and to gain tips on how to support a better night’s sleep for them and their child.

Quotes from parents who have been on the course

"Absolutely fabulous workshop. Should be offered to first time parents when their babies are old enough for the skills learned to be applied. I have a disabled daughter and naively thought that the workshop wouldn't apply to her needs, well I was wrong, I believe it applies to most children and every parent can take massive positives away from this workshop! Awesome!"

"I have learnt a lot! I was interested to learn about the science behind sleep, melatonin production, sleepy foods. It has been good to know that I'm not alone and to learn things from some of the other Mum's who were on the course. It was helpful to hear their suggestions!"

June Group - Monday 9th June 2025 from 12.45pm to 2.45pm. Workshop runs for 5 weeks from the start date excluding the School Holidays

To find out more or to book a place please contact the Parenting Team on 01743 250950

Or email Parenting.team@shropshire.gov.uk

Shropshire SENDIASS started off the year with a focus on connecting with families and strengthening our local partnerships. We were delighted to attend the recent Autism West Midlands events, where we had the opportunity to meet and chat with parent carers. It was wonderful to hear directly from families, offer support, and raise awareness about the information, advice, and support we can provide.

We plan to continue attending events as and when we have the capacity to do so, ensuring that we remain visible, accessible, and responsive to the needs of our community.

In other exciting news, our new website  has recently launched! Designed to be a go-to resource, the website aims to offer a welcoming, clear, and informative online space that makes it easier for families and young people to find the support they need, when they need it.

The Healthy Lives Programme is PACC's Holiday activity Programme for children/ young people in Shropshire Local Authority area.

By Registering your Child/ Young Person you will receive priority booking for activities across school holidays including Easter, school half-term's and Summer.

Easter and School Half-Terms - Activity sessions for 8-14 year old's and 14-25 years old's

Summer- Activity sessions for 8-14 year old's and 14-25 years old's, all- age family activities, increased offer for children and young people with complex needs

Following completing this form, you will be contacted by a member of Shropshire Parent and Carer Council (PACC) - You will receive an email with all information, how to book and timetables of activities.

Once activities have been allocated, you will receive a personalised timetable of your young persons activities (including address, point of contact and anything required for the session). *Please note we cannot provide bookings for all activities chosen if there is high demand. 

The programme cannot provide 1:1 support, if a young person has an existing support worker they are welcome to attend. If 1:1 support is needed to support participation we will work with families to explore how this can be provided. Please note transport will not be provided.

Register via the PACC Healthy Lives Programme 2025- Registration form

There’s another school holiday just round the corner, and we know how some families can find the holidays a challenge with the juggle of work and keeping the children entertained.

If parent carers are looking for thinks to do and places to go, then the Shropshire Family Information Service Directory is the place to visit. Click here  for fun during the school holidays.

There’s also the Actio activity offer  for those children and young people who are registered for All In Short Breaks.

Being a parent can be tough sometimes. We are here for you with a friendly listening ear and practical advice on everything from behaviours that challenge to sleep issues.

No judgment, just support, through this confidential service. 

Call 01743 250950 Monday - Thursday, 9.30am - 4.30pm or Friday, 9.30am - 3.30pm or email: parenting.team@shropshire.gov.uk

New Ways of Working

We are excited to share some updates on the Education, Health, Care Plan (EHCP) team. We are exploring and adopting new ways of working, pinpointing challenges and changing the way we work to provide a more efficient and timely service. These changes will greatly benefit families and children in Shropshire.

Recruitment Programme

In our drive to promote security and stability within our team, we have a recruitment programme underway to secure permanent staff. This programme is expected to conclude by April 2025. The comprehensive recruitment drive will make sure that there is a fully, functioning team and that all posts are filled, bringing a rich and diverse mix of skills and knowledge to our already experienced team.

Annual Reviews

There is a seasonal requirement for us to focus on phase transfers as part of the annual review process. Our current focus is to ensure that all children and young people moving onto a new education setting have had their EHC Plan reviewed and an amended plan issued. We have made good progress on these ‘phase transfers’ this year, for example, with 79% of Year 6 plans completed by the 15th February 2025 deadline.

ECHNA

The demand for needs assessments remains high; however, there was a 15% decrease in requests in 2024 from 2023 highs.

There is a backlog of statutory assessments within the Educational Psychology Service that are waiting to be allocated.  To not delay assessments for our children and families any further, we now have a team of agency staff as a short-term measure whilst we attempt to recruit Educational Psychologists.  This team is mostly virtual.  In line with guidance, from educational psychology professional bodies on remote assessments, consent will be gained from children, young people, families and schools to complete a remote assessment.  Graduate Psychologists are employed within the service who are supporting remote assessments as and when this is required, with observations and gathering of pupil views. 

EHC Plans

As a result of continuing high demand and the seasonal focus on annual reviews for phase transfer, the number of new plans meeting the 20-week target is temporarily lower than we might hope. The recruitment drive and having a full team of Case Officers, will support the increase of timely plans to ensure children, young people and families benefit from the right support. 

The SEND and AP Change Programme is a Department for Education improvement plan, aiming to test proposed changes to the UK's system for supporting children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

The local authorities making up the West Midlands region are Herefordshire, Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin and Worcestershire. We have been collaborating as a region along with our Parent Carer Forums to create and follow our Local Delivery Plans.

We are pleased to announce that Shropshire has appointed an Alternative Provision Task Force Lead. We eagerly anticipate the new member joining our team and contributing to our ongoing efforts.

Our Education Quality Advisors have been diligently Quality Assuring Alternative Provision to maintain high standards, ensuring the delivery and model are suitable for our children and young people (CYP).

Additionally, our Education Quality Advisors continue to support schools with their Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) provision, offering guidance to improve the Inclusive Practice offer for CYP.

 We invite you to explore our West Midlands Local Offer website to discover the range of information, updates and support available through the SEND and AP Change Programme.

SEND and AP Change Programme | Shropshire Council

BEEU Neurodevelopmental Pathway have a psychologist clinical lead starting in the Team 3 days a week next week. Two assistant psychologists have also been recruited but start dates have not yet been confirmed yet. Furthermore, BEEU are launching a neurodevelopmental initial assessment in March so that a needs-led approach can be taken.  

The PINS (Partnership for the Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools) project has received positive feedback locally and nationally from parents and carers. The PINS project has provided schools and professionals with a channel to build positive relationships with parents and carers and is making positive differences within schools, who have also given positive feedback.

There has been a green light to hold a conference for Inclusive Practice in Shropshire on the 11^th July 2025. There will be special guest speaker, Gary Aubin, in attendance at the conference. The conference will provide an opportunity for professionals to discuss we are using and promoting inclusive practice in schools.

Interest in the Autism Education Trust (AET), Good Autism Practice (GAP) training from schools is increasing and bookings are being made for the next academic year. The pool of trainers to deliver AET training is also growing, with the Education Quality Advisors, Neurodiversity Practitioners and Graduate Psychologists, Senior Specialist Educational Psychologist for Neurodiversity and Senior Leadership Team members from Severndale Specialist Academy and Keystone Academy now being trainers.  Interest is additionally being shown in the additional Neuroinclusive Training modules and topics and dates for these will be released soon, with additional modules being added over time to meet the needs and interests of schools and settings. It is further hoped that more schools and settings will continue express interest and be involved with the Neuroinclusive Practice Networks for practitioners and senior leadership teams, which will provide opportunities to find solutions and experience continued learning.

The Neurodiversity Practitioners (NDPs) are now permanent members of the Shropshire Educational Psychology Service! At the end of the pilot project in March 2025, their offer will expand to 0-25, alongside the EPS, and they will be able to offer support across the neurodiverse constellation. Learning from the Autism in schools, PINS and NDP projects have informed the next steps and support offer available for schools and settings. A link to the NDP brochure can be found here: NDP Brochure

The Neuro-affirmative Project Group is developing a simple neuro-affirmative language guide, which will be shared upon completion. The group wants to develop an informative and inspiring document that is digestible and not overwhelming. It will be a reference guide to support learning, reflection and the development of next steps for colleagues supporting neurodiverse children and young people. This guide will sit alongside neuro-affirmative language training that is accessible through the Shropshire NDP team.

The Early language Support for Every Child (ELSEC) team have exciting news about the progress they are seeing with children who are accessing the Talk Boost intervention. Read on to find out how they are working with settings and families.

The ELSEC team continue to work with 14 primary schools and nurseries in Shropshire. These are:

We are excited to share that we have finished our first round of Talk Boost groups and 75% of these children are now working at the expected standard in speech, language and communication, for their age group. This is fantastic!

We are now reviewing all children who still need support, setting up new groups for them and are continuing to upskill staff in settings. Two of these new groups are Concept Cat and BEST (Building Early Sentence Therapy): Concept Cat — Lift Lessons

BEST examples:

DEMO: The girl is walking

DEMO: The lady is brushing a cat

In the ELSEC schools, the team are working with children’s speech and language therapy (SALT) to support children in Reception and Year 1, who need BEST and who are on the waiting list. The ELSEC / SALT team will contact the parents of these children to explain more about what this will mean.

This term we have offered training to every member of staff in every ELSEC setting on ‘Understanding and using questions’, trained school staff to use other speech and language interventions and have invited parents of the nursery children, that we have identified would benefit from support, to attend workshops with their child.

For more information on communicating and talking skills please look on the Healthier together website: Communicating & talking skills

Communication skills are an essential part of your child's overall development. Your child needs to be able to hear and understand what is being said to them and then use their verbal language skills to respond. In addition, they will learn to aid their communication using non-verbal skills such as body language, gestures, facial expressions.

Every child’s rate of speech and language development is different. However, knowing what you should expect, and when can be helpful.

This page Communicating & talking skills has useful information to help you understand more about communicating and talking skills, as well as what to do if you are concerned about your child’s speech and language development, the support that is available and things that you and others can do to help. 

The School Nursing Team provide health and wellbeing information, advice, support and guidance to children and young people, teachers, families and carers across Shropshire.

We are part of the 0-19 Public Health Nursing Service which contains Specialist Nurses (School Nurses and Health Visitors), Registered Nurses, Healthy Child Practitioners and Support Workers.

Every Local Authority funded school in Shropshire has a named School Nurse. We offer lots of different services, workshops and events enabling schools to contribute to PSHE outcomes, as well as targeted one to one support for children and their families.

Your child might come across a School Nurse in school, in an education session or health related workshop, but we will not see your child alone without your consent. Sometimes, children ask us for individual advice and we will always feed this back confidentially to parents and carers.

Here are some examples of the topics we can support you with:

• Transition and change
• School readiness
• Behaviour
• Sleep Development
• Puberty (including management of periods)
• Healthy lifestyles
• Diet and restricted eating
• Oral/dental hygiene
• Toileting and constipation
• Handwashing
• Anything else you might be concerned about!

Parents and carers can also call or text us for confidential advice and support around any health or development concerns or worries they may have about their child, we will not share this information with your child’s school without your consent.

You can get further information, ask questions or simply contact your School Nurse for a chat by calling our Single Point of Access (SPOA) on 0333 358 3654 or texting: 07507 330 346

Did you know you can share your views on what you think about The SEND Local Offer – which is designed to give you easy access to information to help you and your family.

You can give your feedback by completing a short survey   or if you prefer, you can email your comments to local.offer@shropshire.gov.uk

The survey results will help us understand if the information on the SEND local offer website is accessible, what you like/dislike, and if there are any gaps in the information provided that need addressing. We value your comments.

Shropshire Council is working closely with stakeholders and autistic people to identify priorities for an all-age autism strategy through collaborative and integrated working. One of these areas is employment.

We know that the national employment level for autistic adults is reported as 21.7%, a figure influencing independence and inclusion together with wider economic impact.

Improving sustainable employment opportunities for autistic people requires an improved understanding of the needs of those with lived experience which is why a survey is so important.

Employment strategy work covers a review of recruitment practice including applications, interview and support in the workplace and how to encourage a wider understanding of autism in our employers across Shropshire to ensure our approach is inclusive and effective.

We're keen to understand what is working well, the gaps in support as well as how well young people feel prepared for work. The survey is available to those 16+ to capture the voices of all ages including young persons as they consider employment.

For Further information please click on the below link, and go to “How to get involved” for the link to the survey

Neurodiversity Employment Survey – Focus on Autism | Shropshire Council

https://www.shropshire.gov.uk/get-involved/neurodiversity-employment-survey-focus-on-autism/