SEND Family Newsletter
November 2024
A newsletter for the families of CYP with special educational needs and disabilities in T&W.
Welcome
Welcome to our SEND Family Newsletter!
I would like to introduce myself, Laura Goodfellow, as the Interim Service Delivery Manager for SEND. We are delighted to bring you the newest edition of our SEND Family Newsletter, packed with essential news and updates for families of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities in Telford and Wrekin. We have gathered information from our Education, Health and Social Care partners that we hope you will find useful.
In this edition, we shine a light on local health services in Shropshire, Telford, and Wrekin. We also introduce the NHS ‘Healthier Together’ website, a fantastic resource offering advice for parents, carers, and young people. It covers common childhood illnesses, both physical and mental health, and provides guidance on recognising ‘red-flag’ signs and where to seek help, if needed.
Phased Transition Guidance
Vicki Abbott, our PfA SEND Team Lead, and Sharonjit Sandhu, our SEND Team Lead, share valuable insights on Phased Transition: Moving to a new phase of education with an EHC plan. When children and young people transition between educational phases. It’s crucial to consider which school or college should be named in their Education, Health, and Care plan. Remember, an annual review of the EHC plan is required before any transfer to a new phase of education.
What is a new phase of education?
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Early years education to school
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Infant school to junior school
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Primary school to secondary school
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Secondary school to a post-16 institution
Our Social Care Focus section features information on our Short Breaks Newsletter, which includes news, updates and activities for children with disabilities and their families in Telford. Additionally, our Adult Social Care Team provides updates on our Carers Hub, offering support for parent/family carers or guardians of young people who have transitioned from children’s services to adult social care (18+).
Telford and Wrekin SEND Local Offer
We are excited to highlight the Telford and Wrekin SEND Local Offer, which brings together information across education, health, and social care within one website. This resource provides information, advice, and guidance, on a range of local service providers, who support children and young people with SEND.
We deeply value feedback from our parent groups, as your voices help strengthen our system. Working together for better outcomes is our goal. Our next SEND parent group meeting is on Monday, November 18, from 10am to 1pm at the Park Lane Centre, Park Lane, Telford TF7 5QZ.
If you would like to join us, please click on the link below:
Warm regards, Laura Goodfellow
Interim Service Delivery Manager for SEND
Contents
- SEND Local Offer
- SEND Updates
- Spotlight on Health
- Social Care Focus
- SEND and AP Change Programme
- PODS Charity Update & Website Launch
- Telford Children’s Autism Hub
SEND Local Offer
The Local Offer aims to bring together useful information across education, health and social care within one website. You can find information, advice and guidance and a range of local service providers who support children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).
Find clear and accessible advice, information and support on…
- Leisure, fun and short break activities
- Specialist services including education health and care plans
- Mental Health and Wellbeing
- How schools support special educational needs
- FAQ's for Parents, carers and families
- Preparing for Adulthood
- Health services
- Care services and so much more..
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SEND NEWS
Phase Transition
What comes next?
For School Age: Admissions preference deadline is 31st October. If an Annual Review of the EHCP has not yet been held/arranged, please do these as soon as possible as these need to be sent into SEND Team by 15th November. The final outcome date is Friday 14th 2025 February
For Year 11’s and Post 16 (if leaving their current setting): Preferences to be returned to SEND Team by 20th December and for post 16. The final outcome date is 31st March 2025
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Healthier Together website
Healthier Together provides advice for those caring for babies, children and young people in Shropshire and Telford.
You'll find clear information on common childhood illnesses for both physical and mental health, and information on long term conditions, with details of where to go to seek help if required.
The Healthier Together website provides consistent, accurate and trustworthy healthcare advice for parents, carers, young people and professionals. All the information on the site is checked by clinicians, and local organisations and involves parent carers in its content development.
The website has sections on common illnesses which can help you decide what to do when your child or a child in your care is poorly. It has information on: Coughs and colds, Fever / high temperature, rashes, sore throats, vaccinations.
Other sections are relevant for parent/ carers of children and young people with SEND; they focus on asthma, epilepsy, learning disabilities and neurodiversity.
The Neurodiversity section includes Autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Tic and Tourette’s Syndrome and Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.
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Integrated Care Board
SEND Team Update
The ICB supports the health element of the SEND agenda for children and young people. We work in partnership with local authorities to contribute to the implementation of the SEND reforms.
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to understand the referral rates and waiting times, and support children and families while waiting for
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neurodevelopmental assessments
- to improve the quality of EHCPs.
Current initiatives we are supporting
SEND and AP (Alternative Provision) Change Programme
The SEND Change Programme is a national programme to test some of the changes the Government wants to make to the system for supporting children and young people with SEND.
Early Language and Support for Every Child (ELSEC)
ELSEC is a pilot programme working in 30 mainstream primary schools and early years settings across Telford & Wrekin and Shropshire to improve the identification and support of children with speech, language, and communication needs in early years and primary school settings
Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools project (PINS)
This is a nationally funded pilot project for 2024/25, building on the success of the national Autism in Schools Project.
PINS is bringing health and education specialists and expert parent carers into mainstream primary settings to:
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Help shape whole school SEND provision
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Provide early interventions at a school level
- Support strengthening partnerships between schools and parent/carers
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Multi Disciplinary Assessment
Information Video
Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust have developed information about what to expect at a Multi Disciplinary Assessment:
Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust have also recently developed an information video about what to expect at your child's Multi-Disciplinary Assessment (MDA) - this short video shares information about where to park, how to access the building and different rooms you might visit.
Social Care Focus
Short Breaks Newsletter - News, Updates and Activities for Children with Disabilities and their Families in Telford.
Sign up to receive the Short Breaks Newsletter to stay up to date with news that may be of interest to parents of children with disabilities in Telford.
The Short Breaks Newsletter has been created to communicate any hot topics and upcoming activities and events to children with disabilities and their families within Telford and Wrekin. There is a new edition released at the start of every month. You can view all past editions here.
To sign up to receive future editions, email shortbreaks@telford.gov.uk
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Carers Hub
Carers Support from Adult Social Care
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For Parent/Family Carers or Guardians of young people who have transitioned from Children’s services to Adult Social Care (18+).
Carers Hubs are a drop in for parents/carers who want a carers assessment and need support to maintain their caring role.
Drop ins take place the first Monday of every month at My Options Skills Hub, Unit 10, The Bridges Business Park, Bridge Road, Horsehay, Telford, TF4 3EE.
Adults with Learning Disabilities
Family Carers Working Together Group
This is a meeting specifically for Parent/Family Carers whose young people aged 17 and above who are in the process or have transitioned and are receiving services from Adult Social Care (ASC) to discuss hot topics with other parent/family carers. Meetings are chaired by a parent carer and take place on the second Monday of every other month.
To express interest in attending meetings, contact makingitreal@telford.gov.uk.
Julie Noble, ASC Specialist Commissioner for Learning Disability and Autism,
Amanda Benton, ASC Service Delivery Manager for Autism, Learning Disability, Mental Health, Carers, AMHP’s (Approved Mental Health Practitioners), DoLS (Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards) & PfA (Preparing for Adulthood),
Sarah Morgan - Commissioning Officer for Autism, Learning Disability and Mental Health
Sarah Poole, ASC Co-Production Lead
We may include guest speakers upon invitation. Find out more about the Learning Disability Partnership Board by visiting www.telford.gov.uk/ld
Where Hot Topics discussed during this meeting are relevant to the Learning Disability Strategy they will be added to the future Learning Disability Partnership Board meetings agenda for further discussion.
ELSEC
Early Language Support for Every Child is launched!
17 settings take on the challenge to tackle the speech and language gap that impacts upon access to learning.
As part of the SEND and AP Change Programme, the ELSEC programme was launched September 2024 in Telford, with our first group of participating school and nursery settings. We were proud to also welcome representatives from the Early Years Advisory Team, REACH and the Department for Education.
The ELSEC programme will support schools and nurseries to deliver intervention to all children in Year 1, Reception and in the pre-school year who present with SLCN (Speech, Language and Communication Needs), reducing the need for many children to require a referral into the speech and language therapy service or to support some children and their families to access targeted intervention whilst they wait many months to see a speech and language therapist. The ELSEC programme will enable many children to access the curriculum, form friendships with peers and develop as confident communicators.
Every setting is supported by a dedicated ELSEC practitioner who visits weekly, works alongside staff in the setting to model and support good practice, works directly with children and support the setting to develop a sustainable model of working that positively impacts upon pupils. All of the ELSEC team are trained in both KS1 Talk Boost and Early Talk Boost and these are the core interventions used. Further bespoke training and support will be tailored to the needs of individual settings.
In addition to working with schools and nurseries, the ELSEC team will be working with parents of the children involved in the programme, to enable this valuable work to continue into family homes and the community.
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Meet the team
The ELSEC team is made up of 7 practitioners (Rachel White, Sarah Bryan, Becky Fenn, Donna Molloy, Laura Taylor, Kerry Nicholls and Wendy Marsh), a specialist teacher (Joanne Preston), a senior speech therapist (Gillian Hackett) and two further speech therapists (Nikki Stinton and Tracey Inniss).
PODS Charity Update
Website Launch
Hello, we are PODS (Parents Opening Doors).
PODS is a grassroots parent carer, peer led, charity with staff and volunteers who have ‘real life’ experience to support families who have a child with a disability or additional need (aged 0 – 25 years).
PODS Charity incorporates the Parent Carer Forum whose main aim is to ensure the parent carer voice is included and considered in service development.
Wider PODS Charity offers and services include:
Peer Support, Counselling and Buddy Scheme and Befriending, Social Support.
Blossom & Bloom for 0-5yrs, Activities, Sensory sessions, Fundraising & Events.
Training & Courses, Information & weekly ebulletins, Nurture & Grow PA support.
Preparing for Adulthood Navigation.
To find out more about our work, our website has been updated recently, we hope you find it useful. There’s also a calendar of events and a referral form for any professionals wishing to signpost families to us.
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Telford Children’s Autism Hub
Our Children's Autism Hub is open to all children and young people aged 0-18 years and their families, who have a diagnosis of Autism.
To access our Children’s Autism Hub you must be a resident of Telford & Wrekin.
Or go to our website below:
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