The SEND strategy emphasises the need to ensure that SENCOs in West Sussex receive appropriate support & training. To assist in this, the STAGE special school teaching alliance has been commissioned to produce a SENCO Development Programme. This is currently being finalised and it is planned to roll this out early in 2018.

This year’s SENCO conference is taking place on 11 November. Among the topics on the agenda are: Building Resilience; the Graduated Approach to supporting children with SEND; Quality First Teaching and ‘Positively Curious – approaches to behaviour management’. We are expecting a full house!

Each school setting will have an allocated Locality Link (Education) Adviser in addition to an Integrated Prevention and Earliest Help Service (IPEH) Representative. All schools have a contact Educational Psychologist and will receive at least one annual planning meeting in addition to the fortnightly bookable telephone consultation slots which are available from the Service. Requests for support can also be made to the Autism and Social Communication Team (ASCT) and the Learning and Behaviour Advisory Team (LBAT). Support for children and young people with a sensory impairment is provided by the Sensory Support Team (SST). Each child or young person with an EHCP or undergoing an EHC Needs Assessment will have an allocated Planning Co-Ordinator within the SEN Assessment Team.

The West Sussex Local Offer helps you find information about local services, support and events for children and young people aged 0-25 years who have SEND. Please view the West Sussex Local Offer.  If you would prefer to speak to someone in person, please give the West Sussex Local Offer team a call on 0330 222 8555, asking for “Local Offer” or e-mail localoffer@westsussex.gov.uk.

Alternatively, you can seek assistance from the Contact Centre either by email, West Sussex County Council Contact Centre or by calling 03330 142 903. 

SEND Inspection Reminder

Inspectors from Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission will be in our area for one week. They will visit education settings and meet with children, parents, teachers, leaders and governors.  There will also be focus groups and we are briefing those who may be involved in these. The phone call giving us five days’ notice of the inspection could arrive any Monday and we believe it is likely that the inspection will take place this term as many other areas in the South-East have already been inspected. We have recently re-circulated guidance for education settings, health staff and other partners and that can be found here. If your setting is to be visited we will contact you as soon as we know to give you further information.

The focus of the inspection is on how effectively we identify, meet the needs and improve outcomes for children and young people with SEND, and it will look at how the local area as a whole meets its responsibilities. This includes children & young people who are at SEN Support, as well as those with Education Health & Care Plans. We have developed a self-evaluation framework to ensure we will have a good understanding of our effectiveness and an improvement plan which identifies areas where we need to do further work.

If you would like more information about any of the above items, contact Jon Philpot, Principal Manager (SEN & Inclusion) jon.philpot@westsussex.gov.uk.

SEND Young Inspectors

Our SEND Youth Participation worker, Rachel is re-vamping the SEND Youth Voice offer so young people can get involved more directly with giving feedback to services, as ‘Young Inspectors’. We hope this will help us to share what works well!

‘SEND Youth Voice’ and ‘Young Inspectors’ are the current names at the moment, but they are not exciting enough, so we need help to choose a new one. We‘d also like to have an image that we can use on badges, banners and leaflets to identify the project.

If you work with young people who would like to send us their ideas or vote on a new name, please email rachel.sadler@westsussex.gov.uk by Friday 24 November. 

The most popular name will be decided by young people’s votes. Rachel will put together a panel to pick a shortlist of images that young people can then vote on, ready for the start of the project in January 2018. There will be a small prize for the winning image plus of course the honour of seeing it on our banner! An update on how young people can get involved as ‘inspectors’ will be on its way soon. 

Youth Mental Health Survey

Sussex Partnership NHS Trust is involved in supporting the development of youth mental health and wellbeing provision in West Sussex. 

The proposal is based upon the successful pilot service, i-Rock in East Sussex and consists of multi-agency provision for 14-25 year olds. The project supports individuals with Mental health and wellbeing, education, employment, housing and relationships.

Please distribute the below survey widely as possible for feedback from the young people currently engaged with your services. For more information, contact Viki Ashby.

Youth Mental Health in West Sussex survey

Compass Card West Sussex is a free credit card-sized discount card that opens up hundreds of leisure opportunities for children with SEND, from 0-25. 

Since the card’s launch in April last year, almost 2000 children and young people have registered, but there are many more who haven’t yet signed up.

For more information including eligibility, email compass@amazebrighton.org.uk, visit their website or phone 0300 123 9186.

Time4me Project supports disabled children and young people between the ages of 6-18 to access local
community groups and activities with the support of a KIDS buddy. This supports them to make friends, build
self-esteem, learn new skills and be more independent.

Family Fun Project aims to support families to engage in creative activities that focus on working together and building family wellbeing and improve friendship circles. The service is an 8 week project of 2 hour sessions.

KIDS Independence Skills programme works with young people aged 13-18 to enable them to make friends, build self-esteem, learn new skills and be more independent. It will be delivered through four 5 week modules made up of 2 hour sessions on a Thursday. 

See more on the Local Offer. 

Contact southern.shortbreaks@kids.org.uk / 07827989317.