Welcome to the first SEND & Inclusion Newsletter of 2024.  I'm Claire Prince and am pleased to have been appointed Interim Head of SEND and Inclusion while Helen Johns takes a secondment with the Department for Education. 

We have a busy year ahead of us and I'm looking forward to working with partners across education, health and social care to improve the lived experience of our children and young people with SEND.  In this edition, you will find further information about how you can get involved and contribute to our SEND and Alternative Provision improvement work. We would love to hear from you.  

In the meantime, please do sign up to the SENCO Conference 2024 on 3 July at Butlins, Bognor Regis.  Our theme is around Thriving, not just surviving and we have an inspiring programme for the day, see article below.  Tickets are now available via West Sussex Services for Schools and, if you book before the end of March, you can secure tickets at the ‘earlybird’ price of only £100.

Bookings are now open for the West Sussex SENCO Conference, Thriving, Not Just Surviving.

 Kit Messenger will deliver the keynote speech on Neurodiversity and Inclusion in the Classroom on a Budget.

The morning will also include an interactive session run by children and young people in partnership with WSCC colleagues, on What does thriving mean to our children and young people?

Delegates will choose two workshops from the following:

• Implementing the I-Thrive Framework
• Happy Helpers – workshop on how to put in place Resilience / Mental Health Ambassadors in schools
• Masking: Unmasked – a workshop on neurodivergence and masking, delivered jointly by the West Sussex Parent Carer Forum and the Autism and Social Communication Team.
• Therapeutic thinking 
• EBSA Pathway 

Tickets are on sale via West Sussex Services for Schools, with an early bird price of £100 available up to the end of March.  Thereafter tickets will be priced at £120.  This includes all refreshments for the day.

Once you have booked a space, we will send you a workshop booking form.

This year, as part of the SENCO conference, we will be giving some children and young people a platform and exploring what thriving in school means to them.

We want children and young people’s voices to be heard and we want you, as professionals, to get the most from this session.   So, we are asking for your input in advance so that we can explore themes and questions with the young people on thriving (rather than surviving). 

Please can you submit any questions or topics you would like to see explored with young people with SEND by 01.03.24 via this link.

This session very much depends on engagement from you as SENCOs as well as the children and young people and we look forward to hearing from you!

Due to popular demand, these were reprinted last year and we now have a plentiful supply of hard copies for sale.  They are available for purchase via the stores function on West Sussex Services for Schools - so far, we've sold 1650 copies!

A reminder that the OAIP is also found on Tools for Schools and is divided into three sections:

Section 1: Describes the ‘reasonable adjustments’ that can be made through quality first teaching.

Section 2: Provides examples of tailored approaches and strategies that can be made to meet the individual needs of a child or young person. This section has been arranged by SEND areas of need for ease of access.

A separate Annex for section 2 has been include for Early Years settings to highlight some of the tailored approaches for our youngest children.

The OAIP is...

• A classroom guide to support all teaching and learning staff.
• Used to inform mainstream practice.
• Sets out clear expectations for quality first teaching.
• Includes prompts, strategies and examples of good practice to support children and young people to access learning.
• Co-written with West Sussex schools, academies, early years settings, post 16 providers, governors and trustees, parent carers, local authority officers and other specialists.

We hope you are well and have had a positive start to the year.

Did you know that you can now sign up to WSPCF as a professional? Head over to our website www.wspcf.org.uk and complete our short sign-up form so we can keep you updated both for your professional development and also in regard to what we are offering for the families you work with.

We often get enquiries from professionals seeking information and signposting on behalf of the families they work with, so please feel free to get in touch with us by emailing office@wspcf.org.uk.

We have been very busy over here at the West Sussex Parent Carer Forum, including moving to a bigger new office in Goring. Here is a little summary of what we have been up to;

We have attended and represented parent carers at many meetings including;

• The Learning Disability and Autism Health Inequalities Project Board
• Various Area SEND Improvement Plan Partnership Working Groups
• Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health Board (Sub-Group of Children First Board)
• The SEND & AP Strategy and Provision Board
• Thriving Education Strategy Group for Mental Health
• The Sussex Police Disability Advisory Group
• Discussion meetings for Early Years Pre EHCP-Funding
• Adur & Worthing SEND Under 5 panel - where we made a real impact regarding obstacles that are faced with parent carer engagement

We continue to work with Schools by;

• Delivering information to parent carers about the Graduated Approach at Northgate Primary School
• Talking to parent carers at the Families Support Fair for Southbourne School
• Joining Oak Grove College and Fordwater School for their Transition Evenings
• Joining a coffee morning at Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee School where we discussed questions on funding with parent carers

We have supported Social Care by:

• Delivering Lived Experience Training to the CWD team
• Contributing to the new WSCC Guidance for Social Workers
• Having regular catch ups with the Designated Social Care Officer
•  

Finally,

• We were on the interview panels for the new Head of SEND & Inclusion and the Assistant Director of Education & Skills
• We continue to work in Co-production with SENDIAS and the Family Information Service to improve the Local Offer
• Started our own recruitment for Volunteers & Parent Carer Representatives

To stay updated on our work you can follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram or check out our website.

West Sussex Parent Carer Forum
117a George V Avenue, Goring, BN11 5SA | Office: 07341183449 | www.wspcf.org.uk |
A charity registered in England, no. 1156360 and company limited by guarantee, registered in England, no. 07955164.

Along with many other local authorities, we are experiencing severe delays in completing Education, Health and Care needs assessments within the statutory 20 weeks.

We have a comprehensive EHCP Response Plan in place and are starting to see some green shoots of progress. However, we recognise that some children are waiting a long time for their assessment to be completed.

In recognition of this, we are issuing additional funding to schools when a child has waited for longer than 20 weeks for their assessment. The amount of funding is £3,644 per annum , the equivalent of the Individually Assigned Resource. It is paid automatically to schools from the Finance Team, termly in arrears. During the assessment, schools continue to have access to support and advice from the Specialist Advisory Teams.

We are looking for partners from schools to work with us on the SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan.

Over the coming months and years, we will be working co-productively through various workstreams. An overview of the current plan is online, which will be updated to take account of recommendations from the Ofsted/CQC inspection report when it is published.

If you are interested in any of the following, please contact Claire Prince:

• Mainstream and universal provision
• Pathways for Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) needs
• Statutory or specialist support
• Sufficiency planning
• Experiences and outcomes
• Preparation for adulthood
• Communication and co-production

Bookings are now open for the SENCO Development Programme in the academic year 2024-25.

This seven-part programme is suitable for experienced SENCOs, those new to post and colleagues aspiring to the role.

Pricing has been held at £350 per delegate.

You can find out more on the information page here:

SENCo Development Programme | West Sussex Services for Schools

The direct link to book is here:

SENCo Development Programme 2024/2025 | West Sussex Services for Schools