Welcome to the final edition of the SEND & Inclusion Newsletter of 2024.  

Among other articles, there is an update about our work to review the SEND & Inclusion Strategy, and an article from our Designated Social Care Officer, Natalie, on what she has focused on this year.  There is also an article on Beacon House training and resources to help support children and their families who are experiencing mental health difficulties.

Finally, you can read about the fantastic Autistic and Wonderfully Wired Ambassadors Conference which took place last month.  Thank you to everyone involved in making this such a positive and affirming experience.

Before we know it, it will be the end of term!   Thank you, once again, for all your hard work and commitment to supporting our children and young people with SEND.  I hope you all enjoy the festive season and have some time to unwind and recharge.  Happy Christmas! 

We would like to say a big thank you to all of those that attended our SEND and Inclusion Strategy workshops during October.

We had a wonderful turnout of stakeholders, partners, and colleagues from across the local area, where we consulted on 7 proposed priorities for our renewed SEND & Inclusion strategy, using previously co-produced information from our Self-Evaluation Framework (SEF), Local Area Inclusion Plan (LAIP), Joint Area Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) as well Ofsted feedback from our most recent Joint SEND Area Inspection.

We have collated and themed the feedback received, which we will soon share with participants to ensure that we have captured views correctly and allow a time for any further feedback to be shared.

We have also reflected on some of the feedback and understand that we must ensure that the Strategy is a co-produced document, particularly ensuring that the voices of our children and their families are at the centre of what we do.

Therefore, we have created a ‘Co-production Project Group’ made up of colleagues and partners from children’s social care, health, the parent carer forum, and education.

We would also welcome representation from school colleagues, to help to shape the next phase of the strategy renewal.  If you are interested in supporting us with this, please email: Kathryn.kellagher@westsussex.gov.uk

In addition to this, we will undertake a mapping exercise of all strategies in education over the next 12 months.  This is to ensure that we are aligned with one another, as well as complementing and supporting wider corporate aims in the council plan that is due to be renewed in 2025.

Early Help are running a number of SEND Events across the county.

The sessions are open to all families with a child with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) up to age 11, and siblings.

They provide an opportunity for families:

• To access sensory activities in a supportive environment
• To learn about the range of activities for SEND children that parents can implement at home.
• To gain peer support from other parent/cares of SEND children.
• To have access to a range of professionals for information, advice and guidance.

Visit our website Find a Family Hub - West Sussex County Council to find your local Family Hub. Your local family hub will have details on dates and venues for the events.

Should you require further information, or have any questions please contact emma.bruton@westsussex.gov.uk  

This has been a busy and exciting year in my role as  Designated Social Care Officer (DSCO). 

The main focus of the DSCO role is to support and develop the social care elements of the SEND strategy, in compliance with legislative requirements of the SEND Code of Practice (2015), and ensure they are embedded within our working practice for children and young people aged 0-25 across all services.

I have also prioritised embedding the positive changes needed in Social Care and Early Help in response to the Green Paper, which set out the government’s proposals to improve outcomes for children and young people.

A key aspect to the DSCO role is to work collaboratively and strategically across health, education, and social care, acting as an enabler for system change.

One of the primary operational issues I have focused on is to improve compliance to the SEND Code of Practice, for example:

• the social care response for children requesting  Education, Health and Care needs assessments (EHCNA) when they are not known to the service. 
• the embedding of a team in the Integrated Front Door that actively screens and reviews all children where there is an application for an EHCNA.

We now have an Essential SEND training offer for all social care and Early Help staff to access including Managers and Leaders. This training is co-delivered by myself and the West Sussex Parent Carer forum, with contributions from the Special Educational Needs Information Advisory service (SENDIAS). 

This has led to the delivery of ongoing training to core staff in Children’s Social Care, raising the profile and awareness of the SEND service and processes. This started in April of this year and over 200 staff members have now attended.

I continue to develop the core duties of the DSCO role and have established close working relationships with our legal services team.  By working collaboratively, we can ensure better representation and support by social care services for children and families who are pursuing tribunals and appeals. 

I am also leading on a whole Local Authority response  to the Law Commission regarding Children with Disabilities and Social Care Law, which is highlighted in the article below.

On the 8th October, the Law Commission published a consultation paper on disabled children’s social care law and whether it meets the needs of disabled children and their families.

The Commission is seeking views from young people, families, local authorities and social workers, and anyone else with an interest in or awareness of the area. The consultation is part of a review into the law to ensure that it is fairer, simpler and more up to date.

The consultation asks a number of questions including:

• whether there should be a new legal framework for disabled children’s social care, taking disabled children out of section 17 of the Children Act 1989;
• whether there should be national eligibility criteria for disabled children’s social care;
• how we should define disability;
• what remedies should be available for children and families when things go wrong?

The full consultation paper and the consultation questions are available on the Law Commission website, where you can also find the  summary document.

If you need this summary to be made available in a different format please email
dcsc@lawcommission.gov.uk.

The consultation is open until 20 January 2025. We will be putting together a response as a local authority and the West Sussex Parent Carer Forum is also formulating a response.  

You can respond directly yourself using the links given or send any responses to questions to Natalie McNeill  who will incorporate them into the main response. Please keep responses as brief as possible to ensure they can be included in the main body of the local authority response.

We would also encourage settings to share details of the disabled children’s social care law consultation paper with parents and carers in your settings, as they may also wish to share their views directly using the links above.

Following a full review of the 2020-2023 Neglect Strategy for West Sussex, we are very pleased to present the WSSC Neglect Strategy 2024-2029.

This strategy is for all services, workers and their managers who come in to contact with children, young people and families in West Sussex.

The strategy sets out how services can effectively recognise and respond to neglect with an emphasis on early identification and provides a common language, approach and toolkit to apply in practice.

A reminder about our fantastic senior mental health lead training.

Here are dates for West Sussex DfE approved senior mental health lead training that is being delivered by educational psychology and well being services: 

27^th Jan - Senior Mental Health Lead Training | West Sussex Services for Schools

22^nd Apr - Senior Mental Health Lead Training | West Sussex Services for Schools

The Senior Mental Health Lead is responsible for transforming a whole school approach to improve everyone’s emotional well-being and resilience which supports children’s readiness to learn.  The course consists of 3 days of trainer-led activity and an additional supervision offer facilitated by educational psychologists.

Our assured DfE grant-funded senior mental health lead training is an intermediate course for primary and secondary Senior Mental Health Leads (SMHLs). Please complete this application form (course code SMHL 152) by 31 December 2024 to reserve a grant.  We welcome primary and secondary schools who are not eligible for DfE grants and wish to purchase a training place at a reduced cost of £400 per course.  

Thriving in Schools. Senior Mental Health Lead training. A West Sussex approach Course Code SMHL 152 Please click on the course title to book. 

This course equips SMHLs with the skills to:

• understand and apply, leadership and organisational change models
• reflect on mental health and well-being constructs to challenge assumptions
• increase social and emotional development knowledge about attachment, resilience and stress response
• apply evidence-based approaches to assess and improve staff and pupil coping
• develop whole school policy linking to OFSTED criteria,
• understand ‘what good likes like’ using the WSCC Thriving in Education toolkit
• audit and develop an action plan using the ‘West Sussex Whole School Approach (WSA) Reflective Tool’
• evaluate impact using the Whole School and College Approach (WSCA) Measurement Toolkit
• create a celebratory case-study
• collaborate and problem-solve in supervision groups in relation your setting’s journey
• attend SMHL locality network meetings

Any queries?  Please do not hesitate to email Fran Parker, Assistant Principal Educational Psychologist for Wellbeing.

Beacon House is a team of professional, compassionate and highly experienced chartered psychologists, psychotherapists and occupational therapists.

We provide a wide range of assessments and effective therapies for children and young people, families and adults who are experiencing mental health difficulties, emotional and behavioural problems and relationship conflict. As a service we have a special interest in repairing the effects of trauma and attachment disruption.

Free resources

We have a wealth of free resources available on our website which you are welcome to use.  Please use the following link:  https://beaconhouse.org.uk/resources/

Pre-recorded training

We have a wide range of unique and trauma-informed courses delivered by pre-recorded video and beautifully hand-illustrated.  The trainings are designed to be as flexible as possible around participants, with no set start or completion date and can be watched at your own pace. Plus, each training is also valid for a lifetime’s use, so the training videos may be watched as many times as you need. 

The following may be of particular interest:

• The Psycho-Education Toolkit for Children & Young People is a beautiful, creative resource for any adult wanting to support children and young people and to better understand their survival behaviours. For more information, please click here:  https://beaconhouse.org.uk/training/psycho-education-tool-kit-for-children-young-people/
• How to Promote Your Child’s Self-Esteem:  Parenting a troubled child can be a very stressful experience. As parents/carers – we often feel an overwhelming need to understand what is going on for our child and most importantly, how to support them in the best ways possible. Whilst there are no ‘magic answers’, often knowing a little more about the difficulty your child is facing and exploring different strategies to support them can be incredibly helpful.  For further information on this course, including how to book, please click here:  https://beaconhouse.org.uk/training/online-parent-carer-seminar-how-to-promote-your-childs-self-esteem/
• Self-Harming in Children and Teens:  Self-harm is an increasingly common experience for many children and teenagers and it understandably causes significant stress and worry for adults who care for the child. In this online seminar, we explore the different reasons why young people self-harm together with a range of ways to support and help them. The seminar also includes resources and information to share directly with young people who self-harm.  For further information, please use this link: https://beaconhouse.org.uk/training/self-harming-in-children-teens/

Please browse our entire catalogue of training here https://beaconhouse.org.uk/training-categories/pre-recorded-training/

Live training

If live training would suit you better, please take a look at what we have available here:  https://beaconhouse.org.uk/training-categories/live-online-training/

The following may be of particular interest:

• Live webinar on ‘Safeguarding Young Hearts and Minds from the Impact of Online Pornography’ Any child who has access to a screen is at risk of being exposed to online pornography. The content of this is often violent, abusive and degrading. Research shows that this is impacting significantly on children and young people in a multitude of negative ways. Our webinar on Tuesday, 3^rd December from 1-2.30pm aims to help you differentiate online pornography from pornography that existed prior to fast-speed internet; raise awareness of extreme content and the accessibility of this content; develop understanding of the risks associated with exposure to online pornography; give you practical tools and strategies to help families navigate their way through the current pornography culture and will also provide a forum for questions and discussion of any issues raised.  Again, tickets cost just £30 and more information can be found here:  https://beaconhouse.org.uk/training/safeguarding-young-hearts-and-minds-from-the-impact-of-online-pornography-2/

Bespoke training

In addition to our pre-recorded training and live webinars, we also offer in-person training for schools, businesses, local authorities and many more.  

For a bespoke quote for your organisation, please contact Rebecca at training@beaconhouse.org.uk

Newsletter

We’re delighted to let you know that we are now publishing a monthly newsletter with updates on new trainings and links to free resources. If you’d like to join our mailing list (with the option to unsubscribe at any time), please copy and paste the link below https://bit.ly/3UE00Io

Positive messaging around autism in schools was at the heart of the West Sussex Autistic and Wonderfully Wired Ambassadors Conference which took place on 22 October.

More than 15 ambassador groups from across West Sussex, made up of neurodivergent pupils and some of their neurotypical peers, attended the conference.

The unique conference was made possible through the Autism In Schools project, which is funded by the NHS Sussex Integrated Care Board. One of the project’s key objectives is to communicate positive messages about autism in schools and to ensure that the autistic perspective is heard, understood and acted upon in schools throughout the county. Take a look at what everyone got up to on the day:

WATCH: Highlights video from the Autistic and Wonderfully Wired conference 2024

Do you know about the West Sussex Parent Carer Forum (WSPCF)? Click here to have a look at our website to find out more.

“Parent Carer Forums are representative local groups of parents and carers of children and young people with disabilities who work alongside local authorities, education, health and other service providers to ensure the services they plan, commission, deliver and monitor meet the needs of children and families”.                                               Para 1.13 SEND Code of Practice 2015

What have we been up to recently?

During the last half term our team delivered two parent carer chat mornings in Horsham and online, they have also been busy attending the Earliest Help Partnership Events across the county, as well the EHCNA and Resource and Placement Considerations Panels. The team have also been busy supporting key projects including PINS (Partnership for the Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools) and Autism in Schools. In addition to this, the team attend many WSCC and NHS meetings to ensure that the views of West Sussex SEND families are represented in those spaces.

We have also this week begun the delivery of our first six-week Wellbeing Course for Parent Carers which aims to empower parent carers to ensure that they are making time to care for their own wellbeing. We are looking forward to delivering two more of these Courses over the course of the academic year.

Upcoming Events:

We offer a variety of free events for parent carers, designed to provide support, connection, and valuable information. 

From expert-led sessions on topics like EHCPs and SEND law to wellbeing courses, mental health first aid training, and informal chat events, there’s something to suit every need.

If you know a parent carer who could benefit, encourage them to register on our website to stay informed about all upcoming opportunities.

Join us

You can sign up to WSPCF as a professional member - Complete our short sign-up form HERE We will keep you updated both for your professional development and also regarding what we can offer 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.

Head over to our WEBSITE,  FACEBOOK or INSTAGRAM  for more information, including how we started, what we do and our current events.

A reminder to put the 18 June 2025 in your diary!

Kit Messenger will be returning as our keynote speaker to discuss how we move from being a fixer to a coach: a strengths based approach to executive function.

Tickets will be available after the spring half term, from Services to Education.  

Our new Thriving in Education website is now live.

This resource has been developed to help schools to embed a whole school approach to mental health and emotional wellbeing. 

It features comprehensive links to resource, training and support around mental health and emotional wellbeing. The new website is also the point of entry for new pages from the Thought-Full programme and our EBSA process.