 Welcome to the Children,Young People and Learning (CYPL) SEND & Inclusion newsletter. This is a dedicated publication for professionals and parent carers who are champions of SEND in West Sussex.
Please share this newsletter with colleagues and parent carers. If you know of anyone who would like to be added to the distribution list, you can subscribe here.
Contents
Updates:
- Scrutiny Committee
- SEND and Inclusion Strategy - survey on proposed vision, principles and priorities for action
- Delivering Better Value - update on our linchpin projects
- Alternative Provision specialist taskforce
- Pilot of the Department for Education template for Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCP)
Working with our partners:
- West Sussex Parent Carer Forum
- Support while you wait for an assessment - new page on the Local Offer
- NHS Sussex SEND page on Sussex Health & Care website
- Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools (PINS)
- Reaching Families NDP Navigation Service
- SIBS - for brothers and sisters of disabled children and adults
Spotlight: Supporting children and young people to Thrive in Education
Events:
- West Sussex SENCO Conference 2025 - Inclusive Solutions, 18 June
- Therapeutic Thinking training
Dear Colleagues,
I would like to welcome you to our refreshed SEND and Inclusion newsletter, which is one of the keys ways that we communicate important information and updates from our SEND and Inclusion Service.
Last month, the Public Accounts Committee published the ‘Support for children and young people with special educational needs’ report. This is an important document which, if you haven’t already done so, I would encourage you to read. The report summarises the key challenges around increased demand for SEND support nationally, and the need to create sustainable and long term support for local authorities to manage their spending on SEND, which is currently a significant financial challenge and risk.
For us in West Sussex, we know too well the challenges facing our children and young people with SEND and their families. Our team of professionals continue to work exceptionally hard to provide the best help and support. Whilst improvements and progress are being made, we must acknowledge we are working within a system which is widely acknowledged as broken.
As our teams work within this system everyday, it was important for us to help support the development and recommendations of the Public Accounts Committee report. I would like to share the link to our written evidence and recommendations, which you can find here.
I am hopeful that the drive from central government to make long lasting and impactful change for SEND children, young people and their families will result in positive systemic changes. I will ensure any developments are communicated as part of our regular newsletter to you.
Best wishes,
Vince
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We are developing a new 5 year Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Inclusion Strategy for West Sussex County Council, to launch in September 2025.
We would like your comments on what should be included, what needs improving and what’s most important to you. The consultation is now live until 3 April 2025, and we hope that you will be able to join us in further shaping and developing the Strategy.
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We were asked at the November Children’s and Young People’s Services Scrutiny Committee to provide a summary report on the projects under the Delivering Better Value (DBV) programme.
DBV aims to support local authorities and their partners in improving the delivery of SEND services for children and young people while working towards financial sustainability. You can read more about the Scrutiny Committee on the WSCC website.
Our linchpin projects under the DBV programme are: Local Inclusion Solutions (L-INCS), Ordinarily Available Inclusive Practice guide (OAIP), Maintained Special Schools Outreach, Specialist Support Centre Offer and Special School Funding.
Local Inclusion Solutions pilot (L-INCS)
L-INCS is now up and running in the Lancing, Shoreham and East Grinstead areas. Led by the Educational Psychology Service, teams across Education and Skills and Early Help are working collaboratively with schools to support inclusion at the whole school and targeted level. All schools in the pilot have completed their action plans and have prioritised areas for development.
In the Spring term, the pilots will begin to implement the support from across the teams. The pilot is being closely evaluated to identify impact and different ways of working, and plans for sustainability are being considered.
As part of L-INCS, there is also a focus on supporting children displaying emotionally based school avoidance (EBSA) behaviours, supporting schools to implement the assess, plan, do and review processes and offering group and individual based interventions. Some L-INCS schools are also involved in a pilot to explore how AI, in the form of AV1 Robots, can support children to access their learning.
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Ordinarily Available Inclusive Practice guide (OAIP)
This month we publish the third edition of our co-produced West Sussex Ordinarily Available Inclusive Practice Guide 2025 (OAIP). This important publication reflects our commitment to and focus on inclusive practice.
Funded by the Department for Education’s (DfE) Delivering Better Values (DBV) in SEND programme, we will provide copies to every setting responsible for the education and inclusion of our West Sussex children and young people.
The additional needs of most children and young people can be met by inclusive quality first teaching and reasonable adjustments from the funding and resources that are already or ‘ordinarily’ available in their mainstream school or setting. This is known as ‘Ordinarily Available Provision.’ To embed sustainable changes in practice, and improve the SEND system, we felt strongly that funding copies of the OAIP into settings where our West Sussex children and young people are being educated was a key step forward.
This revised guide has been produced in partnership with our education settings, parents and carers, professionals, and services to highlight the range of support and expectations that settings can ordinarily provide for a child or young person, without the need for additional support from an Education Health and Care Plan, that is, children at ‘SEND support’ or with no identified SEND.
The SEND Code of Practice (2015) links high quality teaching with ordinarily available provision: “…higher quality teaching ordinarily available to the whole class is likely to mean that fewer pupils will require such support.” (Para. 6.15).
We acknowledge that adapting practices to meet the needs of all children and young people does bring challenges. This accessible resource will prompt discussion and facilitate planning to create more inclusive learning environments and experiences.
- We’re aware that many schools like to have additional copies for classroom teachers, and these will be available to purchase via the 'Stores' function on Services for Education
- The refreshed OAIP is uploaded on Tools for Schools as chunked web pages
- The next stage of this project is to develop a training programme for the OAIP with school SENCOs, and we will continue to update you on the progress of this
Maintained Special Schools Outreach
We have co-produced a model with special schools to develop a ‘Reactive Outreach’. This will target the mainstream schools where approximately 80 pupils have been placed because a specialist placement wasn’t available.
Teachers from 8 special schools will work with the mainstream school and offer support, advice and guidance, to ensure these children are supported appropriately and their education sustained in the mainstream setting. This team is working in collaboration with the Specialist Advisory Teaching Service to ensure a coordinated offer of support. Most pupils involved in the pilot are in reception, but we are expecting to include KS2 transition pupils in the summer term (moving from Y6 – Y7).
Specialist Support Centre (SSC) Offer
Service Level Agreements (SLAs) have been signed and are now being followed up with quality assurance visits. A Speech and Language Therapist is working with us to further develop the SSC offer. The project is also looking to commission an Occupational Therapist for further advice and guidance on developing and embedding the SSC offer.
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The Alternative Provision Specialist Taskforce (APST) is a pilot project sitting within our transformation workstream that we are running as part of the SEND and AP Change Programme.
We are trialling a specialist taskforce of multi-disciplinary professionals made up of: an APST manager; speech and language therapists, specialist advisory teachers, substance misuse worker, youth justice worker, children and family worker and a YES worker (mental health), to work directly with students who may be at risk of permanent exclusion, across Crawley secondary schools.
Much work has been taking place in the Local Authority behind the scenes for several months, in preparation for getting the pilot project up and running. We are now approaching a place where we will have our team of multi-disciplinary professionals to start working with identified learners across Crawley. This has been no mean feat due to challenges with recruitment, establishing referral working practices and referral methods as well as a requirement to re-scope and change direction. We are now just focussing on Tier 1 pupils, so that with schools, we are identifying needs earlier and able to deliver early interventions of support.
Following a successful questionnaire with Crawley secondary schools, where together, we identified descriptors for pupils who were at Tier 1, and who may require APST support, would include:
- Students who have been involved in multiple lower level incidents
- Behaviours, e.g. defiance/refusal to follow instruction, truancy, disruption, harmful behaviours towards others.
- School has exhausted support options and not seeing changes.
In addition to this, we have identified that these pupils may also be at risk of or actively engaged with/experiencing/have:
- Exploitation (or risk of)
- Substance use (or distribution)
- Family history of permanent exclusion (PEX)
- Gang involvement
- Special education needs (SEN)
- Children's social care/Early Help involvement
- Difficult school-home relationship
We are very excited about this project, as the impact of APSTs that have been seen in other local authorities is very impressive, with some areas noticing a reduction in violent youth crime, better support and access to neurodiverse services and a reduction in the overall number of exclusions of pupils. Of course, we understand that each local area is different and has their own unique set of needs, but we are proud to be rolling this pilot out in Crawley very soon.
Many of you will be aware that we have been taking part in the Change Partnership Programme (CPP) pilot of the DfE Education Health Care Plan (EHCP) template.
The pilot has now ended and we are pleased to be adopting identified good practice from this in the West Sussex EHCP form.
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We had a very busy autumn term here, including some new projects and events.
Introducing the Together for Change Panel
This panel is a new collaborative space, bringing together West Sussex County Council, NHS Sussex, parents/carers, and other stakeholders to share ideas, provide feedback, and make decisions, with the goal of enhancing services through teamwork using a co-productive approach.
The panel has already been very busy with submissions, such as short breaks, alternative provisions and many more. If you would like to know more, or come along and join us for a panel you can contact us on tfcpanel@wspcf.org.uk
Our events for parents/carers
We have had some new events this term too, including our wellbeing courses for parents/carers, we have completed a course already, and have a fully booked spring course starting soon! We will be gathering feedback to report how this has impacted parents/carers' wellbeing and will share the results with you all soon. This course runs alongside our regular events, such as parent/carer chat sessions, encouraging peer to peer support.
We were delighted to invite Claire Hayes, Assistant Director of Education and Skills, and Claire Prince, Head of SEND and Inclusion, to join our latest chat session, which was extremely well received. Parents/carers found it encouraging, and felt heard and valued. We are still receiving feedback from this session, so will give further updates shortly.
Are you a member of the WSPCF?
Please sign up here to keep updated, both for your professional development, and to see what we are offering the families you work with. We often get enquiries seeking information and signposting on behalf of the families, so please feel free to get in touch with us. If you have any questions, or would like to know more, please contact us by emailing office@wspcf.org.uk, or stay updated by visiting our website, Facebook page or Instagram page.
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NHS Sussex have been working with colleagues across West Sussex to support SEND inclusion.
In partnership with West Sussex County Council and the WSPCF, we have developed a dedicated “support while you wait for an assessment” page on the West Sussex Local Offer which has detailed guidance, resources and links to a wide range of condition-specific information. This includes Neurodevelopmental Pathways, Speech and Language Therapy, Physiotherapy, Dental, Community Paediatrics and child and adolescent mental health services.
The “Support Whilst Waiting” work will continue to be developed through a newly established Task and Finish Group. NHS Sussex recognises the importance of this work and is committed to improving the journey of the child, young person and their families whilst they wait for a specialist health assessment.
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The NHS Sussex SEND page has been refreshed, with additional guidance and information relating to Right to Choose, ADHD medication and support whilst you are waiting for a specialist health assessment. |
Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools (PINS) continues to offer a wide range of support and services to schools.
This includes a one day workshop on communicating well with parents/carers, in which schools can create their own communication strategy.
Support webinars covering: ‘Neurodivergence and Mental Health’ with a psychotherapist, ‘Auditing and Adapting the Sensory Environment of Primary Schools’ with occupational therapists, ‘Unmasking Hypermobility and Neurodivergence’ (SEDS Connective), ‘Understanding Children’s Strengths and Skills’ (Changing Chances), and ‘Using a Relational Approach to Supporting Dysregulated Children’ (Changing Chances).
We are very pleased to have received funding from NHS Sussex to continue providing this much-needed navigation service for parents/carers of children and young people who are waiting on, undergoing or have completed an assessment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism and other neurodevelopmental conditions on the West Sussex Neurodevelopmental Pathway.
This service is accessed via referral from a professional working with the child/young person and can support parent-carers in the following ways:
- Initial telephone support to establish the needs of families accessing the service
- Information and resources on your child's condition and needs
- Training workshops and courses on neurodiversity
- Access to a specially trained parent-carer befriender with a similar lived experience
- Access and support in attending one of our parent-carer support groups
- Access to other Reaching Families services
- Signposting to other relevant projects and services
For further information, including the eligibility and referral process, please visit the Reaching Families website.
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Sibs exists to support people who grow up with, or have grown up with, a disabled brother or sister. It is the only UK charity representing the needs of over half a million young siblings and over one and a half million adult siblings.
Have you thought about running group support for young siblings?
Our sibling group leader training session will give you all the information you need to plan, run and evaluate your own local siblings group. It is taking place online via Zoom on Wednesday, 26 March 2025, 09:15 - 13:15. For more information and on how to book, please click here.
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In West Sussex, we describe our approach to supporting mental health in schools under the umbrella of Thriving in Education.
The best way to find out more is to visit our website, which takes you through our evidence based approach to supporting mental health and wellbeing in schools. In this piece, you can find out about Thought-Full, WOWSI and the Thriving in Education Grants Programme.
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Bookings are now open for the 2025 West Sussex SENCO Conference, Inclusive Solutions. We look forward to welcoming you for another inspiring and motivational day, on 18 June 2025 at Butlins, Bognor Regis.
We are delighted that Kit Messenger will join us for a second year and will speak on From Fixer to Coach: A strengths-based approach to executive function.
You will be able to choose 2 out of the following 4 workshops in the afternoon:
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Relational Practice: why relational practice matters, and how it can be implemented within the 8 principles of a whole school approach, led by Fran Parker from the Educational Psychology Service
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Working with schools, a parent’s perspective: jointly led by Carina Reid and Sasha Slade from the Autism and Social Communication Team, with the West Sussex Parent Carer Forum
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Therapeutic Thinking, developing emotional literacy to support wellbeing and inclusion: a practical session exploring tools, resources and strategies to develop emotional literacy
Led by Kate Southgate and Nichola Atkinson from the Learning and Behaviour Advisory Team
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Introducing ENABLE: a solution-focused framework for individual and team coaching, for SENCOs to use with others in school, led by Clare Myall from the Educational Psychology Service
Tickets are on sale via West Sussex Services for Schools, with an early bird price of £100 available until the end of March. Thereafter tickets will be priced at £120. This includes all refreshments for the day.
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Therapeutic Thinking is a school based and led approach, developed by Angela Wadham.
The Therapeutic Thinking approach helps senior leaders to develop policies and plans that support staff in implementing a therapeutic approach, using a train the trainer model.
To date 40% of all West Sussex schools have attended the 3-day training and have tutors in their schools.
“It was such a beneficial course that will help me explain behaviours and justify responses to my team. I have come away feeling confident and less than a week on it has already informed my practice.”
“Staff have a better understanding of behaviour being communication. Teachers and staff are empowered to use strategies in class for themselves, which has reduced the amount SLT are asked to support with.”
Quotes from teachers
More information on the Therapeutic Thinking approach can be found here.
The next 3 day training is on 6 June, 13 June and 20 June 2025, and can be booked via West Sussex Services for Education.
One day training
You do not need to have done the 3 day course to access this training. Places can be booked via West Sussex Services for Education.
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Principles of Emotional Literacy: a professional development day to explore the development of emotional literacy as part of a therapeutic approach in schools. Book your place here on Wednesday 7 May 2025
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Principles of a Behaviour Curriculum: a professional development day to explore the creation of a behaviour curriculum aligning with the principles of Therapeutic Thinking. Book your place here on Monday 16 June 2025
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The Local Offer website is our gateway to SEND information for families and young people (0-25). Whether you have a diagnosis or not, visit the Local Offer website for:
- A directory of services, community groups and activities
- The SEND support you can expect from childcare and education settings
- Information about NHS SEND services, including assessments and support while you wait
- Signposting to financial support, including grants and benefits
- Help with navigating Education, Health and Care Assessments, Plans and Reviews
- Support for preparing for adulthood, employment, and transitioning to adult social care
Tools for School is where you will find resources and information to support the inclusion of all West Sussex children and young people in early years, schools, post 16 and other education settings.
The Family Information Service (FIS) is provided by West Sussex County Council. We offer free, impartial, up-to-date information to all families on childcare, as well as activities and services for 0-25 year olds.
As a council we are working together with our partners across education, health and social care, and importantly our families, to secure the best possible outcomes for all our children and young people. Here you will find more information about how we plan to improve our SEND services.
West Sussex SENDIAS, provides impartial information, advice and support to children and young people who have SEND (special educational needs and/ or disabilities) for those aged 0-25 and their parent carers.
Thriving in Education is where you will find support and information for children and young people's mental health and emotional wellbeing.
 Some of the services listed in this newsletter or on the Local Offer site are provided by private service providers and not by West Sussex County Council. These do not have a recommendation or endorsement from the local authority. If you decide to use a service / provision, you should be aware that you are responsible for doing your own checks to ensure they are suitable and fit for purpose. West Sussex County Council will not be liable for any damages or losses suffered by anyone who relies on the information in this newsletter.
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