Included in this update

• Closedown of 2022/23 School Accounts
• Addressing Controversial Issues (Palestine-Israel conflict) in the Classroom
• Education Psychologists – Industrial Action 
• Share YOUR thoughts on our new Domestic Abuse Strategy 
• Occupational Health Management System Upgrade 
• Education Infrastructure – Autumn Bulletin 2023 
• Smoking, drinking and drug use among young people in England – survey
• Ordinarily Available Guidance: Action Research Project 
• BCHC Plus School Nursing Service 
• Services for Education Training Courses
   

Closedown of 2022/23 School Accounts

FAO: Headteachers, School Business Managers, Bursars

The Local Authority is now finalising the 2022/23 financial position.  To move forward with finalising these accounts, any 2022/23 adjustments on Oracle will only be made by exception over the next 3 weeks, with an aim for no further 2022/23 adjustments to be made after 30 November 2023.

All schools 22/23 carry forward balances will be sent out prior to Friday 24 November.

We understand that schools wanted their MISs to be accurate before we finalised the 22/23 position, however as you will appreciate the central support services within BCC have been working extremely hard with you over the last few months and we are now hoping we have your accounts as accurate as possible. Any discrepancies will hopefully be immaterial, and it is proposed we adjust in 2023/24.

Any adjustments made to the published balances will be in direct communication with schools with clear confirmation of whether this will be a 22/23 adjustment or 23/24. This will ensure that the Oracle General Ledger matches schools’ individual MISs systems at year end exactly. The majority of the adjustments will now be 23/24, but we understand there may be some exceptions to this.

When final balances are released over the next 2 weeks to schools, can you please review at your earliest convenience and respond to Kirsty Lister directly at Kirsty.lister@birmingham.gov.uk on any issues or discrepancies. These will be allocated team members within the Schools Funding Team who will be working through the queries as a priority to ensure they get resolved.  Arrangements will be made to meet schools throughout November via Teams to discuss/resolve issues directly.

For any queries or further information please contact Kirsty.lister@birmingham.gov.uk

Addressing Controversial Issues (Palestine-Israel conflict) in the Classroom

In light of the recent conflict, schools may find the information contained in this link helpful: How to speak about the news, ongoing conflicts and hold discussions on difficult topics with students - Educate Against Hate

Education Psychologists – Industrial Action

Following a ballot by the profession’s union, many Educational Psychologists (EPs) across 135 Local Authorities in England and Wales will be taking industrial action. The action involves two strike days which will take place on Wednesday, 15 November and Wednesday, 13 December. In addition, from 6 November to 15 December 2023, EPs will only work their contractual hours. The action will affect aspects of service delivery by Birmingham Educational Psychology Service and we understand that this disruption will be concerning. Where possible, efforts will be made to provide notice with regards to how activities undertaken for the Local Authority may affect individual schools and families during this period. Plans will be put in place to ensure cover for any required critical incident support is provided.

For any queries, please contact Dr Pauline Bromfield, Head of Service/Principal Educational Psychologist at Pauline.Bromfield@birmingham.gov.uk

Share YOUR thoughts on our new Domestic Abuse Strategy 

If you live or work in Birmingham, you play a key role in our city’s response to domestic abuse, whether you directly support citizens or not. We need YOUR feedback on the city’s draft Domestic Abuse Prevention Strategy 2024+.  

This important strategy will shape how partners across the city to tackle domestic abuse, support survivors and hold perpetrators to account.

Domestic abuse (DA) touches the lives, directly or indirectly, of most people in Birmingham. It is the third highest reason for homelessness presentations, second highest reason for contacting Birmingham Children’s Trust, and DA crimes reported to the police have more than doubled in the past 4 years. 

The Care Act 2014 sets out a clear framework requiring local authorities to safeguard vulnerable adults, promoting their wellbeing, and DA is a part of this.  The draft strategy builds on the Domestic Abuse Prevention Strategy 2018-2023, the DA Needs Assessment undertaken in 2021, and many conversations with partners and survivors.  

A six-week public consultation has been launched, and we need both staff and citizens to share their views!  

We are asking you to part in the online Be Heard survey which should take about 10 minutes to complete and is completely confidential. The survey will close on 6 December 2023.

Please also share this with your networks, both personal and professional, to ensure we gather as much feedback as possible. We really value your input! 

To discuss the consultation or strategy with us, or submit responses by email, please get in touch at DAteam@birmingham.gov.uk 

Anyone can be a victim of domestic abuse, and we know you may know someone, or have experienced it yourself – we commission specialist services that are available to you for help and support.

For Women: 

• Birmingham and Solihull Women’s Aid Helpline is open every day 09:15-17:15 on 0808 800 0028 
• Webchat is open Monday to Friday 10:00-16:00  

For Men: 

• Cranstoun helpline is open Monday to Friday 09:00-17;00 on 0121 633 1750, or the website has more information. 

For LGBT+: 

• Birmingham LGBT’s helpline is open Monday to Friday 10:00-21:00 and Saturdays 11:30-19:00 on 0121 643 0821, or the website has more information.  

In an emergency, please call 999. 

Occupational Health Management System Upgrade

To offer the best service, Occupational Health is upgrading its referral software, Cohort. So, for a short time, the referral system will be locked to allow for data migration.

• The system will be locked at the end of Friday, 17 November 2023 – but please don’t make new referrals, or update existing ones, after Thursday, 16 November: anything you add to Cohort beyond this will be lost.

• For those who manage recruitment and normally send a link to the pre-placement questionnaire to prospective candidates, the interim process will be to email occupational.health@birmingham.gov.uk informing them of the candidate’s email address. They will then send the candidate an off-line form to complete and return to Occupational Health for processing.

It is planned that the new system will go live on 28 November, and a link to the new system, plus a guide on how to use it, will be provided in due course. If possible, any new referrals should be left until after this date. However, should urgent advice or guidance be required during the period of closure, please get in touch at occupational.health@birmingham.gov.uk.  

Education Infrastructure – Autumn Bulletin 2023

This term’s Education Infrastructure bulletin is available on BESS: Education Infrastructure Autumn Bulletin

The bulletin covers the following topics:

• School Information updates
• Future Bulletins
• Duty Holder and Asbestos Management Plan Training
• Growth and falling pupil funding.
• Additional Secondary places
• Caretakers’ Houses
• Access projects making a difference to pupils.

Please contact the Education Infrastructure team for school place planning, capital projects and asset management queries: edsi.enquiries@birmingham.gov.uk

Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use Among Young People in England – Survey

FAO: Secondary School Staff

NHS Digital are inviting all mainstream secondary schools to take part in the upcoming Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use in Young People survey. The results will provide valuable information to better understand behaviours in young people and to help develop policies and plan new initiatives | NHS Digital, UK

Ordinarily Available Guidance: Action Research Project

Work has been undertaken with mainstream schools in developing a common understanding around what is meant by ordinarily available provision i.e. the activities, experiences, and strategies that are ordinarily available within the existing resource within mainstream settings for all children and young people, including those with SEND. This has resulted in a guidance document known as the OAG (Ordinarily Available Guidance), the purpose of which is to support all our education settings to put in place inclusive practice that benefits every child and young person, and especially those at SEN Support.

While this guidance will be available to all schools, we would like to work with school leaders and SENCos through an action research project to test effective implementation that best supports schools in their practice.

We are looking for 20-25 schools from the primary/secondary sector and from across the city to be involved in this piece of action research and are inviting expressions of interest from schools to be submitted by Thursday, 30 November.

A one-hour briefing for school leaders will be held online on Thursday, 23 November at 13:30 to share further information about the project with interested schools – please contact Laura Beaumont at laura.beaumont@birmingham.gov.uk to book your place.

BCHC Plus School Nursing Service

FAO: SENCO/Head Teacher

Do you need additional School Nursing input? If so Birmingham Community NHS Foundation Trust can help.

Through its BCHC Plus (Traded Services) School Nursing service it can provide additional education focused services that supplement the NHS ‘core’ school nurse service.

The link between educational attainment and positive health is well documented; however sometimes schools find that incidence of health-related needs amongst their pupils requires more clinical support. BCHC Plus offers schools the opportunity to buy additional dedicated school nurse time to address health needs that lie beyond the scope of the core service.

School health topics include:

• Curriculum input focused on health and wellbeing
• Issues arising in school that may have a link to health
• Dedicated support addressing a school’s wider health related challenges
• Liaison with GP’s Health Visitors and other professionals
• Health education and promotion activities

To find out more about how BCHC Plus (Traded Services) can benefit your school, pupils, families and staff, please contact the BCHC Plus team on 0121 466266 or at bchc.bchcplus@nhs.net.

Services for Education Training Courses

Teachers New to Year 6 - Preparing for Statutory Assessment Processes at the End of KS2 - Monday 20th November 2023: 09.00 - 15.45

This full-day course will equip participants with the knowledge and understanding required to fulfil their statutory duty for end of KS2 tests and the teacher assessment of Writing. Book here:

Teachers and Assessment Leaders New to Year 2 - Thursday 23rd November 2023: 09.00 – 16.00

Preparing for the Essential Assessment Processes at the End of KS1 - Book here

Teachers Experienced in Year 6 - Thursday 30th November 2023: 13.00 - 16.00

Updates and Guidance for Statutory Assessment Processes at the End of KS2 - Book here

Ofsted Early Reading Deep Dives – Wednesday 22nd November 2023: 13.00 – 16.00

One element of an Ofsted inspection that we can be certain of is that there will be an Early Reading Deep Dive, and yet many of our English and Reading Leads feel unprepared for what is expected of them.  This critical course addresses these concerns. Book here

Primary Writing Leadership – How to Increase Greater Depth Attainment - Wednesday 29th November 2023

The training looks at developing and creating a progressive spiral curriculum, with the elements of English being interwoven throughout.  Book here