SENCO noticeboard

SEND Update - July 2024

Welcome to the July 2024 SEND Noticeboard which contains important information and updates on ECHNA and Attendance, SEND SaLT Updates, Birmingham Careers Service News - Exam Results 2024 and much more!

This update includes:

SENCo Communications – one year on!

Feedback around our new ways of communicating with SENCOs and SEND leads over the past year has been very positive, and we will continue to gather views and respond to this over the coming months.

Please find attached the SENCo Comms 24 - 25 plan for the new academic year, including:

  • SENCO Noticeboard dates: these will continue to be published each half term with archived editions available for all to view. The Noticeboard is the main channel for sharing information and updates around SEND, as well as highlighting new projects, SEND events, and SEND training for schools and settings to access, as well as information and events to share with parents on your own school websites.
  • Termly SENCo briefings: these will continue to follow a one or two item agenda focusing on a particular area within SEND. Topics covered are based on needs as identified from school feedback as well as city-wide developments as part of our SEND improvement journey. These sessions will involve presentations of information and ideas as well as opportunity for group discussion and action planning. Rather than receiving SEND updates in these sessions (now given through the SENCo Noticeboard), the aim of these briefings is to give SENCOs and SEND leads time to look at SEND topics in greater depth as well as reflecting on their own provision and practice.
  • Local SENCo Meetings: these continue to be a good support to SENCos in their local area, with key themes being discussed and good practice being shared. We are working with SENCo consortia leads in trying to set dates for the year so that these can be built into school planning, and we will be communicating these in the next SENCo Noticeboard.

In response to a recent SENCo survey around preferred dates and times for the termly SENCo briefings, these will now be held on Monday and Tuesday afternoons (1.30 -3pm) and Wednesday and Thursday mornings (9.30 – 11am). Dates for the year are included in the SENCo Comms plan 24 – 25.

Ordinarily Available Guidance – Updates and New Action Research projects with Parent groups

Early Years Version of the OAG

Work has now started with the EYS sector on developing the EYS version of the OAG, which includes children in Reception in schools as this needs to cover the whole Foundation stage. The steering group includes reps from across the EYS sector including Nursery schools, our Private, Voluntary and Independent sector and child minders. The Council for Disabled Children will be working with us on three Action learning sets taking place during this autumn and spring term 25 to develop a draft EYS OAG ready to share by next April. This will then follow a similar implementation plan to the school age version, looking at individual EYS settings carrying out action research projects to test the guidance through implementation.

Thank you to those Reception teachers / SENCos with expertise in EYS in being part of these action learning sets; we are still looking for a couple more Reception teachers to take part in this so if you’re interested then email Heather Wood heather.wood@birmingham.gov.uk

Action Research with Parent Groups​

Parental understanding of the guidance is a key aspect of Birmingham becoming increasingly inclusive, so that we are empowering parents and carers to really understand what is ordinarily available for their child in their school.

As shared in the last SENCo Noticeboard, we are working with the Parent Carer Forum in developing action research projects with parent groups in schools; we are delivering on a smaller cohort initially before rolling this out wider across the city. We currently have 8 schools involved (3 secondary and 5 primary) with potentially 2 more coming on board in September. Some of these schools have already well-established parent groups and some are in the early days of setting these up. We are carrying out a baselining activity with the parent group and school, co facilitated by David Hill from PSS and a rep from the PCF, to find out how well parents and carers know what support is readily available and how confident they are that their child’s needs can be/are being met.

The outcomes of this activity, looking at what’s working well and what could be even better if, will inform a project for each school during the autumn term to work with parents on an aspect that they have agreed between them. This will result in a case study that can also be shared wider, similar to the stories of implementation approach. We will be sharing progress of these action research projects, alongside those with schools during the autumn term SENCo Noticeboard. For further information around any of these projects, email Heather Wood heather.wood@birmingham.gov.uk ​

Support for schools

Your SEND advisory teams and Educational Psychologists are there to support you in understanding and implementing the OAG so do please be talking to them about how you are using the OAG or for any further advice around any of the strategies suggested. The SEND advisory are protecting some core hours for every school for strategic work so you may want to use the OAG to support your discussions around planning input.

ECHNA and Attendance

One of the factors taken into account by the SEN panel when considering requests for an EHC needs assessment is the child’s level of attendance. This is important because a child who is not attending regularly will not be consistently accessing the support they need and thus we do not have clear evidence that the graduated approach has been fully implemented.

We have seen several cases at panel over recent months where low attendance has been attributed to “frequent illness due to low immunity”. In at least one case, the child was described as having a “compromised immune system”. In all cases, the health representative who sits on panel is asked to consult medical records and advise on the child’s health needs and their likely impact on attendance/access to education. In all of the cases where “low immunity” has been cited, there has been no evidence of this. There have been few, if any, contacts with the GP. In some cases where medical practitioners have seen the child, they have described them as being “in general good health”.

School should follow up cases where there is frequent absence due to illness and enquire what medical support is being accessed to address the recurrent illness. They should encourage parents to support attendance when there are only minor health concerns.

Schools must not use specific medical terms (such as “compromised immune system”) to describe illness if the condition has not been diagnosed by an appropriately qualified medical practitioner.

New ways of working CAT and PSS

Following on from the previous update around increasing the core offer from the Communication and Autism team (CAT) and Pupil & School Support (PSS), both the teams have been working on allocations based on a more sustainable model using the SEND Notional Budget share for each school. This model incorporates a new way of working with schools that focuses on early intervention and prevention; the rationale behind this being that:

  • we know that any evidence-based research highlights the longer-term impact and value of strategic work with schools on pupil outcomes, and
  • reduced school budgets are creating some inequity of support available from the teams – some schools are able to buy a lot of additional time where others can’t, meaning that some schools who really need additional support and not always able to access this.

For CAT, who have historically distributed core hours based on the number of CYP registered with a diagnosis of autism, this more equitable model will provide the majority of settings with an increased number of hours. For the small number of schools who will receive a decrease in their allocated hours, an interim offer will be made for the academic year 2024-2025 to mitigate potential impact.

For PSS, who have previously distributed core hours based on the number of C/YP on the school census return at SEN Support (K code), all settings will see an increase in the number of hours allocated.

The new model has allocated the majority of hours available to all schools meaning an increase in their allocation of support from the teams. As part of this increase, the teams will be including 12 hours of protected time specifically for strategic/capacity building work across the academic year. There will still be some capacity for schools to buy additional hours, but this will be limited to specific pieces of work and considered on a case by case basis.

Because of the increase in hours there will be some changes to the PSS and CAT worker supporting some schools, but these changes are only made as a last resort and when unavoidable. To support schools in any changes we will phasing these for PSS from September 24 and for CAT January 25.

We are looking to recruit to both CAT and PSS to ensure that all schools get an increase to hours and that early intervention support can be a focus. For further information please contact Terri Cawser for PSS terri.cawser@birmingham.gov.uk and Sarah Scarr for CAT sarah.j.scarr@birmingham.gov.uk

Education Endowment Foundation: Working Through Others Project.

PSS have been chosen to work with the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) on an 18-month project called Working Through Others.

We applied to be part of it in April 2024, and after a rigorous interview process were chosen along with 4 other providers to be part of the project. The other providers include a MAT, a training provider and a charity.

The project is looking at how the EEF can work with middle tier organisations to support getting evidence-informed practice into schools and settings. By middle tier they mean organisations that sit between the EEF and schools and who use the EEF materials in their training and support to schools.

The main focus for PSS will be on using the newly published implementation guide to embed HQT strategies such as the 5-a-day recommendations into schools, through our new way of working and the protected strategic hours. We will be paired with an EEF research school who will not only help us to plan and implement the actions, but also help us with measuring the impact of what we do.

Our aim is to use the research and links with the research schools to shape some of the ways we use the protected strategic hours given to schools this year. This will ensure that we are using these hours to support the best outcomes for a wide range of pupils in your settings.

PSS teachers will share further information with schools in September when planning strategic work.

Speech & Language Therapy Updates

As this academic year draws to a close, the NHS SaLT service have been reviewing and evaluating the successes and the challenges of the new service delivery model, working within a Balanced System® framework.

Firstly, the SaLT service would like to thank SENCOs and other school staff who have welcomed them as Link SaLT and collaborated with them for the benefit of children with speech, language, and communication needs (SLCN).

Schools Survey:

A survey was sent out to all schools and 192 responses were returned.

The following responses were received from mainstream schools to the question: ‘How well do you feel the Link SaLT has supported your school to achieve good outcomes for children with SLCN?’

  • 66% very well/quite well
  • 18% okay
  • 16% not very well/not well at all

Positives:

  • Consistency of Link SaLT coming into school, Link SaLT real asset to the team, able to get to know children, families, and staff.
  • School can access support easily.
  • Collaboration between NHS Link SaLT and Independent SaLT is working well.

Challenges:

  • Overarching theme was lack of SaLT capacity/not enough time allocated.
  • Some lack of clarity around allocation: number of hours.
  • Some lack of clarity around delivery of EHCP provision.
  • Results will be used to inform planning for the next academic year alongside feedback from a SaLT staff survey and parents/carers.
  • Plan for September 2024 in Schools.
  • Work is underway on the allocation of Link SaLTs to schools. Schools will be advised in early September of the name of their Link SaLT and the allocation of time.
  • Where possible this will be the same link SaLT as this academic year.

School Age Coordinators (SACOs) with SENCO input are working on a ‘Working Together Agreement’ which will be ready for September to be used in the SENCO and Link SaLT meetings at the beginning of term. This should help to maximise the impact of joint working and achieve best outcomes for children with SLCN in schools.

Birmingham Careers Service News - Exam Results 2024

Birmingham Careers Service has produced its 2024 annual exam results newsletter again this year, you can find it here.

It is aimed at young people (and their parents/carers and professionals working with young people) who will be leaving school/college this summer and are waiting for their exam results. 

There’s lots of information and top tips including

  • Post 16/18 options/Next Steps.
  • What to do on Exam Results days (A Levels = 15th August and GCSE = 22nd August).
  • College/Sixth Form Enrolment and UCAS clearing.
  • Support available, including how to access BCS for careers guidance and help to enter EET (employment , education or training).

The link is to a flip-style booklet meaning there are several hyperlinks within it taking you to more detailed information around apprenticeships, T levels, UCAS & clearing, generic careers information and leaflets, access to appointments and services from Birmingham Careers Service plus support if feeling anxious.

Could you please share the link with your colleagues, services and teams to ensure as many young people leaving school or college this year area aware of what support is available.

Our Careers Advisers have also produced the following videos to support exam results time:

Please share the link with your colleagues, services and teams and any young people you feel this would be suitable for to ensure as many young people leaving school or college this year are aware of what support is available.

Please remember generic information about the service is always available here.

Updates from the Parent Carer Forum

Looking at the past year we can see that the Birmingham Parent Carer Forum has seen growth in its membership and in its engagement at levels that exceed previous years. This growth has enabled the forum to reach more parents across the city including those from underrepresented communities. We have been able to increase our capacity allowing for more meetings to have a representative from the forum therefore amplifying the parent carer voice.

Getting out and speaking face to face to parents has definitely increased the PCFs awareness and visibility across many localities and communities, however we know we still have more work to do.

One example of the piece of work we are doing is where we have started a pilot group for Somalian ladies who have children with SEND. The PCF was approached by 2 ladies who attended the parent rep event and asked for support in setting up a group for the Somali community as they felt they had nowhere to go? The group is run in collaboration with Kids and has 2 meetings so far which have been well attended.

The PCF have visited many schools in Birmingham meeting with parents and support groups explaining who we are and what we do as there are still parents who haven't heard of us. We are also working with some schools on their Action Research with Parent Groups to understand the Ordinarily Available Guidance.

Please read the attached BPCF Growth SIB June 24 for more information around projects we are involved in next term and please share this with the parents in your school.

Supporting CYP who have Mild and Unilateral Hearing Loss

The Hearing Support Team have free training and management plans on their local offer pages to support children.

Mild Hearing Loss details can be found here.

Support for children with unilateral (one sided) hearing loss is also available here.

Our free Deaf Awareness training can be found here.

Support for schools and settings: Eye Condition Advice Leaflets

The Vision Support Team have developed a series of information leaflets on various eye conditions, available to download from the newly updated Local Offer (Vision Support Team area).

These guidance sheets give school and setting staff, along with parents and carers information on:

  • What the specific eye condition means for the child/young person.
  • What can help improve their vision.
  • Any strategies to support the child day to day at home and in the learning environment, to minimise any potential impact the visual condition may have.

There are currently 13 leaflets, with more in the development stages.

The team have also developed a guidance sheet on how to spot that a child/young person may be experiencing visual difficulties and how to seek assessment and advice from the relevant medical staff (Opticians and possibly an Ophthalmologist). This is also available to download on the Local Offer.

Supporting Children with Down Syndrome in Early Years Settings and Primary Schools

The training day will be delivered by an Educational Psychologist and teachers from the Early Years Inclusion Service in Birmingham who will share a psychological and educational perspective on the key developmental profile for children with Down Syndrome. Over the training day the course will share knowledge and evidenced based recommendations for the most effective teaching and learning approaches for children with Down Syndrome in your early years setting and schools. This course is suitable for early years and school staff, SENCOs, class teachers and teaching assistants in PVI settings, mainstream and special primary schools.

For further information please contact Philip Connor-Bell (philip.connor-bell@birmingham.gov.uk) or Sam Gallagher (Samuel.gallagher@birmingham.gov.uk)

For more information please read the attached

TIAAS Programme for 24-25: Trauma Informed Attachment Aware Schools

Please find below further information about the ‘Trauma Informed Attachment Aware Schools’ programme for 2024-2025

The Senior Leadership Team Engagement Workshops are for any school new to TIAAS wanting to join the programme. These will be held in October for 2 members of the school’s SLT and are fully funded events (by the Virtual School).

For more information please read the attached

The TIAAS programme flyer provides information about the full programme. New schools can book following attendance at the SLT Engagement Workshops.

For more information please read the attached

As in previous years, The Virtual School will fund 50% of the full programme for all schools and 80% for those with Birmingham Children in Care attending. There are a limited number of places for schools on the programme per year, and these places will be allocated after the SLT Engagement Workshops in October.

Free Preparation for Adulthood Workshops, Virtual Learning Platform and Face to Face Work Experience Opportunities

NHS England Choices College is a specialist post-16 institution providing tailored educational support, work experience and a study programme for young people with learning disabilities/difficulties and/or Autism.

We recognise the importance of preparing for adulthood as early as possible to ensure learners are prepared for their transition from education. We therefore offer a range of partnership opportunities for local schools and colleges to help facilitate this transition.

We do this by offering:

  • Bespoke taught Preparation for Adulthood Sessions (from Year 9 and above)
  • Access to our virtual work learning platform (for students aged 16+)
  • Work Experience Placements based on a learner’s skills and interests (for students aged 16+, for up to 6 weeks in length for half a day per week)

We look to provide students with a foundational understanding to the world of work, all the way through from understanding how to budget to how to access specific career pathways.

For more information please read the attached

Although we are hosted by NHS England, we recognise that not everyone wants to work in the NHS. As such, we also provide employability guidance beyond the sphere of the NHS, working alongside local and national external businesses.

All these services are free to access for schools.

Choices College also provides a Supported Internship course for young adults aged 16-24 with learning difficulties, disabilities and/or Autism. If you are interested in the SI course, please feel free to contact me about this too.

Note that we provide support for students with additional needs.

You can find out more information here.

This entry was posted by Jessica Wykes on 26/06/2024.