Welcome to the NatSIP Website

This website offers access to a wealth of SI resources, most of which are now freely available.  We encourage you to register on the site for full access to everything we have to offer.  Registration is free, and open to anyone.  A walkthrough/howto on the registration process is here.

RNIB has launched a new report What we know about Education which is available for download here (MS Word format).

The report summarises the experiences of children and young people with a vision impairment who are in education.

In the UK, we estimate that there are around 41,000 children and young people who live with a vision impairment and they are not always having the same education experiences as their sighted peers.

We know that 70% attend mainstream schools where they may be the only child with a vision impairment. They need a range of specialist support, but this isn’t always or consistently happening.

This lack of support is leading to educational attainment for children with vision impairment being lower than their fully sighted classmates.

The Curriculum Framework for Children and Young People with Vision Impairment has been developed by RNIB and partners to support parents, carers, and education professionals to ensure children and young people with a vision impairment receive an appropriate and equitable education. You can access the Framework at: http://www.rnib.org.uk/cfvi

In preparation for the Westminster Hall Debate on the specialist workforce for children and young people with special educational needs and disability on Wednesday 22nd March 2023, and in response to proposals in the Government’s SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan, NatSIP has written a briefing paper which can be downloaded below.

Available Document:

NatSIP and Linden Lodge were pleased to welcome over 60 delegates to the Family engagement and partnership for children and young people with vision impairment and multi-sensory impairment event at Linden Lodge School on Friday 10 March 2023.

This was a learning and networking event for therapists, educational professionals and parents supported by staff from the Wandsworth Sensory Support Service as well as Linden staff and two ex pupils.

Running alongside the conference was the WSSS Annual Technology Event, an exhibition of resources available to support VI and MSI learners.

The following presentations are available:

During the day delegates were also able to follow a presentation on Online Family Partnership: a collaboration focused on tactile communication from Steve Rose.

An executive summary of a project on the early auditory experiences of deaf toddlers can be found online at: https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/baby-soundscapes/results/

This is a project led by Dr Hannah Cooper at UCL Ear Institute, and funded by NDCS. It sought to explore the early auditory experiences of deaf toddlers and identify if/when radio aids might be helpful, whilst still being mindful of other environmental sounds that might be important for deaf children to access.

We were pleased to welcome some 42 attendees and speakers at the first of this new NatSIP Online Series on Thursday 9 March 2023.  This event had a focus on professionals working positively with parents.

The following documents are available from the session:

 

NDCS has produced a position paper on cross-border commissioning of specialist education services and provision for deaf children.This has been produced in response to the recent instances of local government changes, as well as the Department for Education interest in cross-border commissioning through the SEND review.

https://www.ndcs.org.uk/media/8572/202303-position-paper-on-cross-border-commissioning-england.pdf

The Education Policy Institute report on educational outcomes by deaf children, commissioned by NDCS, has now been published.

Please see the links below for more information on this:

Below is a link to a NDCS blog for parents of deaf children, giving an initial response to today’s SEND improvement plan from DfE.

www.ndcs.org.uk/blog/government-sets-out-next-steps-to-improve-special-educational-needs-support-in-england/

NDCS will be doing more in-depth analysis over the coming weeks.

NDCS would also like to take the opportunity to thank colleagues for their support for the campaign work in this area.  NDCS is clear that they couldn’t have achieved the outcomes that they have without this. In particular, the support for the CRIDE survey continues to be invaluable in evidencing and making the case to DfE for action on numbers of Teachers of the Deaf.

RNIB are delighted to have reached the milestone of having over one million curriculum materials on RNIB Bookshare supporting children and young people with print impairments including vision impairment, dyslexia and dyspraxia to have the same educational opportunities as their peers.

RNIB Bookshare is a free online service that can be accessed by teachers, students, and parents, has a range of accessible formats so books and materials can be read electronically or adapted to suit personal reading needs. We have 45,087 students using the service from 12,647 educational institutions.

This achievement wouldn’t be possible without the partnerships we have; over 1,000 publishers and their imprints, including Penguin Random House and Oxford University Press, contribute to our service.

Titles can be accessed via the website directly or by downloading them to the Dolphin EasyReader app on computers, phones or tablets.

For more information on RNIB Bookshare visit: rnibbookshare.org.uk.

The Department has today published the SEND and AP Improvement Plan:

Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan (publishing.service.gov.uk)

There is a specific mention of the need to ensure children with sensory impairments are supported and that the government has publicly announced the new apprenticeship.

The contracts for the providers of the MQSI from September 2023 are now in place, so the gov.uk page Mandatory qualifications: specialist teachers - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) has been updated with their details and published the revised specifications.

Last year, NDCS carried out a survey of deaf young people to ask about their mental health and emotional wellbeing. We included some questions from the Good Childhood Index to allow us to make some cautious comparisons between deaf and hearing children.

A summary of the findings can be found at: https://www.ndcs.org.uk/media/8503/emotional-well-being-survey-of-deaf-children-and-young-people_2022.pdf

The NatSIP exmination access working group is pleased to announce that the February 2023 update of the guidance:  Ensuring equal access to public examinations for candidates with sensory impairments is now availbale to download.

Our thanks go to members of BATOD’s Examination Access Arrangement Working Group, and colleagues from VIEW, RNIB and NatSIP who have helped prepare this revision.

Available document:

Come and join us for a face to face learning and networking event for therapists and educational professionals working with vision impaired and multi‐sensory impaired children and young people.

With updates on the latest developments in the SEND framework from the DfE and NatSIP, specialist practitioners talking about best practice, and opportunities to explore how to achieve best outcomes for these young people, there is something for everyone.

Parents and carers are also invited as delegates, especially for lunch, when there will be an exhibition and a chance to meet others, and for the afternoon sessions.

More...

149 education professionals joined a joint RNIB/Sense virtual training event on 30th November. The session was part of RNIB’s free CPD offer to all those working with children/young people with vision impairment which runs throughout the academic year in a twilight session from 4-5.30pm.  The full programme can be found here: Training for professionals supporting learners with visual impairments | RNIB

Sense and RNIB are working together to deliver training for those working with children with VI and complex needs and/or multi-sensory impairment.  November’s session discussed the importance of play – at any age and included some very practical take-away ideas.  Two further sessions are planned Intensive interaction and the use of resonance boards and exploring a tactile world, in January and June respectively.  See the link on RNIB for more details and how to sign up.

Evelyn is 9 years old and tells us about herself and her friends at Riddings Junior School in Derbyshire.

We would like to thank Evelyn, her family, friends and teachers for allowing us to share her enjoyment of school and letting us know what helps her.

The CRIDE (Consortium for Research into Deaf Education)  2022 England report is now on the BATOD website at https://www.batod.org.uk/information/cride-reports/ and on the NDCS website https://www.ndcs.org.uk/cride

CRIDE is the consortium across the UK which brings together a range of organisations and individuals with a common interest in using research to improve the educational outcomes achieved by deaf children. The reports from the other countries will be published in due course.