NatSIP - SEND News - Results from #104

: Written by: Lindsey Rousseau; Created: 23 January 2018; Updated: 25 January 2018

The Department has received a number of questions from stakeholders concerning the future of information, advice and support for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and their families.

Providing families with access to information, advice and support from 2018

A key principle of the SEND reforms is that children and young people with SEND, and their parents and families, should be supported to participate in decisions that affect them, and receive appropriate information and advice.

Local authorities are statutorily responsible for providing children, young people and parents with an impartial information, advice and support service on SEND in their local area. This responsibility dates back to the early 1990s (initially as Parent Partnership Services), and has been reinforced and extended by the Children and Families Act 2014. Further information on these duties can be found in chapter 2 of the SEND Code of Practice (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-code-of-practice-0-to-25).

In addition, between April 2014 and March 2018 the Government has invested £60m in the Independent Supporter programme. This programme is focused on ensuring there was a service in every local area in England providing individuals to help families with children and young people who are undergoing a statutory Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessment or who have an EHC plan. This programme was designed to address the ‘newness’ of the process for conducting EHC needs assessments and issuing EHC plans. It also recognised the additional demands on local authorities in conducting transfer reviews for children and young people with statements of SEN or Learning Difficulty Assessments, while also supporting new entrants to the system who require an EHC needs assessment.

The Government has also funded a national helpline for families who have children and young people with SEND for several years. Demands on the service have been consistently high, and so the Government proposes to continue to provide resources for this service. In recent years, innovations in technology have helped to develop the service beyond phone-line support. The national helpline already works well with a range of other support services, including local information, advice and support services, but further synergies could be achieved.

On 8 January the Department published a tender for a new contract providing families with access to information advice and support, to come into effect from 1 April 2018. The estimated value of this contract is up to £12.5m in 2018-19 and up to £10.5m in 2019-20. This contract will build on work which has previously been carried out, including:

The Independent Supporter programme, currently provided by the Council for Disabled Children. This programme funds the recruitment and training of around 1200 Independent Supporters, available in every local authority area, to support families through the EHC needs assessment and plan process.
National support for local Information, Advice and Support Services (IASS), currently provided by the IASS Network hosted by the Council for Disabled Children.
The national helpline for families who have children and young people with SEND, currently provided by Contact.

The purpose of this contract will be to ensure that:

Children and young people with SEND and their parents in every local authority area have access to information, and impartial advice and support, which meets a set of minimum standards based on local authorities’ existing statutory requirements (set out in chapter 2 of the SEND Code of Practice). These services will provide a wide range of information, advice and support covering SEND issues across education, health and social care, both directly and through signposting families onto more specialist support as appropriate; and
A national helpline – including a dedicated Freephone service – and access to online information, advice and support is available to families who have children and young people with SEND. It is critical that the national helpline service works effectively with local support services to ensure consistency and accuracy of information and advice.

In order to achieve this, we have set a number of requirements for the successful bidder. The full specification is set out in the Invitation to Tender document.

The successful bidder will develop clear minimum standards for local services delivering information, advice and support, based on the legal requirements set out in the SEND Code of Practice and the standards already developed by the Information, Advice and Support Services Network. These requirements will need to be developed early in 2018-19.

The successful bidder will support and encourage local information, advice and support services to meet or exceed these minimum standards. We envisage the successful bidder passing a proportion of the contract value – potentially a majority – to local information, advice and support services through sub-contractual arrangements. The successful bidder will be required to design and implement an approach that incentivises areas to strive for high quality local services, rewarding those which have strong positive feedback from users, and to incentivise areas to move quickly to meet the minimum standards.

The successful bidder will provide ongoing support and challenge to local services, ensuring they can access high quality training, networking and good practice sharing opportunities.

The successful bidder will develop, trial and implement proposals for how the national helpline can complement local information, advice and support services and other national helplines aimed at families who have children and young people with SEND. This could include ‘out of hours’ services, a single national ‘front desk’ redirecting to local or specialist helplines, and the use of online chat, video calling to maximise effectiveness.

We expect these new arrangements to be in place at least from 1 April 2019, if not earlier. We recognise that there will need to be a period of development, planning and transition, and it is particularly important that support continues to be available to parents, young people and families. We have therefore included specific requirements for this transition during 2018-19.

The successful bidder will ensure every local area develops a viable and sustainable approach to delivering high quality information, advice and support services. This will need to take account of existing cultural and organisational arrangements in each area; the views of children, young people and parents; and will ensure the approach provides value for money.

The successful bidder will develop a transition plan that allows for existing local services – predominantly Independent Supporter agencies and statutory information, advice and support services – to migrate to any new arrangements in the area. We expect the successful bidder to manage the necessary contractual arrangements so that existing organisations can smoothly transition to any new arrangements during the course of the year.

The successful bidder will ensure the existing helpline service remains available to families so that there is continuity of service until any new arrangements are introduced.

Information on how to request the Invitation to Tender documentation can be found on the Contracts Finder website at https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/154f602a-ce17-4643-9716-0f3f813353b5.

What does this mean for parents, young people and families?

We expect the successful bidder to put in place transition arrangements so that children and young people with SEND and their parents can continue to draw on existing information, advice and support in their local areas (for example from statutory IAS services or from Independent Supporters), and from the national helpline, until new arrangements are put in place.

The work of the successful bidder will ensure that the information, advice and support available to children, young people and parents meets minimum standards regardless of where they live, and that these information, advice and support services strive to improve their delivery.

What does this mean for local authorities?

Local authorities continue to be under a statutory duty to commission information, advice and support services. Our new contractor will work to ensure that information, advice and support services in all local areas are supported to develop and improve their quality, so that they meet minimum standards. The successful bidder will encourage local services to meet or exceed these minimum standards, including providing financial incentives.

What does this mean for current providers of Independent Supporters?

We expect existing Independent Supporter providers to continue supporting parents and young people until new arrangements are developed in each local area. We expect existing Independent Supporter sub-contracts to novate to the new contractor in the first instance, pending the development of new arrangements in each local area.

Places available at the Autism Education Trust annual conference - 27 February 2018

The Autism Education Trust annual conference takes place on 27 February at the Central Hall, Westminster, from 9am to 4pm. A range of speakers will focus on support for autistic children and young people in education. For more details and to book your place, please use this link:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/aet-national-conference-2018-tickets-41209065424

Consultations

Extension to Department of Health survey about raising concerns and making complaints

The Department for Health has also launched a survey of the views of children, young people and adults with a learning disability, autism or both, their families and paid carers about people’s experiences of raising concerns and making complaints. The survey has been extended until 31 January 2018. For further details please see the consultation site https://www.engage.england.nhs.uk/survey/ask-listen-do/

Changes to the rate of appeal to the SEND tribunal

The Department for Education and the Ministry of Justice have launched a joint consultation on a change to the rate of appeal to the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal.

The rate of appeal is calculated from the number of appeals registered with the SEND Tribunal per year and is currently shown as a rate per 10,000 of the school population. The SEND reforms extended the age range to include 0-25 and the current methodology being used does not, therefore, reflect the eligible population.

The consultation proposes a new approach to considering the appeal rate and looks at the rate based on the eligible opportunities to appeal, rather than the age of the cohort as only certain local authority decisions regarding EHC plans can be taken to the SEND Tribunal.

We are keen to get comments on this, especially from users of SEND Tribunal statistics. The consultation began on 14 December 2017 and closes on 9 February 2018. It can be found at this link: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/8HZCXJS

Standards for Special Educational Needs and Disability Mediators

The Civil Mediation Council (CMC) and College of Mediators (COM), on behalf of a working group of SEND Mediators, Mediation Providers and other stakeholders, have been working on an initiative supported by the Department for Education to introduce voluntary, self-administered standards of professional practice.

This consultation seeks views on the practice standards, system for accreditation and the approval of training courses. We would welcome comments from those of you with an interest in SEND Mediation.

The consultation survey began on 8 January 2018 and closes on 2 February 2018 and can be accessed here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/NVMZDJK

The draft standards can be viewed at http://www.sendpathfinder.co.uk/professional-standards-for-mediators-working-with-send.

If you wish to make additional comments please email the helpdesk at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

SEND single route of redress national trial - regulations

In March 2017, the government committed to introduce a two-year national trial to expand the powers of the First-tier Tribunal (SEND) to make non-binding recommendations on the health and social care aspects of LA decisions concerning Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans as part of a special educational appeal. The trial builds on the ambition of the SEND reforms, which puts families and individuals at the centre of the assessment process. It will enable the Tribunal to take a more holistic view of the child or young person’s needs, encourage joint working, and bring about positive benefits to families.

The Special Educational Needs and Disability (First-tier Tribunal Recommendations Power) Regulations 2017 were laid on 20 December and will come into force on 3 April 2018: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2017/1306/made/data.pdf.

A package of support will be available to local areas to include:

regional training events for senior managers across education, health and social care taking place in January and February;
a guidance document for professionals, parents and young people;
a toolkit with templates and a Frequently Asked Questions factsheet;
ongoing support through a helpdesk, newsletters, webinars and support from the DfE SEND Adviser team and NHS England.

If you would like further information about the national trial, please contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Kind Regards

Implementation Team

: Written by: Lindsey Rousseau; Created: 06 December 2017; Updated: 06 December 2017

On 5 December 2017, the DfE sent out the following update e-mail:

From: IMPLEMENTATION, SEN <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: 5 December 2017 at 12:01
Subject: Updates from the Department for Education and Department for Health

In this update we have included:

An invitation to respond to the consultation on mental health launched in a green paper published yesterday by the Department for Health and the Department for Education.
Details of a consultation on raising concerns and making complaints about health, social care or education. This involves a survey for children, young people and adults with a learning disability, autism or both, their families and paid carers.
Details of recommendations for the UK made by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Please do forward this email onto anyone in your organisation or networks who you think might have an interest in these developments.

1. An invitation to respond to the consultation on mental health from the Department for Health and the Department for Education in a green paper

Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision: a Green Paper is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/transforming-children-and-young-peoples-mental-health-provision-a-green-paper; with the consultation mini-site at https://engage.dh.gov.uk/youngmentalhealth/. Please do let us have your views by submitting a response to the consultation. The deadline for replies is 2 March 2018.

The text of a Written Ministerial Statement announcing the publication is at http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2017-12-04/HCWS306/.

The press release below contains further details.

PRESS RELEASE:

SCHOOL CHILDREN TO GET MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT IN RADICAL SHAKE UP TO IMPROVE THE NATION’S MENTAL HEALTH

New measures signal a fundamental shift in mental health support, with over £300 million funding available
Training for senior designated mental health leads in schools to improve prevention work
Earlier access to services through the creation of new Mental Health Support Teams working in and directly with schools
New four week waiting time for NHS children and young people’s mental health services to be piloted

Children in England will be able to access mental health support at school or college under Government proposals to transform services for young people. The Government [on 4 December] set out ambitious plans in a green paper to increase mental health support and provide earlier access to services, with over £300 million funding available to take the proposals forward.

The announcement delivers on the Government’s manifesto commitment to a green paper focussed on action to support the mental health of children and young people. As the Prime Minister has set out, this is one of the burning injustices which holds people back from achieving their true potential.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said:

"Around half of all mental illness starts before the age of 14 so it is vital children get support as soon as they need it - in the classroom. If we catch mental ill health early we can treat it and stop it turning into something more serious.

"These ambitious new plans will work with schools to make sure this happens, as well as reducing waiting times for the most severe cases."

Education Secretary Justine Greening said:

“We want every young person to grow up feeling confident about themselves and their future - but too often mental health issues can have a lifelong impact and affect their performance at school, careers and ultimately their life opportunities

“There are great examples of schools and colleges across the country already playing a vital role in supporting students’ wellbeing and mental health. We want that kind of excellence to become the norm and these proposals will help deliver that by strengthening the links between schools and the experts who can give young people the support they need.”

Under the plans every school and college in England will be incentivised to appoint a designated senior lead for mental health to co-ordinate existing school-based support as well as helping children to access specialist therapies and other NHS treatments if they need them.

Supported by a training package of up to £95 million from 2019, the senior leads will also be responsible for developing a “whole school approach” to mental health and wellbeing – including making sure pastoral support is available for all pupils and that strong policies are in place to reduce bullying and other behaviours that can cause mental distress.

A further £215 million will be available to create new Mental Health Support Teams which will improve join-up between schools and the NHS. The teams will provide a wider range of support and treatments in or near schools and colleges, to improve earlier intervention to so mental health problems can be addressed before they become too serious. Several thousand people are expected to be recruited over the next five years to form these new teams, which could be trained to offer Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) and other evidence-based treatments in the classroom.

Supervised by clinicians they will also work closely with educational psychologists, school nurses, counsellors, social workers and others to assess and refer children for other specialist treatments if necessary.

Other measures set out in the Green Paper include:

Ensuring every primary and secondary school in the country is offered mental health awareness training.
Ensuring teaching all pupils about mental health and wellbeing is a focus of our work to improve the quality of relationships education and PSHE.
A new working group to look at mental health support for 16-25 year olds.
Commissioning further research to fill evidence gaps across children’s mental health, including understanding how better to support vulnerable families.

The consultation on the green paper will run for approximately 13 weeks. The Department of Health and Department for Education will run a number of roundtables and focus groups to ensure maximum engagement.

Sarah Brennan, Chief Executive of YoungMinds, said

"We're facing a mental health crisis in our classrooms, and right now far too many children are not getting the support that they need. Too often we hear from young people who have started to self-harm, become suicidal, or dropped out of school while waiting for the right help.

"We are very pleased to see the Government recognise the fundamental importance that schools play in building resilience of their pupils and intervening early when problems do emerge. So we welcome the green paper's proposals to introduce mental health leads in every school, as well as mental health support teams to offer support within schools as early as possible.

"The ambition for a four week waiting time is also welcome. Long waits have a devastating impact on young people and their families, and currently only one in four young people with mental health problems get the help they need. Now it is crucial that services are given the resource to match the true scale of need, so that all children and young people in need of mental health support are able to get it."

2. Consultation on raising concerns and making complaints about health, social care or education

For further details please see the attached flyer and the consultation site https://www.engage.england.nhs.uk/survey/ask-listen-do/.

3. Recommendations for the UK made by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities concluded its Periodic Examination of the UK’s compliance with the Convention in the summer. The Committee’s Concluding Observations can be found at http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CRPD%2fC%2fGBR%2fCO%2f1&Lang=en.

Recommendations relating specifically to education are at paragraphs 20, 21 and 46-53.

: Written by: Lindsey Rousseau; Created: 04 December 2017; Updated: 05 December 2017

Link to helpful app developed by Ofqual for those interested in finding out about vocational and technical qualifications:

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/vocational-and-technical-qualifications-the-regulators-perspective

: Written by: Lindsey Rousseau; Created: 01 December 2017; Updated: 01 December 2017

The Government today announced a package of support worth nearly £45 million to provide additional help for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Minister for Children and Families Robert Goodwill confirmed the additional funding for councils and organisations to continue transforming SEN provision and put families at the heart of the system.

The reforms which began in 2014 introduced Education, Health and Care plans which are tailored to the individual needs of the child or young person.

In addition to the funding to bolster the roll out of these reforms, a new £9.7million fund has been set up to create new supported internships, helping to bridge the gap for some of the most vulnerable young people between education and employment. The announcement has been welcomed by the National Children’s Bureau.

Minister for Children and Families Robert Goodwill said:

We have taken action to fundamentally reform support for children with special educational needs, making sure that families are at the heart of the process and care plans are tailored to individuals – and our survey of parents tells us that this has made a difference to so many of these families.

Councils are making encouraging progress, but there is still work to be done to fully embed this improved system across education, health and care sectors.

That’s why I am pleased to announce this additional investment for councils and other groups who have been instrumental in getting us to this positive stage. Their hard work is raising the aspirations of these young people and giving them access to the same opportunities as their peers, helping them fulfill their full potential as adults.

The package of funding announced today includes:

· £29 million to support councils and their local partners to continue pressing ahead with implementation of the reforms to the SEND system;

· £9.7 million to establish local supported internship forums, which will create work placements for young people with SEND to provide them with the skills and confidence they need to move into paid work. The funding could also be used to train job coaches, who are vital to the success of supporting those with learning difficulties into paid work; and

· £4.6 million for Parent Carer Forums, which bring parents together with local decision makers and help to provide them with a voice in the process.

Rochford Review recommendations: appeal to schools to trial new assessments for pupils below the standard of national curriculum tests

The government’s response to the Rochford Review consultation was published on 14 September. It set out plans for two important changes for pupils working below the standard of national curriculum tests:

For pupils engaged in subject-specific learning, it accepts the Review’s recommendation that the interim pre-key stage standards are made permanent and extended to cover all of these pupils. To give schools adequate time to prepare for these changes, this will take effect from the 2018/19 academic year onwards, with the full suite of pre-key stage standards being published in the 2017/18 spring term.
For pupils not yet engaged in subject-specific learning, a pilot of the review’s recommended approach to assessing these pupils using the 7 areas of engagement for cognition and learning will be run in the 2017/18 academic year, before taking any final decisions on whether to implement this approach on a statutory basis.

The Standards and Testing Agency (STA) will be working with schools to run two projects to prepare for these changes:

1. Pre-key stage standard review:

The pre-key stage standards will be reviewed, working with teachers and other educational experts, to ensure that they are fit for purpose. This review will follow a thorough process, including: an evaluation by practising teachers, head teachers and local authority representatives; an expert review to act on feedback; and trialling of the final versions. We plan to publish the full suite of pre-key stage standards in spring 2018, for first use by schools in the 2018/19 academic year.

Schools are needed to take part in:

An evaluation in autumn term 2017
Trialling in spring term 2018

2. Pilot of the 7 areas of engagement for cognition and learning

The pilot will run this academic year, ending in summer 2018, involving approximately 50 schools assessing their pupils not engaged in subject-specific learning against the 7 areas of engagement for cognition and learning. This work will be school-led, with flexibility to develop bespoke approaches based on the 7 areas of engagement that are tailored to the needs of their cohort. However, participating schools will receive support and guidance, including through 8 regional teaching school hubs, to implement their approach and share practice with others. An external research body will be conducting an evaluation of the pilot before any final decisions on whether to implement this approach are made.

Schools are needed to take part in the pilot, which will run from approximately October half term until the end of the summer term. The project will involve using the 7 areas of engagement throughout, and include initial set-up meetings, a mid-point feedback session in the spring term, and an end-point feedback session in the summer term.

Schools wanting to get involved

If a school would like to volunteer to take part in either of these pilots, or request further information, please contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Please provide the following information:

The name of your school
A named contact in your school
An approximate number of your pupils that are working below the standard of national curriculum tests, and any relevant information about their school demographics.

For any related events run by the STA, attendees will be reimbursed standard class travel expenses in full and overnight accommodation costs, and teachers’ supply cover will also be paid.

Changes to improve access to apprenticeships for people with a learning difficulty and / or disability

We are pleased to announce that we have made changes to the regular minimum English and maths requirements needed to complete an apprenticeship for people with a learning difficulty or disability who have, or previously had, an Education, Health and Care plan, a Statement of Special Educational Needs or a Learning Difficulty Assessment. These changes will allow more people to access apprenticeships. A pdf guidance document explaining the chainges is avaiable.

These changes have been made as part of our work to implement the recommendations of the 2016 taskforce led by Paul Maynard to improve access to apprenticeships for people with a learning difficulty and / or disability. Please see the pdf Maynard Taskforce Update).

Please do share details of the changes we have made to the English and maths requirements across your network so that as many people as possible can benefit (please see attachment English and Maths apprenticeship changes Sept 2017).

If you have any questions or feedback, please contact the National Apprenticeship Service on 0800 015 0400. If you are a training provider, you should contact the Business Operations Service Centre on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

School Admissions Briefing

The Council for Disabled Children has published a School Admissions Briefing, with information intended to help parents of disabled children and young people, parents of children and young people with SEN and professionals advising parents including those in Information, Advice and Support Services.

The briefing provides a summary of schools admission arrangements and focuses on issues that are particularly relevant to the admission of disabled children and children with SEN

SENCO Forum e-discussion group

We are asking local authorities to bring the National SENCO Forum to the attention of schools, settings and SENCOs (Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators). The Forum, now in its twenty first year of operation, provides an opportunity for SENCOs and other SEN professionals to discuss issues and share information and practical advice. The Forum offers independent, solution-based support in a collaborative and mutual way to both new to role and
experienced SENCOs. Advice provided is based on the direct experience of SEN professionals, relevant research evidence and national/local policy guidance.

More information about the Forum and joining instructions can be found at: http://lists.education.gov.uk/mailman/listinfo/senco-forum

Questions about using the Forum to disseminate information about SEN focused research, policy and practice can be addressed to the SENCo Forum Advisory Group Chair, Christopher Robertson at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Please also see available flyers for the pdf Education and Training Foundation: Improving Outcomes for learners with SEND workshop and the pdf NHS England Building Blocks for Change: Personalisation and Transforming Care workshop.

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Quick Links

SEND News

Newsflash from DfE 23 January 2018

Updates from the Department for Education and Department for Health

A guide to the vocational and technical qualification landscape

Multi-million pound boost for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities

Publication of Dame Christine Lenehan and Mark Geraghty’s review of residential special schools and colleges

Launch of the new Institute of Teaching

DfE SEND announcements and opportunities

DfE SEN Implementation Team announcement

Rochford Review recommendations: appeal to schools to trial new assessments for pupils below the standard of national curriculum tests