Early Years Qualifications Checker Update

EYFS - Exemplification Materials

On 8 March, DfE published a suite of case study exemplification videos to support teachers in making EYFSP assessments. These can be found following this link:

Early years foundation stage: exemplification materials - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The Early Years Entitlements Team has also published a vodcast which teachers and leaders may find helpful in explaining the new EYFSP assessment.

Please find attached a letter which provides some further detail on the materials and their uses.

If you have any questions, you can contact the EYFS Reforms team directly at eyfs.qualitypractice@education.gov.uk.

World Autism Acceptance Week

Upcoming parent carer SEND webinar on educational transitions

Warwickshire County Council is hosting another special educational needs and disabilities webinar and this time it is on the topic of educational transitions. The webinar is the latest in a series covering SEND topics in Warwickshire and takes place in collaboration with Warwickshire Parent Carer Voice.

The webinar is taking place on Friday 25 March, 1.30pm – 2.30pm.

Please register to attend here: https://bit.ly/SendWebinarMar

Warwickshire Written Statement of Action Update - March 2022

There’s lots going on to improve SEND services in Warwickshire as part of our Written Statement of Action and this work is broken down into five areas of focus. Here’s the latest update: 

Area 1: Autism waiting times and support for families:  

Additional staff are being recruited to neurodevelopmental posts and the length of time referrals are waiting to be triaged has reduced. A new model of assessment is being developed to improve the process of assessment and diagnosis. Work is underway to improve the self-help offer to improve awareness of services and support via an online portal for information and advice, including an e-booklet and webpage to be launched at the autism conference on 2^nd April. A webinar in December outlined autism support and answered questions from parent carers – to find out more visit here: autism webinar 

The Together with Autism Conference on 2^nd April at Myton School, Warwick will include speakers, workshops and stalls for parent carers of autistic adults and children and professionals wanting to better understand autism. To join this free event please visit: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/in-person-together-with-autism-conference-tickets-266911879617  

Community support services are being redesigned to provide better support for children and young people with SEND and their families – more to follow on this soon. A positive workshop on speech and language services in February was led by I Can with staff from health, education, social care and other partners and reviewed services and identified areas for improvement. A skills audit of children and young people mental health services will start in April.  

Area 2: Communication and engagement with parent carers:  

Aswell as the revamped local offer webpages which provide a one stop shop of information on SEND services in Warwickshire, there’s a wide programme of communications and events including: 

·                 Webinars on topics such as Education, Health and Care Plans, Autism support  and the Graduated Approach. The next webinar is on Friday 25^th March 1.30pm on the topic of Transitions. Register here: https://bit.ly/SendWebinarMar  

·                 New section on the local offer webpages with ‘You Said We Did’ and recordings of webinars and events: https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/get-involved-say  

·                 Warwickshire SEND newsletter:  https://mailchi.mp/warwickshire/warwickshire-send-feb22  

·                 New Local Offer Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/WarksLocalOffer   

The new Parent Carer Forum Warwickshire Parent Carer Voice (WPCV), launched last year, ensures parent carers are involved when designing services for our children/young people and their families. WPCV is an independent, parent carer led organisation for everyone with a child or children with SEND aged 0 -25. A coproduction and engagement hub meets every other Friday to help shape improvements in SEND, and members of WPCV sit on all key working groups and boards for our improvement work. Why not add your voice to other Warwickshire parent carers and Join WPCV? To find out more please email the chair, Elaine Lambe:  warwickshireparentcarervoice@gmail.com  

Over 100 SEND staff have been trained in ‘Restorative Practice’ to help create and maintain respectful and trusting relationships with families, in our schools and settings. Free training is also available to schools - next events are running from April to July, to register please visit: 

Primary Schools: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/scc-cs565-an-introduction-to-restorative-and-relational-practice-primary-registration-162435572169 

Secondary Schools: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/scc-cs566-introduction-to-restorative-and-relational-practice-secondary-registration-162437822901 

A forum to capture the voice of children and young people with SEND is also being set up - to register please visit:  www.warwickshire.gov.uk/ypvoice 

Area 3: Inclusion in schools:  

Thank-you to the 17 schools in Rugby in a trial of a new approach to help meet needs of children and young people with SEND in mainstream schools. Staff have received training and are carrying out whole school SEND audits with peer-to-peer support, to be followed by training and support. The learning from the trial will be used to roll out an inclusion framework across all mainstream schools, with the support of 'change champions'. Please email schoolimprovement@warwickshire.gov.uk to nominate a change champion for your school or to get involved. 

Area 4: Workforce development:  

Four Head Teachers from across the county have joined a Working Group with partners from education, social care, health and parent carers to develop a programme of support to improve the knowledge, skills and understanding of staff in mainstream schools. The aim is to increase the confidence of staff in meeting the needs of children and young people with SEND, which will in turn increase the confidence of parent carers and improve outcomes. We’re working with the Whole School SEND team from NASEN (the National Association for Special Educational Needs that supports and champions those working with, and for, children and young people with SEND and learning differences). There is free training and resources online - please visit: https://www.sendgateway.org.uk/ 

Free Autism training is available to all Warwickshire schools via the Autism Education Trust (AET), a not-for-profit organisation supported by the Department of Education.  Warwickshire County Council is a training partner with AET and can deliver quality assured training to make a difference to autistic pupils in our schools.  Making Sense of Autism training takes around 1.5 hours.  Once staff have completed this training, they can then access the Good Autism Practice module, providing guidance on processes and tools to support autistic pupils. We can now also offer an Anxiety Module, to help schools support autistic pupils to reduce and manage their anxiety, and an Exclusions Module to support the prevention of exclusions.  There are lots of free resources on the AET website to support with peer awareness, working with parents, evaluating practice to name just a few.  Go to the website at https://www.autismeducationtrust.org.uk  to have a look.  For more information and to book training in for your school please contact evegodwin@warwickshire.gov.uk  

Area 5: Local Offer webpages:  

The new improved local offer webpages were launched last October and provide information about local services and support available across education, health and social care for families with children and young people aged 0 to 25, who have SEND. To find out more please visit: https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/send. Visits are up by 50% and the positive feedback being received on the new webpages. Briefing sessions are available to professionals and our communities – please email fis@warwickshire@gov.uk for more information. For more information about any areas of the Written Statement of Action please email Rachel Barnes, Change Delivery Manager at WCC at sendchange@warwickshire.gov.uk. We would love to hear your feedback, thank-you. 

Update on the Household Support Fund administered by Warwickshire’s Local Welfare Scheme

Through the Household Support Fund, the Local Welfare Scheme will once again be distributing automatic support towards fuel and food costs to parents/carers of children in Warwickshire schools/settings who are eligible for benefits related FSM  

They will be receiving the following in the form of automatic voucher payments:  

• From Friday 25th March, an automatic PayPoint cash voucher will be issued to each eligible household to the value of £60 to be used towards energy costs.   
• For the Easter school holiday, an automatic Huggg supermarket voucher will be issued to parents/carers to the value of £42 per eligible child for 14 days inclusive of the weekend (11th to 22nd April) 
• We will follow the same process as previously and will send out letters to you next week to share with parents/carers.   
• We can confirm that we will not need schools to send in updated pupil data.  If you do have any queries, please email the Local Welfare Scheme Mailbox at localwelfarescheme@warwickshire.gov.uk 

Call for Host Schools and Community Groups Arts on Referral Programme 2021-23

Arts Connect are seeking several host schools or community groups that would be interested in hosting 6-week Arts on Referral Course (or 5 weeks if a short half term) in the Summer and Autumn terms of 2022.

Each course lasts up to 6 weeks ( 6x 1-2 hour session per week ) and can be attended by up to 15 children or young people aged between 7-17 years, who are referred to the course as they are experiencing mild to moderate mental health challenges and would benefit from taking part in creative arts activities to help them build their confidence and improve their self-esteem.

As part of the course delivery, we ask participants to take part in research with Coventry University to record any changes in their wellbeing. The courses are currently provided free of charge to host organisations.   

If you are interested becoming a host organisation or would like to find out more about the programme, please contact:

Clare Mitchell - LCEP Manager (Coventry, Warwickshire and Birmingham)  - Arts on Referral Programmes Coordinator

E: Clare.Mitchell@wlv.ac.uk M:07581018581

Find here more information. 

Tell us what help you need with environmental activities

Could you spot child exploitation?

Hanging out with older people, skipping school, being secretive? These are just some of the signs of child exploitation, and we all have a responsibility to spot them.  

Hundreds of children and young people in Warwickshire are exploited every year, so alongside our partners we are joining the national fight against child exploitation for Child Exploitation Awareness Day which takes place today, 18 March.  

Child exploitation can manifest itself in different ways, including child abuse, sexual exploitation, county lines drug dealing, coerced criminal activity, human trafficking and online grooming. It is a crime that can affect any child; anywhere, anytime and regardless of their social or ethnic background or gender. 

Child Exploitation Awareness Day encourages everyone to think about it so they can understand, spot and speak out against exploitation and adopt a zero tolerance to adults developing inappropriate relationships with children.  

Earlier this week at Full Council on Tuesday 15 March, Warwickshire councillors and employees supported the powerful campaign, holding up pledges to learn how to recognise the signs of exploitation and report it if they see something that’s not right.  

Support for the awareness day amplifies our Something’s Not Right campaign, a partnership between WCC, Warwickshire Police, Barnardo’s and the Police and Crime Commissioner. Over the last year the campaign has raised awareness amongst Warwickshire residents of all forms of child exploitation to encourage all of us, not just parents, carers and professionals working with children, to tackle the issues of the exploitation of our children. 

The aim of the widely publicised campaign is to encourage residents to learn how to spot the signs of exploitation and throughout 2021 the advertising achieved 3.6 million impressions (the number of times one of the adverts was seen by residents in Warwickshire) and over 22,000 website visits from parents and carers, young people, professionals and members of the community across the county.  

We need to continue with this terrific momentum to ensure that Warwickshire is a safe place for our young people to live, learn and grow.  

We all have a responsibility to protect children and young people, and there are things we can all do to help tackle exploitation: 

• Learn what the signs of child exploitation are so it is easier to recognise 
• Know where to go to report anything that’s not right 
• Build trusting relationships with young people 
• Support the Helping Hands campaign and write a message of support for victims of exploitation and share it on social media using the hashtags #CEADay22 #HelpingHands #WarwickshireCE 
• Share social media messages from WCC and partners across social media to spread awareness 

• Wear something red today on Child Exploitation Awareness Day (18 March) to show support 

Supporting Child Exploitation Awareness Day today is another step in the process of spreading the word and reducing the abuse of our children. However, we all have a responsibility to spot the signs of child exploitation and report it every day.   

If you would like to raise awareness of child exploitation in Warwickshire on social media, make sure to use #WarwickshireCE and #CEADay22. 

To learn more about child exploitation, how to spot the signs, and the support available, visit www.somethingsnotright.co.uk.  

University of Birmingham - Brain Awareness Week

Help us understand your views

Researchers from Coventry University, together with Warwickshire County Council and Connect for Health, want to hear from parents and carers about their views on local family health programmes and the National Child Measurement Programme.

Parents and carers in Nuneaton & Bedworth with children in reception through to year 6 are invited to complete this short survey at tinyurl.com/ConnectForHealth

The researchers would also like to talk directly with parents and carers (online or via telephone) to better understand their views about local family health programmes. If you are interested, please email Lauren.Bell2@coventry.ac.uk for more information.