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 2nd 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 2nd 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 25th 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.