Hello and welcome to our first Heads Up of July. 

This week’s Heads Up contains updates on a range of issues and Covid too.  

I’ll begin with a focus on SEND where it is really good to see real progress on the change programme. Warwickshire education practitioners are being encouraged to take part in focus groups to explore new guidance being produced to support young people in the county with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND). The new guidance promotes our inclusive, needs-led ethos in supporting children and young people with SEND in mainstream schools wherever possible. Its purpose is to help schools to implement effective extra support for young people. The guidance will be accessible as a web-based resource and is designed to enable relevant information to be found quickly and easily by those using it. Please encourage your colleagues to participate. More details and how to sign up are here: Warwickshire teachers encouraged to help shape new guidance – Warwickshire County Council 

The second parent carer webinar is taking place next Thursday, 8 July, and is covering the topic of Education, Health and Care Plans and the panels process. We’ve listened to feedback from the previous webinar and change the time to the afternoon to hopefully give attendees more flexibility with coming along. It’s open to the public and promising to be an interesting discussion. Please also encourage parents and carers to participate in our forthcoming webinar and with Parent and Carer Voice for which details are here: Warwickshire Parent Carer Voice - Home | Facebook 

Also on SEND, it’s my understanding that there have been some queries about the advice we have on Local Area Inspection and please do take a look at the article in this week’s Heads Up on the topic. 

Having been disappointed by the Wales result last weekend, I was buoyed by the football result on Tuesday and I know that many people will be anticipating the next match on Saturday with equal parts of excitement and trepidation. It’s great to see England progressing in the Euros and colleagues at Warwickshire County Council are encouraging people not to ‘score an own goal’ this weekend in regards to dropping their guard with COVID-19 precautions.  

Like the rest of the UK, we have seen rising case rates in parts of Warwickshire and I know that schools and educational settings are doing their best to protect students, staff and families through precautionary measures. Our Education Covid Response Team (education-corona@warwickshire.gov.uk) are on hand to answer questions you might have and please feel free to consult our list of resources that we have bookmarked in Heads Up. We’re certainly not out of the woods yet and we need to continue following all the government safety advice: hands, face, space and fresh air remain the key principles. 

Still on the topic of COVID-19, please take a look at an update we have on vaccinations available at walk-in clinics across the county. This could be an excellent opportunity for you or someone you know to obtain a vaccine if they are yet to have one and getting vaccinated is one tool we have at our disposal to nullify a new wave of the disease spreading through local communities. Please see my letter with Dr Shade Agboola issued today.

Whatever your plans are this weekend, I hope you are able to get some rest and relaxation. See you next week, 

Ian