Hello and welcome to this week’s Heads Up.
This edition’s intro has a special educational needs and disability (SEND) focus as this reflects my area of work at Warwickshire County Council. Through the ongoing SEND and Inclusion Change Programme we are aiming to improve SEND support working collaboratively with schools, parent and carers, SEND professionals and health partners. The programme’s overarching goal is for children and young people to lead fulfilling lives in Warwickshire and be part of their communities.
We have been engaging with parents and carers in Warwickshire and are keen to hear their views on SEND provision and discuss support for children and young people. This is also a key focus of our Written Statement of Action following the local area SEND inspection last year. We had a parent carer webinar take place today in collaboration with Warwickshire Parent Carer Voice and we discussed educational transitions and their impact on children and young people with SEND. The recording of the webinar will be available soon and you can find past webinars from our ongoing series on our Local Offer page. The next webinar will take place on 26th April on the topic of our Local Offer.
With the Local Offer in mind, it was great to see new accessibility tools added to the pages recently with the addition of software called ReachDeck. This can be found on the pages as a floating pair of headphones that when clicked on, produces a pop-up tool bar that can read text aloud, translate text, describe imagery and make pages easier to read. I’m hopeful that this will make our Local Offer easier to use and more accessible as it is a true one-stop shop for SEND information and support in Warwickshire.
Please do stay up to date with information about SEND and promote to colleagues, parents and carers our Local Offer and Local Offer Facebook page.
On an unrelated note, we would also like to remind Heads about the deadline for Fair Access Protocol Feedback, which is 8 April 2022
Please note that your opportunity to give feedback on the draft Fair Access Protocol from our school admissions team will close on 8 April 2022, so this is your final chance to let us know if you are happy with the draft protocol and share any comments on it. The document was sent to headteachers at the start of March, but if you didn’t receive it, or would like to see a copy, please email cherylwild@warwickshire.gov.uk. We look forward to reading your views.
Take care - Hwyl fawr
Duane Chappell
Strategy and Commissioning Manager for SEND and Inclusion