Referrals open for the Caring Dads programme

Caring Dads is a groupwork programme which runs for 17 weeks, commissioned by Warwickshire County Council. The programme is designed to enable fathers to understand the impact of their abusive behaviour on their children, with the aim of children living safer lives.   

We would like to make schools aware of the programme – if you have any dads in mind that you think would benefit and they have an allocated social worker, please speak to their social worker or email caringdads@warwickshire.gov.uk.

It is also important to be aware that to refer into the programme, fathers must have at least weekly contact with their children, be willing to participate in groupwork and have some, if limited, acknowledgement of their abusive behaviour.  

The first group is due to run from the Bloxham Centre in Rugby, in May 2021. 

For more information, visit the Caring Dads Website.

New parent carer forum in Warwickshire is seeking members

There is a new parent carer forum for the Warwickshire area called Warwickshire Parent Carer Voice and it is looking for people to get involved. The forum is a representative group led by parent carers for parent carers of children and young people who have special educational needs and disabilities (0-25). The group are looking forward to working with various agencies to help shape and improve local services.

Elaine Lambe from Warwickshire Parent Carer Voice said: “It is fantastic to have the opportunity to partner with the council to ensure that children and young people in Warwickshire meet their full potential and that families get the support that they need. We are looking forward to welcoming parent carers into our membership and ensuring that their voice is heard by decision makers to make services better for everyone.”

Ian Budd, Assistant Director at Warwickshire County Council said: “We are really excited to work with Warwickshire Parent Carer Voice. Warwickshire is committed to working with parents and carers to take forward our SEND & Inclusion Change Programme. The current challenges that we face in the system for our learners with special educational needs and disabilities cannot be overcome by working in isolation. By working together, we hope to improve outcomes for our children and young people, operate clear, fair and transparent processes and create an inclusive, sustainable system.”

Warwickshire Parent Carer Voice will be talking to local families over the upcoming months to help them decide on the local priorities and to be able to take their collective voice forward into discussion with service providers. If you would like to get involved with the forum or share your experiences please email warwickshireparentcarervoice@gmail.com or follow them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/warksparentcarervoice.

New SEND Panels coming in April 2021

Our SEND and Inclusion Change Programme is ongoing and as part of the SEND and Inclusion Strategy (Statutory Duty), the Dedicated School Grant (DSG) Recovery Plan identified that better decision making and refreshed guidance is required to ensure more children with EHC plans are supported with appropriate packages in mainstream settings.  

Currently requests are made to WCC and then assessed via the Panel Process to confirm a plan. The SEND and Inclusion Change Programme has identified that there are currently nine panels in place, and these will be reduced to two panels to validate decisions on EHC plans. The objective is to ensure that rather than discussing casework at the Panel meeting, the required decision is already prepared for validation at the Panel. These new panels will help improve educational outcomes for learners in Warwickshire.

The following are the new panels frequencies and their purpose:-

• Statutory Panel – Weekly from 29th April. This panel will ensure a co-ordinated approach towards the request for an Education, Health and Care needs assessment for children and young people with SEND within Warwickshire. It will validate decisions on the drafting of an EHCP and the allocation of financial resources to support the child or young person’s final EHCP.
• High Needs Provision Panel – Fortnightly from 19th April - This panel will validate decisions as to whether requests for additional funding, and/or High-Cost Placements can be approved to support the child or young person’s needs.

Should you wish to ask any further questions, please email sendchange@warwickshire.gov.uk 

Widget Symbol update

More Inclusive, More Relevant, More Symbols

For over 30 years Widgit Symbols have been used by Teachers, SEN Practitioners and Parents to support the learning, communication and independence of students of all ages. We take great pride in listening to our community and we are committed to providing you with a symbol set which is truly inclusive to all users.

To support self-expression and vocabulary comprehension for our users, we've been working on a major update to the Widgit Symbols to better represent the culture and technology of the world we live in.

Many of the changes in the update are small, but there are a lot of them, so we wanted to let you know they were coming.

Find out more here.

World Autism Awareness Week - 29th March 2021 to 4th April 2021