Supported Intern shares feedback from SEND and Inclusion Conference

In September, we welcomed three Supported Interns to work with us at the Council for the 2019/20 academic year to complete structured study programmes. These enable young people aged 16-24 with special educational needs and an Education, Health and Care Plan to gain meaningful work experience alongside learning at college or school.  The aim is to equip young people with the skills they need for sustainable paid employment.

One of our interns is Conor Ayton, who is currently working with Business Support in the Education Services team. He has shown great enthusiasm in his role so far and recently got stuck in to assist on the day with the planning and organisation of the SEND and Inclusion Conference, held on 15 November.

Conor has written up his account of the event which you can read below:

The conference was attended by almost 60 people despite the flooding. It was attended by parents and representatives from health, schools, colleges, Impower, Mencap, Barnardos and many WCC employees working in different areas of SEND.

People at the conference spoke about successes including:

• Hereward College has the smallest Premier Inn which is used to train Supported Interns who then go on to work at the hotel chain
• Supported Interns have successfully moved to employment with National Grid
• Warwickshire College Group has increased the number of Supported Interns from two in 2017/18 to 30 in 2019/20
• Integrated Commissioning arrangements for young people and adults. We are the only area in the country to do this
• Increased number of SENDCos attending network meetings, now 95% of secondary schools are participating
• Transforming Care Programme has led to a decrease in inpatient numbers
• SENDIAS are working hard to get resources updated
• The Transition Guide which has come from a lot of cooperative work. This is being printed and will be distributed soon
• Continuation of Children and Families Centres and other services. Parents said the family picnic was a great success this year for the health and wellbeing of parents
• Inclusion in mainstream of a child with complex health needs and growing SEND numbers in a mainstream school. There were lots of examples of success stories of children in mainstream schools and inclusive practices including an Ofsted Inspector moved to tears
• Compliments from service users to the ASD team in SALT saying, ‘if it hadn’t been for you, my child wouldn’t still be in school’
• Exploring use of Social Media including merged SEND and FIS Newsletter to get a broader audience

Autism Voices Film

The “Autism Voices” film was made by a group of autistic students using their voices to put people right about autism stereotypes. They corrected the ‘outdated expert’ on his views and gave their own opinions and experiences.  It was difficult to watch in places, but it had a strong message.

SEN and disability inspection

We are preparing for our SEN and disability inspection by sharing experiences and information and working together. We are trying to improve all the time. The questions we are asking are:

• What are our strengths?
• What are our areas for improvement?
• Where are we on the journey?
• What else do we need to know?
• Where is the evidence?