Preparing for Adulthood Event
2nd October 2024: 9:30am - 12:30pmBraunstone Children, Young People and Family Centre
Call 0116 454 0644 or Email LocalOffer@leicester.gov.uk to book a space....
Open Letter on the SEND Crisis
Educational Psychologists and relevant organisations have written to the Department for Education (DfE) asking for a new approach to the SEND system. The full letter can be found below.
They are asking for: "a repositioning of ‘SEND’ within the wider education system so that it is no longer viewed as a ‘bolt-on’ or afterthought as it is now. Rather, those children and young people who need something additional and/or different to access education must be considered as central to all educational policy"....
9 OFSTED Annual Report Findings
There were nine key findings from the latest OFSTED Annual Report that you might find relevant and important.
More schools ‘good’ or better, but fewer ‘outstanding’
More ‘outstanding’ schools keep grade after ‘wake-up call’
Fewer schools eligible for intervention
Schools’ ‘deeper’ curriculum thinking helped catch-up
Schools are ‘rising to the behaviour challenge’
Nearly a third of areas ‘failing’ on SEND
AP used as a ‘shadow SEND system’
Short inspections ‘restrict professional dialogue’
Improving picture for ITT
What does this all mean?
Overall, schools have seen an improvement when it comes to inspections - for example, 97% of schools that had "inadequate" ratings had improved. Nationally, 89% of schools are now rated as "good" or "outstanding".
Despite the government bringing more schools under their scope for intervention (if a school "requires improvement" twice in a row, the government must intervene), the number of schools actually under government guidance has dropped.
Behaviour is a common theme that comes up in discussions around education. Whilst 93% of primary schools were judged "good"...
Children and Young People’s Mental Health Services
LLR ICB has commissioned DHU Healthcare to provide a new self-referral website to support the mental health of children and young people living in Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland.
The website is now live at https://www.myselfreferral-llr.nhs.uk and is aimed at children and young people under the age of 18, their parents or carers looking for mental health information, support and the ability to complete a self-referral.
About the service
DHU Healthcare's Children and Young People's Mental Health team, consisting of mental health clinicians and support staff, developed the website in collaboration with young people and NHS partners. 'My Self-Referral' is a new, simple and confidential way for young people to refer themselves for support for non-urgent or crisis cases without needing to see a GP or healthcare professional.
The website is user-friendly and accessible, with information, tips and signposting to resources that help children and young people manage and take care of their mental health. It begins by explaining more about mental health, with 16...
Lived Experience Partners in Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust
Please see below information from the Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust:
Lived Experience Partners
Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust (LPT) believes that patients and carers can be influential partners in driving, delivering, and supporting change and improving services. We want to collaborate with patients, their carers, and families as equal partners to enable us to deliver high quality healthcare services.
We are excited to launch our Lived Experience Partner roles.
The Lived Experience Partner role is a key part of our Lived Experience Leadership Framework. Our Lived Experience Partners will work alongside clinical and non-clinical staff, patients, and carers, drawing upon personal experience and expertise to provide insight into the design, improvement and delivery of the services provided by the Trust.
We are looking to recruit Partners into several roles across all our three divisions as well as within our Corporate Services.
In addition to our Lived Experience Partners, we are also recruiting two Patient Safety Partners and three members for our People’s Council.
To find out more please...
Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Reforms
The government’s long-awaited response to the SEND and alternative provision (AP) green paper includes plans for new national standards for supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and the digitisation of education, health and care plans (EHCPs).
Their overarching aims can be found here:
SEND-Reforms-2023Download
The plans for the future system can be found here:
SEND-Reforms-2023-pt-2Download
The full document can be read here:
SEND_and_alternative_provision_improvement_planDownload...
Carers’ Update October 2022
The October 2022 update from the Carers Centre, Leicester, Leicestershire & Rutland reads as follows:
We are pleased to announce that we have some exciting new projects starting this autumn including;
a ‘Carer’s Wellbeing Café’ in Loughborough,a new ‘Together We Care group’ in Rutland, anda ‘Creative Communication Project for Dementia Carer’s’ - at various venues across Leicester, Leicestershire & Rutland.
We are in the process of confirming all the details and will share more information very soon so watch this space! However if you would like to know more and/or register for any of these new projects (or any of our ongoing groups) please do get in touch on our normal contact details.
But in the meantime, we have some great sessions planned for October that are open to all carers looking after someone in Leicester, Leicestershire & Rutland:
Tuesday 4th October (10-11:30) - ‘Together We Care’ group for parent carers of U25’s We have the second training session on Sensory Processing Difficulties for Children...
Compelling attendance won’t result in more autistic pupils in school
Originally posted by www.ambitiousaboutautism.org.uk
The Government today published its Schools Bill with Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi announcing a 'strict' and 'non-negotiable' approach on school attendance.
The Bill will order schools across England to produce plans for addressing absenteeism. The Government also plans to issue new central guidance on the best approach to fining parents whose children are absent from school. Over 40,000 autistic pupils (31%) were persistent absentees in 2020/21.
Responding to the bill, Jolanta Lasota, Chief Executive of Ambitious about Autism, said:
“These measures are a regressive step and miss the point entirely about why many autistic pupils can’t attend school. “Autistic young people tell us they desperately want to go to school, just like everyone else, but many can’t because of inaccessible school environments, teaching, and expectations that they be something they are not: neurotypical. “Compelling these young people to be at a school they can’t access, without the support they need to attend, will not help them learn. Punishing their...
Disabled Children and the Equality Act 2010: What teachers need to know and what schools need to do
The Council for Disabled Children (CDC) has recently updated its guide, Disabled Children and the Equality Act 2010: What teachers need to know and what schools need to do. The updated guide has been funded by the Department for Education.
Schools have a range of duties under the Equality Act 2010: to staff, as employees; to parents and others, where the school is providing a service to other people using the school; and to pupils, staff and others who share other protected characteristics as well as disability.
This guide is designed to help teachers understand the legislation and how it applies to their work with disabled pupils in their school. It explains what the Equality Act requires of schools and of governors, trustees and others who are the ‘responsible body’ for the school.
The guide draws on examples of practices that may amount to discrimination or that may help schools to avoid discrimination. Many of these examples are drawn from the decisions of...
Inquiry launches into mental health and behaviour in schools
A coalition of more than 200 charities, academics and children’s professionals is launching an inquiry to explore links between mental health and behaviour among school pupils.
Concerns around schools in England using punitive approaches to tackle challenging behaviour have prompted the inquiry, which is being launched by the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition.
Tactics used by schools include exclusion and placing children in isolation in so-called removal rooms.
The coalition fears there has been an increase in tough measures to curb challenging behaviour by schools following Covid-19 lockdowns.
It warns that such measures come amid escalating mental health problems among young people. One in six pupils aged between six and 16 have a mental health problem as of 2021, compared to one in nine in 2017, said the coalition.
Often challenging behaviour can be caused by “underlying conditions, unmet emotional needs, difficulties at home, at school or in the community, and exposure to trauma”, it added.
The inquiry will look at how current school...