Category: Education

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Education Government Health and Wellbeing

Press Release: NNPCF Responds to Government’s Expansion of Mental Health Support in Schools

The National Network of Parent Carer Forums (NNPCF) acknowledges and welcomes the government’s recent announcement to extend mental health support to nearly one million additional pupils across England. (GOV.UK)

We welcome this investment and the recognition of the critical role mental health plays in the overall well-being and educational outcomes of our children. Early intervention and accessible support within educational settings are vital components ensuring that mental health challenges are addressed promptly.

However, we must emphasize that while this expansion is a positive development, it does not fully address the unique challenges faced by some children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). Many families continue to encounter significant barriers in accessing appropriate mental health services tailored to the specific needs of their children. Issues such as long waiting times, lack of specialized support, and insufficient integration between educational and health services persist, often leaving SEND pupils without the necessary resources to thrive.

It is imperative that the rollout of mental health support teams includes provisions specifically designed to meet the diverse needs of SEND students. This includes training for mental health professionals in SEND-specific issues, ensuring that interventions are adaptable and inclusive, and fostering collaboration between schools, health services, and families.

Furthermore, while the goal to provide universal access to mental health support by 2029/30 is ambitious, the urgency of the current mental health crisis among young people necessitates accelerated action.

The NNPCF remains committed to working collaboratively with the government, educational institutions, and health services to ensure that the voices of families are heard and that the mental health needs of all children and young people, especially those with SEND, are adequately met.

Categories
Education Government NNPCF

Press Release: NNPCF Responds to Media Reports on EHCP Reductions and SEND Reforms

The National Network of Parent Carer Forums (NNPCF) is aware of recent media coverage concerning potential reductions in Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs).

As the national voice of parent carer forums in England, the NNPCF has been actively engaged in a range of roundtable discussions and informal conversations with partners across Education, Health, and Social Care regarding the ongoing SEND challenges.

We fully acknowledge the current challenges within the SEND system. Too often, families are forced to fight for an EHCP in order to access support and targeted provision that should be available without the need for a statutory plan. This has a profound and lasting impact on families — from the ability of parents to work due to low attendance or part-time timetables, to high exclusion rates, increased medical appointments, and the compounded pressures of the rising cost of living.

We also recognise the concerns families have around proposed welfare benefit reforms, which could further impact their financial and emotional well-being.

The NNPCF supports the government’s ambition for a more inclusive mainstream education system — one where children and young people with SEND receive the support they need without having to navigate a complex and adversarial process. However, we firmly believe that any system MUST include strong mechanisms for accountability and redress to ensure it delivers for all children and young people with SEND.

While reforms aim to build a better system for future generations, it is essential that the new system also addresses the needs of those currently navigating it — many of whom have already been let down or traumatised by the existing framework. Rebuilding trust must be a priority.

Any changes MUST be supported by a robust implementation plan, underpinned by sufficient funding and a skilled, well-trained workforce.

The NNPCF continues to advocate strongly for meaningful and wide-ranging engagement with families. Families must be central to shaping and implementing reforms — their voices must be heard, and their lived experiences must guide the development of a system that works for all.

Categories
local area inspections NNPCF Ofsted Uncategorized

The role of Parent Carer Forums in Local Area SEND Inspections

The following webinar was recorded for the London Region Parent Carer Forums.

The presentation is consistent with the four London Local Areas that have been inspected, however, it may not be reflective on national experience.

Please register for the webinar recording by following this link

The password is: x1Xii=8^

NNPCF-Local-Area-SEND-Inspection-Briefing-for-London-Forums-FINALDownload
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Alternative provision Ofsted

Alternative provision in local areas in England

Alternative provision in local areas in England_ a thematic review – GOV.UK.pdf

Alternative-provision-in-local-areas-in-England_-a-thematic-review-GOV.UK_Download
Categories
Education NHS England Parent Carer Forums

Educational Psychologist strike action

We have received the following communication from the Association of Educational Psychologists.

EPs will be taking industrial action (striking) this winter.
Why?
Every year, tens of thousands of children and young people and their families are helped by an educational psychologist (EP).
EPs work with education professionals in nurseries, schools and other settings and with colleagues in youth justice and social care to help children overcome mental health issues like self-harm and anxiety and barriers to learning such as attention difficulties and dyslexia.
EPs also work with children and young people directly, offering therapeutic support for those who can’t find help through CAMHS and specialist support for care experienced children and their
carers.
EPs provide critical incident support when there has been a traumatic event in the community – it was EPs who were there after the Manchester Arena bombing and the Grenfell Tower fire.
EPs support young people up to the age of 25 to manage college, work experience, even independent or supported living.
And EPs help thousands of families with parenting advice and training as well as providing statutory assessments for Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) to unlock support for children in school.
Despite the vital services and support provided by EPs, local authorities in England and Wales are not investing in the profession and are now facing widespread recruitment and retention problems.
Over the past 13 years, EPs’ pay has fallen by 17% compared to where pay should have been, had it kept up with inflation.
To afford their bills, EPs are moving to the private sector or leaving the profession altogether – leaving nearly 9 in 10 (88%) local authorities struggling to recruit EPs.
Nearly every (96%) local authority says the shortages are affecting children and young people.
Rocketing EP workload means children and young people are waiting far too long to be seen by a professional – or worse, do not get to see an EP at all.
Department for Education (DfE) figures from June 2023 show almost half of EHCPs in England are issued late – lengthening children and young people’s distress and leading to an increased need for a plan.
Our profession is in crisis. EPs are trained over three years to doctoral level and are qualified to take on high levels of responsibility, but they’re working unacceptable hours to help children, young people and their families to not only survive but thrive in the education system. They are burning out.
Many EPs will be taking industrial action in 135 local authorities in England and Wales – to protect their colleagues, their services and, most importantly, to protect your children.
In the short term, the industrial action may mean further delays in seeing an EP. But EPs are taking action with a view to the long term – to make sure those waits become a thing of the past so that in the future your children will have access to the specialist support that EPs offer, when they need it.

Categories
Care Quality Commision DfE local area inspections Ofsted

Co-production and SEND Inspections

NNPCF logo

Messages from the eight Local Area SEND inspection reports published July 2023

We have received feedback regarding the eight area’s who have been recently inspected under the new framework.

The report highlights that co production is crucial and lies at the heart of everything that is going well.

There are two evaluation criteria in the inspection handbook that relate to co-production:

  • Leaders actively engage and work with C&YP and families.
  • Children, young people and their families participate in decision-making about their individual plans and support. This includes access impartial information, advice and support to make informed choices about their future and support to understand rights.

Key messages include:

A strong voice of the children and young people (C&YP) and them being at the heart of decision making is a common characteristic of local areas that have achieved most favourable inspection outcome.

Generally inspection reports have commented positively about co-production at strategic and service levels although there have been a couple of references to engagement with children and young people being in the early stages.

Co-production at all levels.  

Inspectors are looking for the voice of C&YP at all levels

  • Currently, how the voices of children and young people are heard and acted on at a strategic level is in its infancy. Area leaders have supported the development of the Shout Out for SEND (SOS) group, which is made up of a ‘small but mighty’ group of children and young people with SEND. However, their reach and impact are still growing.
  • The views of children and young people, and of parents and carers, are now being captured more systematically as part of the EHC planning and review processes.  C&YP’s voices matter they take part in decision making. Most reported a trusted adult who listens and acts on views.

Co-production and the Local Area’s Leadership

No local area, apart from one,  has this aspect of co-production as an area for improvement with most areas receiving positive comments

  • Co-production with parents and carers is a golden thread that weaves through new initiatives and service redesign. Leaders listen to and value the views of parents, carers, children, and young people. 
  •  The PCF are actively involved with many development projects. Leaders receive regular feedback from parents. They use this effectively when planning and evaluating services.
  • Strengthened work to engage C&YP and families to make improvements. The inclusion the PCF at a strategic level is central. Good evidence of true co-production. Leaders have developed roles for C&YP advocates and mentors for other C&YP to ensure their voices are heard.
  • Area leaders listen to and act on the views of parents and carers. For example, additional provision for young people with SEND was set up within an existing educational setting, following feedback from a parent group. Also, area leaders responded to concerns raised around transport by making relevant changes. Typically, parent groups believe that area leaders listen and respond to their views.
  • Co-production  is a strength. It is embedded in the local culture and is based on a relationship of trust and respect. The voices of parents, carers, C&YP influence strategic development and the commissioning of services. Parent voice is well represented in various panels across the city when considering access to services for individual families. There are many examples of strategic and operational co-production that are working well, for example the Social Communication Resources across primary and secondary school, the school transport policy, and the strategic plan for SEND. All resources that are being developed for the Dynamic Support Register (DSR) have been co-produced.
  • Work between the partnership and the parent carer forum is making a strong contribution to improving the experiences of children and young people with SEND and their families.
  • Careful thought and planning enable children and young people with a vast range of needs to communicate and be involved in service review and transformation. For example, inspectors met a group of young people who influenced the design of a leisure centre to ensure better accessibility and inclusivity

Nottinghamshire’s area for improvement related to the need for leaders to gather a wider range of views of children and young people and their families so that they can use these views to inform their planning for, and evaluation of, SEND services. Inspectors also commented that work to engage C&YP was in its infancy

Co-production and individual plans

Positive examples identified by inspectors of how C&YP and their families are supported to engaged in their individual plans include:  

  • Early help: Highly skilled family support workers know and understand children’s needs well. They act as advocates for C&YP, ensuring that their views inform the development of support plans.
  • Leaders make sure that young people receive effective advice and support as they enter adulthood. Practitioners, including social prescribers, ensure that young people are able to be active members of their community, accessing financial benefits, improving their independence skills and finding suitable accommodation to help them achieve good outcomes
  • The school’s well-being service gives advice to parents, carers and schools about how to meet the mental health needs of children and young people.
  • Young people  generally receive effective careers education information, advice and guidance. This includes useful proactive support for those at risk of being NEET
  • Social workers act as useful advocates to get the children and young people they work with the help and support they need, including at points of transition into adult social care
  • Co-produced direct payment pathway where family support workers help families to manage and review their direct payment package. This means that families receive the right help without the need for social work intervention
  • Area leaders provide parents and carers with useful support and guidance when applying for a personal budget. This works particularly well in the children with disabilities service. However, some parents would value more services to spend their budget on and do not find the process straightforward.
  • Children and young people are supported to share their voices and opinions. Their voices are particularly well reflected across all EHCPs.
  • The Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Information Advice and Support Service, help parents and carers to navigate the local offer and access the right support in a timely way.
  • SENDIASS is highly valued by families. The service helps parents and carers receive useful advice and guidance. This helps families to successfully navigate the SEND system and reduces their anxieties.
  • The SEND Information and Advice Support Service (SENDIASS) provides an effective service supporting children and young people with SEND and their families. SENDIASS practitioners have taken a thoughtful approach to making their service both accessible and impartial. Parents, carers, children and young people do not need to wait for support from the SENDIASS team, as practitioners get in touch straight away.
  • The help and advice provided by SENDIASS is also highly valued.

Area of concern identified by the inspectors related to the provision information to children and young people to help them help make choices include:

  • Insufficient and unclear access to support and guidance and misunderstanding from families and practitioners of how placements in alternative provision are commissioned.
  • Many parents lack confidence in how well their children are being prepared for adult life because they do not know what support is available.
  • Some children in mainstream provision do not receive clear advice to prepare for moving to their next stages of education so they do not always get the support they require in a timely fashion.
  • Many  C&YP are reliant on schools and families for social activities and to make friends. This is because they do not know what is available for them. This can leave some children and young people isolated.
  • Children and young people do not know enough about the clubs and facilities that are available for them to socialise with others out of school and during the school holidays.
  • Practitioners’ knowledge and expertise are insufficient to support and guide C&YP with SEND. A significant consequence of this is that the services of groups such as SENDIASS and PCF are in high demand. Although many highly regard these services, there is a limit to the level of support they can offer.
  • Parents, carers and professionals report problems with communication. Too often, professionals signpost parents and carers to other services. While this is enough for some families, other families struggle while they wait. A significant number of parents and carers who are waiting for their child to be assessed on the neurodevelopmental pathway reported that they are not updated often enough on wait times. This causes increased stress and worry.
  • Leaders do not promote personal health budgets well enough. This reduces the choice for parents and carers when they require bespoke packages of care.

The two recommended areas for improvement related to information and communication that need to be addressed in the local area’s updated strategic plan were:  

  • The local area partnership should make sure that parents and carers and professionals receive clear and reliable information about how to access the range of support and services that are available.
  • Leaders across the partnership should establish effective communication across the partnership to improve the experiences for children and young people with SEND and their families.
Categories
Alternative provision Health NHS England NNPCF Special schools

Free NHS eye tests in special schools introduced

Free NHS eye tests for children and young people who attend special schools will be introduced from next year.

The NNPCF have been part of an ongoing piece of work as part of the NHS Long Term Plan where Sensory Checks (sight, hearing and dental) are to be put in place for children and young people who attend special residential settings and have Learning Disabilities and/or Autism.

Pupils at special schools can face additional challenges in accessing sight testing services via opticians and a successful pilot scheme has proven the benefits of receiving tests and personalised advice in their familiar learning environments.

We are pleased to say NHS England has committed to extend this offer to make free NHS sight tests available within all special school settings.

You can read more information here: 

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/free-sight-tests-for-special-schools

You can read more about why the service is so needed and welcomed here: https://www.seeability.org/news/special-schools-eye-care-service-revived?utm_source=banner&utm_medium=refer&utm_campaign=eyecare

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Department for Education Education Minister for the School System NNPCF work

Academies Regulation and Commissioning Review

Earlier this week, our co-chairs Tina Emery and Mrunal Sisodia met with the Minister for the School System, Baroness Barran, to discuss the Academies Regulation and Commissioning Review.

The meeting covered the NNPCF’s input into the Academies Regulation and Commissioning Review . This group has been looking at the accountability framework for academies.

The current accountability regime remains very unclear. The division of powers, responsibilities, regulation and enforcement between schools, multi-academy trusts, local authorities and the DfE Regions Group is confused. We hear too often about schools that do not make reasonable adjustments or promote inclusion that parents and local authorities are powerless to hold to account.

We asked the minister to ensure that the Academies Regulation and Commissioning Review closed these gaps and enforce that schools, local authorities and Integrated Care Systems meet needs.

The success of the SENDAP Improvement Plan published last week depends on whether the Academies Regulation and Commissioning Review can address these concerns.

In particular, we raised three main issues with the minister:

  • The inability of individual families to seek redress when they believe that a school is not promoting inclusion. For example, if they are failing to make reasonable adjustments. In these cases, parents have to use the school or trust’s complaints process, something that a delegate at our 2023 conference described as “marking their own homework.”
  • The need to align the powers, responsibilities and accountability between schools, multi-academy trusts, local authorities, the DfE Regions Group and Integrated Care Systems. There are huge gaps which mean that no-one has the authority to effectively hold schools to account.
  • Greater clarity on what inclusive practice is and what good looks like. The Schools Bill defined a strong trust as being “inclusive”. We asked for clarity on what these means and how it will be assessed.

Unfortunately, following the shelving of the Schools Bill, the ability to make regulatory changes may be constrained and we are concerned that the scope of change that the Academies Regulation and Commissioning Review may bring will be limited.

The team promised to meet the NNPCF steering group to further develop these points.

For our previous work on this area please see:

NNPCF Steering Group meet with Minister on Schools White Paper – National Network of Parent Carer Forums C.I.C

Initial NNPCF response to the Schools White Paper – National Network of Parent Carer Forums C.I.C

Categories
Ofsted

OFSTED publish its annual report 

Ofsted recently published their annual report. You can read the report here:

Education, Children’s Services and Skills 2021/22 publishing.service.gov.uk 

The report details the key themes and findings from Ofsted’s inspections over the last year including those under the education inspection framework (a total of 4620 schools were inspected) and the local area SEND framework. 

The report reflects the growing importance of SEND in the education system as an area that is increasingly in crisis and letting many young people down. In particular, the report highlights many themes that have been repeatedly raised by the NNPCF in their conversations with both Ofsted and the Government. For example: 

  • The greater strain placed on the SEND system by the pandemic 
  • The inaccessibility of key services such as speech and language therapy 
  • Delays in assessments for EHCPs 
  • The risks of over-identification of SEND by schools for children that had fallen behind in the pandemic 
  • Concerns about the increase in elective home education 
  • The use of part time timetables and off-rolling 
  •  Problems with access to mental health services 
  • High levels of exclusions for children with SEND 

The report also provides an analysis of the local area SEND inspections conducted by Ofsted. Out of the 151 local authority areas, 55% required a local area inspection. The best performing region was London with 33% of local areas receiving a WSOA and the worst was the East of England with 82% needing a WSOA. 

Mrunal will be presenting the NNPCF response to the report when the launch panel is reconvened and forums will have the opportunity talk to Ofsted directly at our face to face conference in Bristol.

Categories
Care Quality Commision Department for Education DfE guidance NNPCF Ofsted

New local area SEND inspection framework released 

Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission have released the new framework and handbook for local area inspections.

Area SEND: framework and handbook – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) 

The NNPCF have been closely engaged in the development of the new framework over the last 18 months ranging from feeding back on parent carer perspectives on the first round of inspections to local forums engaging in the pilot inspections under the new framework run by Ofsted and the CQC in recent months.  

There are significant changes in the new framework, most notably: 

Four different types of inspection dependent upon the status of the local area: 

  • Full inspections 
  • Monitoring visits for those areas with identified areas for priority action 
  • Engagement meetings to evaluate an areas self-assessment and development plans 
  • Thematic visits to explore different aspects of the SEND system 

There will be three categories of rating given to local areas 

  • Local services lead to positive experiences for CYP with SEND 
  • Inconsistent experiences 
  • Significant concerns 

  • There will be a greater focus on outcomes and impact compared to the previous inspection regime which focussed more on the implementation of the 2014 reforms 
  • In their work, the experiences of CYP with SEND will form the central plank of the assessment. This will be done through surveys, talking to parent carer and CYP representative groups and looking at six representative case studies chosen by the inspectors. 

Many of the themes that the NNPCF made representations on have been reflected in the new framework including a greater focus on outcomes, joint working, early help and coproduction with families. There are strong ties across things we asked for in the SEND and Alternative Provision Green Paper through the production of a joined up strategic plan. 

We are particularly pleased that the NNPCF has been successful in ensuring that the new framework recognises the importance of parent carer forums in the inspection process. It specifies several areas in which parent carer forums are involved: 

  • Making arrangements for the local area survey 
  • Meeting inspectors at the start of the inspection to develop its scope 
  • Meeting inspectors to discuss the self evaluation and strategic planning of a local area 
  • Participation in the feedback meeting 
  • Receipt of a copy of the final report (from the local area) 
  • Notification of the arrangements for monitoring inspections 

We are keen to seek early feedback from those areas that have taken part in the pilot inspections under this new framework.

If your area has been a pilot area, please complete this short survey. https://forms.office.com/e/W5nvbDc1Vd 

We will use this information to feed back to the inspectors about how they can improve the implementation of the new framework and we will share the findings with our member forums to brief them on what they can expect. 

You can find some of our work on this subject here 

NNPCF work to improve accountability in the SEND system – National Network of Parent Carer Forums C.I.C 

Care Quality Commision (CQC) presentation 20/04/22 – National Network of Parent Carer Forums C.I.C (nnpcf.org.uk) 

Response Data (nnpcf.org.uk)