Category: NNPCF work

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Attendance Action Alliance Department for Education NNPCF work

Attendance Action Alliance

Earlier this month co-chairs Tina Emery, Mrunal Sisodia, with the incoming co-chair Sarah Clarke, met with Attendance Action Alliance, chaired by Minster Gillian Keegan, as Secretary of State for Education.

This meeting had a keen focus on those children and young people who are Children in Need (CIN) and SEND, and the impact of low school attendance potentially has on long term outcomes.  These cohorts are less likely to continue education after 16 years and are more vulnerable to becoming NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training).  It was recognised that similar concerns and rates of attendance is being seen across the G7.

The NNPCF advocated the difficulties experienced by children and young people with SEND on school attendance and the importance of coproducing the support required with families for pupils to be able to access school.  Including removing any ‘blame culture’, along with the importance of consistent reasonable adjustments being made by schools.  The need for strong joint working across all areas in partnership with families was also highlighted, to support all SEND & CIN cohorts back into schools.  Ensuring that the work starts early in the summer term, enabling pupils to start in September with their peers, as there is a strong correlation between attendance at the start of the academic school year and attendance being maintained.

The NNPCF have consistently been raising the need for a joined up supportive, not punitive approach for last 2 years as children have returned to school. In response to our requests the DfE recently published a blog on what constitutes reasonable adjustments. Forums should share this with parents and with schools in their local areas.

What are reasonable adjustments and how do they help disabled pupils at school? – The Education Hub (blog.gov.uk)

You can read more about the Attendance Action Alliance on the government website:

https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/attendance-alliance-group

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DfE NNPCF work SEND AP Implementation Board. SENDAP

SEND AP Implementation Board

Co-chairs Tina Emery, Mrunal Sisodia, with the incoming co-chair Sarah Clarke, recently met with SEND AP Implementation Board. Which was chaired by Minster Claire Coutinho. This was the first meeting to be held.

The Board will be jointly chaired by the children’s Minster Claire Coutinho and the mental health Minster Maria Caulfield. 

The Board is made up of various experts across the SEND sector to offer support, challenge and solutions to the work set out in the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) improvement plan 

The Board will be responsible for challenging the priority areas of work and supporting the rigor and pace that is required for progression of improvement plan.

The priorities of areas of work discussed at the meeting were:

  • The importance of Local Plans and Partnerships which determine the priorities of an area across all sectors to successfully deliver the plans for improvements. The NNPCF raised the need for Parent Carer Forums and the lived experience to be central to these discussions, so that improvements were coproduced.
  • National Standards and their role in reducing post code lotteries across education and health services ensuring consistent high quality support.  The need for a clear understanding of what ‘good’ looked like and importance of that shared national understanding was also discussed.
  • How workforce capacity and capability played a vital role in determining that there is sufficient workforce in the right areas to support change.
  • The standardisation and digitisation of the EHCP process and the requirements required to implement successfully.

National SEND and alternative provision implementation board – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

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Communication access symbol NNPCF work

NNPCF become accredited with the Communications Access Symbol

The Communications Access Symbol is an initiative developed in partnership by charities and organisations that share a vision to improve the lives of people with communication difficulties.

The communication access symbol scheme is led by the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists and was coproduced with a number of stakeholders including the NNPCF.

A completely free training package is available to any individual or business that wishes to sign up to the symbol.

Businesses that have already signed up to the symbol include Job Centres, University of East Anglia, various Citizen’s Advice Bureau locations and some NHS trusts among many others!

We are delighted to say the NNPCF have recently been accredited with a number of our Steering Group, Management Team and National Representative Team completing the training.

We would encourage you to take a look at the scheme and sign up to the training too.

Sharing the scheme with your contacts would be especially helpful. If more individuals and organisations become accredited it would really help people with communication needs.

If you would like to mention it to your Local Authorities and ICS’s please feel free to do so, and encourage their sign up as well!

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Integrated Care Boards NHS England NNPCF work

NHS publishes guidance for executive lead roles in ICBs

The NHS recently published guidance on key roles within Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) that have direct relevance to the work of parent carer forums.

You can find the document here: NHS England » Executive lead roles within integrated care boards

The purpose of these roles is to ensure that the core responsibilities of ICBs when it comes to vulnerable groups are championed, have visibility at board level and are considered in all aspects of ICB planning and delivery.

Parent carer forums should ensure that they know who their executive lead is for each area and we would recommend that they seek to meet with them and understand how they plan to approach their role and how parent carer forums will be involved.

The following framework was published on 23/05/23

NHS England » A framework for addressing practical barriers to integration of VCSE organisations in integrated care systems

For more information on the set up of ICBs and how parent carer forums can work with them, see our webinars on the topic: What can SEND families and parent carer forums expect from Integrated Care Boards – YouTube

Each ICB must appoint an executive lead, at board level for each of the following areas. Some specific responsibilities are highlighted below but for the full list see the guidance:

  • Children and young people aged 0 to 25 (CYP)
    • Championing coproduction
    • How the needs of children and young people will be me in the ICB joint forward plan
    • Overview of the quality of services for CYP
    • Ensuring appropriate resources are allocated to CYP services
  • Children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)
    • Supporting local area SEND inspections
    • Supporting Designated Clinical and Medical Officers (DCO / DMO)
    • Effective coproduction and engagement
  • Safeguarding (all-age), including looked after children
  • Learning disability and autism (all-age).
  • Down syndrome (all-age).

Many of these roles were implemented as a result of work by the NNPCF and others to make changes to the 2022 Health and Care Act (see links below)

Lords concludes examination of Health and Care Bill – National Network of Parent Carer Forums C.I.C (nnpcf.org.uk)

 Putting Children and Young People with SEND at the Heart of the Health and Care Bill – National Network of Parent Carer Forums C.I.C (nnpcf.org.uk)

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2023 Conference Contact DfE NHS NNPCF NNPCF conference

NNPCF & Contact joint conference 2023

Our 2022/23 conference this year was a two part event, with a digital offering as well as an in person conference in Bristol.

Face-to-face conference

Our face-to-face conference was held on 28 February 2023 at the Double Tree by Hilton in Bristol City Centre.

The day was jointly organised and facilitated jointly the Contact and NNPCF teams.

We were joined by PCF members from around the country, as well as representatives from the NHS and the DfE.

The conference was livestreamed for the first time and you can watch the sessions below.

Contact’s Carolyn and our co chair Tina, opened the conference with a very warm welcome to our attendees. Amanda Batten gave her last conference speech, as she has now stepped down from her role as Contact’s Chief Executive.

 https://youtu.be/2Ph61WMCdLw.  

You can download the opening presentation here.

Next came an Ofsted SEND inspection framework update from Dr Tina Pagett, HMI for Ofsted.  https://youtu.be/KqKKF14QFeo  

Our co chair Mrunal gave an impassioned address, asking the question ‘What next for SEND?’ highlighting that the time it was taking to put the 2014 SEND reforms into place was equal to an actual childhood.  https://youtu.be/8iQub582AXY  

Download Mrunal’s presentation here.

The Q&A panel, included Alison Ismail, the Director for SEND and Alternative Provision at the DfE, Amanda Allard, the Deputy Director for Health, at the Council for Disabled Children,Tina Pagett, HMI, for further education and skills at Ofsted and Sue Nort from National Health England who answered questions that had been submitted from our PCF members in advance. https://youtu.be/Phc7un-iZQI

The Eva Sharma, from the DfE gave a presentation about the National Standards, something that had been included in the SEND review. This led to a round the table coproduction session with our attendees, who explored what should be included in the national standards in each stage of a child’s development.  https://youtu.be/mwbvhSgwcm8 

Download the DfE coproduction session slides here

Finally we welcomed the minister for Children Families and Wellbeing, Claire Coutinho, who had joined us for the afternoon. She gave an address and hinted about the much anticipated SEND and AP green paper review response. The minister then answered questions from our co chair Tina.  https://youtu.be/10oR7_V8UI8

Virtual conference

Thank you to all those who joined us at our joint virtual conference which took place on January 31, February 1 and February 2.

Please see the links below to recordings of sessions, as well as the resources.

Planning the recovery in children’s community services

The NNPCF has heard throughout the year of the challenges faced by families accessing community based services including SALT, ASD / ADHD services and paediatricians in the wake of the covid 19 pandemic.

NHS England has created a new recovery team to address these issues around children’s services who have agreed to speak to NNPCF membership about what NHS data is telling them and the steps they are exploring to tackle the problems. Included was an opportunity to coproduce the latest thinking on what the model for recovery might look like. Watch the recording session here you can also download the presentation, the Menti survey results and Menti summary from the session.

NNPCF AGM

This session includes:

  • Review the first six months of our operation as a Community Interest Company from October 2021 to March 2022
  • A look at what has happened in the world of SEND since April 2022 and put it into the broader context of political turmoil, cost of living and the NHS.
  • Coproduce our priorities for the coming year 2023-24 that will form the basis of our business plan and longer term strategy.

You can watch the AGM recording here  and download the slides from the presentation too.

IPSEA SEND law

IPSEA, the SEND legal support charity, lead a session that outlines the major pieces of legislation that protect children and young people with SEND including the Children and Families Act, Equalities Act, Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act. They cover the tools that families (and forums) have at their disposal to seek redress if they have concerns. IPSEA also cover the services and support that they offer and how forums can seek further help and training.

View the recording of the session along with the presentation and a Q&A document from the session.

Delivering Better Value in SEND (DBV)

This interactive session provided an opportunity for parents and carers to understand the DBV programme, ask questions, and contribute to how it is set up for success. The session explores:

  • What the DBV in SEND programme is and how it sits alongside other DfE activities
  • The progress made and findings to date
  • How to best connect parent-carers into the work of the programme

See the following link to the local authorities participating in DBV – https://nnpcf.org.uk/2022/10/19/dfe-update-delivering-better-value-for-send-and-safety-valve/

You can watch the recording of the session and download the presentation

Developing the Parent Carer Forum handbook with Contact

Last year, Contact asked what forums wanted in the new forum handbook – In this session they share the survey results and discuss how to take things forward to develop a handbook that works for all parent carer forums.

View a recording of the session here.

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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

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Department for Education Government NNPCF NNPCF work SEND Review SENDAP

Special Educational Needs and Disability and Alternative Provision (SENDAP) Improvement Plan published

Today, the government has published its long awaited response to the SEND Green Paper, the SENDAP Improvement Plan.

The plan outlines the steps that the government will be taking over the next few years to address the problems in the SEND system that have resulted in poor experiences for many children, young people (CYP) and families. The plan follows the SEND Green Paper and the subsequent consultation conducted by the Department for Education (DfE) in 2022. Our NNPCF co-chairs Tina Emery and Mrunal Sisodia were part of the steering group that advised on and reviewed the Green Paper and drafts of this plan.

On its publication, NNPCF Co-chairs, Tina Emery and Mrunal Sisodia said,

”There is much to welcome in the SENDAP Implementation Plan, in particular, we are pleased to see that national standards will form the basis of ordinarily available provision, have such a prominent role. The NNPCF argued for the need for national standards during the SEND review and 90% of respondents to our survey agreed that they were needed. If implemented well, national standards will form the basis of early intervention and clearly identify who is responsible for providing and paying for services.

Similarly, we are pleased to see local inclusion partnerships and plans being taken forward. Linked to the new Ofsted / CQC local area inspection framework that includes an annual review of inclusion plans, these will drive the joined up working and commissioning that has so often been missing.

Some of the proposals that the NNPCF disagreed with, notably the tailored list of settings, mandatory mediation and bandings and tariffs remain in the plan. However, we are pleased that these areas are being reviewed and piloted before implementation decisions are made.

Unfortunately, in some areas, the plan does not go as far as we would want. In the absence of legislation, the accountability regime, the mix of responsibilities, powers and regulation between schools, multi-academy trusts, local authorities and the DfE Regions Group – remains unclear.

We urge the ongoing Academies Regulation and Commissioning Review to address these gaps. In addition, we remain concerned about the pace of change. It will be 2030 before this plan is fully implemented and this is literally a childhood since the original SEND reforms in the Children and Families Act 2014.

We, the NNPCF, will continue work with government and NHSE to ensure that urgency to address the problems in the SEND system remains a priority.”

There are many things in the Implementation Plan that the NNPCF welcome:

National standards to form the basis of ordinarily available provision. Properly implemented, national standards will drive early intervention and form the foundation of what families can expect from services, what services can expect from each other as well as who is responsible for delivering and paying. In our survey 90% of respondents were in favour of national standards. We have received assurances from ministers that national standards will not be a list prescribed or allowed services for a list of diagnoses. Also, national standards will not form a cap on what can be provided to meet needs, individual needs must still be met.

SEND and AP partnerships and local inclusion plans will require local areas to have a clear and shared understanding of the needs of the local population and work together to address them. We are pleased that these will be reviewed annually as a part of the Ofsted / CQC local area inspection regime. In our survey, respondents were clear that education, health and care services needed to work together more actively and comply with national standards

The sections on the development of the SEND workforce, both inside and outside of schools are very welcome.  In our survey, 97% of respondents said that teaching staff needed better training on SEND.

We called for better data on SEND to drive inclusion and incentivise local areas to identify needs and provide early help. The inclusion dashboards proposed will do this if properly designed.

The proposed Adjustments Passport to support disabled young people into work is something that the NNPCF has been asking for over the last five years

We are pleased that some of the lessons of 2014 have been learnt. There will be a properly constituted change programme to systemically implement the plan with meaningful review and accountability through regional expert partnerships and a new National SENDAP Implementation Board.

However, there are some areas included in the plan that we continue to have reservations about. We have noted that these areas are going to be piloted and tested through the regional expert partnerships:

  • The tailored list of settings remains in the plan despite being supported by only 20% of respondents in our survey.
  • Mandatory mediation has very mixed support – we have expressed concern about the mechanism for mandatory mediation and the risk that this denies or delays access to redress via the tribunal.
  • Similarly, our survey showed no clear support for bandings and tariffs with only 47% or responses in favour.

Unfortunately, there are many areas that remain very worrying for the NNPCF, where more clarity is required:

The accountability regime remains ambiguous. The division of powers, responsibilities, regulation and enforcement between schools, multi-academy trusts, local authorities and the DfE Regions Group remain unclear. We hear too often about schools that do not make reasonable adjustments or promote inclusion. Parents and local authorities are powerless to hold them to account. The ongoing Academies Regulation and Commissioning Review must close these gaps to ensure that schools, local authorities and Integrated Care Systems meet needs.

When the SENDAP Green Paper and Schools White Paper were launched in March 2022 , the intention was to support both with legislation. Now, this will not happen. Without legislation, we are concerned that some of the measures critical to success can no longer be made mandatory (e.g. national standards and greater accountability for schools).

Finally, the pace of change must not lose urgency. There are many areas of the plan that require further development and definition. We welcome the intention to coproduce key elements and we look to supporting partners to achieve this in the most expedient way. We must collectively ensure that this work is given the priority our SEND families deserve.

The SEND system is in crisis now and we need urgent progress and action.

For more background on the SENDAP implementation plan and the NNPCF input in the Green Paper and consultation please see:

NNPCF response to the SEND Green Paper and Alternative Provision consultation. – National Network of Parent Carer Forums C.I.C

Find out what parent carers have told us about the SEND Green Paper and coproduce the NNPCF consultation – YouTube

SEND-review-results-NNPCF-2022.pdf

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NHS England NNPCF NNPCF work Policy

New NHS England policy published

NHS England has published the new Dynamic Support Register (DSR) and Care (education) and Treatment Review C(E)TR policy

February 2023

At the end of January, NHSE published its new DSR and CETR policy.

You can find a link to it here: PR1486-Dynamic-support-register-and-Care-Education-and-Treatment-Review-policy-and-guide.pdf (england.nhs.uk)

There is also an easy read version here: Easy-read-version-of-the-Dynamic-support-register-and-Care-Education-and-Treatment-Review-policy-and-guide-Jan.pdf (england.nhs.uk)

The policy will be rolled out in April 2023.

Some definitions:

A Dynamic Support Register (DSR) is the tool used in a local area to identify individual children, young people and adults with a learning disability, autism or both who are at risk or may become at risk of admission to a mental health inpatient setting without specific and timely Dynamic Support

Note: the term “At Risk of Admission Register” was originally used, this term continues to be used in some areas. Similarly, the Dynamic Support Register is also known in some local areas as a Dynamic Support Database (DSD)

A C(E)TR is a meeting bringing together those responsible for commissioning and providing services (including nurses, social workers, local authority representatives, such as from housing and education, and health and social care commissioners) together with independent clinical opinion and those with lived experience of learning disabilities and/or autism, which includes people with a learning disability and/or autistic people and their family carers.

The aim of a C(E)TR is to check that a person who is either at risk of being admitted or who has already been admitted to a hospital setting is receiving appropriate care that meets their individual needs and that, where possible, challenges are overcome to support discharge to or continued care in the community.

The policy outlines the new process for the implementation of DSRs and C(E)TRs. The NNPCF did not have direct input into the development of the policy but we were involved in broader conversations about the issues with DSRs and CETRs in the current system, the experiences of children and young people and their families and some of the changes that we wanted to see in the new policy.

We are working with NHSE to ensure that parent carer forums are engaged in the implementation of the new policies:

Categories
NNPCF NNPCF work Policy

February Policy briefing

Dynamic support register and Care (Education) and Treatment Review 

NHS England has a new policy to help people with learning difficulties and autism get the right support for their mental health at home instead of in hospital which will be implemented from 1st May 2023.

Dynamic support registers DSRs – Local areas must create a list of people with learning difficulties and or autism who are at risk of needing mental health hospital care, to try an ensure they receive appropriate care and reduce the need for an admission for hospital. This list is called the dynamic support register (DSRs). The DSR should be organised in such a way that adults, children, and young people can be identified when their health and care needs are increasing or complex, and may require a multi-agency response, monitoring and prioritisation for extra support.

Note: the term “At Risk of Admission Register” was originally used, this term continues to be used in some areas. Similarly, the Dynamic Support Register is also known in some local areas as a Dynamic Support Database (DSD)

Forums may wish to read the core standards for dynamic support registers, which also includes minimum requirements on standards and datasets. There is also a section on carer contingency planning for unpaid carers which may be of interest to forum members.

Care (Education) and Treatment reviews C(E)TRs – A C(E)TR is a person-cantered review to ensure the care (education) and treatment and support needs of the individual person and their family are met, and that barriers to progress and/or discharge are challenged and overcome. All autistic children and young people and those with a learning disability are required to have a community C(E)TR if they have been admitted to or are considered to be at risk of admission to a mental health hospital.

There is an increased focus on advocacy for the child or young person, physical health, quality of life, as well as looking at participation in meaningful activity.

Forums can find out more about DSRs and C(E)TRs in the Dynamic Support Register and Care (Education) and Treatment Review Policy and Guidance document. Easy read and plain English versions are also available.

The NNPCF are working with NHSE to ensure that parent carer forums are engaged in the implementation of the new policies including a webinar for PCFs to explain the changes on 8th March. Details of how to sign up will be released shortly.

Mental health issues affecting a pupil’s attendance: guidance for schools

The government has recently published guidance for schools where mental health issues affect pupil’s attendance as well as giving some examples of effective practice.

Integrated Care Systems – Public Accounts Committee Report

The Public Accounts Committee have published its response to its inquiry into Integrated Care Systems.

SEND and Alternative provision Green Paper

The NNPCF is awaiting the release of the SEND improvement plan which is the Department of Education’s response to the SEND and AP green paper consultation paper, which we believe is due to come out before March.

The DofE will be coming to our conference on 28 February to lead an interactive co-production session on the next steps of the AP and SEND improvement plan. We would really like to encourage forums to come to our conference to be part of these vital discussions.

Details of the NNPCF conference can be found on our website.

Children’s Social Care Review

The government recently published its response to the Independent Review into Children’s Social Care. The response can be read in the Stable Homes, Built on Love: Implementation, Strategy and Consultation paper.

There is little detail or content in this paper about the SEND social care system – the Department for Education has indicated that the SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement plan which they intend to publish shortly will aim to align the two systems. However, some of the key themes that the NNPCF raised are explicitly picked up in the strategy, namely: 

  • The call for a more joined us system across education health and care 
  • The need for earlier intervention 

But some of the more specific things that we asked for in the independent review are not picked up: 

  • A call for a “support not safeguarding” for the majority of SEND families 
  • The quality of social care input into EHCPs and a recognition that too often this is non-existent. 
  • A huge variation in consistency and standards across the country

In March, the NPPCF will be engaging with forums to help formulate our response to the strategy; in particular our response to question of the consultation “What more can be done by government, local authorities and service providers to make sure that disabled children and young people can access the right type of help and support? “

Details of how to be involved with this will be included in our March consultation briefing. The NNPCF response as well as further details for forums are available to read on our website.

Census Data on Carers

The Office of National Statistics has published data on Unpaid Care in the UK. Their data includes anyone aged 5+ who indicated they provided unpaid care in the 2021 census. They found regional variability in number of hours of unpaid care given: the local authority with the highest proportion of unpaid carers was found to be St. Helens; whereas the North East was found to be the region with the largest proportion of unpaid carers.

More updates are due on the health, disability, and unpaid care series over the next year.

Children’s and Young People’s Mental Health Trailblazer programme

The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NHIR) has published the final report from the early evaluation of Children and Young People’s Mental Health Trailblazer programme. The trailblazer programme, led by the Department of Health and Social Care, Department of Education and NHS England, was launched in 2018. The programme saw the creation of mental health support teams and training education mental health practitioners working directly in schools.

The report can be downloaded here and NIHR have published an infographic with a summary of the key findings.

Reports on location

The Child of the North All Party Parliamentary Group has issued a report highlighting areas where children and families in the north may have a different lived experience of parenting a children or young person with a disability.

The Coastal Communities Alliance have published their report highlighting challenges for disabled people in employment in these regions as well as higher levels of disability and long-term sickness.

February Policy Briefing
NHS England has a new policy to help people with learning difficulties and autism get the right support for their mental health at home instead of in hospital which will be implemented from…
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Consultation NNPCF NNPCF work

February Consultation briefing

NNPCF Priorities for the coming year

At our AGM on 31 January, we asked forums to help co-produce our priorities and strategic work for the upcoming year. We really value the input of parent carer forums in shaping the future for the NNPCF.

If you missed the AGM you can fill in our poll to help us shape our work over the next year here.

Poll closes 14 February

Major Conditions Strategy and Mental Health

Steven Barclay (Secretary of State for Health and Social Care) has announced the development of a Major Conditions strategy which will combine mental health policy with a broader strategy including other major conditions. It appears that this will replace the proposed 10 year Mental Health Plan and Health Disparities Paper.

The NNPCF is considering its response to this announcement and would like to hear from forums on this issue.

Forum leads are invited to fill in our forms survey here.

The NNPCF is also looking for case studies from individual members on mental health in children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities which can be completed here.

Prevention in Health and Social Care

The Health and Social Care committee is launching a major new inquiry into prevention in health and social care. At this stage of the inquiry, the committee are looking to hear from organisations who are interested in preventative healthcare.

The NNPCF will be submitting a response highlighting the need for therapies and early intervention, as well the importance of early intervention for mental health.

The committee is looking to find out

  • why these issues are important in preventative healthcare
  • why this area would benefit from scrutiny
  • why the government needs to take action in this area

The NNPCF already has several case studies on mental health but we would love some more to help inform our response. Individual parent carers can fill in the case study here.

Additionally, local forums can contact the NNPCF by emailing Claire Fisher at consultation@nnpcf.org.uk.

Both local forums and individual members can submit their own response to this call for evidence at Prevention in health and social care

Closing date 8 Feb 2023

Persistence absence and support for disadvantaged pupils

The education committee has launched an inquiry into the persistent absence and support for disadvantaged pupils. Children with SEND are included in this definition of disadvantaged.

The NNPCF will be submitting a response representing the needs of children and young people with SEND including issues such as school transport, tribunal waiting times and schools not meeting needs.

The committee is looking to find out:

  • the factors causing persistent and severe absence among pupils with SEND and those in alternative provisions
  • how schools and families can be better supported to improve attendance, and how this affects pupils and families who are clinically vulnerable to covid-19
  • the impact of the department of education’s proposed reforms to improve attendance
  • the impact of breakfast clubs and free school meals on improving attendance for disadvantaged pupils
  • the role of Holiday Activities and Food programme and other after school and holiday clubs, such as sports, in improving attendance and engagement with school.

The NNPCF already has several case studies on attendance but we would love some more to help inform our response. Individual parent carers can fill in the case study here.

We also have case studies on children’s needs not being met (for those without an EHCP), where school transport is affecting attendance at school or another educational setting, and would like to hear from those who have taken local authorities to tribunal over placement issues and how that has affected attendance.

Local forums can contact the NNPCF by emailing Claire Fisher at consultation@nnpcf.org.uk. Both Local Forums or individual members can submit their own response to this call for evidence at Persistent absence and support for disadvantaged pupils.

Closing date 9 February 2023

Education Recovery in schools

In May 2021 the Public Accounts Committee reported concerns about the catch up offer and the scale of hidden harm from the school closures during the pandemic including for children with special educational needs and disabilities. They stated “Children with special educational needs and disabilities found remote learning especially difficult, and some lost access to specialist support and equipment, increasing risks to their health and welfare.”

The Public Accounts committee will be questioning senior officials at the Department of Education and are running a call for evidence on how the department is supporting education recovery in schools following the COVID-19 pandemic, including:

  • whether it’s managing the programme for education recovery in schools in an effective way;
  • if it’s achieving value for money from the National Tutoring Programme;
  • and if it’s is achieving value for money from the other funding it has provided to support education recovery in schools.

Individual members and local forums can directly respond to this call for evidence at Education Recovery in Schools.

Closing date 27 February 2023

Energy Bills Support

Following on from the work done by the National Audit Office on Energy Bill Support, the Public Accounts Committee will question senior officials at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Treasury on the energy price scheme. The Call for Evidence covers many areas, including:

  • the schemes’ design and operation in practice
  • the options the government is looking at for future schemes

Individual members and local forums can respond to this call for evidence at Energy Bills Support.

Closing date 6pm 19 February 2023

UK Covid-19 Inquiry

The UK Covid-19 Inquiry is inviting individuals to share their experiences of the pandemic with them here. Module 3 on healthcare is currently open, and the NNPCF will be submitting evidence when invited to do so.

T Levels

The Department of Education (DofE) is seeking views on the content of future qualifications to support progression to T levels and are inviting feedback. The deadline for submitting responses if Thursday 6 April 2023.

As part of the review of post-16 qualifications at level 2 and below, the DofE intends to consider for funding level 2 qualifications designed to support progression to T levels; approved qualifications would be available for first teaching from 2026. These qualifications could be taken by young people as part of a broader T Level Transition Programme (TLTP), or by adults outside of a TLTP. 

The DofE intends that the content of these qualifications will be based on the national technical outcomes (NTOs) developed for the T Level Transition Programme. The DofE are seeking views on how the NTOs should be used in developing these qualifications. Full details about the proposals and how to provide feedback can be found here. 

Further information on the T Level Transition Programme and the national technical outcomes for the first eleven T Level routes, you can access this here.  

We are looking at different ways of presenting information, below you can follow the link to our consultation sway.
February Consultation Briefing