The DfE recently published the Academies Regulatory and Commissioning Review which aims to set out a ‘framework for growing the impact of the academies system, so parents and carers can be confident that their child will receive a high-quality education wherever they live.’
The NNPCF were not a part of the review advisory group although we did have extensive contact with the Department for Education including the Minister for Schools Systems Baroness Barren.
We have been very clear that the accountability of the schools system needs a major overhaul. We have consistently called for a closer alignment of the incentives, responsibilities, powers and accountability across the education sector across schools, trusts, local authorities, the DfE Regions Group and the inspectors (Ofsted). Forums tell us that schools are not incentivised to be inclusive and that local authorities and the DfE regions group cannot hold them to account if they are not.
The ability of the review to address these concerns is limited because since the Schools Bill was withdrawn, there is no legislation to make the changes we are looking for. As a result, it falls short of the tightening and clarification of accountability in schools that we believe the SEND system needs
However, the review, goes as far as it can to address some of our concerns without legislation:
We are pleased that SEND features very prominently in the document – it is made clear from the start that SEND should be a priority for all trusts and there is a strong read across the SENDAP Improvement Plan.
The first line of the definition of a high quality trust is “delivering high quality and inclusive education for all pupils”. More detailed descriptions of Trust quality will be published in late April. We are told that these will be clear on the importance of SEND and inclusive practice and will align with the SEND national standards from the SENDAP Improvement plan.
The document promises a review of the complaints system for parents making it clearer, simpler and less duplicative for them to seek redress. We will seek to work with the Department for Education on this topic.
The report also states that the commissioning system will be used to promote high quality trusts. However, there are no new powers to call to account existing trusts that are not inclusive.
The Department for Education has announced that eight new areas of the country will receive funding to deliver the short breaks programme, giving children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) a chance to take part in unforgettable activities and develop vitals skills, while giving their families a chance to rest and recoup.
The government funded programme provides councils with up to £1 million each for a year to work with families to develop innovative experiences that would otherwise be inaccessible to children because of their disability, as well as covering the costs of providing the activities.
The plans come following the recent publication of the SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan, which outlines the government’s plan to transform the experiences and outcomes of children with special needs and disabilities, ensuring every child, no matter where they live, has access to a high-quality, fulfilling education.
On Tuesday 10 January 2023, The NNPCF Steering Group (SG) met with the Minister for Children, Families and Wellbeing, Clare Coutinho, via Teams.
This was the first time the minister had met the SG and we wanted to inform her what we had been hearing from our forum membership.
It was an excellent opportunity to give an overview of the work that the SG has been involved in, what the challenges are to the SEND system, but also the good production work that has been happening.
We know that in order to make the change to the SEND system, it has to be done in coproduction.
We gave the minister a brief overview of the NNPCF, our membership and the number of forums that we have, their locations and how they are split into regions.
We then spoke to her about the top issues forums have been raising via our regional meetings.
The subjects included:
Access to community-based health services – including access to speech and language therapy (SALT), Autism and ADHD pathways and paediatricians.
Cost of living – how this affects parent carers differently. Not being able to work more hours due to caring responsibilities, the need to use electricity for live saving equipment, the need to keep the heating on constantly as some of our children cannot move independently or regulate their temperatures.
SEN Support and EHCPs – this included the lack of reasonable adjustments in school that can lead to the rise of low attendance, and the need for EHCPs. EHCPs taking longer than the statutory 20 weeks and having to wait months for annual reviews to be completed.
We then talked about the coproduction examples we have in our annual report
In Cornwall they were the first year of the key work project that is now in it’s 3rd year. They have just completed their evaluation. There have been no negative responses to the evaluation. Parent carers, young people and practitioners agree, that the keyworker project is not only needed, its life changing. We have cases of families who are risk of being admitted into tier 4 beds and families who are at risk of going into crisis- this project has saved them. We have children and young people who could have gone into tier 4 beds who are now at university.
In Telford & Wrekin – PODS Parent Carer Forum identified a gap in provision for families whose child was awaiting an assessment on neurodevelopment pathways. They worked together with Educational Psychologist (EP) team and ran support sessions (in person and online) for families to support them with ‘Challenges at Home’. These were based on feedback from families via Annual Surveys. The sessions covered support around anxiety, routines, behaviour and wider concerns within the family. Further evidence was identified, and they have also ran 1:1 sessions. Funding was agreed for two years for the project and this was made available from health
In West Sussex they have established a relationship with Chichester University where they train teachers and SENCo’s. They regularly join sessions and talk through what good practice looks like and what parents carers have encountered. Bringing real life stories to the classroom has had a huge impact on the trainees. They have now been asked to do the same with trainee social workers too.
The session concluded with a discussion on the next steps for the green paper. There is concern, not just in the system, but with parent carers too about what happens next. There is much anticipation for the green paper response and there is concern.
The minister fully engaged with the conversations and reassured the SG that SEND was a priority for her, as was the green paper response.
We are in communication with her office, and hope that she will join us in person at our conference, in Bristol on 28 February.
The agenda for our face to face conference in Bristol on 28 February has now been confirmed.
The conference opens at 10.30am, with the event starting at 11am
There will be light refreshments available on arrival.
11.00-11.20 Welcome and introductions
11.20-12.00 Keynote from Ofsted – SEND and inspections – the new local area inspection framework and Ofsted’s annual report
12.00-12.40 Keynote from CoChairs – What next for SEND? Shaping a strategy during a crisis.
12.40-14.00 Lunch- a choice of hot dishes will be available
14.00-14.30 Address from Claire Coutinho, Minister for Children, Families, and Wellbeing
14.30-15.45 Session led by the DfE:
Delivery of the SEND and AP improvement plan
An interactive co-production session led by the Department for Education, looking for thoughts on the next steps of the SEND and AP implementation improvement plan being developed in response to the SEND AP Green Paper
15.45-16.00 Break-refreshments will be available
16.00-16.45 The Q&A Panel will include:
Alison Ismail, Director for SEND and Alternative Provision at the Department for Education
Tina Pagett, HMI, further education and skills from Ofsted
Phil Brayshaw, Acting Head of Children and Young People, National Learning Disability and Autism Programme NHS England
Amanda Allard, Deputy Director for Health, Council for Disabled Children.
When the conference finishes, light refreshments will be available in the market place area.
Attendees can then return to their accommodation to freshen up and have some food in preparation for the evening social event, which starts at 7.30pm.
During the evening, there will be a bar, where you can buy soft and alcoholic drinks as well as a disco and some complementary canapés
If you are unable to attend the conference, a live stream will be available to watch. You can sign up for the live streaming here.https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83666170897
Shortly after the conference , the live sessions will be available to watch on YouTube- details will be shared after the event.
Find out more and book your place by completing the booking form available on Contact’s website
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.
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
The NNPCF steering group and management team recently met with Katherine Cowell, the SEND lead from the DfE regions group.
The regions group was set up recently and supersedes the office of the regional school’s commissioner. The regional directors work locally across children’s social care, SEND, schools and area-based programmes. The new department brings together the department’s existing regional functions across social care, SEND, regional schools commissioners and the Educations and Skills Funding Agency. The objective being that the DfE is able to take a more joined up regional approach across these areas.
The teams have responsibilities for oversight of academies, trusts and significant changes to the set up of schools (for example adding a resource base). For SEND they engage in inspection responses, what works in SEN programme as well as DBVS and sector led improvement.
The NNPCF representatives raised many of the issues that parent carer forums report with the treatment of children with SEND by some academies and academy trusts including exclusions, part time timetables, behaviour and attendance policies that do not make reasonable adjustments including citing specific examples.
Katherine stated that, at present, the regional directors have limited powers to intervene in schools and in very specific circumstances (for example if the DfE receives complaints that have already been raised through the individual school / trust’s complaints policy or if there are concerns about governance).
We agreed that the regional directors would build contacts with each of the NNPCF regions so that forums can share their experiences and start to build a closer working relationship.
Look out for more information for engagement opportunities in your regions.
Our NNPCF Cochairs meet with new Children and Families Minister
10 November 2022
On Monday, NNPCF cochairs Tina and Mrunal met with the newly appointed Undersecretary of State for Children, Families and Wellbeing, Clare Coutinho.
This meeting took place before Ministerial portfolios were officially announced – an indication of the importance of the NNPCF in the work being done by the Department for Education.
The Minister stated that she was very passionate about SEND and that the SEND agenda, along with the Independent Review into Children’s Social Care would be her biggest priority. At this early stage, she was unable to provide a detailed update on the immediate next steps for the SEND and AP Green Paper and the Schools Bill, she promised to keep the NNPCF informed and understood the interest in these items.
This was a short, introductory meeting and the Minister promised to continue to work with the NNPCF and parent carer forums. Tina and Mrunal invited the Minister to attend the national conference in Bristol on 28 February and to meet with the NNPCF board. We will keep you informed of further contact.
You can read more about Clare Coutinho, the new Parliamentary Under Secretary of State Minister for Children, Families and Wellbeing on the government website.
Our work with National Health Service England (NHSE) to develop health services.
Last year, the NNPCF was appointed the strategic partner for the Learning Disability and Autism workstream of the Children and Young People’s Long Term Plan.
In this capacity, we have been working alongside our NNPCF regions and local forums to develop services for children and young people (CYP) with learning disabilities and autism (LDA). We wanted to take this opportunity to share our work on two important areas – Autism in Schools and Keyworking.
Autism in Schools (AiS)
The foundations of the AiS programme were based on supporting families and schools in innovative ways.
The aim was to
raise awareness of the needs of young people with autism,
listen to the voice of young people and their families, and
model and implement practical ways schools could improve the experience for young people with autism.
This involved bringing together health and education expertise to take steps to support children who were finding school a challenge due to their disability and ultimately to reduce inappropriate educational exclusions and hospital admissions.
After a successful pilot in the North East and Cumbria, this project is in the process of being rolled out across England.
To date there are 15 projects, covering 210 schools, these projects are about to embark upon the second year of delivery and take on more schools (minimum of 97 at the point of writing). All projects are implementing the 3 key elements of building relationships, increasing knowledge and hearing the young person’s voice.
The offer of the project differs from region to region, however there are 9 projects who are working with AET (Autism Education Trust)*, or using the AET resources, and 7 of the projects have made links with the mental health support teams in their locality. You can find out more about projects local to you from your regional NNPCF representative.
Improving outcomes for children in school with Autism
The pilot in the North East & North Cumbria was delivered in two phases, evaluations for these are below:
Parents were telling us that there were too many missed opportunities with this in mind the ethos behind the project was to bring together parent carers & schools, by implementing ‘mini forums’ within schools, providing support, signposting, facilitating workshops to meet parent carer needs within the setting and ultimately creating a network of peer support for parents with children within the school setting.
Alongside this, a series of workshops were delivered to school staff and the parent carer forum representatives who were supporting the mini forums element, at the same time looking at potential reasonable adjustments that could be made which would benefit CYP in educational settings. There was also an ‘all about me’ element to the training, so that school leads could train the trainer and deliver the workshop to students.
Keyworking
The NHS Long Term Plan includes a commitment that ‘by 2023/24 children and young people with a learning disability and/or who are autistic with the most complex needs will have a designated keyworker, implementing the recommendation made by Dame Christine Lenehan in ‘These are our children’.
Initially, keyworker support will be provided to children and young people with a learning disability and/or who are autistic who are inpatients in, or at risk of being admitted to, a mental health hospital. Keyworker support will then be extended to the most vulnerable children with a learning disability and/or who are autistic, including people who face multiple vulnerabilities such as looked after and adopted children, and children and young people in transition between services.
The framework (which was co-produced with parent carers and children and young people) that underpins the service is that children, young people and their families should:
feel safe and happy
feel listened to and informed
feel involved in their plans, care and support
experience a reduction in stress and uncertainty and an increase in stability
In their role as strategic partner to NHSE, the NNPCF sit on the national steering group, the evaluation group and the workforce development group to ensure that representation is made on behalf of the parent carers who feed into us via regions and localities. Though the workforce development group we have ensured parents voice has helped shape the design of the mandatory training. This has been informed both by those with lived experience and feedback from our various network meetings, including the PCF Community of Practice.
Alongside this, parent carer forums are involved in their regional projects. The first two waves of the project (initial pilot and early adopters) have already been rolled out. We are currently (2022/23) in wave three of the projects, which brings keyworking to all remaining localities in England. Because of this phased approach, projects are in different stages of delivery.
NNPCF representatives and regional forum members have regularly attended the national Community of Practices (CoP) for each of the stages. We have taken the opportunity to deliver presentations on partnership/coproduction with forums at the various CoPs. We have ensured the parent perspectives are shared in the CoP and some regions have co presented on their project with their regional partners.
NNPCF have also been hosting a CoPs for parent carer forums to attend, share good practice and learn from others who at differing stages of project delivery. These CoPs offer an opportunity for forums to share a more focussed discussion, around keyworking from a parental perspective, than can be achieved in the CoPs with wider partners.
Joining links are shared on NNPCF social media and can be sent by your NNPCF steering group member.
*AET are a not-for-profit organisation supported by the Department for Education
Communication Access UK is an initiative developed by the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists in partnership with charities and organisations that share a vision to improve the lives of people with communication difficulties. The NNPCF have been part of the steering group to create and develop the Communications Access Symbol from the beginning. It is a new disability access symbol underpinned by a completely free training package and standards. The NNPCF is currently working towards accreditation of the symbol, and you can join us by registering your forum, and sharing with your Local Authorities and health services. You can complete the training either as an individual or as an organisation. Find out more about the symbol here: https://communication-access.co.uk/about/
The training consists of 4 short e-modules that can be completed in your own time and is free to do. Once completed you will receive a certificate that will be valid for one year.
You will all have noticed the political instability over the last few months and weeks. Many parent carer forums and others in the SEND system have been asking what this means for SEND and how they should be responding.
We outlined five priorities for the year. These included the SEND Green Paper, the Schools Bill and the NHS Long Term Plan. It is clear that the current political turmoil may impact these.
We do not yet know what will happen to some of our priorities
An uncertain legislative programme
At time of writing, the legislative programme of “in flight” bills (including the Schools’ Bill) has been paused for review by the new government. We have specifically asked the Department for Education what this means for the Schools’ Bill and at time of writing they are unable to share which pieces of legislation will proceed in the current session of parliament.
Similarly, it is impossible to say whether the legislation required to implement the SEND Green Paper will be part of next session of parliament – no-one (arguably including the current Prime Minister) is in a position to say with any certainty what will be a part of the first Kings Speech (see note below). However, we know that the DfE continues to work on the response to the SEND Green Paper as we outlined in our article earlier this month. Department for Education update – National Network of Parent Carer Forums C.I.C (nnpcf.org.uk)
An uncertain financial programme
Similarly, you will have noted the financial turmoil recently following the mini budget at the end of September. The government and new Chancellor are still working on what the changes announced will mean for public spending. We cannot rule out that there may be cuts in services and programmes associated with SEND. This includes parts of the NHS Long Term Plan.
A shift in our strategic focus
This has led to giving greater focus to some of our work at a national level. Namely:
We will continue to engage with national government and the NHS to shape and deliver the work that is ongoing including the SEND Green Paper, the Schools Bill and the NHS Long Term Plan.
Because of the legislative and financial uncertainty, we are placing greater emphasis on those parts of the plans that do not require legislation or are financially committed for the coming periods. The sequencing of changes that will make a difference to families become a relatively higher priority. For example, the new Ofsted / CQC local area inspection framework; the regional educational directorates being set up by the Department for Education and the new NHSE Dynamic Support Register and Care Education and Treatment Review policy.
Similarly, we are increasingly focusing our work on those initiatives that are looking at improving the SEND system here and now. These include the Delivering Better Value and Safety Valve programmes – please look out for an update on these over the next few days
What can parent carer forums do?
It is clear that we cannot depend on major national initiatives to “rescue” the SEND system. Even if there were clarity over future plans, they would take several years to have an impact whilst many SEND families are in crisis now.
This makes the local work of parent carer forums even more important. Forums need to continue to represent the lived experiences of local families and work with their local areas to coproduce better services and more intelligent commissioning. This includes being involved in local implementation of ongoing programmes from NHSE (e.g. keyworking and autism in schools) and the DfE (e.g. Delivering Better Value in SEND and Safety Valve). Please look out for our updates on these programmes over the next week or so.
Regardless of the political turmoil, we continue to have very strong engagement with officials in government and from the NHS and will continue to work with them to progress the SEND agenda and represent the lived experiences of families of children with SEND.
Note: Each “parliament” is broken into “sessions”. Typically, there are 3 or 4 sessions in each parliament. The legislative programme for each session of parliament is announced in the monarch’s speech – until recently this was the Queen’s speech, but it will now be the King’s Speech. A parliament is marked by a general election and the current parliament started with the election of Boris Johnson as Prime Minister in December 2019. A change of “government” (e.g. a change of PM from Boris Johnson to Liz Truss) does not mean a new “parliament”.
New Minister with responsibilities for SEND announced
The new government continues to formalise ministerial responsibilities and last week, Kelly Tolhurst was announced as the new Minister for Schools and Childhood with responsibility for SEND. Minister Tolhurst is the second most senior minister in the Department for Education behind the Secretary of State Kit Malthouse.
NNPCF co-chairs Tina Emery and Mrunal Sisodia have written to Minister Tolhurst to introduce the NNPCF and ask for a meeting.
What next for the SEND Green Paper
The consultation period for the SEND and AP Green Paper closed before the summer holidays (22 July 2022). The DfE received several thousand responses, many of which came from parent carer forums and individual parent carers. DfE also held 175 engagement events many of which were hosted by or involved parent carer forums.
There were also responses from local authorities, schools (mainstream, special and AP) and health providers amongst others.
The NNPCF have attended several meetings with DfE officials over the last few weeks to discuss the next steps on the green paper and we continue to have input into the next stages of the proposals. Key points from these conversations include:
The DfE will publish a response to the green paper consultation in a National SEND and AP Improvement Plan by the end of the calendar year. This will set out government’s response to the consultation, and the next steps for delivering these reforms.
We have engaged in conversations about the formulation of national standards.
Whilst the contents of these discussions remain confidential, we can share that we have continued to make the following points.
National standards must drive and enable early intervention, particularly for those children and young people that do not have an EHCP Standards should be based on the holistic needs of the child and young person, not on diagnoses or conditions
Standards should be based on the holistic needs of the child and young person, not on diagnoses or conditions
There needs to be a strong link between standards used by practitioners when supporting individual families and standards that are used when planning, designing, and commissioning services.
Coproduction must be the core principle throughout all standards
The SEND and AP Green Paper and its progress remain a high priority for the NNPCF and we will continue to keep you updated on progress.
However, we are also very clear that our children and young people cannot wait for new legislation and reforms to improve services- there also need to be programmes of work targeted at improving services now. We are also working with the Department for Education and NHSE to focus on these areas.
We will update you on these over the coming weeks.
