This month’s Devon’s special educational needs and disability (SEND) Improvement Partnership news update has been published. Devon SEND Improvement Partnership news is for children, young people, parents, carers and professionals.
Read some highlights below, or read the full newsletter online.
If you’d like to receive the newsletter by email, you can subscribe to Devon SEND Improvement Partnership news.
Support for children and young people with SEND to undergo a ‘system-wide transformation’
We have listened to families and expanded our SEND improvement plans to create system-wide change. This follows a recommendation by the Children’s Scrutiny Committee SEND Task Group and reflects what families have told us about the current system of SEND support.
The commitment, made at the Devon SEND Improvement Partnership Board on 14 September, means that Devon will look at not just areas of weakness identified by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission but at the whole experience.
Educational Psychology early intervention work returning to Devon schools with greatest inclusion need
Devon County Council’s Educational Psychology (EP) service will gradually return to early intervention work with schools and settings from January 2024. This part of our focus on getting the right help in place early on so that children and young people are supported to attend their local schools as much as possible.
We need to balance this early intervention work with reducing the time children and young people are waiting for EP advice as part of their education, health and care needs assessments (EHCNAs). So we are initially offering the in-school support to the 100 schools we have identified as having the highest inclusion need.
Findings of the parent carer and young people’s surveys
Thank you to everyone who contributed to the SEND parent carer and young people’s survey before the summer break and to Parent Carer Forum Devon (PCFD) for conducting this on behalf of the local area. We recognise that this is not a survey that PCFD or young people would have chosen to do themselves and that it doesn’t reflect the whole lives of families. The questions asked through this survey will be a baseline to enable the local area to show progress against the areas identified by Ofsted and CQC in 2022.
The Parent Carer Forum Devon have now published a report on the findings of the surveys run in May 2023.
- You can read the full report on the PCFD website.
- You can also read the DCC and NHS Devon response on the SEND Local Offer website.
Take part in the DiAS parent carers SEND training survey
Many parents and carers would like to learn more about how to support their child with SEND at nursery, school or college. DiAS already runs some free information sessions but would like to know if parents and carers want something different. What you tell them will shape the future information and training they develop and run.
DiAS have made a short survey so you can share your views and ideas. There are eight questions and most of them are multiple choice. It should take just a few minutes to complete it. The closing date is Friday 6 October 2023.
Take part in the DIAS survey online.
If you are a professional working with parents and carers, please let them know about the survey.
Also in this month’s newsletter
- Autism and Us autumn programme
- Lampard Community School’s new extension increases pupil capacity by 60 places
- New Promise School site in Okehampton opens
- Let’s Talk Teens and Pre-Teens
- Two Cerebral Palsy studies in Devon seeking young people to take part
- Supporting children and young people who are deaf or have hearing loss
- Devon Children and Families Partnership becomes Devon Safeguarding Children Partnership
You can read the full newsletter online.
If you’d like to receive the newsletter by email, you can subscribe to Devon SEND Improvement Partnership news.