UPDATE NO 376 01 November 2019

Review of Memorandum of Cooperation

We have identified the key elements for the planned review of the Memorandum of Co-operation which is being led by Sarah Hammond (Director of Specialist Children’s Services, Kent) with support from SESLIP Consultant Mark Evans (contact details below). They are:  

1. A survey of current agency rates (updating the benchmarking we did when we launched the MoC).
2. To investigate the appetite for regional performance measures and management is relation to agency staffing
3. Developing a new proposal for governance of the MoC (with reference to the need for temporary exemptions or exits) 
4. Sector research on how MoCs have developed in other regions
5. Considering the need for authorities to recommit to the MoC

We plan to conduct most of the work remotely via email/conference calls etc with the possibility of one face to face meeting towards the end of the project. The work will be completed by the March 2020 DCS meeting.

Please can you nominate a representative from your authority to participate in the review.  The person needs to be a senior officer with responsibility for children’s workforce. This could be a senior manager, PSW or HR Partner.  

To complete the review we will need input from both the service and HR functions within all authorities. The invitation to participate in the review is extended to authorities who are not currently MoC signatories as we would like to use this as an opportunity to re-engage them.  Please forward details of your nominated representative to Mark Evans (contact details below).

Are you “due” an Ofsted visit

I often hear colleagues talking about being “due” an Ofsted visit. I have researched two lists: longest interval since any Ofsted visit (including SEND, JTAI, SIF, ILACS, Monitoring and Focussed visits); and longest interval since SIF. These figures are drawn from published reports, so do not take account of any visits underway, nor visits completed but not yet published. 75 ILACS inspections have been reported, and the gaps between SIF and ILACS were as follows

The range of intervals between SIF and ILACS is 1.7 – 5.6 years (average 3.7 years). The authorities who waited under three years between SIF and ILACS were either Inadequate (and subject to monitoring visits), or had recently received a SEND visit. 14 of these 15 inspections resulted in an improved judgement.

Website upgrade

We have been working on improved assurance that the secure or restricted areas of the website where the most sensitive documents are stored, is indeed secure. If you have any problems following these changes, please contact Isabelle Gregory (details below)

From Monday 4 November, colleagues attempting to access the restricted areas will be asked to re-validate the email they are using for this purpose. Please bear with us while we make sure that only duly authorised users can use the secure areas. 

SEND Single Route of Redress National Trial – Extension to 31 August 2020

The SEND Delivery Support Team have written:

Dear Regional Coordinators (please cascade to your regional networks),

In April 2018, the Department for Education began a National Trial to extend the powers of the SEND Tribunal to hear appeals, and make non-binding decisions about, health and social care aspects of Education, Health and Care plans. The Trial was due to end on 31 March 2020.

The Department is extending the Trial until 31 August 2020 and on 4 November the DfE wrote to Directors of Children’s Services to inform them and provide further details. 

If you have any questions, please contact SENDdeliverysupport@mottmac.com, consult www.sendpathfinder.co.uk, or call the SEND delivery support helpline on 0207 651 0308. 

A copy of the letter written to DCSs is available here.

For further information about this notification and what it means, please contact Tracey Maytas (deatils below).

APPG on Knife Crime Report “BACK TO SCHOOL? Breaking the link between school exclusions and knife crime”

The All Party Parliamentary Group on Knife Crime has published a report “Back to School? Breaking the link between school exclusions and knife crime“

The report notes the strong links between school exclusions and young people’s vulnerability to involvement in gangs, criminal exploitation and knife crime. They have also suggested that schools should continue to be responsible for excluded pupils exam results to disincentivise exclusion.

House of Commons Education Select Committee

The House of Commons Education Select Committee published its report on SEND this week. The full report can be found here

The report includes the following quote: “The Department for Education set local authorities up to fail by making serious errors both in how it administered money intended for change, and also, until recently, failing to provide extra money when it was needed. (Paragraph 20)”

7 recent DfE publications

1. The provisional KS 4 performance data have been published by the DfE. More details are available here

2. The provisional allocations for National Funding Formula and for LA high needs funding for 2020-21 have been published here

3. The DfE has published its response to the House of Commons Education Select Committee report on schools and college funding available here

4. The provisional A-level and KS 5 performance data has been published by the DfE and more details are available here

5. National summary data on pupil absence for the period September 2018 to April 2019 have been published. Headlines show a continuing reduction in levels of persistent absenteeism across all groups of pupils are available here.

6. EYFS profile data for 2018-19 has been published here

7. 2018 KS4 and KS5 destinations data for students is now available here

Free schools in England: 2019 report

The Education Policy Institute has published its latest assessment of the free schools programme in England.

The new report draws on the most recent data from the Department for Education, providing the most detailed, up to date findings on free schools.

First opened in 2011, free schools are state-funded schools independent of local authorities, set up by parents, charities and other groups. Today, there are over 500 in England.

In September 2019 the government announced a new wave of free schools, with a further 220 set to be opened over the coming years. Ahead of this expansion, this new report from EPI examines the strengths and weaknesses of the programme to date – including whether it is successfully targeting areas in the country that are most in need of school places. 

You can download the full report here. 

AD Education Network – next meeting Friday 13 December

The date for the next Education Network meeting has had to be changed: it will now be on 13^th Dec from 10.30am to 1.30pm at Broadway House as usual.

The meeting will include a focus on attainment in 2019 (both the positives and the challenges), with an emphasis on vulnerable groups. Chris Owen (contact details below) will be contacting members to discuss this further and ask for possible MAT leader representatives who could join the meeting.

Please go to the Education Network activity page for more infomation about this group

Education Network Sub-groups:

The Education Data sub-group meets on Thursday 14th November, 10am to 4pm in the Longley Room, Crawley Library (more from Daryl Perilli contact details below)

The new Children Missing Education sub-group has its first meeting on 11^th November, 1pm to 3.30pm at Shaw House, Newbury. RG14 2DR (contact person: Kelly Rooker)

Please either nominate your LA rep for these groups or make sure you liaise with them about the agenda beforehand. 

AD Safeguarding Network – next meeting 6 December 2019

The next meeting of the AD Safeguarding Network will be on Friday 6 December and will be a joint meeting with colleagues from the East of England. The following meeting is planned for 6 March 2020.

The meetings are 9.30 for a 10.00 start at The Abbey Centre, 34 Great Smith Street, Westminster SW1P 3BU. If you have any items you would like to add to the agenda, please contact Mark Evans (details below).

DfE State of the Nation 2019 Wellbeing in children and young people in England

This reports new statistics on wellbeing in children and young people in England, and examines variation in wellbeing for different subgroups of children and young people. Existing evidence of inequalities in how wellbeing is distributed across different groups of children and young people shows the importance of moving beyond the average in understanding wellbeing.

The full report is available here

Some key findings of the report are:

• The majority of children and young people report being relatively happy with their lives
• Wellbeing declines as children and young people get older.
• There were few consistent differences in wellbeing by gender in children, but young females were more likely to report recently feeling anxious than males.
• There were no discernible differences in children’s wellbeing based on their ethnicity.
• There is some evidence that FSM pupils’ wellbeing is lower than their non- FSM peers, but both FSM and SEN status are not consistent indicators of poor wellbeing.

SCIE Review of Social Worker Digital Capabilities

This is a review from the Social Care Institute for Excellence of the way social workers use technology and includes insights around views about performance management. 

The literature suggests that social workers’ digital capabilities vary; respondents in this project rated their digital skills as ‘Good” or ‘Very good’. Social workers engage with technologies in their private lives and want the same in their professional roles. All stakeholders reported fragmentation and inoperability. They believe that current technology can assist with better integration of services. There is the need for co-production principles in the development and installation of digital technology. Social workers and experts by experience (EbE) should be involved. 

Social workers believe that new systems in workplaces should prioritise relationship-based practice and person-centred care over performance management. They do not want their role to include data collection for performance management and other organisational objectives. Organisations need to collect performance management and other data, however this should not all be included in social workers’ tasks as this can divert focus from their role. Social workers appear concerned with different ethical issues from those addressed in the literature. They want EbE to have choice over how they interact with services and for their right to self-determination to be enhanced by technology. Social workers also want data security and the threats that they receive on social media to be addressed. Key informants suggest that social work is not utilising the full potential of current technologies because of restrictive local data governance protocols.

The full review is available here

Adoption and Special Guardianship – Regional Leadership Board

The next meeting of the South East Region Adoption and Special Guardianship Leadership Board will take place on Friday 8 November 2019 at the Arora Hotel, Crawley. Hilary Brooks (DCS Southampton) will chair. For further details, contact Rebecca Eligon (details below).

Access to the meeting papers is restricted to members of the SE Region ASGLB. The confidential page is here.