UPDATE NO 396 27 March 2020

Coronavirus and Covid-19 Response

In response to requests for information about how others are responding to the pandemic, we have created a new C-19 page which has unrestricted access and another which is password-protected.

Access to both pages is in the drop-down menu from “Latest News”.

We have provided links to DfE publications, and on the restricted page, to shared information from colleagues in the South East and from other regional SLI teams. The material from the North West is particularly detailed (thank you Paul Bunker for sharing).

Please can you help us populate the C-19 pages by

1. Sharing any unrestricted guidance, advice or publicity via Isabelle Gregory (contact details below)

2. Sharing any more sensitive material that should be accessible only with a password via Isabelle Gregory (contact details below)

3. Letting us know the name and details your lead contact(s) for coronavirus and covid-19 responses to whom (along with all DCSs) we will give access to the restricted page. Please pass details to Isabelle Gregory (contact details below) 

All SESLIP meetings cancelled or postponed

The SESLIP team will be delivering as much usual business as possible whilst minimising social contact. In practice this means no face-to-face meetings and plenty of phone calls, conferences, video meetings and the like.

We understand that each authority will have operational priorities at the moment, and that usual SESLIP business will take a back seat. In the meantime we have created information pages for your C-19 response. 

1. We are aware that children’s service leaders are experiencing extremely challenging times, and may value support to maintain resilience so they have the personal resources to continue to respond and adapt to the changing circumstances during this crisis. We have a number of trained coaches with experience of senior management in children’s services who are happy to offer short focused coaching sessions online to assist with debriefing, problem solving, perspective taking and reflection on the current situation and help identify next steps, sessions can range from 30 to 90 minutes and can be organised within a short timescale. These would be free to users and the consultant time met from the SESLIP funds. Please contact Isabelle Gregory (isabelle@firstcareconsultancy.co.uk 07931 586784) in the first instance with your preferred time slot/dates if you would like to take up this offer

2. Similarly, there may be parts of your service that are creaking under the strain of staff redeployments/illness/self-isolation absence etc. We have experienced and qualified consultants who are unexpectedly available to help problem solve – or even do  –  some critical tasks. We are not quite sure what sort of requests we might receive, but we are here to help and no-one will be turned away. Please contact Richard Tyndall (Richard.tyndall@richardtyndall.co.uk 07880-787007) with your requests.

Urgent appeal for Social Workers to re-join the profession

Social Work England, the specialist regulator for social workers in England, has issued an urgent appeal for people to re-join the profession – Their press release states

“Social workers protect millions of people every day and are more important than ever as society faces unprecedented upheaval during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the coming days we will contact 8,000 former social workers and set up a temporary register to make sure people across England continue to receive the best possible support when they need it most.”

The move comes as a UK wide recruitment drive for former doctors, nurses and allied health professionals was announced by the government last week. Emergency legislation will give Social Work England the powers to register on a temporary basis ‘fit, proper and suitably experienced’ former social workers who have left the profession in the last two years.

The full report is available here

EEF publishes new evaluation report on SEND

Pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) have the greatest need for excellent teaching and are entitled to provision that supports achievement at, and enjoyment of, school. The attainment gap between pupils with SEND and their peers is twice as big as the gap between pupils eligible for free school meals and their peers. However, pupils with SEND are also more than twice as likely to be eligible for free school meals.

This is why EEF have developed this guidance report. It offers five evidence-based recommendations to support pupils with SEND, providing a starting point for schools to review their current approach and practical ideas they can implement.

The five recommendations:

1. Create a positive and supportive environment for all pupils without exception

2. Build an ongoing, holistic understanding of your pupils and their needs

3. Ensure all pupils have access to high quality teaching

4. Complement high quality teaching with carefully selected small-group and one-to-one interventions

5. Work effectively with teaching assistants

Also available: the full report; poster of summary recommendations; effective parental engagement; four common SEND misconceptions; high quality teaching for pupils with SEND; plotting overlapping needs for pupils with SEND