UPDATE NO 427 30 October 2020

Newsletters If you would like to know more about these workstreams or the others in the Programme, click on the main section icons shown above. At SESLIP we are always on the look-out for good ideas that might be better implemented regionally rather than locally. If you have any suggestions, please contact Richard Tyndall, SESLI […]

Three children playing happily together

Newsletters

If you would like to know more about these workstreams or the others in the Programme, click on the main section icons shown above.

At SESLIP we are always on the look-out for good ideas that might be better implemented regionally rather than locally. If you have any suggestions, please contact Richard Tyndall, SESLI Programme Manager (details below). 

Our Regional Improvement Plan for 2020-2021 can be found here.

UPDATE NO 427 30 October 2020

Programme:

Silver Linings Project – Call for Evidence deadline 13 November

Update:

The Call for Evidence is now open. Either download the document and return to Richard Tyndall (contact details below) or call him to discuss your idea for inclusion in the Silver Linings Project.

The call is open to all sections of Children’s Services from mainstream schools to special schools to early years to early help to children’s social care to youth justice teams to adoption to fostering.

Here’s a link to a similar piece of work already undertaken by our colleagues in the London LIIA

Action Required:

The Silver Linings Project page is now live. The Covid-19 pandemic lockdown and subsequent adjustments to find Covid-secure ways of working have driven new thinking about ways to deliver Children’s Services, in schools, in early help and in children’s social care.

The aim of the Silver Linings project is to capture and publicise the best of these innovative responses, in an attempt to embed these new and better ways or working into the “new normal”.

Please download the document and return it before 13 November 2020.

Programme:

Vulnerable children and young people survey

Update:

The DfE has published Waves 1-10 of the vulnerable children and young people survey. This is a summary of the results of local authority surveys in England to help understand the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak on children’s social care.

Action Required:

The survey has been collected forthnightly since the start of the pandemic and includes:

  • Contacts with social workers
  • Workforce data
  • Placement cost information
  • Referral/demand data

The full report is here.

Programme:

Keeping children safe in out-of-school settings

Update:

The DfE published Keeping children safe in out-of-school settings on 21 October.

It is a voluntary code of safeguarding practice for out-of-school settings (OOSS).

It is intended to support providers of OOSS. It covers advice on what policies and procedures providers should have in place for health and safety, safeguarding and child protection, staff suitability, and governance.

The guidance for parents and carers is intended to help parents choose a safer setting for their child. There is a range of promotional material also available.

Action Required:

The guidance covers:

  • community activities
  • after-school clubs
  • supplementary schools
  • tuition
  • music lessons
  • sports training
  • other activities for children that take place without their parents’ or carers’ supervision, that are not a:

school, college, 16 to 19 college, provider caring for children under 8 years old registered with Ofsted or a childminder agency

Reminders from previous weeks

Programme:

Elective Home Education – new materials from DfE

Update:

Last week the DfE published All you need to know about home-schooling and elective home education (EHE) advice to parents.

This is designed to be shared with parents, schools, social workers and local authorities (LAs), where the option of EHE is raised. The document is intended to make clear implications of withdrawing their child from school and the challenge involved in providing EHE.

Action Required:

The piece links to the DfE Guidance, which is unchanged since it was published in April 2019.

Karl Dixon-Myers at DfE has produced a draft of a note for LAs and those who work with children to set out how the DfE expects those with duties to ensure children receive a suitable education to use their powers to engage with parents who are considering EHE. 

Chris Owen (contact details below) and the CME group are co-ordinating responses from across the SESLIP area, and will establish a constructive dialogue with DfE colleagues about the detail of this challenging topic.

Programme:

Adult Continuing Health Care and Children’s Continuing Care – Monday 9 November 2:00-4:00

Update:

This will be an opportunity to hear from Luke Clements (Cerebra Professor of Law at Leeds University) who is a leading academic and solicitor working in this area of public law. 

The intention is to focus the discussion on those people moving from children’s to adult services and on children where continuing care applies. Luke will look at the respective responsibilities of CCGs and social care and there will be an opportunity to ask questions. 

Action Required:

Keith Hinkley, Director of Social Care and Health at East Sussex County Council and co-chair of the SE ADASS branch will chair the meeting. 

If you want to book a place please can you contact janesimmons.seadass@gmail.com by close of play Thursday 5 November. 

Programme:

Updated DfE C-19 Guidance for Schools

Update:

On Thursday 22 October, the DfE posted significant updates to its guidance for full opening of schools, including about

  • allowing pupils to where additional layers of clothing in colder classrooms,
  • immediate remote learning for those self-isolating and
  • additional prevention measures when schools are in high (tier 2) or very high (tier 3) alert areas. 

Action Required:

On Tuesday 20 October, the DfE posted further details about the daily return the DfE is asking schools, colleges and other settings to submit.

The changes refer to who needs to complete the form, to include special post-16 institutions; also an updated list of questions on the form for further education settings.

See also updated (16 October) Guidance on Face Coverings in Education 

Programme:

DfE Consultation on Regulation of Independent Educational Institutions – closes 27 November

Update:

This consultation was withdrawn on 7 May 2020 due to the coronavirus outbreak and was relaunched on 13 October 2020.

If you have already responded to this consultation, your feedback will still be considered and you do not need to resubmit your response. The consultation will now close on 27 November 2020.

You can respond online hereor contact the DfE team at 0370 000 2288 or IndependentSchools.CONSULTATION@education.gov.uk

Action Required:

The DfE is consulting about three proposed changes to the way in which independent educational settings in England, including independent schools, are regulated.

  • expanding the categories of full-time institutions that will be regulated in the same way that independent schools are currently regulated, and defining the term ‘full-time’
  • changing the basis for how some appeals by institutions against enforcement action are determined by the court
  • revising the system for approving ‘material changes’ to the registered details of independent educational institutions

Programme:

Ed Tech Demonstrator Programme

Update:

Heather Hadfield of SEGfL (contact details below) writes,
 
The DfE Ed Tech Demonstrator Programme has a vast collection of resources to support digital / remote learning. These include detailed guidance for staff supporting SEND students plus Accessible Tech Thursdays; webinars delivered every Thursday on different topics (all recorded).

Programme:

Data to Insight – update

Update:

Alastair Lee (contact details below) writes:

Data to Insight has supported Social Finance, with funding from MHCLG, to develop a demand modelling tool in Microsoft Excel. The tool helps LAs use their existing Annex A data to model future demand for services in the wake of COVID. The tool is available from the ChAT Knowledge Hub group, and a blog outlining the development process and an overview of the tool itself is now live on MHCLG’s Medium page.

Please see the Local Digital website or contact Alastair Lee (details below) for further information.

Action Required:

Alistair Herbert, Data to Insight Manager, introduces the tool which tries to model demand for post COVID-19 surge in children’s services. He acknowledges Kent’s leading role, and the collaboration of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, Isle of Wight and Slough, as well as other partners outside the SESLIP area.

The Data to Insight project (a national project hosted by SESLIP) will monitor LAs’ experiences with using the tool, and, following feedback, revisit the project later this year to look at extending its usefulness into the future as a basic approach to demand modelling.

Programme:

UTCs and their impact on Technical and Vocational Education

Update:

LSE’s Centre for Vocation Education Research has published Closing the Gap Between Vocational and General Education? Evidence from University Technical Colleges in England which addresses the question have UTCs improved technical and vocational education? 

Action Required:

The key finding is:

For those pupils who enter the UTC at a non-standard transition age of 14, UTCs dramatically reduce their academic achievement on national exams at age 16. However, for students who enter at a more conventional transition age of 16, UTCs boost vocational achievement without harming academic achievement. 

The full paper is here

Programme:

Future dates for Network meetings

Update:

AD Safeguarding: Friday 11 December 2020 –  for more information from Mark Evans (contact details below)

QA Network: Wednesday 9 December. Following the recent meeting of the network, new confidential documents have been posted on the QA restricted pages – access to these pages and more information from Diane Williamson (contact details below)

Action Required:

SEND SE19: more information from Tracey Maytas (contact details below)

Data Benchmarking: Thursday 10 December 2020. More information from Alastair Lee (contact details below)

AD EducationFriday 27 November 2020 – 10.00am to 12.00noon – more information from Chris Owen (contact details below)

Adoption and Special Guardianship Leadership Board: more information from Rebecca Eligon (contact details below)

Tools & Templates

We have produced a Regional Improvement Plan which will underpin activities in 2020-2021

Guidance for full opening of schools updated by DfE 22 October 2020

Keeping children safe in out-of-school settings published by DfE on 21 October

Vulnerable Children and Young People Survey – Wave 10 published by DfE 14 October 2020

Consultation on Regulation of Independent Educational Institutions published by DfE 13 October 2020

Closing the Gap Between Vocational and General Education? Evidence from University Technical Colleges in England published by CVER 1 October 2020

Financial sustainability of colleges in England published by NAO 16 September 2020

The long shadow of deprivation published by DfE 15 September 2020

Unregulated – Children in care living in semi-independent accommodation published by the Children’s Commissioner 10 September 2020

Machine Learning in Children’s Services published by What Works for Children’s Social Care 10 September 2020 

Childhood Obesity report by NAO published 9 September 2020

Coronavirus briefing: guidance for social workers published by NSPCC 3 September 2020

Guide to the Early Career Framework for teachers published by DfE 1 September 2020

Support services for victims and survivors of child sexual abuse published by IICSA 31 August 2020

High needs benchmarking tool published by DfE 25 August

No way out – children stuck in B&Bs during lockdown published by the Children’s Commissioner 21 August 2020

A Perfect Storm: The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on domestic abuse survivors and the services supporting them published by Women’s Aid 18 August 2020

How Safe are our Children? 2020 published by NSPCC 17 August 2020

Promoting the Retention, Mental Health, and Wellbeing of Child and Family Social Workers: A Systematic Review of Workforce Interventions published by What Works Centre 7 August 2020

COVID-19: guidance on supporting children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing published by DfE 4 August 2020

Children’s services omnibus – Wave 5 published by DfE 3 August 2020

Social Worker Fast Track Programmes Review – published by the DfE 21 July 2020

Highlighting an innovative shared approach towards child suicide prevention published 17 July 2020 by NHS Wessex Senate

SEND Inspection Preparation: Self Evaluation Framework Peer Review Guidance

The MoC area of the Seslip website now includes the latest versions of key documents, including the:

Contact Details

Data and Information Manager: Luke Ede (East Sussex)

luke.ede@eastsussex.gov.uk

07925 148597

LGA Children’s Improvement Adviser: Helen Watson (South East Sector-Led Improvement Programme)

helen.watson5@icloud.com

07810 011892

Education Network: Chris Owen (South East Sector-Led Improvement Programme)

chris@bright-spark.net

07825 862330

SESLIP Education Data Group Lead: Daryl Perilli (Brighton and Hove)

Daryl.Perilli@brighton-hove.gov.uk

South East Grid for Learning – Consortium Manager: Krista Pickering (South East Sector-Led Improvement Programme)

krista.pickering@segfl.org.uk

07872 014083

SESLIP Consultant: Isabelle Gregory (South East Sector-Led Improvement Programme)

isabelle@firstcareconsultancy.co.uk

07931 586784

CSC Workforce, PSW and AD Safeguarding Network Lead: Mark Evans (South East Sector-Led Improvement Programme)

Mark@markevansconsulting.co.uk

07803 147072

Adoption; Fostering; Kinship and Early Help Regional Networks: Rebecca Eligon (South East Sector-Led Improvement Programme)

rebeccaeligon@gmail.com

07944 996219

SESLI Programme Manager: Richard Tyndall (South East Sector-Led Improvement Programme)

richard.tyndall@richardtyndall.co.uk

07880 787007

S.E. Region SEND Network Programme Co-ordinator: Sheelagh Sullivan (South East Sector-Led Improvement Programme)

sheelagh.sullivan@outlook.com