UPDATE NO 428 06 November 2020

Silver Linings Project – Call for Evidence deadline 13 November

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

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.

LGA Productivity Offer

The LGA’s productivity offer: Supporting your council to innovate, save money and generate income. Please contact Alison Michalska (details below) for a preliminary discussion.

The LGA has a range of programmes featured in this flyer aimed helping councils improve efficiency and generate inclome. For more information go to the LGA website.

New national guidance for local authorities on providing youth services

On 29 October, new guidance was published by NYA, which is the national body for youth work in England. NYA sets standards for youth services’ quality and sufficiency. 

NYA says, “Our new guidance supports local authorities in their statutory duty to secure local services. This includes the meaningful engagement of young people to ensure access to quality youth services at a neighbourhood level, whether they are directly delivered, commissioned by or run independently from the local authority.“

The full report is here

Muslim children in care: a podcast

CoramBAAF has released a podcast in which Dr Sariya Cheruvallil-Contractor Assistant Professor at the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations at Coventry University discusses her recently published research paper on Muslim children in care.

Listen to the podcast (46mins): In conversation with Dr Sariya Cheruvallil-Contractor 

Read the report: Among the last ones to leave? Understanding the journeys of Muslim children in the care system in England (PDF)​​​​​​

Best start in speech, language and communication

On October 30, DfE published Guidance to improve speech, language and communication (SLC) in the early years. The main guidance document supports local areas to develop a whole-systems approach to reducing inequalities in SLC. It is aimed at:

• directors of public health and directors of children’s services
• clinical commissioning groups (CCGs)
• providers of speech and language therapy services
• providers of health visiting and school nursing services
• early years and school settings

The main document is accompanied by supporting evidence and case studies of good practice from local areas.

Public Health England’s Speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) assessment report provides information for health and local authority commissioners to commission effective services for children with SLCN. The report brings together a range of relevant data and evidence on demographics, prevalence and some of the risk factors for each upper-tier local authority and CCG.

National Tutoring Programme launches to support disadvantaged pupils

The National Tutoring Programme (NTP) launched on 2 November as part of the government’s coronavirus catch-up fund. It has been developed to support disadvantaged pupils whose education has been affected by the school closures caused by the pandemic. Evidence from the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) has shown that an already substantial attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers is likely to have increased significantly due to school closures.

Previous evidence from EEF showed the positive impact of tuition on pupil progress, and the NTP has devised a programme consisting of two pillars: Academic Mentors and Tuition Partners, both with the aim of supporting the progress of pupils most in need.

More information at Coronavirus (COVID-19) catch-up premium on what school leaders need to know about the catch-up premium and the National Tutoring Programme, including funding amounts and how funding should be spent.

Vulnerable children and young people survey

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.

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.

Keeping children safe in out-of-school settings

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.

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

Future dates for Network meetings

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)

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 Education: Friday 27 November 2020 – 10.00am to 12.00noon – more information from Chris Owen (contact details below)

Adoption and Special Guardianship Leadership Board: Tuesday 19 January 2021. More information from Rebecca Eligon (contact details below)