UPDATE NO 456 04 June 2021

Alternative Provision Innovation Fund – DfE Evaluation Report

On 21 May 2021, DfE published an independent evaluation of the alternative provision innovation fund launched in March 2018 to improve outcomes for children in alternative provision.This research was commissioned Ecorys and Dr Lousie Gazeley of the University of Sussex to conduct an independent evaluation of the 9 innovation projects that were supported by the alternative provision innovation fund (APIF).

One of the 9 projects was The Turnaround Project (Portsmouth Education Partnership) which aims to improve the attainment and reintegration of YP in Key Stage Three in particular. It combines short-term AP placements with mentoring when the YP returns to mainstream school. Mentors also support the wider family. 

The full report is here.

COVID-19: Support for children’s education – report of the HoC Public Accounts Committee

On 20 May 2021, the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee published COVID-19: Support for children’s education, a critical report about the poor performance of the DfE throughout the covid-19 pandemic. 

Report recommendations include the DfE to work with DHSC to address the needs of CYP with SEND, including no longer postponing the SEND Review, and work with DCSs to understand the recovery needs of vulnerable CYP. 

The full report is here

Future dates for network meetings

Lead Members Group: Friday 2 July 2021. More information from Alison Michalska (contact details below)

Data Benchmarking: Tuesday 13 July 2021. More information from Alastair Lee (contact details below)

Adoption and Special Guardianship Leadership Board: Tuesday 13 July 2021. More information from Rebecca Eligon (contact details below)

AD Education: Friday 18 June  – 10.30am. Latest news is here. More information from Chris Owen (contact details below)

AD Safeguarding: Friday 11 June 2021. Alastair Lee will present a Demand Modelling Tool for discussion. More information from Mark Evans (contact details below)

QA Network: Monday 7 June 2021. 2pm – 5pm. Contact Sally Hickman for MS Teams invitation

Fostering Network: 10.30am 19 July 2021. More information from Rebecca Eligon (contact details below)

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

Inclusion, diversity and equality webinars from Global Equality Collective and SEGfL

Heather Hadfield writes:

South East Grid for Learning is running a series of webinars with the Global Equality Collective (GEC), national experts in the inclusion, diversity and equality. 

Our focus is mainly on school staff and governors but the sessions are open to local authority staff who would find it useful. They have been paid for by SEGfL and are free to all SEGfL schools and LAs (a full list of SEGfL members can be found here).

The sessions cover: 

• Anti-racism in the curriculum – 9 June
• Diversity in neurodiversity – 14 July
• Safe schools – 22 Sep
• Anti-racism in the workplace – 20 Oct
• Inclusive schools, sex and gender to NEETs – 17 Nov

You can book here (non-members please contact Heather Hadfield (details below)

You can download a flyer here 

Ofsted Parents Annual Survey 2021 – published April 2021

Findings from online surveys on parents’ awareness and perceptions of Ofsted. Surveys conducted by YouGov on behalf of Ofsted.

The 2021 survey was developed with Ofsted and carried out by YouGov between 9 and 26 March 2021. In total, 1,018 parents had their say.

Findings include that the large majority of parents think their child’s school has dealt with covid-19 well and two-thirds are concerned about their own children’s learning loss

The results are here in pdf or here in powerpoint

Continuing professional development consultation from Social Work England closes 11 August 2021

Social Work England are consulting on proposed changes to the requirements for carrying out and recording continuing professional development (CPD). CPD is part of the annual process social workers do to demonstrate their fitness to practise and remain on the social work register.

CPD is the reflection and learning activity that social workers do to improve their practice and keep it up to date. As part of the regulations and registration rules, social workers are required to record CPD. This is detailed in standard 4 of the professional standards, which outlines the areas that social workers need to consider when doing their CPD.

Please complete the survey or return your response by 5pm on 11 August 2021. You can also respond via email to: consultation.responses@socialworkengland.org.uk. Please use ‘CPD consultation’ as the email title.

If you need any reasonable adjustments to help you respond, please contact us at consultation.responses@socialworkengland.org.uk.

Proposal to Double the annual CPD requirement for Social Workers – Social Work England has proposed doubling the annual requirement for recording CPD for practitioners seeking to renew their registration. The proposal is included in a consultation on reforming CPD for the December 2021 to December 2022 registration year, issued 20 May 2021. The requirement for the current registration year – December 2020 to December 2021 – remains the submission of one piece of CPD to social workers’ online accounts with the regulator. Under the consultative plans, one piece of CPD would be on a broad theme determined by Social Work England – for example, improving communication, understanding legislation or having a focus on equality, diversity and inclusion – and the second would be at the social worker’s discretion.

The proposals are based on workshops carried out with social workers and research on practitioners’ attitudes to CPD that the regulator published in May.

Children’s Services Data Science Apprenticeship – Cohort 2 Launch

Alastair Lee (contact details below) writes:

“Following the successful launch of the Children’s Services Data Science apprenticeship in March 2021, with 36 people enrolled from across the country we’re launching the next cohort(s) of the apprenticeship scheme, with briefing sessions in the near future.

“If you have any interested staff who haven’t yet received briefing session invitations, please pass on the dates and times and ask them to send an email to Lynn.Donoghue@eastsussex.gov.uk saying which session they’d like to attend. The sessions are on:

“Thursday 3 June at 14:00 and Wednesday 9 June at 14:00

“The website with a bit more detail is here Data Science Apprenticeships | Local gov data science, but the majority of the information and an opportunity to ask questions will be given in the briefings.”