UPDATE NO 481 26 November 2021

Last Call for Special Guardianship event Tuesday 30 November 1-4pm

This is an interactive online 3 hour conference open to all working on Special Guardianship in the 19 local authorities in the South East. It will be held 1-4pm Tuesday November 30 2021, online event register here, for social workers, managers and anyone else with an interest or seeking to build their experience in Special Guardianship.

Any questions please contact Rebecca Eligon (details below)

Hear from Lucy Peake, the Chief Executive of national charity Kinship on the trends being observed nationally on Special Guardianship and the national task and finish group focusing on SG as well as the implications and relevance of the Care Review to Special Guardianship
Understand the Special Guardianship audit tool developed by the national Adoption and Special Guardianship Leadership Board (which can be applied to your LA to assess the quality of practice). There is also an offer of free coaching support to apply the tool after the conference.
Hear from Special Guardians, other LAs in the South East about their practice models (both the strengths and challenges) and tell us what you would like to see in a SG training programme for South East LAs that will be running in the new year

Register for the free event here

Post-16 Capacity Fund 2021 to 2022: successful applications in the South East

On 9 November DfE announced successful applications to the Post-16 Capacity Fund 

 Congratulations to 10 south east providers who were awarded grants out of 39 in total.

Prior Information Notice: DfE recruitment of SEND Advisers

SEND Improvement and Operations Division at DfE have published a Prior Information Notice giving details of an invitation to freelance SEND specialists to apply for adviser positions.

The advert will go live on 1 December 2021 and the appointments will run from 1 April 2022 for two years. Interested parties should pre-register on the DfE procurement portal in order to receive full details.

Future dates for network meetings

Lead Members Group: Friday 3 December – Joint meeting with DCSs. More information from Alison Michalska (contact details below)

Data Benchmarking: Thursday 9 December 2021. More information from Alastair Lee (contact details below)

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

AD Education: ***NEW DATE*** Friday 4 February – 10.00am. More information from Chris Owen (contact details below)

AD Safeguarding: Friday 10 December 2021. More information from Mark Evans (contact details below)

QA Network: ***NEW DATE*** Thursday 6 January 2022. 2pm – 5pm. The meeting will consider performance of health and dental assessments for Children looked after. More information from Amanda Meadows (contact details below)

Fostering Network: More information from Rebecca Eligon (contact details below)

SEND SE19: LA and Health SEND Conversation 30 November 2021 More information from Tracey Maytas (contact details below)

Portsmouth successful in resisting challenge to Elective Home Education policy and procedure

On 16 November, the High Court published Mr Justice Lane’s decision ([2021] EWHC 3057 (Admin)) in support of Portsmouth CC on all four of the claimant’s grounds for Judicial Review of the Council’s policy and procedures for discharging its statutory responsibilities under the Education Act 1996 in respect of children of school age who are not receiving education at a school.

The Secretary of State joined Portsmouth CC in defending the challenge. 

For more information please contact Mike Stoneman at Portsmouth or Chris Owen (details below).

Children looked after in England including adoptions

On 18 November 2021, DfE published Children looked after in England including adoption: 2020 to 2021. 

Alistair Herbert at Data to Insight reports that the Benchmarking Tool and ChAT are already updated.

Social care common inspection framework review: Ofsted Consultation closes 24 January 2022

On 2 November 2021, Ofsted launched a  consultation on the way they carry out interim inspections of children’s homes and the way they inspect residential holiday schemes for disabled children (RHSDC).

Proposals include changes to how judgements of inspections are presented and revisions to inspection activities. The consultation closes on 24 January 2022.

LGA Webinar Programme for officers and strategic partners

Wednesday 1 December 2:00pm Understanding Parent and Infant Mental Health

Tuesday 11 January 2:00pm Working in partnership with Libraries

Tuesday 18 January 10:30am webinar Developing Early Childhood Music across Local Authorities and Action Learning Sets to follow Tuesday 8 Feb 10:00am and Thursday 10 March 10:30am

For more information on these programmes, please contact Liz Hodgman at LGA