UPDATE NO 194 06 May 2016

Ofsted/CQC SEND Inspection

The Ofsted/CQC Special Educational Need and Disability Inspection Framework and Guidance for Inspectors were published on 27 April.

To support local areas in improving SEND services, on 25 April the DfE published the user journey mapping research report at 

Leadership Development

We continue to offer our successful portfolio of Leadership Development Courses all of which have been positively evaluated by delegates.

The Coaching to Improve Performance course, our most popular with 25 courses in 14 LAs and approximately 400 delegates, has been externally evaluated. The independent evaluator concluded that   

‘The Coaching to Improve Performance course was professionally delivered leading to a high standard of satisfaction amongst the delegates. After several months those who responded to a survey were still able to remember the salient content of the course, had retained enthusiasm and had put the skills learned to use in practice. A remarkable achievement for a two-day course!’

This year we have added a new course recently piloted in Hampshire and IoW. The senior team attended a one-day Coaching to Improve Performance workshop to ensure the Directorate were fully conversant with the training undertaken by their three cohorts of managers on two-day programme and to develop their own coaching skills to use in their own performance management roles.

We are also offering LAs the opportunity to train their own trainers for all our courses. Our aim is to increase the capacity and capability across the region  to ensure future sustainability within LAs.

A new departure for us has been running these training courses for adult services and for schools so please contact Di Smith, details below, if this is of interest to you. 

All courses are run in-house in the LA who provides the venue. Each course is accompanied by a range of training resources for the delegates including a comprehensive handbook. The current courses on offer are as follows and details of each course and the costs for each can be found by downloading the April 2016 Leadership Development Prospectus. 

Coaching to Improve Performance

Embedding a Coaching Culture

Leading Change in Times of Austerity

Step Up to Leadership   

We can also arrange one-to-one coaching, especially to support newly appointed 2nd and 3rd tier managers

If you require further details or wish to book a course please get in touch with Di Smith (contact details below)

Topical Peer Challenge Round 9

Topical Peer Challenge Round 9 is now open. The detailed guidance is available here, and is largely unchanged from previous versions.

Windsor and Maidenhead (topic: Corporate Parenting) will be first in the field on 16 and 17 June. I am seeking one volunteer (at practitioner level) to join the visiting team, which will be led by Barbara Peacock (DCS Medway) and include Naintara Khosla (Assistant Director for Corporate Parenting, Kent) and Kelly Lockwood (Head of Delivery for Corporate Parenting, MKC). Barbara is also arranging for young people from the Medway CiCC to join part of the visit.  All enquiries to Richard Tyndall (contact details below).

Southampton and Medway have commitments held over from Round 8 (Ofsted, staff changes and other impediments confounded our best laid plans). I look forward to hearing from these colleagues and others about whether or not they wish to join Round 9.

Portsmouth (topic: CSE) will be planned for the autumn. Visiting DCS will be Alison Alexander (dates to follow).

Kent (topic: tba) and Bracknell Forest (topic: LSCB) have also indicated they wish to participate.

Please contact Richard Tyndall (details below) to register your interest