UPDATE NO 370 20 September 2019

Newsletters A brief summary of the main headlines and highlights for this week are shown below. Any tools, templates or documents needed for the actions required are provided here also. 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 […]

Three children playing happily together

Newsletters

A brief summary of the main headlines and highlights for this week are shown below. Any tools, templates or documents needed for the actions required are provided here also. 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. Our Regional Improvement Plan for 2019-20 can be found here.

UPDATE NO 370 20 September 2019

Programme:

AD Education Network – new convenor

Update:

Thank you and farewell to Alison Rendle who has been supporting the AD Education Network – we wish you sucess with your next adventure. Welcome to Chris Owen (contact details below) who has taken over supporting the network.

Action Required:

Chris is continuing to co-ordinate the project to promote inclusive and restorative practice in schools. Last Friday the Network meeting received a full report on Children Missing Education from Mike Stoneman (Portsmouth CC) and the task and finish group. Full details of the Network’s activity are here. Current membership of the network is here.

Programme:

Improving the Quality of Audit of Social Work Practice – 5 November

Update:

Following initial scoping of the Quality Assurance project, the next step is for us to meet with the QA leads on 5 November to explore current Quality Assurance practice. This meeting will explore what LAs do, why they do it, what impact does it have and how do they know ; what are the barriers and challenges and what are the levers and drivers to make it work. The meeting will focus on QA of social work practice and we will try to identify some themes, best practice, and opportunities for shared learning. 

Action Required:

We will then discuss these findings with the AD Safeguarding network to inform the planning for a regional workshop to be held in the spring. The 5 November meeting will be facilitated by Stuart Ashley from Hampshire on behalf of Steve Crocker who is the project DCS sponsor.

Could you please check that the contact list is accurate and if there is anyone else you would like to be invited to the 5 November meeting please send details to Diane Williamson (contact details below) so that invitations and agenda can be sent out.

The project now has its own webpage where the outputs of the scoping exercise and project brief can be found.

Programme:

SEND SE19 DCO/DMO Public Noticeboard

Update:

We have launched a public noticeboard for the Designated Clinical Officer (DCO)/ Designated Medical Officer (DMO) network which is part of the SEND SE19 project.

Action Required:

Please can you check the contact details on the noticeboard and let Tracey Maytas (contact details below) have any additions or alterations. 

For details of SEND SE19 events in 2019-2020 please see calendar of planned events.

 

Programme:

November – January 2019-20 Peer Challenge

Update:

The cycle of preparation for the November – January 2019-20 Peer Challanges is underway. We have brought forward the start date by a few months to avoid a clash with the Ofsted cycle of annual conversations which are due to start in 2020.

Please go to the Peer Challenge in the South East page if you want further information. 

Action Required:

Triad

Date

LA1

LA2

LA3

1

25th November

Wokingham

East Sussex

Surrey

2

9th January 2020

West Sussex

Kent

Portsmouth

Quartet 3

11th November

Slough

Hampshire and Isle of Wight

Milton Keynes

4

29th November

Windsor and Maidenhead

Oxfordshire

Medway

5

15th November

West Berkshire

Buckinghamshire

Brighton and Hove

6

13th November

Bracknell Forest

Reading

Southampton

 

Programme:

Care Leavers and Council Tax Exemption

Update:

Abby Holder, North East ADASS / ADCS Policy and Project Officer writes,

Hello all, The North East region is exploring the possibility of a region-wide approach to council tax exemption for care leavers. Currently each LA has its own policy for exempting care leavers in its area, but we want to look at how this could work for care leavers now living outside their home LA area.  Just wondering if any other regions have done this (or looked into it) or any LAs have a system whereby their care leavers don’t pay council tax regardless of where they are living.  

If any of you know of any approaches that have been tried – successfully or otherwise – it would be good to hear about them and I’m happy to share where get to with this. Many thanks, Abby

Action Required:

Please contact Abby Holder direct if you can help with any relevant information.

Programme:

Data Benchmarking and Early Help

Update:

The Data Benchmarking Group has carried out a review of the early help indicators currently presented in the Social Care benchmarking report. The report can be found in the restricted reports area of the SESLIP website (password required).

Please contact Alastair Lee (details below) if you would like access to the restricted pages, or if you have any other questions about the Data Benchmarking Group.

 

Action Required:

In summary they found that due to the different models of Early Help, producing charts that showed the proportion of one measure going on to another were not benchmarkable and that these charts should no longer be produced. The other recommendations were

  1. to continue to collect the basic measures (Contacts, EH Referrals, EH Assessments etc) on the understanding that they may not be 100% comparable, but that trend data is of value.
  2. to review what was meant by “Ongoing Early Hep Work” and “Children being Early Helped” as LAs were unclear what the difference was.
  3. to continue to collect step-up and step-down data, although some LAs still need to find a way to record this.

Reminders from previous weeks

Programme:

SEND SE19 – Calendar of Events

Update:

The SEND SE19 group has published its calendar of events for autumn and winter 2019-20

There is a full programme of events, seminars, working groups, conferences and training sessions covering the groups workstreams:

Strategic Co-Production for Commissioning Group: A forum for local authorities and parent/carer representatives to support co-production and participation in commissioning service provision for the local offer.

SE19 Post 16/Preparing for Adulthood Working Group: A network of the LA post-16 leads and education providers working together to improved outcomes for chidlren 16-25, supported by National Development Team for Inclusion.

SE19 DCO/DMO Network: A network of all Designated Clinical Officers and Designated Medical Officers, supported by NHS England SE Region SEND Programme Leads. 

Action Required:

These events include:

SEND Data Benchmarking Group; DCO/DMO Group; Post-16/PfA Group: Local Offer Peer Review; SEND Regional Co-ordinators National Network Meeting; Strategic Co-production for Commissioning Group; SEND Decision Making & the Law among other activities

For more details visit the SEND SE19 pages or contact Tracey Maytas (contact details below)

Tools & Templates

We have produced a Regional Improvement Plan which will underpin activities in 2019-20.

Children’s Commissioner Report on Homeless Children

The Good Childhood Report 2019 (The Children Society)

What Works Centre Updates – Trauma-informed models in out-of-home care

Nuffield Foundation Review of Special Guardianship published 2 August 2019

Interim results from Devolved Budgets pilots (What Works Centre) published 15 August 2019

A report by the Department for Education, Evaluation of regional adoption agencies

NCH Campaign for National Childhood Strategy

Children’s Commissioner Report on Childhood Vulnerability

Missing People has published research into the value of the return home interview (RHI).

What Works for Children’s Social Care: Intensive Family Preservation Services (IFPS) Review

Changes to compensation arrangements for survivors of violent crime

The DfE Review of Children in Need is here.

National Assessment and Accreditation System (NAAS): toolkit and examples of practice simulationsList of early adopter sites includes Hampshire and West Berks in the South East.

The Tackling Child Exploitation (TCE) Support Programme led by Research in Practice with The Children’s Society and University of Bedfordshire is appointed by the DfE to deliver a programme to tackle child exploitation. Over the next three years, every local authority area will be able to apply for ‘Bespoke Support’.  More information here and here

Children and young people’s advocacy in England – a report by the Children’s Commissioner

LGA‘s Early Help Resource Pack, with contributions from Early Intervention Foundation is for councillors to better understand their own local offer. 

The recent AD Safeguarding Network meeting highlighted the following links: 

New service models (e.g. Family Safeguarding, No wrong front door etc) Family Safeguarding HertfordshireNo Wrong Door EvaluationSocial Care Commentary on Using Models of PracticeOfsted Checklist for Implementing Models

Reunification: Reunification Guidance NSPCCReunification Implementation NSPCCReunification Leeds CC

Unexplained pupil exits from schools: A growing problem? The Education Policy Institute (EPI) has published the most comprehensive analysis to date  using over a decade’s worth of Department for Education data. DfE’s Elective Home Education guidance for local authorities was updated on 2 April. Ofsted has published detailed figures revealing the scale of the problem with suspected illegal schools in England.

SESLIP Leadership Development Prospectus

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

Contact Details

Data Benchmarking: Luke Ede (South East Sector-Led Improvement Programme)

Luke.ede@eastsussex.gov.uk

07925 148597

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