UPDATE NO 498 25 March 2022

System Leadership – CYP Mental Health 28 April 3pm NOW BOOKING

NHS (England), The Staff College and SESLIP have organised a 2-hour online workshop “System Leadership in Children and Young People’s Mental Health – a south-east region perspective” 3pm-5pm on Thursday 28 April.  

This event is FREE and aimed at all strategic leaders from partner agencies, commissioners and providers. You can book here

Public Law Outline toolkit – free workshops NOW BOOKING

The course is aimed at team managers, service/district managers, heads of service and legal professionals and is free to SESLIP members. Join the 60+ colleagues from across the region who have already booked.

Now booking: Cohort 1: 6 April (am and pm) and 27 April (am only) OR Cohort 2:  11^th May (am and pm) and 25^th May (am only). For more information contact Alison Smailes (details below)

Berkshire West Safeguarding Children Partnership – Independent Scrutineer job advert

Berkshire West Safeguarding Children Partnership (covering Reading, West Berkshire and Wokingham council areas) is advertising for an Independent Scrutineer. Closes 31 March 2022.

This a consultancy position for approx 35 days per year at £600 per day. If you would like more information about this challenging and exciting role, please contact: Deborah Glassbrook, Executive Director for Children’s Services, Brighter Futures for Children.

Take Your Place – aspirant ADCS course NOW BOOKING

The Take Your Place programme is NOW BOOKING a 5-day aspirant Assistant Director’s course aimed at (approx) third-tier officers. Free of charge, each SESLIP large authority has two places and small authorities a single place. Your final nominations need to be endorsed by your DCS and details sent to Mark Evans (details below)

The 5-day programme will be delivered by The Staff College and consist of:

• 1 x 2-day face to face orientation residential, including evening speaker (16th & 17th June)
• 3 x ½ day virtual workshops, including sessions facilitated by Research in Practice & Early Intervention Foundation
• 1 x 1 day face to face end of programme/partner workshop
• 1 x ½ day co-production session
• Based on 25 participants per cohort
• 5 X action learning set sessions during and post

Sustainable high needs systems: learning from the ‘safety valve’ intervention programme

On 24 March DfE published Sustainable high needs systems: learning from the ‘safety valve’ intervention programme

The programme, working with a small number of local authorities in the first round, identified a number of ways in which local authorities can and should improve their management of their high needs systems. The lessons learned through this intervention programme could benefit other local authorities.

School Capacity Survey May 2021 published

On 24 March, DfE published the data reported by local authorities in England, in the annual School Capacity (SCAP) survey, as of 1 May 2021. 

Data shows that 17% of primaries and 22% of secondaries are at or over capacity. Demand for primary places is expected to have peaked this year and, in secondaries, in 2025-26. These data report the highest level of excess capacity in primaries for a decade.

Education, children’s social care and offending

On 10 March 2022, DfE published Education, children’s social care and offending, an examination of the education and social care background of children cautioned or sentenced for an offence.

Correlations reported include the large majority of offenders have SEND (which increases the more prolific the offender) and that there is a closer correlation between having a series of suspensions and offending behaviour than if permanently excluded. Most young people who offended also had high levels of persistent absence.

The full report (81 pages) is here

Future dates for network meetings

Lead Members Group: Joint meeting with DCSs on NHS Integrated Care Systems. Fri 8 April 9:30am. More from Alison Michalska (contact details below)

Data Benchmarking: Tuesday 12 July 10:00am More information from Alastair Lee (contact details below)

Adoption and Special Guardianship Leadership Board: Monday 25 April 10.30am-12noon More information from Rebecca Eligon (contact details below)

AD Education: Friday 6 May 10:00am. More information from Chris Owen (contact details below)

AD Safeguarding: Friday 10 June 10:00am. More information from Mark Evans (contact details below)

QA Network: Thursday 16 June 2:00pm – 5:00pm. More information from Amanda Meadows (contact details below)

Fostering Network: Wednesday 27 April 10-11.30am More information from Rebecca Eligon (contact details below)

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

Early Help: More information from Rebecca Eligon (contact details below)

Consultation on Mental Capacity Act Code of Practice and implementation of Liberty Protection Safeguards. Closes 7 July 2022

On March 17, DfE, MoJ and DHSC launched a consultation on proposed changes to the Mental Capacity Act 2005 Code of Practice and implementation of the Liberty Protection Safeguards. There is a LPS contacts page here. 

LGA have organised a Q&A session on this topic on Thursday 24 March 9.30am-11.00am for a South East session. The consultation document is available here. You can respond to the consultation here. The consultation closes on 7 July.