Lancashire SEND Partnership

The SEND Partnership has agreed its ways of working (PDF 499 KB). This document was agreed at the SEND Partnership Board on 16 September.

The consultation responses on our proposal to cease Lancashire Break Time indicated that we need to look at the whole Short Breaks Offer provided by Lancashire County Council alongside Lancashire Break Time. As a result, on 8 August 2019 Cabinet agreed to the review and redesign the whole Short Breaks Offer, in partnership with parents, carers, young people and providers.

Thanks to the parent/carers of children with special educational needs and/or disabilities who shared their views on the Short Breaks Offer. We received 324 responses to the questionnaire. We are now analysing the feedback received. This feedback will be used to inform a report going to a meeting of the county council's Cabinet where final decisions will be made.

Meetings have now been held between parent/carers who have used the short break service, managers leading the review from Lancashire County Council and the Parent Carer Forum.  

We will also be gathering the views of children, young people and short breaks providers.

Thank you to those who have shared their views so far - if you've not yet had the opportunity, we’d like to hear from you by Sunday 17 November, by email to find@lancashire.gov.uk. Please remember to let us know if you are a parent/carer, young person, provider, partner or interested party.

Lancashire Break Time will continue in its current form until the review and redesign of the Short Breaks Offer is completed.

A report setting out the proposal for the future delivery of short breaks will be presented to Cabinet in March 2020.

Parent carers are invited to hear from the Lancashire Parent Carer Forum about the work that has been going on to support fellow parent carers and their families in the last 12 months.

It is also an opportunity to hear from a wide range of partner agencies and teams about the work that is still to take place. Parent carers will be able to ask questions and get involved in future work that is needed to improve the outcomes for Lancashire families.

The event will be held on 17 October 2019 10am -13.30pm at Gujarat Hindu Society and Community Centre, South Meadow Lane, Preston, PR1 8JN.

To book a ticket for the event and find out more, visit the Eventbrite page.

Lancashire SEND Partnership is hosting three more events in the north and west of the county for parent carers to talk about SEND issues with local professionals.

So far this year, 12 events have been held across Lancashire where parents have met designated clinical officers, SEN co-ordinators, senior managers from the inclusion service and members of the information advice and support team.

We will post upcoming events at different locations when they become available.

The SEND Partnership are hosting annual review support/guidance events in October, led by the Inclusion Service at Lancashire County Council (LCC), Health, Social Care, the Information, Advice and Support Team (IAS) and Lancashire Parent Carer Forum (LPCF).

These events will take place across the East, South and North of Lancashire for half a day.

The purpose of these events is to have a shared understanding around working together in annual reviews.

The aim is to have a clear understanding of the process, roles and responsibilities and a person centred approach to the annual review process.

The events are open to all education settings/practitioners, you can book on the events via the links below:

South

Ormskirk School, Wigan Rd, Ormskirk L39 2AT, Wednesday 9 October 2019, 9.30am - 12pm

North

The multi use room, White Cross Neighbourhood Centre, Quarry Road, Lancaster, LA1 3SE, Friday 11 October, 9.30am - 12pm

South (central)

Lancashire County Council, County Hall, The Exchange, Savoy Suite, Fishergate, Preston, Lancashire, PR1 8XJ, Thursday 17 October, 1.30pm - 4pm

Newly appointed SEN co-ordinators (SENCOs) from Lancashire primary and secondary schools recently attended a one-day workshop to improve their knowledge about supporting children with additional needs. The event was hosted by the school improvement service from Lancashire County Council.

Part of their meeting involved sharing examples of good practice they have supported within their school. This included:

• SENCo led drop-ins for parents before the end of school allowing families to meet each other, share experiences and offer support.
• Stay and play sessions for parents to meet SENCOs and teaching assistants to learn about phonics and other teaching aids which will help their child at home.
• After school workshops to share advice with parents about online safety, useful web resources and other general SEN matters.

In all cases, parents reported how useful it was to meet other parents in similar situations and that the meetings helped build stronger relationships between the families and school.

The course attendees had many useful examples and the SEND Partnership will collate these cases and share more details over the next few months. More examples will also be gathered during the SENCO cluster meetings in June.

Pictured above is David Bird (left) SEN inclusion advisor for Lancashire County Council and Gareth Jenkins (3^rd from right) Engagement lead for Lancashire SEND Partnership, alongside SENCO delegates at the Farington Hotel, Leyland.

POWAR the council for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities have created a survey for young people with SEND to share what they think is the top issue for them. Once the results are in, POWAR will create a campaign to raise awareness of and tackle the issue.

POWAR would like to hear the voices of children and young people through this survey and ask that you share it with your child/young person so POWAR can collate as many views as possible.

www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/EmPOWAR

If your child or young person would like to join POWAR, or you would like more information about the group, please email Mia Leyland on mia.leyland@barnardos.org.uk.  

Meme Robertson, from Colne, has represented Great Britain in the under-19's women's team, winning a bronze medal at the International Blind Sports Association (IBSA) Goalball World Youth Championships.
Meme is now hoping to play in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic summer games. With the help of funding from Lancashire County Council, she began training at the Royal National College for the Blind (RNCB) in September this year. Meme will receive 10 hours per week of coaching; including 1-1 technical coaching, personalised strength and conditioning, access to Psychology, Nutrition and lifestyle workshops and group training alongside other Talent and senior Great Britain athletes. This funding and placement will provide every opportunity for Meme to develop her skills further.

She was born with a vision condition called Nystagmus that causes uncontrolled and repetitive movements in the eyes. Meme's mother Catherine said "Meme does not let this stop her from taking part in sports. She has proved that having a disability does not stop you, although without the funding from Lancashire County Council, she may not have gone to college. .

She has made so much progress and her confidence has grown greatly. She used to feel isolated before taking part in visually impaired sports and she was close to giving up. She is now going to the college of her dreams.

I am so proud and thrilled with her, as long as she is happy, I will be happy."

Meme first became interested in goalball when her visually impaired cricket club, Lancashire Lions, invited her to a goalball training session. She was then invited to Goalball talent days and then eventually progressed to become a part of the GB women's team.

Catherine added "She is such a different person now. She also uses public transport on her own, uses the trains and books her own tickets. She cannot wait to start college on 7th September where she can continue to develop her goalball skills whilst studying and learning crucial independent living and learning skills too."

Along with sports, Meme enjoys drumming and more recently is teaching herself to play the piano and guitar.

Moor End Community Primary School in Oswaldtwistle, one of our SEND partners, recently shared the work they are doing in their special educational needs base to provide specialist Speech, Language and Communication support for children with additional needs from reception to year two.

The 'Rising Stars' class has a specialist teaching team led by a full time SEN teacher and weekly visits from Speech and Language therapists. The children spend a full morning in the class where specialist provision supports their needs, on a group and one to one basis, ensuring full access to the national curriculum.

In the afternoon, they join their year group alongside their peers - Head teacher Andy Martin said:  "It really gives the children independence and they can mingle with their peers. The majority of the children that come to us from different mainstream schools to access the facility, go back to their mainstream school. Many don't need an EHC Plan anymore when they leave as their needs have been met."

During group work activities, the children use PEX cards and Makaton as well as having lessons in phonics. Children choose activities based on their own interests after the group learning sessions.

Specialist teacher Linda O'Brian said: "It gives them the confidence and allows them to be a part of the school. It's great for the mainstream school children as well and recently we had a KS1 summer celebration where we held a sing along in sign language."

The Local Area Partnerships (LAPs) provide two-way communication between families and senior practitioners. Each monthly meeting is hosted by the Designated Clinical Officer (DCO) who enables families to identify and address SEND issues at a local level. The LAPs meet in schools in the north, east and south of Lancashire and have representatives from health, education and the local authority who talk with parent carers and young people about their needs and identify any gaps in services.

To raise a question or concern in your area please contact your DCO before the next meeting:

Each LAP meeting is attended by at least one parent carer representative who will help ensure your voice is heard.

So far, nearly 2,000 people have contributed to the Personal Outcomes Evaluation Tool (POET) survey from In-Control.

Children, young people, families and practitioners across Lancashire can take part in the survey which is part of a national pilot to help local areas understand the impact of the SEND reforms.

The survey takes less than 10 minutes to complete online using one of these links:

• Survey for parents or carers
• Survey for children and young people
• Survey for practitioners

The findings are being used to inform improvements and will enable the SEND Partnership to understand more about what is working well and where more improvement in needed. 

Read the 2017/18 report.

Lancashire SEND Partnership has published its new improvement plan which identifies the key priorities, actions, measures and targets for 2019 to 2020.

The updated plan follows last year's written statement of action (WSoA) which was required by Ofsted to detail Lancashire's response to the significant areas of concern identified in the 2017 inspection.

The actions set out in the plan will help deliver the Partnerships vision and strategy, jointly developed with families, education, health and local authority partners across Lancashire.

The improvement plan has four important priorities based on its future vision:

Priority 1: Plan for and meet the needs of children and young people
Priority 2: Become equal partners who understand and listen to each other
Priority 3: Develop services that are child centred, accessible and responsive
Priority 4: Ensure children and young people achieve their potential and ambitions