Special Voices | Newsletter Issue 64
Description
This article has been brought to you by Slough Borough Council's Early Years and Development Service Lead, Michael Jarrett, for the attention of all Early Years settings.
Disabilities
Commissioned Services
Slough Borough Council (SBC) commissions services including on behalf of schools to benefit from economies of scale.
Commissions include Sophos, Egress and SaLT. Contact: Service Lead for Commissioning, Partnerships & Performance, Rodney D'Costa:- rodney.dcosta@slough.gov.uk.
Commissions include Sophos, Egress and SaLT. Contact: Service Lead for Commissioning, Partnerships & Performance, Rodney D'Costa:- rodney.dcosta@slough.gov.uk.
Family Information Service (FIS)
Slough Family Information Service (FIS) offers FREE impartial information and guidance about a wide range of services for children, young people and their families in response to statutory duty placed on local authorities.
Integrated Support Service (ISS)
ISS works with schools, colleges and other agencies to provide advice, guidance and support to ensure the needs of children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) are met within an educational context.
SEND Guidance Documents
High quality teaching: ‘Quality First Teaching’. QFT originates in the then DCSF’s guide to personalised learning published in 2008 which summarises its key characteristics as: Highly focused lesson design with sharp objectives, High demands of pupil involvement and engagement with their learning, High levels of interaction for all pupils, Appropriate use of teacher questioning, modelling and explaining, An emphasis on learning through dialogue, with regular opportunities for pupils to talk both individually and in groups, and An expectation that pupils will accept responsibility for their own learning and work independently.
Regular use of encouragement and authentic praise to engage and motivate pupils.
Regular use of encouragement and authentic praise to engage and motivate pupils.
SEND in Slough
National statistics show that up to 20% (14.4% in 2017) of all children/ young people have some level of SEND. Most children/young people with SEND attend a mainstream school and are supported by resources, which form part of the school’s core budget.
Current Working Groups - Developments (Banding, Resource Bases)
There are currently two important working groups that are taking place to develop the SEND offer within Slough attributed to banding (individual top-up funding for schools) and Resource Bases (discrete specialist provision within mainstream settings).
OFSTED/CQC SEND Local Area Inspection
In May 2016, OFSTED and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) launched a new framework for the joint inspection of the implementation of SEND reforms within local areas. The framework inspects the effectiveness of all organisations including the local authority and the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) in implementing the SEND reforms since September 2014. All local areas will be inspected by April 2021.
SEND Funding
The SEND Service is funded through both core funding and the High Needs Block (HNB) via the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG).
SEND
The Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Service has the statutory duties to identify and assess the special educational needs (SEN) of children and young people for whom they are responsible.