The Village School to stay with the LA for now and the NEU wants that to be permanent

I understand that the Village School, a special school in Brent that was to join a Multi-Academy Trust, will remain within the Brent  local authority into January 2019.

The academy and MAT conversion process has been “deferred” pending an ESFA investigation into financial “irregularities”. 

The investigation was triggered by whistleblowing from NEU members regarding allegations that  off-payroll consultants  were interfering with governance and Human Resources matters at the Woodfield Trust whilst receiving up to £240,000 for “services as defined by the school”. They claim the financial due diligence process carried out by governors was led by one of these consultants.

Furthermore they allege that since the MAT process was started, consultants have continued to be paid with funds intended for the education of SEND children in the borough. Restructure of the senior leadership teams has increased the funds at the top levels while vacancies remain unfilled and agency staffing increases in the classrooms.

NEU members at the school are seeking a further ballot for strike action, following their 13 days last year, to try to keep their school in the local authority.

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Brent achieves Quality Mark for work with SEND young people in the youth justice system

From Brent Council

Leading education charity, Achievement for All (AfA), has awarded Brent Council a national accolade for quality for outstanding work to secure better outcomes for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in the youth justice system.

The Quality Mark Award has been developed by Achievement for All in close partnership with the Association of Youth Offending Team Managers (AYM) to help illuminate the problems that many young people with SEND in the youth justice system face.

Brent achieved the Quality Mark status for being proactive on child-centred services, ensuring young people in custody have the support they needed, and having strong partnerships with schools, health services, families, secure units, and prisons.

Gail Tolley, Strategic Director Children and Young People, said:

Achieving the AFA/AYM Quality Mark is recognition of the determined partnership work undertaken by Brent Council to improve outcomes for young people with special educational needs in the youth justice system.

The Brent Youth Offending Service embraced the benchmarking process with enthusiasm and a genuine desire to provide some of our most vulnerable young people with the quality of provision they deserve.

The Quality Mark is another example of the commitment evident amongst staff in our borough to equip young people with the knowledge and skills needed to secure a safe and successful future and make a valuable contribution to their families and communities. 

Brent's Quality Mark status will run for three years until 31 March 2021.

Action Plan for Brent SEND children services to be approved tonight

The Brent Health and Wellbeing Board will tonight consider a Written Statement of Action following concerns expressed following a joint inspection of the authority's and Brent Clinical Commissioning Group provision for chldren with special educational needs and disabilities. The officer's report states:

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Although some aspects of the inspection were very positive, a Written Statement of Action has been requested. Brent Council, Brent CCG and health providers have worked together to address these concerns and respond to them so that children in any setting can get the right health advice and treatment to support their education. The most challenging of these concerns to address is the waiting times issue that has arisen due to wider shortages of specialist NHS staff. Brent CCG has appointed a specialist Designated Clinical Officer to oversee and speed up the programme of health reforms. 


The inspectors required the local area to provide a Written Statement of Action in regard to the following concerns:

·      strategic leadership of the CCG in implementing the SEND reforms 


·      the fragmented approach to joint commissioning causing gaps in services 


·      the lack of opportunity for therapists to respond to draft EHC plans before they 
are finalised 


·      poor access to services for some vulnerable groups; in particular, to audiology, 
OT and speech and language therapy, limited opportunities for parental involvement when designing and commissioning 
services. 

The draft Written Statement for  Action can be found HERE.

It has to be submitted by October 23rd

 


Charity: Education fragmentation threatens quality special needs provision

I know that special educational needs provision in Brent is an issue of concern for many parents and teachers as funding becomes tighter and schools are pressured by high stakes testing. This report from the BBC may be of interest:

 A new code for special educational needs and disability came into effect last year. Even so, a series of changes has left pupils in England with special educational needs and disability (Send) in a "fragmented" system, a charity has said. The Driver Youth Trust report says the changes have caused confusion and a greater variation in the quality of help offered. The charity calls for a review of support for children with Send.

  The Driver Youth Trust outlines a number of changes since 2010 that have affected children with Send and their families. It highlights the Academies Act 2010, which enabled more schools in England to become academies, free from local authority control, as well as changes in 2012 aimed at ending disparities in school funding. Also, in September 2014, a new special educational needs (SEN) code of practice came into force in England, with the stated aim of putting pupils at the centre of their education planning.

   Changes under the new Send code of practice include: 

♦  covering young people from birth to the age of 25 - previously it was from the age of two to 19

♦  parents and children are supposed to have a greater say in decisions that affect them

♦  local authorities have to publish a "local offer" for Send - details of what support services they have available

♦  SEN statements and learning difficulty assessments (LDAs) have been replaced with education, health and care (EHC) plans taking children and young people through to the age of 25

♦  a new system for categorising pupils' needs, so that support can be more graduated

♦  young people and parents of pupils with an EHC plan can ask for personal budgets, which give them more say in how money for their provision is spent

  The charity says some schools are struggling to provide high-quality teaching and support.

The Driver Youth Trust says these changes have contributed to a fragmentation that means "navigating the system has become incredibly challenging for students, parents, schools and sector organisations". And with school increasingly expected to meet children's needs in the classroom rather than through specialist provision, teachers "more than ever need training and accurate information about their pupils".

 The outcomes for Send pupils are increasingly dependent on a school's leadership, it says.

The charity is calling for school leaders to regard Send pupils' achievement as a whole-school priority, not just that of specialist staff. It calls on the government to reform school admissions so that all schools are part of the same process and subject to independent appeals - whether or not they are an academy. And it urges councils to engage parents and young children in the development of their local offers.

  The DfE said it had received positive feedback about the changes from many families. A spokeswoman said: "A year ago we introduced the biggest reforms to the Send system in a generation. These are ensuring that support is focused on needs and aspirations - and we know that when parents and young people are properly involved with the development of that support, their experiences improve. We are already seeing a real difference, with parents telling us the process is much more straightforward - but we want these experiences to continue improving.

"That's why we are providing more than £1.5m between 2013 and 2016 to the Driver Youth Trust and the Dyslexia Specific Learning Difficulties Trust to provide expert advice and training to schools, ensuring that good practice is shared and the best support possible is available.

Brent 'Local offer' service for parents of children with special needs and disabilities goes live

From Brent Council

 

Information and advice for parents and carers of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is now easier to access thanks to the launch of Brent's Local Offer.

Developed with the help of a parent support group and pupils from Brent special schools, the Local Offer is a single point of contact for families who want to find out about services and support for children and young people with SEND from 0 to 25.

Statutory services like education, social care and health are included, as well as information about leisure, transport, money advice and independent living, all of which can be searched for by area or age range.

Further work to review and enhance the information available on our Local Offer will take place with parents over the coming months so that we can ensure it is responsive to what you want and need.

Find a service in the Local Offer