Herefordshire and Worcestershire Integrated Care Board have commissioned Autism West Midlands to deliver online training for parent carers as part of their pilot service to support 14–18 year olds, with a recent autism diagnosis. 

The webinars are FREE for any Worcestershire parent/carer with a recently diagnosed teenager. 

To find out more: Training for parents and carers (SEND Local Offer)

In the Autumn of 2022, we published an executive summary of the results from the third SEND improvement parent carer survey.

The survey was a mixture of multiple choice and open-ended questions and the responses contained valuable feedback from Worcestershire parent carers. 

We analysed the feedback and identified key areas for development, many of which were echoed in the SEND Area Inspection findings and subsequent Accelerated Progress Plan (APP). We said we would use the findings from the survey to inform further development of the Accelerated Progress Plan, Quality Assurance Programme, and service development.

It is our aim to be transparent in our approach to improving life for SEND families in Worcestershire and therefore we are publishing this update report to let our families know what is being done in each of the areas identified.

• Parent Care Survey Executive Summary (PDF)

Autism Support Pilot for 14 to 18 year olds living in Herefordshire and Worcestershire

Herefordshire and Worcestershire NHS are excited to offer a new pilot service for teens aged 14-18yrs with a recent Autism diagnosis. All the support is online or via telephone. Families who have a teenager diagnosed with Autism from 2020 onwards and live in Worcestershire will have access to support from two expert agencies: Brain in Hand and Autism West Midlands.

To find out more: SEND health and wellbeing (SEND Local Offer)

Free Autism West Midlands online training

Herefordshire and Worcestershire Integrated Care Board have commissioned Autism West Midlands to deliver more free online training webinars for parent carers who have a child on the assessment pathway (Umbrella Pathway) or who has an Autism diagnosis. The webinars can be accessed on computers, laptops, tablets, phones and smart TVs. Once registered you can watch live or a recording later. 

The webinars are:

• Monday 12 December, 9:30am to 11:00am - Autism and Anxiety
• Monday 9 January, 9:30am to midday – Sensory Differences and your child
• Monday 23 January, 9:30am to 11:00am – Autism and Communication
• Monday 6 February, 9:30am to 11:00am – Autism and Behaviour
• Monday 27 February, 9:30am to 11:00am – Autism and Anxiety

To register, visit Autism West Midlands events page: Autism West Midlands Events

In Spring 2022 Worcestershire Children First and Families in Partnership (FiP), Worcestershire’s parent carer forum, sent out a survey to get the view of parents and carers about services for children and young people with SEND. This was the third time the survey had been shared, enabling us to compare results over three years. The 2023 survey will be revamped, following feedback about this and other surveys.

We would like to thank the parents and carers who took the time to complete the survey and reassure them that all the responses and comments have been read.

The findings have been analysed and will be used to inform further development of the Accelerated Progress Plan, Quality Assurance Programme, and service development. We have produced an Executive summary of the results, with commentary which can be downloaded here.

Download: 2022 Parent Carer Survey Executive Summary (PDF)

If you are part of a parent/carer group who would like to be more involved with service development Worcestershire Children First has created a SEND Stakeholder Group to enable a range of organisations and experiences to be represented in SEND services. 

The group meets virtually once a month, 5.00pm to 6.30pm, and has a varied agenda which covers SEND services, including health and social care.

There is higher demand for Special School Reception places for September 2022, as a result Worcestershire Children First have had to make alternative arrangements for nursery assessment provision in September 2022.

We are working with each Special School and the Early Years Inclusion Team and will include health partners to develop solutions which identify need and ensure the right level of support is in place for children on their entry to school.

Fort Royal Community Primary and The Vale of Evesham Special Schools are altering the delivery model of Nursery Assessment in September 2022.  This will increase the support to mainstream early years settings to both help them meet your child’s needs and ensure the nursery assessment is well informed. Families of children who have been offered this assessment and support will receive a letter/email from the SEND service.

Fort Royal Community Primary and The Vale of Evesham nursery assessment provision will be delivered via outreach services and/or the Early Years Inclusion Team within community mainstream early years settings and not onsite.

For those children offered a place at Wyre Forest Special School Nursery provision and Batchley Nursery Plus, they will be completing the nursery assessment on-site, in discussion with and involving your child’s mainstream early years setting (if attending).  Families of children who have been offered an onsite assessment will have been contacted by Wyre Forest or Batchley schools.

For children where it was not possible to offer an onsite nursery assessment at Wyre Forest Special School Nursery provision and Batchley Nursery Plus, they will be supported in their mainstream early years setting by the Early Years Inclusion Team.

We appreciate this may cause some uncertainty for parent carers and early years providers.  We are actively working to ensure the right support is in place for the pre-school children this applies to.  Individual communication will be sent to parent carers and early years settings confirming the nursery assessment provision available for individual children.  For any pre-school children not currently attending a mainstream early years setting, support will be provided to identify provision.

HAF IT! 2022 is a fantastic programme of holiday activity and food clubs running across Worcestershire, for children who receive free school meals (FSM). Children who are not eligible for Free School Meals can be referred for a place on the HAF programme by schools, social workers, HAF providers and other professionals. 

All HAF activity clubs are inclusive of children with special educational needs and disabilities. We also have some specialised SEND clubs available; these are run by providers with specialised staff and facilities and include adapted activities. To find these, type ‘SEND’ into the keyword search. Parents and carers are invited to contact providers directly to discuss suitability of clubs and contact details can be found on all activity information pages found on the HAF booking system. You can browse activities by map, calendar, or list.

Sign up to the HAF booking system and subject to eligibility, your account will be automatically credited with 16 free passes per registered child, representing 16 days’ worth of exciting activities across the summer holiday – subject to availability.  Please take care on sign up to provide as much information about your child to providers – it’s important that they have this to best support and safeguard your child. You will only need to complete this information once as it can then be resubmitted for each booking and subsequent holidays – with the facility to update any changes.  

If your child does not receive Free School Meals, please contact providers listed on the HAF booking system directly to request a referral to book or ask your school to contact us with your name and contact information. We can then help you book your free places on the programme.

The programme is funded by the Department for Education (DfE).

We are seeking feedback from parents, carers, and young people on their experiences of education provision within Worcestershire, in particular provision which caters for young people with complex and profound Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEND).

Your feedback will support our aim to create a positive learning community within Worcestershire for young people aged 16 to 25 with SEND.

To fulfil this aim we are looking to increase provision within Worcestershire with a focus on the South, particularly for those with Social, Emotional and Mental Health Needs, Autism Spectrum Condition, or Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties.

Please provide your feedback by completing the following short online survey

An easy read version is available to download.

The deadline for responses is Friday 22 July 2022.

In line with the Worcestershire 0 to 25 All Age Disability service agreed at Cabinet on 3 February 2022, the Young Adults Team (YAT) will transfer from Worcestershire County Council to Worcestershire Children First on 1 June 2022. This completes the first “structure” phase of the service development. The YAT, SEND and Children with Disabilities teams will operate the same as they do currently, and children will remain with their allocated workers. There will be a change to email addresses for YAT staff to Worcestershire Children First email addresses but those will be transferred automatically from the old ones. There will be no changes to the phone numbers of the team or individual social workers.

The new Director of the 0 to 25 All Age Disability service, Mel Barnett, starts in post on 6 June 2022 and will lead our Phase 2 “service design” phase. The aim of this phase will be to have systems and processes that enable us to provide a more holistic approach to children and young people with additional needs and improve the cross service assessment and delivery of services ensuring the “outcomes” for children are understood in the immediate and longer term planning.

The Worcestershire Local Area SEND Accelerated Progress Plan (APP) has now been approved by the DfE and NHS.

We are grateful to all parents, carers and professionals who have come together to work with us on the development and delivery of this plan.

A copy of the plan and summary are available to download from our SEND Improvement Plan page.

The Government’s SEND and Alternative Provision Green Paper was published on Tuesday 29 March. It sets out their vision for a single, national SEND and alternative provision (AP) system that will introduce new standards in the quality of support given to children across education, health and care. 

You can access a copy of the Green Paper: SEND Review Green Paper (GOV.UK)

Alongside the Green paper, they have also published a dedicated SEND Review website with further information about the consultation and upcoming events: SEND Review Campaign (GOV.UK) 

You can find additional resources on gov.uk to help understand the green paper: SEND and AP Green Paper responding to the consultation (GOV.UK)

The Green Paper is the result of the national SEND Review, commissioned to improve an inconsistent, process-heavy and increasingly adversarial system that too often leaves parents facing difficulties and delays accessing the right support for their child. 

The plans to reform the system will be open for a 13-week public consultation, giving families the opportunity to shape how a new system will work in the future - and give them confidence that their local school will meet their children’s needs so they can achieve their full potential.

Sarah Wilkins, Director for Education, Early Years and Children with Disabilities has written an open letter to parent carers to provide an update on staffing changes within the SEND service.

Download letter on staffing changes in SEND (PDF)

An inspection by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) into Worcestershire’s approach to special education needs and disability (SEND) has recognised that sufficient progress has been made in many areas of the service.

The report acknowledges that the local area has made sufficient progress in eight out of the twelve significant weaknesses identified at the initial inspection in 2018.

Download a copy of the Ofsted and CQC report (PDF)

Worcestershire Children First have been working to review our approach to Top Up Funding for CYP with SEND. We invite you to read our proposals and respond with your views by the 4 February 2022 at the following link: Consultation on High Level Needs funding for pupils with Special Education Needs December

For more information:

Download: Proposed changes to Worcestershire's top up funding criteria (PDF)

Download: Statutory consultation on high needs level funding for pupils with SEND December 2021 (PDF)

Ready, Steady Worcestershire have partnered up with providers across Worcestershire to offer free holiday activities for a fun, action packed Christmas Holiday period.

These activities are available to families of children aged between 5-15 who are receipt of benefits-related Free School Meals or families who are referred to the programme by our professionals or community partners.

The full programme is inclusive of all needs, and there are some specialist providers who are really experienced in activities for children with SEND and spaces have been secured at these clubs so they can be offered first to the children that would most benefit from them.

To read more and book visit: Ready Steady Worcestershire - school holiday food and activities

Last week, Will Quince MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State Minister for Children and Families, spoke to the National Network of Parent Carer Forums and announced work with Nasen and MicroLink to launch a pilot which will test how training can increase school staff confidence and capability in using assistive technology. On the SEND Review, he reiterated his previous commitments to publish it alongside a public consultation in the first three months of 2022.

To read the speech in full visit: Children's Minister speaks to the National Network of Parent Carer Forums - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Following the recent visit from Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to inspect our local area approach to special education needs and disability in early November, we would like to update you regarding next steps.

The purpose of the inspection was to determine whether our local area has made sufficient progress in addressing each area of serious weakness detailed in the Written Statement of Action (WSOA) produced following the last inspection in 2018.

During the inspection, meetings were held with a range of providers and services and inspectors spoke with children and young people and parents and carers about their experiences.

The draft inspection report has now been completed and is undergoing quality assurance by Ofsted. We are expecting the final report to be published on the Ofsted website before Christmas. This will be publicly available to anyone who wishes to read it. Our SEND strategy (2021-25) action plan will be updated on the basis of the report to include any actions needed and we will be working closely with Families in Partnership on this to ensure we are in agreement as to the way forward.

In the letter, the Minister reaffirms his commitment to delivering the SEND Review and the importance of supporting the most disadvantaged children and young people. He outlines his plans to continue to visit schools, nurseries and colleges around the country to directly hear first-hand from children, young people, parents and carers, school, college and local authority staff as well as meet with SEND organisations and experts so they can influence proposals.

To read the letter in full, visit: An open letter to parents and carers of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities from Children and Families Minister Will Quince - The Education Hub

Alongside the letter, the Department for Education has published information about the members of the SEND Review Steering Group. The new group was set up to assist the department conclude the SEND Review at pace and advise on proposals to be set out in a SEND Green Paper to be published in the first three months of 2022.

For further information on the group, visit: SEND Review Steering Group - GOV.UK

Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) visited Worcestershire on the 1 to 3 November 2021 to inspect our local area approach to special education needs and disability.

The purpose of the inspection was to determine whether our local area has made sufficient progress in addressing each area of serious weakness detailed in the Written Statement of Action (WSOA) produced following the last inspection in 2018.

During the inspection, meetings were held with a range of providers and services and inspectors spoke with children and young people and parents and carers about their experiences.

We are awaiting the outcome of the inspection and will share the findings on the Local Offer website once published.

In early 2021 Worcestershire Children First and Families in Partnership (FiP), Worcestershire’s parent carer forum sent out a joint parent carer survey to obtain the views of parents and carers about services in the area for their children and young people with Special Educational needs/disability (SEND). This is the second such survey and it went out during the third COVID-19 Lockdown.

This annual survey forms part of our improvement journey, we want to know what was working well and not working so well with our SEND Services and what parent and carers think needs to change.

The results from this survey have been analysed, compared to previous years, and shared with all the relevant parties for comment and action. We have worked together to produce a ‘You Said, We Did’ Report (YSWD). We have used this year’s results to continue to track our progress against commentary made in the 2020 YSWD.

Download: You Said, We Did Report 2021 (PDF)

The Educational Psychology Service is currently experiencing significant capacity issues due to a national shortage of Educational Psychologists.

Whilst the Service is working hard to secure additional psychology support there remains a backlog in the allocation of Psychologists for new EHC Needs Assessments.

There is currently a delay of up to 8 weeks in the allocation of new Educational Psychology Assessments which means that your child’s assessment may not take place during the statutory advice giving period. Once an Educational Psychologist has been allocated to provide an advice for a child they then have 6 weeks in which to carry out their assessment and to provide the SEND Service with their report. Every effort is being made for this delay not to impact on the statutory timescale for completion of the EHC Needs Assessment of 20 weeks.