ASEND Newsletter - Winter 2011n - Contact us for a copy

ASEND Steering Group

ASEND has a steering group of professionals to advise and guide the organisation.  The group meet on a regular basis to discuss matters of policy and strategy.  


Each person brings expertise from a different discipline to bear on the discussions - from therapies to social care, school improvement to advisory services for schools.


This photo was taken after our recent meeting.  Unfortunately Amita Raval was unable to make the meeting - but from L to R we have Barbara Ball, Paddy McCaffrey, Karen Walkden, Pip Hardaker and Karen Castle.

TES Resources Exhibition

Sometimes you need to pause, take a breath and talk to other people working in the same field.  Conferences and exhibitions provide a great opportunity to do this - and ASEND are keen to get out there and exchange views and ideas, for the wider benefit of disabled children and young people.


On Friday 9th December Barbara Ball and Karen Walkden attended the TES Resource Exhibition in Islington.  There were a variety of stands and exhibits, and we were able to explore some possible collaborative working opportunities - as well as to pick up some useful resources and information.


So far we have not found anyone who is providing services to schools in quite the way that we do.  But we have had some interest from organisations working in allied fields.  We are not an agency, but provide very experienced Advisors to support schools in developing their SEN skills - this could focus on one child, a small group of children, or be about a whole school approach.


Every time we go to an exhibition we come back with a cotton bag full of contacts.  On this occasion we will be following up the SEN provision on offer to a group of academies, as well as exploring scope to work with an agency providing staff to South London schools.


Our next conference is in February 2012 - SEN - Shaping the Future.  More details to follow.

New Schools Network event

We were really pleased to be able to go along to the New Schools Network event recently.

This was a gathering for those planning to set up Free Schools.

There was a real feeling of excitement and the pioneering spirit was much in evidence.  The headline speakers shared their experiences and highlighted both the benefits and the practical difficulties they had encountered.

Rachel Wolf spoke of the strategy for Free Schools and the raft of supports available.

At this stage there was no real reference to SEN provision, which is a shame.   There is a real opportunity to develop whole school approaches to inclusion at the outset of the planning process.   Children and young people with SEN will feature within the pupil populations in free schools - we know this purely on a statistical basis.

The next stage for ASEND is to explore ways that we can support Free Schools and equip them to respond to the needs of SEN pupils.

We'll keep you posted.

Less than 2 hours to go till the ASEND Networking Event

ASEND Networking Event - 17th November 2011

We are really looking forward to meeting many of you at our free ASEND Networking event on the evening of 17th November 2011.

If you are interested in finding out a bit more about ASEND, and are thinking about joining us as an ASEND Advisor, then this could be the perfect opportunity for you.

Contact karen.walkden@asend.co.uk for details of the North London venue, and to book your place.

We hope to run these events on a termly basis - so that existing and prospective Advisors have a chance to come together in a relaxed setting to connect with one another.  It will also give us an opportunity to talk about ASEND developments, and to create continuing professional development time across all the different specialisms.

See you there!

A report from ASEND's Professional Consultant - Children’s Language & Communication Needs: Evaluating Intervention and Provision in Schools One Day Conference – Sat 15th October 2011

ASEND are committed to staying at the forefront of developments in the world of SEN.  Amita Raval reports back from a conference exploring children's language and communication needs.  Here are her reflections on the day:

Bright and very early on a Saturday morning, the Professional Consultant for ASEND set off from London for Sheffield to attend the much anticipated conference organised by the University of Sheffield and De Montfort University.

The conference aimed to:

·       Consider children with SLCN within the context of the 2011 Green Paper of SEN; and

·       Explore processes for evaluating impact and outcomes of interventions, educational programmes and provisions for children with Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN).

The oversubscribed conference was attended by a wide range of professionals including specialist teachers, SLTs, psychologists and academics.  Mary Hartshorne, Head of Quality and Outcomes for ICAN, gave an eloquent presentation on “The future of SEN: Implications for Children and Young People (CAYP) with SLCN.”

Future of SEN?

Unclear picture however SLCN has a very high profile currently as a result of various events and reports including:

·       RCSLT’s Giving Voice – SLT transforms lives – campaign

·       Hello – the National Year of Communication

·       “No Excuses Report”

·       Allen & Field reports

·       New level  3 award in children’s  SLC

·       Behaviour and discipline in schools

What is central to the change in the way forward?

The Green Paper (GP)

What are the key headlines of the GP?

·       Single assessment process

·       Education, health and care plan

·       Local offer for parents, giving parents control

·       Personal budgets by 2014

·       New single early years and school based category

·       Independence to assessment of needs

·       Clear commissioning and funding arrangements for specialist provision

What are some of the other key initiatives?

·       Lamb Review

·       Ofsted SEN Review

·       Liberating the NHS

·       New OFSTED framework

·       New EYFS framework

·       The importance of teaching

·       Academics

·       Revised curriculum

What is the key message?

Transfer of powers to the local schools.

Implications for CAYP, parents, schools/SENCos and others?

1.     Positives: early identification, focus on outcomes, workforce development and parental involvement.

2.     Risks/concerns: joint commissioning, continuity, hidden difficulty, marketisation.

Way forward in relation to SLCN & SEN?

A need for:

·       Effective and strategic joint service-wide commissioning

·       Common understanding between health and education

·       Measuring impact and outcomes

·       Effective interventions and evaluating practice.

In relation to the very important theme of evaluating practice, Professor Jannet Wright, De Montfort University gave a comprehensive presentation on the need to prove that it works and how to explore the process of evaluating practice.

This theme was further reinforced by Dr Judy Clegg and Dr Maggie Vance, University of Sheffield. They gave an informative presentation on how to conduct single case studies as a way of engaging in evidence based practice in real life contexts and contributing to the evidence base.

Silke Fricke, University of Sheffield gave an extremely interesting, useful and in-depth presentation on a study conducted to measure the effectiveness of a school-based oral language intervention -The Nuffield Language 4 Reading project (L4R).

Rationale:

Strong theoretical and practical rationale for a school-based intervention programme to target oral language skills at preschool and early school age.

Implications drawn from the Study’s Summary & Conclusions:

·       Oral language skills can be promoted as early as pre-school to provide a better foundation for the development of reading comprehension.

·       Further evidence that school-based oral language interventions can be successfully delivered by trained and supported teaching assistants.

·       Important step towards developing effective interventions that can be applied successfully in real-world setting of schools and are cost-effective.

Fiona Wiseman also talked about how the Meath Speech and Language Therapy Department measures progress in children with severe and complex SLCN.

What a day!!!…an added bonus to the day was the wonderful bright sunshine and the alfresco lunch……

Amita Raval

Professional Consultant for ASEND

Help! My SENCO is going!

Just imagine that your wonderful SENCO decides to move on, is taken ill or for whatever reason is absent for a significant period of time.  Who do you have in your current team who could step into the role and keep everything moving?  It is a complex and unique role in a school leadership team, and not an easy post to fill.


We sincerely hope that this thought doesn't keep you awake at night.  But having raised this possibility, we are happy to be able to allay your concerns.


ASEND have experienced SENCOs ready and waiting to interim manage your vacancy.  This could be to cover a period of illness, a maternity leave - or just to give you enough time to think through what you really need from the role - and to take your time to recruit accordingly.


Another solution might be to engage an ASEND advisor to work alongside a newly appointed SENCO in a mentoring or coaching capacity.   Nurturing a potential SENCO is time consuming, but what satisfaction to be able to offer support and see someone's skills and knowledge grow.


Contact us to talk about your needs.

Fall in LA SEN staff numbers

The Times Educational Supplement ran a recent article on SEN staffing levels in English local authorities.  Alarmingly there seems to have been a reduction of 11% since 2009 - bringing SEN department staff numbers across the country to just over 2000. 


There are concerns about LAs' abilities to implement the changes proposed in the Green Paper - let alone maintain current levels of service to schools and families.


This does prompt questions about the best way to support SEND in schools, and perhaps this is the time to look at other models - including direct commissioning by schools where LA resources are tight or thresholds have been raised.   There is also an issue about the loss of valuable expertise.  We hope that ASEND has a part to play in the overall picture here.  Many of our advisors have LA experience, as advisory teachers, former SENCOs or educational psychologists.


If you are a school considering how to plan provision for your SEND pupils - then do contact us to talk about ways that we can support you.

CAMHS Professionals - This is for you...

Are you a professional with experience in child and adolescent mental health?

Would you appreciate the opportunity to work with a multi-disciplinary team?

Perhaps you are keen to have a more flexible work life, taking on assignments in schools as they arise.  If this is a picture that resonates with you, then we should talk.  ASEND is recruiting now, and we are particularly keen to hear from people who have knowledge and expertise around disability and mental health.

Contact barbara.ball@asend.co.uk to talk about ways that we could work together to the benefit of children and young people with SEN, disability and mental health issues.

A couple of case studies

Here are just a couple of ways that we have worked with schools recently.  It gives you a small taste of the way that ASEND advisors work, and the contribution that we can make to provision for disabled and SEN children in schools.

Need a SENCO?

A school in London approached ASEND for a consultant SENCO when they had a vacancy.  ASEND worked with staff to promote quality first teaching throughout the school, reducing numbers on the SEN register whilst improving pupil progress. The consultant streamlined the review process, supported the recruitment of a permanent first class SENCO and continued to liaise with the school as a “critical friend”. As a result, staff and parent confidence has risen and pupil outcomes are much improved.

Improving provision for children with learning difficulties

The head of a primary school asked ASEND to help them to plan for and monitor the progress of a group of children with learning difficulties, some of whom had additional needs.  ASEND’s specialist teacher provided training for teachers and teaching assistants on P Levels, communication and personalisation of the curriculum and modelled lessons. Progress was good for both disabled children and their non-disabled peers.

Contact us at barbara.ball@asend.co.uk to talk about ways that we can help your school.

ASEND news for September

After a busy summer preparing to launch ASEND we are now working with a number of schools.

It has been an exciting journey and we have had a lot of support and encouragement.  Schools seem keen to involve us in the delivery of high quality support for disabled pupils, and our Advisor recruitment is well underway.

If you are interested in working with ASEND as an Advisor then please contact us for an Expression of Interest form.  Or you might like to come along to our Welcome Event just after half term.

We are recruiting specialist advisory teachers, educational psychologists, former headteachers from mainstream and special schools, as well as a variety of therapists, social workers and health professionals with expertise in the area of disability and SEN.

The launch of so many new Free schools this September is an interesting development in the world of education.  One thing that we are keen to do is to make contact with some of these evolving educational establishments to explore creative ways to include disabled children in the classroom.  

September is also transition time for many disabled children - whether from nursery to school, primary to secondary school or from school to college.   We can support you to address any emerging needs presented by these changes - and develop plans accordingly.  Do get in touch if this is an issue for your school.

Introducing ASEND

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