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.