UPDATE NO 177 18 December 2015

The Data Benchmarking Group met on 16 December 2015 and received updates on the SEND project, CSE frameworks and adoption.

Ofsted attended the meeting and gave an update on latest developments.  A report on the work on definitions of referral and assessment was considered. Following a further questionnaire, to which 10 authorities responded, the group were reassured that there is enough common ground in the use of CIN census and Working Together definitions to justify sound benchmarking across the region. The report clearly identifies where there are differences between authorities and these differences can be taken into account by Directors when considering how their data compares with others in the group. 

Watch out for guidance on new Annexe A requirements in connection with new joint inspection arrangements which is expected in the new year.

Thanks to everyone for submitting signed data sharing protocols – there is now only one outstanding (Buckinghamshire).  

Date of next meeting Tuesday 22nd March 2016, Crawley Library.

The Adoption Leadership Board met in Wokingham on 17 December 2015.

Following on from recent announcements regarding regionalisation, the Board took the opportunity to review the position in each authority across the region. There are a number of active projects and all 19 authorities in the region are involved or taking part in discussions.  The Board noted capacity issues in dealing with the regionalisation agenda alongside other project work but it was agreed that some limited project work would continue, in the interests of improving outcomes for children, notably progress with the data analysis and understanding regional issues relating to harder to place children.  

Despite the fact that the overall regional expression of interest submitted to the DfE was not approved, The Board unanimously agreed that it would continue its role as a support to regionalisation projects, facilitating information sharing and examples of good practice.  The Board would also remain as a link between the projects and the DfE and National ALB.  

Date of the next meeting Friday 12 February 2016 at 11am in Wokingham.

South East IRO Network Regional Conference Friday 20 May 2016

More details from https://www.eventbrite.com/e/planning-for-permanence-tickets-19871007719?ref=wphero

SE IRON page at the National IRO Network website 

Sharon Martin, IRO Manager BHCC, Chair of SEIRON and Vice Chair of the National IRO Manager Partnership has written: 

“This conference aims to increase understanding of the role of permanence in children’s lives and enable participants to make permanence plans geared to improving the outcomes for children and young people. Participants will hear from people with direct experience of care, as well learn from key policy makers about how some services are implementing best practice. Attendance at this event will contribute to IROs ongoing learning and service development.”

Memorandum of Co-operation consultation closes on 21 December 2015

Please can you read the November 2015 MoC Update  and respond to the consultation by the 21^stDecember 2015

The MoC is now moving into a critical Phase of development; the November meeting of the implementation group made some key recommendations for the next stage of the project. It is particularly important that all authorities consider these recommendations and respond to the questions identified. The consultation includes proposed agency rates, start date for Phase 2 of the MoC and the length of the cooling off period for permanent staff wishing to move to agency working within the region. We would like to get the views of all authorities so we can move into the next phase of the work with confidence that there is a real commitment from the whole region.

South East Grid for Learning (SEGfL)

Heather Hadfield, Consortium Manager, South East Grid for Learning attended the AD Education Network meeting on Friday 18 December. She pointed the group in the direction of the SEGfL and NEN resources on Broadband, Software and Hardware procurement (consortium members have reported good savings for school and LA budgets). She also introduced the group to a wealth of Teaching and Learning material (both about ICT and a range of other topics) and Safeguarding protocols on Prevent, On-line safety and other e-Safety briefings

Please contact Heather Hadfield (see contact box below) to find out how you, your advisers, your governors services and your schools can access this material.

Follow the links in the Tools and Templates box below to see some of the material.

Date for third workshop in early 2016 to be announced.

Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) and Data Benchmarking

One aspect of the benchmarking that still needs addressing is consultation with SEND Service Managers about how they might use the reports. The question being “Is this data, in this format what you need to benchmark and help develop your services?”. Tracey Maytas and Alastair Lee (contact details in box below) have agreed to take this forward.

SESLIP Steering Group meets next on Monday 11 January 2016; SE ADCS meets on Friday 15 January 2016

At the recent SE ADCS meeting there was an initial discussion about the content, budget and subscription levels for the SESLI Programme in 2016-17. The SESLIP Steering Group meets next on 11 January 2016, and it will make recommendations to the next SE ADCS meeting on 15 January 2016.

There are new pressures on the budget arising from (among other things):  the success of the Leadership Development, and the spending of the inherited legacy funds (£75k over two years)  calls on the benchmarking group to publish more suites of indicators  the success of the early help and SEND groups  demand to further develop the Children’s Social Care Workforce initiative. If you have any thoughts about what the programme should include (or exclude) and how the subscription level might be pitched, please contact Janette Karklins or Stuart Gallimore before 11 January 2016. A reminder that the current subscription level is £12,500 per county and £6,250 per unitary.

20 and 21 January 2016 – Peer Challenge

The next Peer Challenge visit will be to Windsor and Maidenhead on the topic of Referral and Assessment.

It will be led by Barbara Peacock (Medway), accompanied by Liz Rugg (ESCC), Vikki Blakeston (MKC) and Emma Cockerell (Brighton and Hove).

3rd February 2016

Leadership Development

A second Train the Trainer course is being planned for 3rd February 2016. All enquiries to Di Smith please (see contact box below).