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Please share this newsletter with colleagues and parent carers. If you know of anyone who would like to be added to the distribution list, please let us know.
The next edition of the SEND & Inclusion Newsletter will be issued in December 2022, copy deadline 1 December 2022. We welcome your ideas for articles - please contact Kathryn Kellagher.
Welcome to the first newsletter of the academic year, which we know comes at a time of both renewed optimism as we plan for the achievements of our children and young people, but also significant challenge. We know there is financial pressure for our schools and families, as well as increasing anxiety in managing life in an uncertain world, sometimes without the services available to provide the support needed in the most timely way.
We are aware of the increasing demand on our own services, with high numbers of requests for Education, Health and Care Needs Assessments (EHCNAs) leading to longer waiting times, due to limited capacity within the system. We already know there has to be a tight focus on meeting the needs of the child during this time through the Assess, Plan, Do, Review process and that schools are able to provide on-going support in the majority of cases.
With this in mind, we want to ensure support is in place at every stage of a child’s journey and would like to remind schools to contact your Specialist Teachers teams and, where relevant, the Early Help Designated Schools team.
The links below (Tools for Schools, Services to Support Schools, training in Therapeutic Thinking) are useful reminders of the advice and guidance available to schools, which are key to our SEND and Inclusion Strategy. I am including a reminder of our shared priorities to inform our planning for the new academic year:
Priority 1: Knowing our children and families well (an inclusive, person-centred approach)
Children/young people and their families will:
- Have their educational needs understood and planned for as early as possible to ensure they feel valued.
- Understand and have confidence in the SEND services available in West Sussex, whether that is within health, education, social care, or the voluntary sector.
Priority 2: Meeting the needs of children and young people through our schools, educational settings, and services
West Sussex will have:
- A skilled, confident, and resilient workforce with high quality schools and services that can meet the educational, social and emotional needs of all children and young people
- A consistent graduated approach that will “assess, plan, do and review” the support that has been put in place to meet the needs of each child and young person with SEND.
Priority 3: Working together towards solutions (collective responsibility)
Everyone involved in supporting the needs of West Sussex children and young people will:
- Experience services, systems and processes which support schools and settings to meet needs and to access timely, appropriate, and relevant information
- Think creatively to develop solutions that meet the needs of children and young people with SEND as close to home as possible, ideally within West Sussex
- Have quality assurance in place to ensure consistent, effective, and inclusive provision and practice
As always, thank you for your commitment and hard work in supporting us to achieve our shared priorities.
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 With the start of the new school year, we thought it might be helpful to remind you how to find information on Tools for Schools. This is where we house resources and information to support the inclusion of all West Sussex children and young people in early years, schools, post 16 and other education settings.
Tools for Schools is divided up into four categories:
 There is a wealth of information under each of these categories, including, under the SEND Toolkit category, the web version of the Ordinarily Available Inclusive Practice guide, or OAIP (hard copies of this can be purchased via the store function on West Sussex Services For Schools). The OAIP highlights the expectations and effective strategies that should ordinarily be provided for a child or young person without the need for an Education Health and Care Plan.
The OAIP has an Early Years Annex which highlights some tailored approaches for our youngest children. This is also where you will fine some free useful Early Years e-learning modules, produced in response to the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic had on the developmental starting points of children in Reception.
It's also worth keeping an eye on our blog posts. This month we have Triggers and Glimmers, a post from our Special Advisory Teaching Service (SATS) about how we can support children when they are feeling overwhelmed.
A useful summary, recently updated, which acts as a handy reminder of the support and services available to support your inclusive practice, within school, locally, and from teams at West Sussex County Council.
 Who are we?
We support schools and other agencies to plan and enable a positive experience for children with additional needs as they transition from home and/or pre-school to Reception.
These new roles are part of the council’s SEND and Inclusion Strategy, (2019-2024). They work closely with the SEND and Inclusion Advisers, and the Standards and Effectiveness team.
What we do
We currently provide advice and guidance to schools to support the transition of children with additional needs into Reception. Children can be referred to this service at any time, in consultation with parents.
Other teams, such as Portage, the Fair Access Team and SENAT can also refer children to this service, in consultation with parents. The referral forms can be accessed via the SEND and Inclusion Advisory Team webpage on Services for Schools.
SAT’s attend locality ‘SEND Under 5’s’ meetings with the Early Years and Childcare Team to discuss support for pre-schools, children and their families, to help them plan a successful transition to school.
In the future SAT’s hope to offer bespoke training for schools regarding specific areas of Early Years SEND transition and a bookable telephone consultation service.
How to contact us
For more information visit https://schools.westsussex.gov.uk/Services/3144
The Learning and Behaviour Advisory Team have recently relaunched their schools award for achieving a dyslexia friendly classroom to include dyscalculia. The newly named “Dyslexia & Dyscalculia Inclusive Practice Award” is designed to raise knowledge and understanding of specific literacy and numeracy difficulties, improve classroom practice and develop the ability to support individual pupils throughout a setting.
Dyscalculia has been included in order to recognise the importance of identifying and supporting those students with significant difficulties in understanding number which then impacts widely on both learning maths and managing with number in everyday life. Click here for more information on dyscalculia.
In May and June, nineteen schools in West Sussex attended the three days of training which focussed on creating an inclusive classroom to meet the needs of pupils with dyslexia and other related literacy difficulties and dyscalculia and numeracy difficulties. The advantages of a neurodiverse brain were celebrated, and a strengths-based model promoted. Good practice was shared by schools and the training also included a personal story of the everyday challenges of having severe dyscalculia. The schools will be supported (online) to reach agreed standards in order to achieve the award by summer 2023, following a moderation visit.
The schools were all highly enthusiastic and tailor-made the developments to suit their school, based on auditing their current classroom practice and planning next steps to fit alongside current school developments and to meet the needs of their pupils.
The DaDIPA award is unique to West Sussex and an excellent way to develop inclusive good practice that is recognised locally. The last group of schools to achieve the previously known DASA award (Dyslexia Aware Schools Award), during the Covid closures, spoke very positively about the developments in their schools. See here for more information.
A second cohort of schools will be recruited ready for training in the Spring term. Please e-mail vicki.lader@westsussex.gov.uk for more information or to be placed on the waiting list.
For more training opportunities delivered by the LBAT team click here.
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‘Therapeutic Thinking approaches to behaviour management’ is a 3-day training event that is used to review and re-focus whole school behaviour management systems, policy and culture. In doing this, the school or setting is better able to manage the needs of children who may have experienced Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and / or trauma.
You can find out about how Therapeutic Thinking is being successfully implemented in West Sussex educational settings on Tools for Schools:
Upcoming course dates
- 1st-3rd November 2022
- 21st-23rd February 2023
- 13th-15th June 2023
- 3rd-5th October 2023
How do I book?
Places can be booked through West Sussex Services for Schools.
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Childnet, a partner in the UK Safer Internet Centre, have recently announced the launch of the brand new Thrive Online resources. These resources are designed to empower young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) to build happy and healthy online relationships.
The Thrive Online resources cover the important topics of healthy online relationships, digital wellbeing, and online pornography. There are also resources specifically for parents and carers of young people aged 11 and over with SEND.
Through working with and listening to young people, educators, and parents, Thrive Online provides relevant and age-appropriate resources to empower young people online.
For educators, each topic contains a series of three lessons and films designed to initiate discussion, help young people navigate online spaces, learn essential strategies, and recognise the impact of online behaviour and actions.
Each topic area has its own specific resource and learning objectives:
• Digital wellbeing
• Healthy online relationships
• Online pornography
The resources for parents and carers are designed to help spark conversations and help parents support their child around the topics of online pornography, healthy relationships and digital wellbeing.
Each parent resource contains a downloadable pdf with key information and conversations starters, as well as videos answering frequently asked questions from parents and carers.
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 11-to 25-year-olds we need you!
Take part in the new West Sussex SEND and Inclusion Youth Board
West Sussex County Council want to hear from young people as the experts on their own lives.
The new youth board is a supportive and inclusive space for young people to have their say and work with the SEND and Inclusion Partnership Board to improve services, celebrate what works well and challenge what needs to change.
Online open evening Wednesday 2 November 4-6pm Book here
Lunchtime drop in Weds 26th October 12pm until 1.30pm @ Creative Heart community hub and café, Littlehampton. Refreshments provided. No need to book, just pop in and say hello. Parent carers will need to stay on site but can relax in the café once their young person is settled and signed in.
To find out more….
Watch the video
Download our leaflet
Register for info and updates
Young Voices half term creative session
Are you a parent/carer of a child or young person, aged 6-16 years, who has autism or social communication differences?
The CUEs course is an excellent source of information for those who would like to develop strategies to help support their child/children to cope with intolerance of uncertainty (IU) in everyday situations.
The course is free of charge to families of children in West Sussex maintained schools, at this time.
Course Aims:
- To understand intolerance of uncertainty (IU) and how it relates to autistic children
- To work with parents to identify individually meaningful situations to focus on during the CUES© programme
- To help to identify helpful strategies to manage IU and increase tolerance to uncertainty
- To help to identify and reduce less helpful strategies that children might sometimes engage in during uncertain situations
- To develop a repertoire of helpful strategies to provide a more flexible approach to managing and increasing tolerance to IU
- To promote the use of helpful strategies to increase children’s tolerance of uncertainty
More information about the course can be found on the flyer.
We will be delivering this training at various times throughout the academic year, both in person, and face to face. There will be a limited number of spaces available for parent/carers to attend twilight sessions and we hope everyone interested is able to find a convenient time to attend.
Times, dates and venues (for face to face sessions) are yet to be confirmed, but to express an interest in attending this course, or for any further information, please email: Victoria.andrews@westsussex.gov.uk
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West Sussex County Council collects information about children and young people aged 0-25 with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) to help plan and deliver their services.
Who can sign up to the register? Young people between 0 and 25 years old who have a disability. By a disability we mean:
- Something that has a big effect on your day to day life
- Every day things might take more time, effort, planning or support
- You might need to do things differently or need more help than most other people your age
- Something you live with for life or have had for a long time
Parents, carers, and young people can complete our online form now to join the register. Once registered they can collect Max Card from their local library which offers discounts on national attractions.
Please share this information and encourage any families and young people that you work with to sign up.
Get in touch with the Disability Register Team if you have any questions or queries.
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 The SEND Awareness Season, a joint initiative brought to you by WSCC and the West Sussex Parent Carer Forum, is taking place from September to December. A key part of this is the development of a new events page on the Local Offer. We have pulled together several awareness-raising events happening in West Sussex this autumn, that will be of interest to practitioners and parent carers of young people with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities. The events range from training to fun things to do and the listings will be regularly updated. Please share with your families and encourage them to keep an eye on the Local Offer link to see what is available.
 Some of the services listed in this newsletter or on the Local Offer site are provided by private service providers and not by West Sussex County Council. These do not have a recommendation or endorsement from the local authority. If you decide to use a service / provision, you should be aware that you are responsible for doing your own checks to ensure they are suitable and fit for purpose. West Sussex County Council will not be liable for any damages or losses suffered by anyone who relies on the information in this newsletter.
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