Ofsted want to know what you think about their proposed plans for inspecting schools and other settings where children and adults learn. This includes:  early years state-funded schools non-association independent schools further education and skills ( FE and skills) initial teacher education ( ITE ) In summary, they propose: Report cards – these would give parents and carers more detailed information than the current reports, including a new 5-point grading scale to evaluate more areas of a provider’s work and short summaries of what inspectors found. Education inspection toolkits – this tool shows providers and inspectors the evaluation areas that we’ll focus inspections on and how we’ll assess and grade providers (scroll down to see our toolkits). Inspection methodology – changes to how we carry out inspection. Full inspections and monitoring inspections, state-funded schools – we plan to end ungraded inspections of state-funded schools and change our monitoring programmes so that we can check that timely action is taken to raise standards. Identifying state-funded schools causing concern – a new approach to how we’ll place a school into a category of concern. Read the full report and respond to the consultation.

Kids the charity Autism HUB. Are you a young autistic person who has just been diagnosed? Are you a parent wondering how best to support your autistic child? Do you want to connect with people like you? Then The Kids Autism HUB could be for you. The Kids Autism Hub is for young people aged 12 – 25 who are newly diagnosed with autism, young people who are on the diagnosis pathway, and the family members of those young people. It is now possible to self - refer and you can find out more information and how to do this on the KIDS Website .

You may recall that in July, the Local Government Association (LGA) and County Councils Network (CCN), in partnership with ISOS, published a report titled “Towards an Effective and Financially Sustainable Approach to Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEND) in England.” In their response, NNPCF expressed their hope that the report would serve as a platform for initiating important conversations and welcomed greater involvement with LGA and CCN moving forward. As a result, NNPCF has been credited by ISOS for helping use their report as a “platform” to discuss SEND reform. Read more about the ISOS Report.

SSIF invite ParentCarers of Children with SEND to our third Seminar this year. ‘Support Plans, ISPs, Support Whilst Waiting for EHCNA and EHCP’ is the third in a series of valuable an informative events for ParentCarers that will run throughout the year. This seminar is aimed at ParentCarers who are not sure of the support and information available to them and their families whilst they are waiting for an Education and Health Care Needs Assessment (EHCNA) or an Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP). We will aim to answer questions such as: What is an Individual Support Plan (ISP), and who is it for? What are Reasonable Adjustments and can I expect them to be made for my child? What is the SEN Register? What is SEN Support? What can I do to support my child or young person at home? Are there any workshops or webinars I can access? We have a panel of professionals from the Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEND) Team, Health and Education, who will talk about what support is available and how to find it. They will also bust some common myths. We are inviting ParentCarers to submit any questions they have for the panel by email, by Monday 20th January 2025, via email, to jody@southendsendindependentforum.org.uk There will also be an opportunity for people to participate in a co-production session to develop a useful route map/flow chart of the Support Whilst Waiting process. Book your ticket here.

One of our favourite Events is our regular monthly coffee morning, where Parent Carers can get together to share their experiences. Every month we have the Local Offer team with us and invite 1 or 2 additional special guests from for example Health, Social Care, Education and more, to offer guidance and advice. There is also a sensory play creche available for your little ones aged 0-5 with Chaos & Calm. Come along and chat to other ParentCarers, get advice from one of our SEND support service guests and enjoy a hot drink with something sweet. Booking is not required.

We host in-person Seminars at the Civic Centre, Victoria Avenue, Southend-on-Sea, SS2 6ER, covering a wide range of SEND related topics. We invite a varied panel of professionals to provide information and guidance to ParentCarers of children and young people with SEND (aged 0-25). Our events are hosted together with guest speakers from the Local Authority, Health Services, Education Services and more. Save the dates for our upcoming Seminars in 2025! We will release further details and confirm guest speakers nearer the time.