Southend SEND Independent Forum - 2023 Overview

Irvana Davies • January 19, 2024

SSIF had a productive 2023 and wanted to share with you a roundup of events and achievements undertaken by the PCF (Parent Carer Forum) over the course of the year:


Last January saw the team working on plans & developments for the year to come.


February we attended the NNPCF & Contact Conference in Bristol – it was great to see what being part of a PCF means on a national level and to meet colleagues & like minded ParentCarers from the 150+ other PCFs across the country.

We also received notice that Southend would have a full area SEND inspection under the Department of Education New Framework being 4th in the country & 1st in the region.


Ofsted and CQC carried out an inspection of Southend SEND services from 6th – 10th March 2023. Your voices were shared directly with Inspectors through the survey that was completed prior to the inspection. We are really pleased that so many SEND families responded to ensure their views and experiences were heard and considered.

The result was an Inconsistent outcome and the report was published.  Read the Ofsted and CQC Report.

The Inspectors found that the experiences of children and young people with SEND in Southend-on-Sea can be very varied and the report reflects the experiences and feedback we have received from our families. We acknowledge that the Local Authority and Health services have implemented changes and improvements to the SEND systems, however too often our children’s and young people’s needs are not met in a timely manner.

In March we held a free Wellbeing event for SEND ParentCarers in collaboration with N.O.W’s the time for change and Hands above Massage at the Cliffs Pavilion. There were lots of different taster sessions available such as growth mindset activities, emotional freedom tapping & reiki. The event was a great success and due to popular demand we are repeating this event, with even more therapies in March this year – please see dates for your diary section at the end of this article.


We continued our Coffee Mornings at SAVS in Alexandra Street which have grown from strength to strength. Many of you have benefited from speaking with the Specialist Services that join us such as SENDIASS, Advisory SENCOs, Representatives from The Lighthouse Child Development Centre among others. We continue to run these monthly with Chaos and Calm, who provide a free, fun-themed, SEND specific creche to enable any ParentCarers who have little ones to attend our sessions.


In June we were joined by Mrunal Sisodia OBE & Jo Harrison (Essex Family Forum) & Eastern Region Rep who spoke about Understanding The Role of the PCF, from a Local, Regional & National perspective.

 

A large portion of our year was spent working on the SEND Strategy & The Strategic Action Plan, which were finally published in the Autumn Term.


On Friday 6 October, in conjunction with the Southend SEND Area Partnership we organised a SEND Area Partnership Network Event to explain and discuss more about -


Ø role of the SEND Area Partnership;

Ø outcome of the Ofsted and CQC inspection;

Ø the Southend SEND Network;

Ø the SEND Strategic Action Plan;

Ø the SEND Strategy.


And were thrilled to launch our Family Feedback Survey so you can tell us what life is like as a SEND family in Southend – what works, what doesn’t and everything in between!

We need to hear your stories so we can ensure we are representing the actual lived experience of SEND ParentCarers across our City. 

SSIF works with (not for) the council, health and social care and we use the views and experiences you share with us to influence and inform the provision and services used by our children & young people and how things can be improved for them.

 

In November we took part in the NNPCF & Contact AGM, webinars & on-line conference.


For the Festive session at our SAVS Coffee Morning it was lovely to welcome back some of you who had joined us at various events throughout the year to share some festive treats and receive an early Christmas Gifts for both ParentCarers & our Creche attendees.

 

As you can see it was a busy year and 2024 promises more of the same plus some exciting new developments….


SSIF EVENTS - DATES FOR YOUR DIARY THIS TERM:


Tuesday 5th March

SSIF Parent Carer Wellbeing Day at The Cliffs Pavilion – as always advance information & priority booking will be given to our membership for this free event – so sign up today to become a member via the Join Us link in the top left hand corner above.


Thursday 7th March

SSIF Seminar on Early Identification & SEND Support in Schools


SSIF – ParentCarer Feedback Survey


SSIF continue to represent SEND families voices in Southend, to ensure that the necessary changes are implemented to best meet the needs of our children and young people.


One of the ways we do that is by gathering information from you, thank you so much to everyone who has taken the time to give their feedback so far, your lived experiences help shape our work and we could not do this without you – you can give us feedback on anything that you want - the good, the bad and everything in-between.

Complete our survey.

Improving the way Ofsted inspects education

February 7, 2025
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 Autism Hub

February 3, 2025
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 .

ISOS Report Update from the National Network of Parent Carers (NNPCF)

January 28, 2025
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 Seminar - Support Plans and Support Whilst Waiting for EHCNA or EHCP

By Irvana Davies • January 6, 2025
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.
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