EVERY PARENT & CHILD SENDIASS NEWS September 2018 Welcome back to our newsletter. We will now produce this newsletter bi-monthly and hope to make it more responsive and participatory for all our users. Features include: Young Person s Blog. Legal updates on new cases, legislation and government initiatives in the field of SEND. A new email forum that will allow you all to tell us what you would like to be included in our future newsletters as well as what training courses and topics that you would like further information on. We will of course, continue to update you on all our activities, advertise any training that we are conducting as well as what s on in the Local Area that may be of interest.
UPDATE August has been a much quieter month due to the summer vacation. It has given the SEND IASS team a chance to catch up on vital paperwork and plan for the start of the new academic year 2018-2019! During the summer break we were able to hold a Circle of Friends Summer Club. This was a club run from 15.30-18.00 every Wednesday for six weeks. The club catered for the ages of 8-25. Although we had a slow uptake, by the last session, the club was well attended and proved to be a hit!. Watch this space for future clubs to be held during school holidays. Also, a big thank you to Naime and Dominique, our committed and dedicated volunteers that helped to run the club, without their help the club would not have been able to go ahead. September is a start of a very busy period where we always see an increase in the demand for our services. With the closure of the Independent Support Service in July 2018 we are now two members of staff down, as such we are reviewing the way that we deliver our service, with now an increased emphasis on the training and use of volunteers. As you will note in the later section of the newsletter, we continue to recruit volunteers to cover the shortfall in staff numbers. We are now in a position to offer a detailed training and support programme for all volunteers. Upon completion of the training all volunteers will now receive a Certificate of Completion. September also sees the start of our new working partnership with the solicitors firm, Boyes Turner LLP. Boyes Turner LLP has agreed to run a monthly pro bono legal clinic from the offices of Every Parent & Child. We are delighted at this new partnership and feel that it goes further to enrich the excellent service that we provide in respect to advice & information. We have a launch event on Wednesday 19 th September 2018 from 10am-1pm at Community House. Please come along and register for the event and receive top quality training and information on SEND appeal and avenues of redress. We also have our Parents Steering Group and the Young Peoples Steering Group (YPSG) that continue to thrive. This month we wish to invite all members of the Parents Steering Group to join us at our launch event on 19 th September hence no separate meeting will be held. Our YPSG continues to be popular and the numbers continue to increase. Please see a flyer for the YPSG later in this newsletter for details of future meetings. Subsequent to the success of our Young Peoples Summer Fest, we are delighted to announce that our Key Note Speaker at the event Abdi Omar has agreed to become an Ambassador for Every Parent & Child. Thank you so much Abdi!, We look forward to working closely with you. As you can see we have a very busy period ahead and hope to see as many of you as possible at all our forthcoming events.
Young Person s Blog Name: Lawrence Dappah Age: 19 Involvement with EPC: Member of Young Peoples Steering Group ( YPSG ) What are my hobbies/interests: Going to Cinema. An interesting but previously unknown fact about me: I am a good friend. What I would like to share about my SEN Experience: My journey has been difficult at times but it has been improved by attending a training centre, First rung and having 1-1 support. My future aspirations: I would be an officer/it worker. I would like to find a part time job at weekends as I am currently in full time education. Anything else you wish to add: I enjoy coming to the YPSG. I like the interesting topics discussed. I like not feeling alone.
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE SENDIASS TEAM! We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Mary Mannion, Florence Mampasi and Marie-Gisele Atundu on successfully completing their NVQ Level 4 in Advice and Guidance. We know that you have all worked very hard to successfully complete the course. Well done team SEND IASS!. With such a talented team we cannot help but go from strength to strength!. Conmgratulations to Gregor for bring awarded EPC VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR 2018/18. We would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate our dedicated volunteer, Gregor. Gregor was nominated and awarded a trophy at our Annual General Meeting in July 2018 as our Volunteer of the year. Gregor was awarded the trophy for his dedication, commitment and contribution to the SEND IAS Service. Gregor brings a wealth of expertise and experience to our service and we are very lucky to have him on board.
Every Parent & Child PRO BONO LAW CLINIC Every Parent and Child is very pleased to announce a working partnership with Boyes Turner LLP. Boyes Turner LLP is a top ranked special educational needs solicitors firm. Boyes Turner LLP has agreed to run a monthly telephone pro bono advice clinic. The telephone pro bono advice clinic will run from the EPC Offices every last Thursday in the month. The clinic will run from 14.00-16.00 hrs. The clinic will be run with a combination of pre-organised telephone appointments and a drop-in service. The clinic dates for the remainder of the year will be: Thursday 27 th September 2018 Thursday 25 th October 2018 Thursday 29 th November 2018 Thursday 20 th December 2018 If you would like obtain some legal advice regarding your child s SEN needs please call to book an appointment slot or drop-in during our advice clinic, clients will be seen on a first come, first served basis. Please note that we have limited appointment slots and we reserve the right to turn clients away if all allotted slots for the clinic have been taken. If you have any questions concerning the above or wish to book an appointment slot, please call the SEND IASS Service on 020 8373 6273 or email me lina.parmar@epandc.org.uk. In celebration of our new partnership working we are having a launch event on Wednesday 19 th September 2018 from 10.00-13.00hrs, for details of the event, please see flyer below.
Additional Training Opportunities: TOPIC: SCHOOL EXCLUSIONS WHY: You will learn about: The types of exclusion Legislation relating to exclusions How to work with the school on the decision to exclude your child/young person. WHO FOR For parents of children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disability and children who are at risk of exclusion from school DATE: Wednesday 10 th October 2018 TIME: 10am- 12 noon Venue: Community House, 311 Fore Street, London N9 0PZ To book a place, please email: Mary.Mannion@epandc.org.uk
Volunteering Opportunities with SEND IASS Friends of Independent Parent Support (IPS) We work with many vulnerable families who rely on our staff for information and support when working with professionals in order to meet their children s special educational needs. Part of your role is to provide support and assistance to parents during: Educational Health Care (EHC) Meetings Annual Reviews School Exclusion meeting The Volunteer IPS will assist the parent by: Providing moral support Taking notes Helping organise documents and case papers as needed Quietly support and guide the parent as required. The Friends of IPS Volunteers will not Act as an advocate for the parent Manage the matter outside of the meeting or review Act as an agent for the parent ALL IPS s will have to undertake a thorough training course after which s/he will join our bank of IPS s available to support parents and carers at future meetings and reviews. If you are interested in this role and would like to know more please contact our Volunteer Co-ordinator, Renata Carlet. Please contact Renata via email on Email: Renata.Carlet@EPandC.org.uk
Please note that there are other opportunities that are currently available at SEND IASS, notably SENDIASS Helpline Volunteers. Please contact Renata for more details. We now run a Volunteer Training Programme for all volunteers. The training will consist of three 3 hours training sessions. Upon completing each training session the volunteer will receive a Certificate of completion. YOUNG PEOPLES STEERING GROUP Are you a young person with an Education, Health Care Plan /or have special educational needs/disabilities? Are you aged between 14-25 years old? Do you want to have your views heard? Do you want to make a difference to the society you live in? If you answer is YES to all of the above, we would love to hear from you. We facilitate an YPSG on the last Wednesday of each month. During each session we hold workshops that the members of the YPSG have requested. We try to make the sessions informative, interactive & fun! Please come & join us. If you are interested in joining our YPSG, please email us on enquiries @epandc.org.uk or call us on 020 8736243. DATES OF FUTURE MEETINGS: 2018 Wednesday 26TH September Wednesday 24TH October Wednesday 28TH November TIME OF YPSG: 16:00-18:00 PM VENUE: EVERY PARENT & CHILD, COMMUNITY HOUSE, 311 FORE STREET, LONDON. N9 0PZ
Legal Updates CDC Case law update 27 This update is intended to provide general information about recent decisions of the courts and Upper Tribunal which are relevant to disabled children, young people, families and professionals. It cannot and does not provide advice in relation to individual cases. Where legal issues arise specialist legal advice should be taken in relation to the particular case. CB V Birmingham CC [2018] UKUT 13 (AAC) The Upper Tribunal dismissed an appeal in relation to a decision by a local authority not to make an EHC Plan and gave guidance on the test for when a Plan should be made. Case Overview: Having carried out an EHC needs assessment, the local authority decided not to make an EHC Plan for K, a girl aged nearly 10 with dyslexia and dyscalculia. K s parents appealed to the First-tier Tribunal ( FtT ) which dismissed their appeal. The parents made a further appeal to the Upper Tribunal ( UT ) which also dismissed their appeal, giving useful general guidance on the legal test for when an EHC Plan needs to be issued. The first ground of appeal turned on the question of what necessary means in section 37 of the Children and Families Act 2014, which establishes the test for when an EHC Plan should be made. The UT Judge highlighted a previous decision that necessary means somewhere between indispensable and useful. In another previous decision, the test was said to be (1) whether the provision identified as necessary for the child in the assessment was in fact available within the resources normally available to a mainstream school, and if so (2) whether the school could reasonably be expected to make such provision from within its own resources. This is broadly reflected in para 9.55 of the current SEND Code of Practice. The UT Judge held as follows in relation to SEN funding; The funding for the preponderance of pupils with SEN at a mainstream school is intended to come, as before from the school s annual delegated budget and its notional SEN budget of 6,000. The school is expected to exhaust the 6000 before asking for a top up funding from the LA. The Judge then went on to hold that:
1. There is a clear, albeit rough and ready resource line to be crossed before an EHC Plan is considered to be necessary. It is based on the kinds of provision a school could make from its own notional SEN budget. 2. The provision the local authorities expects to make available as published in its local offer is a relevant consideration in working out what will, on balance, be available from a school s internal resources. On the parents second ground in relation to the availability of skilled and experienced teachers within mainstream schools, the Judge held that it was not necessary for the local authority to show that each it of provision was available in any and all mainstream schools in the area. In particular the Code of Practice refers to resources normally available to mainstream schools and the assessment does not seek to identify any particular school. Finally, there was no failure by the FtT to engage in the provisional and predictive judgement required at that stage on the nature and degree of K s underlying needs, the kinds of provision that should be made, the appropriate school setting, and class size. What does this mean for children, young people and families? The Judge s decision in this case makes clear that parents and young people who want an EHC Plan to be made will need to demonstrate that provision is required which goes beyond the resources normally available to mainstream schools in essence, that the provision required is likely to cost more than 6,000 per year. Implications for local authorities and other public bodies Local authorities may seek to rely on this decision to refuse to make EHC Plans where an assessment demonstrates to their satisfaction that the child or young person s educational needs can be appropriately provided for from within the resources normally available to maintained schools, including the notional SEN budget. Furthermore, local authorities which have in place a detailed and specific local offer of educational provision may be more likely to persuade a Tribunal not to order that an EHC Plan is made that those authorities who have a less impressive local offer. CDC case law update 28 This update is intended to provide general information about recent decisions of the courts and Upper Tribunal which are relevant to disabled children, young people, families and professionals. It cannot and does not provide advice in relation to individual cases. Where legal issues arise specialist advice should be taken in relation to the particular case.
SB v Herefordshire CC [2018] UKUT 141 (AAC) The Upper Tribunal dismissed an appeal in relation to a child s EHC Plan, in particular because there was no error of law in failing to specify the size of the small teaching groups for the child. Case Overview: The case concerned Jessica, a child who was transitioning from primary to secondary education. The parents appealed to the First-tier Tribunal ( FtT ) in relation to the contents of her EHC Plan. The issue for the Upper Tribunal ( UT ) was whether the FtT erred in its approach to Jessica s need for speech and language therapy ( SLT ) and to be educated in small groups. The FtT found that (1) Jessica needed targeted input for her language difficulties but that this did not have to be provided directly by a qualified SLT, and (2) she needed to be educated in small groups, with the size of the teaching group determined according to the particular learning context. The parents appealed to the UT, arguing that the SLT provision was unclear and insufficiently specific and that the failure to specify the size of the teaching group was unsupported by evidence and could not be justified. The UT began by considering the effect of the decision in H v Lancashire CC [2000] 1 EL 471. In that case the Judge had held that the staff: pupil ratio was so unparticularised and so unclear as to leave substantial argument as to what the tribunal was deciding was necessary. However, in the present appeal, no party had argued for a class of a specified size, nor a specific staff: pupil ratio. In the context of this appeal the FtT was not required to specify the size of the small groups in which Jessica would be taught. It was rational for the Tribunal to proceed on the basis that the appropriate size of the small groups might vary. It was clear that the groups must be small enough to deliver the other provision within the Plan. In relation to SLT provision, once the plan was read as a whole it could not reasonably be argued that this was unclear. The Plan provide for one type of SLT provision during the transition period and then further ongoing SLT related provision. Any lack of specificity was justified because the extent of the input required would inevitably vary according to how well Jessica coped with transition. What this means for children, young people and families? This decision reminds parents and young people that the requirement of specificity in relation to the EHC Plans, although important, is not absolute. There will be certain situations (such as the UT held arose here) where less specific provision is appropriate. However, the UT did not seek to undermine or qualify what is said about specificity in the SEND Code of Practice at para 9.69 (including Provision must be detailed and specific and should normally be quantified ) and by the Court of Appeal in E v LB Newham and SENT [2003] EWCA Civ 09 ( the statutory duty will
not be discharged if the description of the special educational provision is framed in terms so vague and uncertain that one cannot discern from it what (if anything) the tribunal has decided ). There is also an important reminder in this decision that if particular provision is sought in an EHC Plan it is necessary for the family to specify and quantify the request for that provision for example not just saying small groups but specifying the size of the group, perhaps by reference to a range (e.g. 6-8 children ). Implications for local authorities and other public bodies Local authorities will be able to rely on this decision to demonstrate that the requirement for specificity has limits, and that some factual scenarios may justify a degree of flexibility. However, local authorities should note that the FtT will generally continue to apply the guidance in the SEND Code (see above) that Provision must be detailed and specific and should normally be quantified It is likely that issues as to specificity will come up in relation to the health and social care provision which will be recommended by the FtT in certain appeals under the new national trial, and so this decision will also be of interest to CCGs and local authority social care terms. Enfield Local Offer Information Local Offer is an online source of information about services for children and young people with SEND and their parents. It provides a list of services and ways to access them. Unfortunately, not many parents and young people are aware of the Local Offer. The Local Authority has now improved the Local Offer to make it more attractive and accessible to service users. If you need help in accessing the Local Offer, or have suggestions to further improve it, please ring SENDIASS on 020 8373 6273. Enfield Local Offer link: www.enfield.gov.uk/send
Morrison s are advertising a Quieter Hour for customers with Autism. During these quieter hours of the store, they will: Dim the lights Turn music and radio off Avoid making tannoy announcements Reduce movement of trolleys and baskets Turn checkout beeps and other electrical noises down Place a poster outside to tell customers it s Quieter Hour The Quiet Hour will take place in all Morrison s stores from 9 to 10am every Saturday. Introducing our new USER EMAIL FORUM We are interested in your ideas, comments and feedback on this newsletter. Please take some time to email in your articles, success stories, and contributions about your SEND experience in Enfield. We hope to include your views into this newsletter and shape this newsletter to meet your needs. Please email: enquiries@epandc.org.uk We value and welcome your views. We look forward to hearing from you.
Contact Us STAFF Who we are: SEND IASS Lina Parmar SEND IASS Manager Mary Mannion SEND IASS Caseworker Florence Mampasi SEND IASS Caseworker Marie Gisele Atundu SENDIASS Caseworker Volunteers: Roz Jones, Lorraine Cooke & Gregor Lusty Give us a call for information about our services. SENDIASS and IS Enfield Parents & Child Community House 311 Fore Street London N9 0PZ Tel. 020 8373 6273 enquiries@epandc.org.uk Web: www.epandc.org.uk PLEASE NOTE: If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter, please reply UNSUBSCRIBE to this email and we will delete your details from our database.