Local offer parent engagement sessions

The Local Offer

Parent Engagement Event

Introduction

• Annemarie Blackshaw - Head of SEN/AEN Provider Services

Our speakers today:• Annemarie Blackshaw • Tim Coulson• Tracey Scriven • Brian Lamb

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Aim of the Day

To involve parents in a discussion about the shape and content of the Essex Local Offer.

The Local Offer

When the Children and Families Bill becomes enacted in 2014 local authorities will be required to publish and keep under review information about services they expect to be available for children and young people with special educational needs aged 0-25. This is the local offer.

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Agenda for the day• Registration and refreshments• Welcome • Introduction with a view from the Director and a parent’s view• Brian Lamb – Local Offer Presentation – What works for parents

in communication and information• Workshop 1 – To find out what information parents require to

help provide for their child• Local Offer Presentation– What works for children with Special

Educational Needs or Disabilities

Lunch• Workshop 2 – To feedback your thoughts on what would most

improve outcomes for your child• Workshop 3 – To gather ideas on how the local offer should be

presented and what we should call it• Examples of some approaches• Summary of the day• Next Steps6

A Message from our Director of Education and Learning

Tim Coulson

A Message from FACE (Families Acting for Change in Essex)

Tracey ScrivenA parent’s view

Local Offer Consultation-what works for parents in communication and information

Brian Lamb OBE

WHAT IS THE LOCAL OFFER FOR?

Improving Accountability and Confidence in provision?

TREATING PARENTS AS “PARTNERS WITH EXPERTISE IN THEIR CHILDREN’S NEEDS IS CRUCIAL TO ESTABLISHING AND SUSTAINING CONFIDENCE. WHERE THINGS GO WRONG, THE ROOT CAUSES CAN OFTEN BE TRACED TO POOR COMMUNICATION BETWEEN SCHOOL, LOCAL AUTHORITY AND PARENT.”

Lamb Inquiry

Indicative Code of Practice

“Schools and colleges need to ensure that they fully engage parents and young people with SEN when drawing up policies that affect them. …

Schools and colleges should also take steps to ensure that parents and young people are actively supported in contributing to assessment, planning and review processes.”

Parents Improve Outcomes

“The knowledge and understanding that parents have about their child is key information that can help teachers and others to meet their child’s needs. Enabling parents to share their knowledge and engage in positive discussion instils confidence that their contribution is valued and acknowledged.”

Indicative Code of Practice

What do parents want?

Research shows that parents often look for; • Appropriate and timely recognition of a child’s needs by professionals;• Knowledge and understanding of staff about a child’s difficulties and needs

the willingness of the service/school to listen to their views and respond flexibly;

• Parental beliefs and views are recognised in a professional’s approach to concerns about a child. (Harrington et al 2006);

• Access to specialist services and someone who understands “my child” crucial;

• Decisions are transparent and information about entitlements and what is available is crucial to making informed decision and “choice”;

• Information should be given face to face as much as possible.

School Information 1. Information about the school's policies for the identification, assessment and provision for pupils with special educational needs, whether or not pupils have EHC Plans, including how the school evaluates the effectiveness of its provision for such pupils.

2.The school’s arrangements for assessing the progress of pupils with special educational needs

3.The name and contact details of the SEN co-ordinator.

4.Information about the expertise and training of staff in relation to children and young people with special educational needs and about how specialist expertise will be secured.

5.Information about how equipment and facilities to support children and young people with special educational needs will be secured.

6.The role played by the parents of pupils with special educational needs.

7.Any arrangements made by the governing body or the proprietor relating to the treatment of complaints from parents of pupils with special educational needs concerning the provision made at the school.

Parental Engagement

Parents also have to be involved in;• The Local Offer and local commissioning,• The production and review of the new Education, Health and Care Plan,• Interventions through the new Single Category of SEN where;

– schools must ensure that parents of children are fully engaged, consulted and informed and agreement is reached on how the child’s needs will be met;

– ensure that the child or young person is fully engaged, consulted and informed and agreement is reached on how their needs will be met;

– there should be a plan that focuses on what outcomes are expected and the support that the school, college and any relevant agencies will provided.

Achievement for all-Structured conversations with parents

3 hour long meetings per year Worked together with teachers

on a plan for their child Used positive experience of

parents who had attended to try and engage parents who had not attended

Picked parents up School staff made home visit Held meetings at most

convenient time for parents

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Charter for parent and children's voice

Rotherham Charter for Parent and Children's Voice• Consultation and focus groups with Parents and Children• Charter and principles of transparency in decision making derived

directly from parents and children's experiences• Developed collaboratively between the local authority and the

parents with support from parent partnership

Impact-Schools working towards the Charter award, parents confidence increased through process of consultation and implementation

Better Information that fits with what's on Offer

Durham–Confident Schools Confident Parents • Resource Pack developed with parents• Distributed to all schools• Clarity about what's provided and statutory framework • Professional development linked to what parents felt their children

most needed

Impact-increased parental confidence through clarity of expectations-improved professional practice

Good Parental Involvement?

• Planning-Parental engagement must be planned for and embedded in a whole school or service strategy.

• Leadership-Effective leadership of parental engagement is essential to the success of programmes and strategies.

• Collaboration and engagement-Parental engagement requires active collaboration with parents and should be pro-active rather than reactive. It should be sensitive to the circumstances of all families, recognise the contributions parents can make, and aim to empower parents.

• Sustained improvement-A parental engagement strategy should be the subject of on-going support, monitoring and development.

Goodhall, J. and Vorhaus. J. (2010) Review of Best Practice in Parental Engagement. London. DfE.

WORKSHOPS

Questions for Workshop 1.

• What would improve your confidence in the services provided?’• What information would you like at each stage of your child or

young person’s life? Discuss these and put your ideas on the post it notes for the relevant age range or stage

Contact Details

Brian Lamb [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

What works for children with special educational needs or disabilities?

presentation prepared by

Jean Gross CBE, 2013

It’s a maze out there !

Local offer should say what parents/carers can expect schools to do

What schools do should be what works

But how do we know what works?

• Real partnership with parents/carers• ‘Intervention’ programmes (some )…• Peer support – children helping children• Use of technology

The evidence on what works

• Alternative ways of communicating • Social skills training• Circle of friends and other forms of child to child support• Social stories, Comic strip conversations

Example : Autism

• Circle of friends• Small group work , for example on friendship skills or managing

angry feelings• Parent groups like FAST (Families and Schools Together), The

Incredible Years, The Strengthening Families Programme for Parents, Group teen Triple P

• Some mentoring schemes• School-based counselling

Example : social, emotional or behavioural needs

• Catch Up Numeracy• Family Numeracy • Numbers Count • firstclass@number• Numicon Closing the Gap and Numicon Intervention Programme• Peer tutoring

Example : maths difficulties

• What works for dyslexia www.interventionsforliteracy.org.uk

• What works for children with speech, language and communication difficulties www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/whatworks

Useful websites

“We know that the educational achievement for children with SEN is to low and the gap with their peers to wide. This is a hangover of a system, and a society, which did not place enough value on achieving good outcomes for disabled children and children with SEN”

Lamb Inquiry.

“THE CULTURE OF SCHOOLS IS STILL TO FOCUS THE BEST TEACHERS ON THE THOSE CHILDREN WITH HIGHEST ABILITIES… HOWEVER WE ALSO NEED THE BEST TEACHERS AND BETTER TARGETED RESOURCES TO THOSE MOST IN NEED”

Lamb Inquiry

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True or not true?

• The more face to face therapy a child has, the more progress they will make

• The more 1-1 support a child has from a teaching assistant, the more progress they will make

True or not true?



• Not always true

True or not true?



• Not always true

• Not always true

• 2003-8 period • Examined effect of Teaching Assistant (TA)support on academic

progress of 8,200 pupils• Observations of 70 pupils and over 100 TAs• Data from 17,800 questionnaire responses and interviews with

nearly 600 school staff and pupils

DISS (Deployment and Impact of Support Staff) research

• Pupils categorised by amount of TA support• The more support they had, the less progress

they made• No positive effects for TA support in any subject

(English/Maths/Science ) or any year • Applied to children with and without SEN• Not because those supported by TAs had SEN or were low

achievers to start with

What they found

Looked at effect on children’s approach to learning –confidence, motivation, relationships with other children, completing work, following instructions, not distracted, not disruptive

Only found an effect in Year 9

What they found

How did teachers and TAs spend their time?

Children with SEN interact more with TA , less with teacher

Interaction by type of SEN

Teacher TA

No SEN 55% 27%

School Action 24% 32%

School Action Plus or Statement

21% 41%

Other research

• When a TA is nearby, children were more likely to seek help and less likely to work independently

• Other children less likely to interact with a child when TA providing support

‘I’m in the bottom table group and we can’t do anything by ourselves so we always have to have an adult working with us. ‘

Pupils with statements had half as many interactions with their classmates compared with other pupils

Child’s teacher rarely had as high a level of involvement in planning and teaching statemented pupils as TAs

TAs had the main responsibility for explaining and modifying tasks set for the class by the teacher, even though they often had little or no opportunity before lessons to meet or prepare with the teacher.

‘Making a Statement’ research

• Statements should set out concrete teaching strategies designed to meet carefully defined outcomes. "The specification on the statement of a number of hours of TA support seemed to get in the way of thinking through appropriate approaches for pupils with pronounced learning difficulties in mainstream primary schools".

‘Making a Statement’ research

Classroom and subject teaching that is adapted to meet different children’s needs

Good advice for teachers from SENCO and from specialist teachers

What works – good strategies used in the classroom

What works - helping children be independent

What works- ‘An intervention, not a lifestyle’

• What’s your reaction?

• Pop it on a post-it

• We’ll come back to this after lunch

Lunch

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What was your reaction to the information on ‘what works’? Drawing on that information and your knowledge of your own situation, what do you think has or will most improve outcomes for your child/children?

Workshop 2 - Task- think/pair/share

Two or three points from each table – what works

This will help shape what should go in the Local Offer

Feedback

Workshop 3 - Table top discussion

• How should the Local Offer be presented? ( website, leaflet)

• What should we call the Local Offer?

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EXAMPLES OF SOME APPROACHES

Next Steps

• Complete a wide range of engagement with other stakeholders

• REALLY engage partners• Support schools and governors to develop

school level response• Formal consultation online• Upgrade website to portal status to make

Local Offer easily accessible

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Local offer parent engagement sessions

Education

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