Suffolk Local Offer

Jan 2022 open letter from Ros Somerville

Assistant Director, Inclusion, Suffolk County Council
03 Jan 2022
Dear Parent / Carer,
 

Following my last letter in November, I wanted to update you about our ongoing work to address SEND services in Suffolk. A lot of the work and plans we set out in the Autumn term will come to fruition in the Spring term and beyond, we are continuing to plan for our next steps as well.

Here are some of the actions and achievements since my last letter.

  • Several significant appointments have been made across the SEND Services including that of Suffolk’s first Designated Social Care Officer. This role will be pivotal in building stronger working relationships between Social Care and the other partners. We are also delighted that our colleagues in North East Essex and Suffolk NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) have appointed a new Designated Clinical Officer, to further develop and integrate work between Health and the other SEND partners. Both post holders started this month.
  • Our new Head of SEND, Francesca Alexander has joined Inclusion this week. Francesca brings a wealth of experience to her role and will ably lead our SCC Family Service Teams forwards into our new ways of working.
  • We have recruited two data co-ordinators who are working to improve our data records.
  • Colleagues across the Children and Young People Directorate have been redeployed to assist in processing Phase Transfer Reviews.
  • We have appointed one new Educational Psychologist, with recruitment currently live for two more vacancies
  • We have several significant appointments still to make and are pleased with the wide field of applicants.
  • Our strategic partner IMPOWER have undertaken several multi-agency case reviews to help all parties understand what has worked well, identify where gaps or weakness occurred, and to embed the learning from these to future practice.
  • We are currently recruiting for staff to launch the expanded SENCO Support Line at the beginning of February. This will add more support for schools and settings with early intervention and help to sign-post them to additional support when this is needed.
  • The Family Services capacity review is being finalised by IMPOWER and has indicated where we need to recruit more staff to support the SEND statutory processes.
  • A request for a further investment of £1.1million has been made to Cabinet for Inclusion Services from April 2022 and has received support from all political parties.
  • Leaders across the SEND Partnership met with Suffolk Cabinet Members at the recent Education and Children’s Services Scrutiny Committee.
  • A formal Data Protection agreement has been put in place between the Local Authority and the NHS CCGs to enable us to work together and share information more efficiently.
  • 16 time to listen events were held in November giving parent/carers the opportunity to meet with senior leaders across the SEND Services to share their experiences and ask questions.
  • The Integrated Action Plan developed by IMPOWER has been published on the Local Offer website.
  • Coproduction has started with Suffolk Parent Carer Forum., including representation at the SEND Accountability Board.

 

Next Steps

Our next steps during the Spring term are:

  • Continue to develop and embed our partnership working practices. During February we are running a co-production training event, to ensure all key partners understand and adhere to the fundamental principles of co-production.
  • Trial “Valuing SEND” - a new approach to considering Children and Young People’s needs and how settings meet them, developed by IMPOWER. This will be being trialled within three education settings over the next few months.
  • Review the findings from the Family Services Capacity Analysis, to consider what further action is needed.
  • Review the results of the training needs analysis undertaken within Family Services against the training offer currently available, to develop and strengthen our skills in this area.
  • Start the training regarding the strength-based conversations which will support coproduction at an individual child and family level as part of the Education, Health and Care needs assessment.

Other News

  • The Department for Education (DfE) will be holding a remote review meeting of SEND Services in Suffolk. Preparation is currently underway to update them on our progress, challenges and next steps, and feedback from this meeting will be published on our Local Offer website in due course.
  • Suffolk Parent Carer Forum (SPCF) - Formal Launch: We are delighted to share that SPCF are holding their formal launch event online on Tuesday February 1 between 10am to 1pm. They invite any who would like to join them to find out more about what they will be doing, and you can find out more about this event here: SCPF Launch.

If you would like to be kept up to date with our progress and with future developments of SEND in Suffolk, you can:

We anticipate that our next update will be published in April 2022. If you have any questions about the review in the meantime, you can email us at sendreview@suffolk.gov.uk.

Yours faithfully

 

Ros Somerville

Assistant Director, Inclusion, Children & Young People’s Directorate, Suffolk County Council