1. Send Reforms in Birmingham
Cherry Thomas
Sensory Support
Birmingham

2. Our Response to the changes: An overview
EHC
Local Offer
Personalised budgets -pilots
Conversion
Key working
Parents, Children and Young People

5. Conversion From the 1st September 2014:
LA will be required to convert existing statements to EHCs by April 2018.
LA will be required to convert LSPs to EHCs by September 2016.
Number of conversions in Birmingham:
7360 statements of special educational needs
1914 Learning Support Plans
Deal positively and proactively with the questions and uncertainties that inevitably arise as we develop these processes together
Prioritise at key transition points: 
Entry to primary school, infant to junior, primary to secondary school, and secondary to further education etc.
In future proposed that all children and young people transferring between school phases must have finalised EHC plan with named institution by 15 February 2015 in year of transfer.
£1.7m

6. Engaging parents/carers, children and young people
‘Practitioners ……………….need to be skilled in working with children, parents and young people helping them to make informed decisions’.
‘Children, young people and parents are provided with the information, advice and support necessary to enable them to participate in discussions and decisions about their support’

7. Key working - Code of practice
LA must provide all parents CYP with impartial information, advice and support in relation to SEN including the statutory assessment, EHC Plans and Personal Budgets. This should include Key Working and as appropriate an independent supporter.
CoP Section 7.4

8. My Story – Listen and Understand
Ongoing assessment, advice ,support via the local offer that informs decision to refer for EHC
Initial discussion and preparation with parents
TAC/Family Meeting - key working to prepare for EHC assessment
The Local Offer sets out services for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities, and their families, from birth to age 25 which are available in their area.
Most children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities have their support needs met by their local agencies, schools and services (i.e. through the Local Offer) without the need for an EHC Plan. For some children and young people, an Education Health and Care Plan may be required.
Advice and Support: ongoing multi-agency support
Before a request is made for statutory EHC assessment, it is usual that advice and support for a child or young person will be coordinated through key working processes that aims for timely involvement of the right professionals according to each child or young person’s personal profile of education, health and care needs.
The decision to request statutory assessment and an EHC Plan is made by the family and the advising professionals based on their observations and assessments over time of a child’s/young person’s special educational needs, future aspirations and how best to support these.
Making a Request for Statutory Assessment and preparation of an Education, Health and Care Plan
The keyworker organises a ‘Team around the Child/Team around the Young Person’ meeting with the family and key advising professionals. The purpose of the meeting is to gather the information for making the request for statutory assessment.
To prepare for the meeting, the keyworker helps the family as required to complete the child or young person’s personal profile and plan their involvement. The keyworker also makes sure that the family have the information they need about the assessment process, including information about options for educational provision, travel assistance where applicable and personal budgets.
At the meeting, the family and the key advising professionals contribute their views and information about the child or young person’s needs, their progress so far and what support they might need in the future to access learning and achieve success.
After the meeting the keyworker completes the Request for Education Heath and Care Assessment form (EHCAR) and sends this with the supporting information to SENAR.
The allocated SENAR Principal Officer receives the information and presents the request to the Education Health and Care Panel for consideration.
Request for EHC.
Assessment sent to SENAR

9. Key Working
Parents with disabled children are likely to face higher levels of stress and they value the practical and emotional support of key working.
This can reduce this stress, help parents to navigate through the system and help them to agree the right support for their child.
Support and Aspiration

11. What is key working? Key working is an approach that:
Builds on partnership working
Facilitates the coordination of an integrated package of solution-focused support
Is important to disabled children, young people and those with other additional needs and their families
Helps support ‘ordinary lives’
Promotes disability equality, inclusion and anti- discrimination which are all human rights
Helps build strong and resilient families
We are already specialist in key working. This process enhances the experiences of CYPF and the EHC process.
We are rolling this training to those who do not have this culture/practice embedded in their working practice.
Expert model?
SENCo – time implications
Parent questionnairesKey working is an approach that:
Builds on partnership working
Facilitates the coordination of an integrated package of solution-focused support
Is important to disabled children, young people and those with other additional needs and their families
Helps support ‘ordinary lives’
Promotes disability equality, inclusion and anti-discrimination which are all human rights
Helps build strong and resilient families

12. Key working Functions Emotional and practical support
Providing emotional and practical support as part of a trusting relationship
Enabling and empowering for decision making and the use of personal budgets
Coordination
Coordinating practitioners and services around the child, young person and family
Being a single point of regular and consistent contact
Facilitating multi-agency meetings
Planning and assessment
Supporting and facilitating a single planning and joint assessment process
Identifying strengths and needs of family members
Information and specialist support
Providing information and signposting
Advocating on a child’s, young person’s and/or family’s behalf
Facilitating clinical and social care seamlessly, integrated with specialist and universal services in an equality promoting approach
Uniquely placed
SQW research paper describes the skill set for kw. Correlating to the 4 areas
2 models of support: model 1 we do it all – feasible for straight forward deaf/VI
Model 2 – partnership working essential. Where knowledge and skills of all involved are complimentng each other
demonstrates that

13. Key working in Birmingham
Early Support training for trainers
Training to SENCo networks throughout the city
Training to multi agency groups including health, Disabled Children’s Social Care and early years and education providers
Training to Access to Education SS, EPs, CAT
Training for CYPF

15. Professionals involved…
Speech and Language Therapist - Dysphagia
Speech and Language Therapist - Tracheostomy
Speech and Language Therapist - Sensory Impairment
Community Childrens Nurse
ENT Consultant
Cochlear implant team - AVT therapist, audiologist, ENT surgeon
Complex Care Co ordinator
Complex care carers (two of)
General Surgeon
Orthoptist
Specialist Dentist
Social worker
Occupational Therapist
SI HLTA
Nursery key worker/SENCO/Manager
Dietician
Neurosuregon
Neurologist
Geneticist
Community paediatrian
Physiotherapist/Orthotist
Early years teacher
Audiologist (hearing aids)
Educational psychologist

16. Key working role of the Teacher of the Deaf
Teacher’s Perspective
Parent’s perspective
Consistent and knowledgeable
Understands his needs beyond his deafness
Central role as his deafness affects all other areas of development
At the heart of his care
Attends key appointments
Takes responsibility for information sharing
Accessible and easy to contact
Only professional who can interact directly with Ansel while other can only observe
Built strong relationship
Supported in different settings
Consistency of support
Facilitated multi agency approach
Shared approach – strong relationship with other education services
Provided the ‘link’ between agencies
Joint key working – with family
Difficulty in co-ordinating ALL agencies
Time constraints
Empowered family

17. A Parent’s Perspective

18. Thank you
"The greatest danger is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that our aim is too low and we hit it" Michelangelo