Topic outline
General resources
In line with the ‘SEND Code of Practice: 0 to 25 years’, schools are required to make appropriate provision for children with needs at the level of SEN Support. The local authority guidance for SEN Support has recently undergone significant revisions. This replaces the previous guidance, also known by some schools as ‘the ordinarily available provision guidance’ or ‘the grey book’, with immediate effect.
We hope that you find the guidance useful in under-pinning your work with children requiring SEN Support. Everyone in the staff team has a role to play in securing good provision for children with SEND and in forming strong partnerships with parents/carers. Please make every effort to ensure the guidance is shared widely within your school community and make it a ‘live’ document, which under-pins and shapes practice, provision and partnerships. Thank you.
A duty placed on all partners and agencies through Working Together to Safeguard Children is that case reviews are undertaken when a child has died or been seriously harmed and when learning can be drawn from that review, to inform and improve practice. We know that all education professionals are committed to protecting and safeguarding children and young people and seek both to learn and secure improvement wherever possible. Agencies have a responsibility to share the recommendations from case reviews and to respond appropriately to them. Local case reviews are published on the local safeguarding partnership websites which can be found here: HSCP and here: IoWSCP. National reviews can be found here: NSPCC learning library
The attached paper highlights some of the more recent recommendations from case reviews undertaken locally and puts them into context for education settings. Additionally, it draws on recommendations from safeguarding reviews undertaken in schools, to further enhance the opportunity to learn from findings and reflect on practice.
Headteachers, Principals, Early Years Managers, Designated Safeguarding Leads and Chairs of Governors or their equivalent are asked to ensure this paper is distributed to all staff and governors, as part of their responsibility to keep abreast of local safeguarding updates.
We do hope that you find the paper accessible and helpful and that it supports the further enhancement of strong safeguarding practice across the education system locally.
Useful documents for headteachers
This section contains the latest versions of key documentation intended to be helpful to teachers. These will have been shared at Fareham and Gosport Headteacher Meetings by the School Improvement Manager. Please contact martyn.beales2@hants.gov.uk if there are other documents you would find helpful here.