Your December SEND Newsletter
Welcome to the December edition of SENDing you news. With lots happening leading up to Christmas, this SEND partnership newsletter has plenty of news to share with you including recruitment updates and 'what's on' activities.
Thank you for taking the time to read this newsletter and I wish you all the best for Christmas and the new year.
Best wishes
Jane Sowerby
Assistant Director of Education - Tameside Council
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SEND Local Area Partnership Board
A refreshed SEND Local Area Partnership Board met on 6 December, which includes members from all partners and is independently chaired. The purpose of the SEND Improvement Partnership Board is to ensure that all children and young people thrive and achieve positive outcomes, through the right support, in the right place, at the right time. The Board is specifically responsible for the implementation of the SEND improvement plan which addresses identified areas of weakness, as well as the wider remit of ensuring that arrangements for supporting children and young people with SEND have a positive impact on their experiences and outcomes.
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Welcome to New Staff at Tameside Council
Tameside Council has recently welcomed some new members of staff to the Children’s Services directorate. Allison Parkinson has joined as Interim Director of Children’s Services and will be bringing a great deal of experience from other director roles at local authorities across the country.
Jackie Ross is the SEND Strategic Lead and has come to review the SEND provision to help take forward improvements, and will also oversee the Head of SEND post for the time being. Gail Bailey is an experienced SEND improvement interim who will be supporting Jackie.
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Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)
The CAMHS team have successfully recruited over the last few months, and as you may be aware, the national pressure on workforce availability has made this process very difficult. The team are happy to share they have recruited the following roles.
- Community senior pharmacist which can provide additional support to the ADHD pathway
- 4.5 whole time equivalent psychology posts to work across core mental health pathways and family intervention therapy service
- 1.6 ADHD nurses
- 3.0 CAMHS practitioners across neuro developmental pathways
- CAMHS practitioner into the single point of access
- Learning disability nurse
- Admin posts
These are a mixture of new posts as well as recruitment to posts that have been vacant due to people leaving. All are at varying stages of the recruitment process, but it is hoped will be in post by January.
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Goodbye to Colleagues
Kelly Carey, Interim SEND Manager, has concluded her agency contract with Tameside Council, and we would like to thank her for the valuable work she has done with all of our children and families and the support given to the SEN team.
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Restructure of SEND Team
The process of restructuring the SEN Assessment and Monitoring team was completed on 1 October, and recruitment has been taking place. The majority of roles have been appointed to, although some remain vacant whilst the team await new staff to join the team, which is hoped will be early in the new year.
This means that the implementation of the revised structure is in its early stages, and it may take a couple more months to fully embed the new ways of working whilst staff receive necessary training.
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Annual Review Recovery Plan Backlog
The SEND team are bringing in additional caseworkers to support the permanent staff for an interim period over the next six-months to work on delayed annual reviews of Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs). These extra roles are currently being recruited and will support the work of the team going forward.
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The Self-Evaluation Framework
The new local area SEND inspection focuses on the experiences of children and young people. The three questions for local area partnerships (meaning Education, Health and Care) to cover in their self-evaluations are:
- What do you know about the impact of your arrangements for children and young people with SEND?
- How do you know what impact your arrangements for children and young people with SEND are having?
- What are your plans for the next 12-months to improve the experiences and outcomes of children and young people with SEND?
These questions are addressed in our self-evaluation which is under development.
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ISCAN Name Change
Tameside Council's Integrated Service for Children with Additional Needs (ISCAN) team have been renamed as the Children with Disabilities (CWD) team. As the team have not been integrated with healthcare since 2018, it was decided to return to the name they used to be known as. The service will remain the same and will help to reduce any confusion for children, young people, families, carers, and professionals.
The Children with Disabilities team are based at Jubilee Gardens in Droylsden and comprises of a management team, social workers, intervention workers, a transition social worker, community occupational therapists, a direct payment worker and a behaviour support therapist.
The team work with children and young people aged between 0-18-years-old who are defined as having a disability and identified as needing support. The team can be contacted on 0161 342 5599 for advice and information. Referrals for support can be made through the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) on 0161 342 4101.
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ISCAN Health
Children’s therapy (speech and language therapy, physiotherapy and occupational therapy) services are based within the ISCAN Health team, at Rowan House in Hyde. Referrals can be made by health professionals, education staff, parents and carers. The referral form can be found online.
You can also find lots of helpful resources and information on the website.
The current average waiting times are:
- Speech therapy: 6-weeks
- Occupational therapy: 5-weeks
- Physiotherapy: 7-weeks
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New Hawthorns School Opening
Over the coming months the Tameside Parent Carer Forum will be organising a series of meetings with the local authority for the parents and carers of Hawthorns School’s children to attend. This will give parents an opportunity to be involved in and keep up to date with the progress of the new build, ask questions, and raise any concerns or worries they may have.
Meetings will be held during the day and in the evenings, both in-person and online. Invitations and information will be shared via Hawthorns School’s Parent App and the school's dedicated X (formerly Twitter) Hawthorns Advocacy account.
There will also be access to frequently asked questions (FAQs) on the school’s website.
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Active Tameside SEND Christmas Party
The team at Active Tameside are preparing for their SEND Christmas party on Wednesday 13 December from 6pm-9pm, which will be filled with festive cheer and merry memories.
There will be a range of exciting activities, delicious food, and special surprises. This event is the perfect opportunity to come together and celebrate the magic of Christmas. Book your ticket!
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Mental Health Support Over Christmas
Mental health services are as important as ever during winter, and as the Christmas season isn’t easy for everyone, it’s vital we spread the word of local services that are there to help those struggling. You can find a range of mental health support online or on this information leaflet which includes services specifically for SEND.
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