Westminster Education Forum on ‘Policy Priorities for SEND (Nov, 2016: London, UK)

Title: Policy priorities for SEND – implementing local area inspections, raising educational outcomes and extending support for families

Date: Thursday, 3^rd November 2016

Place: Central London, UK

**This Event is CPD Certified**

Description: Bringing together key stakeholders and policymakers from across the education sector, this seminar will consider policy priorities for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Planned sessions will also look at measures to improve the educational attainment of children with SEND, including government’s new review into assessment of pupils with lower attainment – expected to be published at the beginning of 2016 – which follows evidence cited by the Department for Education that 50,000 pupils currently fall below the standard required to take national curriculum tests, including many with SEND. Delegates will also assess the implementation and progress to date of the SEND Code of Practice – two years on from its introduction – including the impact of the Local Offer, Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plans and personal budgets, which aim to give children and families more choice and control over the kinds of support they receive.

At this early stage, we are delighted that Dr Adam Boddison, Chief Executive, nasen has agreed to be a Guest of Honour at this seminar. Nigel Thompson, Head of Children and Health & Justice, CQC; Janet Thompson, Deputy Chair, Rochford Review and Headteacher, Dorothy Goodman School, Leicestershire and a senior speaker confirmed from SENJIT (Special Educational Needs Joint Initiative for Training), Institute of Education, University College London has also agreed to deliver a keynote speech. Matthew Ellis, Associate Director, South West Maternity and Children’s Strategic Clinical Network, NHS England; Simon Knight, Deputy Headteacher, Frank Wise School, Oxfordshire; Laxmi Patel, Solicitor and Head of Education, Boyes Turner and Julie Stockdale, Head of Schools & Commissioning, Surrey County Council have also agreed to speak.

For more details: click here.

Seminar: ‘Becoming a SENDCO: making sense of changing professional identities (April, 2006: Sheffield, UK)

Title: Becoming a SENDCO: making sense of changing professional identities.

Date: Tuesday, 5^th April 2016

Time: 12.00pm – 1.00pm

Venue: Room 9006, Cantor Building, Sheffield Hallam University

Description: Sheila Sharpe will outline her current research study which investigates the changes that Special Educational Needs and Disability Coordinators (SENDCos) may experience as they begin to inhabit the new role of specialist in ‘special education’ and how this new role (and new ‘specialist’ identity) influences or changes their pedagogical thinking and practice. The study seeks to investigate how the identity of a teacher develops into the identity of a specialist teacher. The desired outcome of the research is to provide insights into the interrelationship between external and internal factors in the formation of SENDCo identity. This will enable an understanding of the particular significance of SENDCo identity formation in the role of the ‘specialist practitioner’.

The research study’s broader aims are to:

1. gain an understanding of the particular significance of SENDCo identity
2. uncover some of the discourses SENDCos use to narrate and make sense of their role
3. uncover the factors that influence the establishment of a SENDco identity

 

The aims will be achieved by using the qualitative methodology of narrative enquiry. This form of narrative enquiry will allow the researcher to hear how the SENDCos construct meaning from their perceived role and their personal belief systems and investigate what is it that marks the SENDCO out as different and enables them to take on a different and specialist identity.

It’s not necessary to book please attend if you can.

Seminar: Reforming Additional Learning Needs Provision in Wales (Nov. 2015: Cardiff, UK)

What?: Reforming Additional Learning Needs Provision in Wales

When?: Thursday, 19^th November 2015

Where?: Central Cardiff

Hosted by: Policy Forum for Wales

This Event is CPD Certified

Guest of Honour: Jassa Scott (Assistant Director, Estyn)

This seminar follows the recently released draft Additional Learning Needs (ALN) Bill, and will be an opportunity to examine key reforms included in the Bill ‐ including a new single support framework for learners with ALN up to the age of 25, and further strategies to identify and eliminate barriers to learning.

Sessions focus on how to facilitate greater cooperation and trust between schools, local authorities, and parents and carers; ways of providing a fairer and more transparent system of advice and information; and approaches to nurturing more effective partnerships between agencies, and schools and local authorities.

To view the full agenda or to book on please click here.

Event explores SEND reform (May, 2014, UK)

Event: Westminster Education Forum Keynote Seminar on ‘SEND reform: Implementation, Support and Widening Provision’

with Stephen Kingdom, Deputy Director, Special Educational Needs and Disability, Department for Education

Chaired by: Robert Buckland MP, Chair, All-Party Parliamentary Group on Autism

When: Morning on Thursday, 8^th May 2014         Where: Central London        This event is CPD certified

Follow on Twitter @WEdFEvents or at the Website: www.westminstereducationforum.co.uk

N.B.: there is a charge for most delegates, although concessionary and complimentary places are available (subject to terms and conditions – see below).

Description:  This timely seminar will focus on a series of reforms to Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) provision in England set out in the Children and Families Bill, including the announcement of the new SEN reform grant to support local councils ahead of planned implementation in September 2014.  

Delegates will discuss the implications for education, health, and social care providers regarding the decision to replace the ‘statements’ system with new integrated Education, Health and Care Plans.

Further sessions will focus on support for families and the implementation by local authorities of ‘personal budgets’ to buy care and support, and the impact on providers and young people of extending support for SEND to  include 25-year-olds and those with disabilities who do not have special educational needs.

The conference will bring together key policymakers and regulatory officials with local authority representatives, school and college leaders, student support contacts in universities, health and social care professionals, parent groups, children’s charities and academics.

Overall, topics for discussion include:

• Education, Health and Care Plans: challenges for co-ordination around integrating provision;
• Personal budgets: supporting families in using their budgets, and providing for those who opt out;
• The ‘local offer’: increasing choice, awareness, and quality of provision for families with children and young people with SEND; and
• Extending provision for 25-year-olds: its impact on young people and providers of SEND support, as well as further and higher education institutions.

The draft agenda is regularly updated and the latest version is available to download here. The seminar is organised on the basis of strict impartiality by the Westminster Education Forum.

Speakers: We are delighted to be able to include in this seminar a keynote address from: Stephen Kingdom, Deputy Director, Special Educational Needs and Disability, Department for Education.

Further confirmed speakers include: Meera Craston, Director, SQW Consulting; Eirwen Grenfell-Essam, Chair, Network81; Janet Leach, Head of Service, Joint Service for Disabled Children, Enfield Council and Chair, Short Breaks Network; Andy Minnion, Director, The Rix Centre, University of East London; Peter Quinn, Vice-Chair, National Association of Disability Practitioners and Director of Student Support Services, University of York; Douglas Silas, Principal, Douglas Silas Solicitors; Dr Carol Tozer, Executive Director of Services, Scope; Nigel Utton, Headteacher, Bromstone Primary School, Kent and Chair, Heading for Inclusion and a senior speaker confirmed from Ambitious about Autism.

Additional senior participants are being approached.

Networking: This seminar will present an opportunity to engage with key policymakers and other interested parties, and is CPD certified (more details). Places have been reserved by officials from the DfE; MoJ; Office of the Children’s Commissioner and the TSol. Also due to attend are representatives from Ambitious about Autism; Beech Hill Primary School, Bedfordshire; Bromstone Primary School, Kent; Columbus School and College, Essex; Drumbeat School & ASD Service, London; Hertfordshire County Council; Integrated Services Programme; KCIL; London Borough of Camden; London Borough of Ealing; North Ridge School, Yorkshire; Shaw Trust; SQW Consulting; St Nicholas School, Essex; Stoke City Council; The Village School, London; The Walnuts School; Tribal; UK Behaviour Analysis and Research Group; University of Chichester; University of East London; Wandsworth Connexions SEN Team and Worcestershire County Council.

Overall, we expect speakers and attendees to be a senior and informed group numbering around 120, including Members of both Houses of Parliament, senior officials from the DfE, Ofsted, Ofqual and other Government departments and agencies, schools and teaching professionals, representatives of trade unions and local government, groups representing parents and students, specialist academics and charities, together with representatives of the national and trade press.

Output and About Us: A key output of the seminar will be a transcript of the proceedings, sent out around 10 working days after the event to all attendees and a wider group of Ministers and officials at DfE, HM Treasury and other government departments and agencies affected by the issues; and Parliamentarians with a special interest in these areas. It will also be made available more widely. This document will include transcripts of all speeches and questions and answers sessions from the day, along with access to PowerPoint presentations, speakers’ biographies, an attendee list, an agenda, sponsor information, as well as any subsequent press coverage of the day and any articles or comment pieces submitted by delegates. It is made available subject to strict restrictions on public use, similar to those for Select Committee Uncorrected Evidence, and is intended to provide timely information for interested parties who are unable to attend on the day.

All delegates will receive complimentary PDF copies and are invited to contribute to the content.

The Westminster Education Forum is strictly impartial and cross-party, and draws on the considerable support it receives from within Parliament and Government, and amongst the wider stakeholder community. The Forum has no policy agenda of its own. Forum events are frequently the platform for major policy statements from senior Ministers, regulators and other officials, opposition speakers and senior opinion-formers in industry and interest groups. Events regularly receive prominent coverage in the national and trade press.

Booking arrangements: To book places, please use our online booking form.

Once submitted, this will be taken as a confirmed booking and will be subject to our terms and conditions below.

Please pay in advance by credit card on 01344 864796. If advance credit card payment is not possible, please let me know and we may be able to make other arrangements.

Options and charges are as follows:

• Places at SEND reform: implementation, support and widening provision (including refreshments and PDF copy of the transcripts) are £190 plus VAT;
• Concessionary rate places for small charities, unfunded individuals and those in similar circumstances are £80 plus VAT. Please be sure to apply for this at the time of booking.

For those who cannot attend:

• Copies of the briefing document, including full transcripts of all speeches and the questions and comments sessions and further articles from interested parties, will be available approximately 10 days after the event for £95 plus VAT;
• Concessionary rate: £50 plus VAT.

If you find the charge for places a barrier to attending, please let me know as concessionary and complimentary places are made available in certain circumstances (but do be advised that this typically applies to individual service users or carers, full-time students, people between jobs or who are fully retired with no paid work, and representatives of small charities – not businesses, individuals funded by an organisation, or larger charities/not-for-profit companies). Please note terms and conditions below (including cancellation charges).

Job Opportunity: Lecturer in Special Education Needs and Disability (Liverpool Hope University, UK)

Position: Lecturer in Special Education Needs and Disability

Institution: Liverpool Hope University, UK

From the website: “As part of the on-going development of the curriculum within the Faculty of Education and in the light of strong student recruitment for entry in 2013, Liverpool Hope has the opportunity for a new colleague in the area of Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND).

The position of Lecturer will require teaching and research within the field of SEND with the post holder making explicit his/her academic specialism in relation to the Faculty’s curriculum. Teaching expertise and doctoral qualification should relate to SEND.

The purpose of this post is to support the work of the SEN and Disability Studies Team in the Faculty of Education by undertaking teaching, tutoring, administrative and other duties. However, there will also be the opportunity to contribute research activity by, for example, delivering papers at Faculty research seminars and engaging in joint publications. The post holder will also be required to contribute more widely to the work of the Faculty, commensurate with the roles and responsibilities agreed for this grade. All members of the department play an active role in supporting, where appropriate, CPD, enterprise and outreach activities. The University places great emphasis upon both teaching and research and in particular the integration of the two in ways that significantly enhance the curriculum and wider student experience.”

More Info here: http://www.hope.ac.uk/jobs/lecturerinspecialeducationneedsanddisability/