9th February 2015 News for parents, SENCo’s and other interested parties.
The SEN Team - News
The SEN Team is the group of people that that manage our children's/young people's Statements of
Special Educational Needs (SEN) - they work for Achieving for Children.
The Team have a huge workload already, with there being over 950 Statements within the Richmond
borough and 870 in Kingston. In addition to they must also translate these to Education, Health &
Care Plans (EHCPs) over the next three years.
It's fair to say the SEN Team have struggled to manage their existing workload and encompass the
changes and transfers to EHCPs.
Hence... the team is undergoing significant restructuring and re-training to enable them to cope with
these changes. Let's take each of these in turn:
Restructuring
Anna Chiva (following her maternity leave) returns to post as SEN Services Manager and will be
employing a Deputy to support the team's development. Currently, the plan is that there will be
three strands reporting to Anna and her Deputy:
1. Wendy Bolsover*, Principal Case Manager for Richmond + an EHCP Co-ordinators team
2. Jacqui Parker, Principal Case Manager for Kingston + an EHCP Co-ordinators team
3. Gill Higgins, Post-16 EHCP Manager + an EHCP Co-ordinators team
(* from 2nd March 2015) The entire SEN Team are soon to be located in the Local Authority offices in
Twickenham.
Catherine Marks, Senior Case Officer for Richmond, will be taking a sabbatical from the end of March
and her post will be covered by Wayne Pigeon-Coot. The post of Senior Case Officer for Kingston is
soon to be filled and there are promising candidates within the recruitment process.
The advertisement for the Deputy Manager is soon to be released.
The administration support for the SEN Team has increased - so more phone calls get answered
more quickly.
Re-training
In addition to the training the SEN Team receive on the new EHCPs and Transfer Review processes,
they are undergoing Customer Service training from the John Lewis Partnership (yes, the big shop in
Kingston!).
This training takes the form of the SEN Team developing their Customer Service skill both by inhouse training at John Lewis and observed processes within their own offices.
Over the next few months, the team are also receiving training on the new law, mediation and
planning outcomes.
EHCPs (both new and transfers)
The transfers of Statements to EHCPs and new EHCPs are underway - and a whole lot of learning is
ongoing!
9th February 2015 News for parents, SENCo’s and other interested parties.
The view is that it's important to spend time now learning how to get each aspect right - this means
the early EHCPs will take longer to develop than those in a year or two's time (as we all will have had
some practice by then!).
Due to staffing constraints, the initial plan was to send the reports to external Drafters to write the
EHCPs - this is beset with problems (if the reports are out of date or missing, there is too much to rewrite when the drafts return).
Some of the specialist schools have requested that they write their own EHCPs and are working out
their costs - then funding being used to pay the Drafters can then be diverted to the specialist
schools.
Simon James (Associate Director for SEND, AfC) is also happy to consider any individual parent or
young person (or their advocate) who would like to do a similar thing in putting together their EHCP.
Panel
This final chapter is a personal reflection on the 'SEN Panel' - the decision making forum that reviews
each case and allocates funding. It's an event that easily feels shrouded in mystery... held behind
closed doors... making decisions about funding for our children...
In putting together the draft Guidance document for the EHCPs a few weeks ago, I struggled to
understand what happened 'at Panel' and asked if I could attend as an independent observer (and I
have enough security checks to make this reasonable).
It was a tiring and impressive experience. Highlights are:
o The key Panel members had read the 10cm pile of double-sided papers sent to them the
night before - and made notes on each case.
o The questions the Panel asked were appropriate and always placed the interests of the child
first.
o The hardest aspect for me was when there was no suitable education provision for a child
(either locally or further afield) and it was a struggle for the Panel to try to find a solution.
o The importance of the school and professionals providing suitable, and in some cases
quite detailed, evidence is imperative in helping the Panel make their decisions.
o It was very pleasing to note that for young people over 16, great care was taken to ensure
their views were sought.
o All the decisions I saw (in all 19 cases), were made with great care and consistently in the
best interests of the child/young person.
There are certainly aspects of 'the Panel' that could change (the name for a start!) and we (RSFV) will
strive for more transparency and understanding of this process. But all in all, it's a group of
professionals who care very much what happens to children and young people with SEND.
As ever, should you have any queries or questions (or comments on the above), please let me know
and I'll do my best to find an answer.
With best wishes, Romany
...on behalf of Richmond SEND Family Voice (RSFV)
Tel: 07758 305 472
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: www.richmondsendfamilyvoice.org