30th September

Top Quality Award For Families Information Service
Wakefield District Families Information Service (FIS), which incorporates the Choice Advice Service and Parent Partnership Service, has just been awarded the Families First Quality Award.

This national award, presented by the National Association of Family Information Services, is in recognition of the quality of the information, advice and assistance given to parents, carers, children, young people and their families across the District.

Councillor Pat Garbutt, Wakefield Council’s Cabinet Member for Children and Young People said: “This award is confirmation that we are continuing to deliver a high quality information and advice service to families throughout the Wakefield District, and is recognition of the hard work and dedication of the whole team.”

The FIS provides families with information on a wide range of subjects including parenting and relationships, childcare, disability, special educational needs, physical and mental health, applying for a school place, sports, play and recreational opportunities, support services for young people and more.

The service also directly supports parents by referring them to services and information available at a national level through websites, telephone helplines and printed materials.

28th September

Review Told To Slash Paperwork
The early years sector is set to call for a reduction in paperwork and better communication with parents as part of the review into the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS).

Chair of the review Dame Clare Tickell is calling on early years professionals and parents to comment on regulation, curriculum, children's welfare and whether pre-school children should be formally assessed, before the closing date this Thursday (30 September).

Both the Daycare Trust and the National Childminding Association (NCMA) are expected to voice support for a single framework for early years professionals in their submission responses.

But Kate Groucutt, Daycare Trust policy director, said the charity will be calling for EYFS to be more "parent-friendly". "A lot of parents support the idea of a single framework for all but don't know a great deal about the EYFS," she said.

The trust is suggesting that an annual report is used to aid the transition between nursery and reception and Year 1. "Instead of a single profile there should be a short annual report so if a child leaves nursery aged three they will have something useful to carry forward," Groucutt added.

NCMA's reponse will add that paperwork remains the main area of concern for its members, but will stress that a single framework reinforces childminders' professionalism.

Purnima Tanuku, NCMA chief executive, said: "Our key message is the sector does not want to see a huge overhaul. Nurseries have got to grips with the framework, and are using it in a way to develop the quality of provision."

But professionals within the play sector say the framework is unhelpful to playworkers and should be overhauled. Shelly Newstead, managing director of play training social enterprise Common Threads, said: "This could be a real make-or-break time for playwork. We could just holler 'Let us out!' and head for the hills. Alternatively we play nice and drown in paperwork and rubbish inspections until we wish we'd gone for the hills in the first place."

Newstead said her organisation's submission is likely to highlight the lack of understanding of playwork shown by Ofsted inspectors, to the extent where some settings have chosen to de-register from EYFS.

source: Kat Baldwyn, Children & Young People Now

Ofsted Guidance For Whistleblowers Released
Ofsted has issued fresh guidance on how it deals with whistleblowers' tip-offs about local authority safeguarding arrangements.

Ofsted set up a whistleblowing hotline in April 2009 to allow frontline staff working in children’s services to alert the body if they have serious concerns about practice.

A recent consultation aimed to find out if users were clear about Ofsted’s role in relation to local authority safeguarding services and what action they are able to take.

It also sought to discover if the existing guidelines are sufficiently clear.

The revised guidance further emphasises the role of the hotline, explains the difference between a complaint and whistle-blowing more clearly and includes more information about how Ofsted deals with complaints about individual schools.

It also explains about confidentiality arrangements for whistleblowers in more detail, and gives examples of the types of concerns Ofsted can deal with.

source: Neil Puffett, Children & Young People Now

27th September

Shadow Minister Calls For 'Step Change' In Childcare Provision
The shadow work and pensions minister has called for a "step change" in the level of childcare provision, urging the government to invest in the sector as part of the effort to help parents back into work.

Addressing a fringe meeting at the Labour Party conference, Helen Goodman, whose brief includes child poverty, paid tribute to Labour peer and former children's minister Beverly Hughes for starting to drive towards an increase in the number of trained childcare professionals, but said more investment is needed.

She said: "We must promise to make a step change in the level of childcare provision in this country. We are trying to set up childcare arrangements that are good for children, but are also convenient for parents and that facilitate parents in getting back to work."

She said childcare was one of the major parts of the child poverty strategy under Labour, but said the country could do more. "We spend 0.3 per cent of our GDP on childcare. Denmark spends 0.6 per cent. If we value children this is the kind of big political choice we should be making. It also makes good economic sense. Women cannot be in the labour market, earning a proper income, storing up a pension, if we don't have good childcare.

"We have to say to the new government this is now a total part of the welfare state and you touch it at your peril."

Sector leaders have also renewed their calls to keep Sure Start as a universal service. Anand Shukla, acting chief executive of the Daycare Trust, said: "I am concerned about means testing around Sure Start. One of the reasons it has been so successful is because it has been a universal service. There are problems with seeing it as a service meant only for poor parents."

Megan Pacey, chief executive of charity Early Education, echoed the sentiments, saying: "When you have poor kids and middle-class kids together they do better. Also, some Sure Start centres have an amount of private provision that middle-class parents pay for and that is key for the sustainability of centres."

Labour councillor John Merry, leader of Salford City Council, said changing Sure Start from a universal service would be damaging and called on the audience to challenge and encourage policy-makers in their communities to protect early years provision.

"This is not the time to be experimenting with something that is known to work. This will be a disastrous strategy," he said. "We can all sit in this room and argue the point, but we need to get these messages outside to people. Many [lead members] will not understand the significance of this because they don't come from an education background. I do believe people will be in favour of it but we have to make them stand to that."

But Kitty Ussher, director of Demos and former Labour junior minister, added that services had to prove the benefits of universal provision and consider new funding models. "Policy-makers still have to make cuts so we have to be realistic," she said. "We should be absolutely clear about what our bottom line is and what works. A service that mixes up different kids has huge benefits, but we have to be imaginative about the cost structure and think about charging middle-class parents more."

But Denise Burke, consultant and former childcare lead at the London Development Agency, warned she was receiving bleak messages from local authorities. "We are preparing for 25 to 40 per cent cuts in the general Sure Start grant next year and also believe ringfencing will go from that budget," she said. "I have a local authority that has 20 children's centres and is desperate to keep that number."

source: Janaki Mahadevan, Children & Young People Now

Children's Sector Quangos Face Axe
An advisory group on teenage pregnancy and the national negotiating body for school support staff are among 177 taxpayer-funded quangos to be abolished, according to a leaked Cabinet Office list.

A further 94 are still under review, four will be privatised and 129 will be merged, while 350 bodies have won a reprieve, according to a document seen by the Daily Telegraph.

Public bodies to be abolished include the Independent Advisory Group on Teenage Pregnancy, School Food Trust, School Support Staff Negotiating Body and Teachers TV Board.

Secretary Michael Gove already announced plans to scrap it in June, saying it "does little to raise teaching standards or professionalism", and the General Social Care Council, which is being abolished to as part of a major overhaul of the Department of Health’s arm's length bodies aimed at cutting costs. The scrapping of the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency announced in May, is also confirmed in the list.

Public bodies still under review include the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission, Children’s Workforce Development Council, Family Justice Council, National College for Leadership of Schools and Children’s Services, Partnership for Schools, the Office of the Children’s Commissioner, Training and Development Agency for Schools and Young People’s Learning Agency.

The Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service, heavily criticised by Napo and an alliance of 18 senior family lawyers, unions, children's charities and health organisations, is also under review.

Unison said it is "outraged" at the removal of the School Support Staff Negotiating Body and will be consulting members on industrial action and demanding the government carry out an Equality Impact Assessment over its decision.

The body was designed to bring fairness and consistency to the pay of 500,000 workers in English schools, including teaching assistants, nursery nurses, special needs staff and dinner ladies.

Christina McAnea, Unison’s head of education and lead negotiator, said: "This displays the utter contempt this coalition government has for low-paid workers, trade unions and in particular for the staff in schools delivering essential education services.

"We have been asking them since May to talk to us about this. They say publically they want to maintain an education partnership with all the unions representing school staff, yet we hear the news through the media.

"School support staff are predominantly low-paid women who are committed and passionate about their job and this government demonstrates their utter contempt for them by refusing to even meet the unions to discuss this."

source: Kat Baldwyn, Children & Young People Now

24th September

Charities Claim Government Is Withholding Money From Families With Disabled Children
Severely disabled children and their families are being denied adequate financial help by the government, according to two charities.

Contact a Family and The Children’s Trust (Tadworth) want rules that stop children receiving a Disability Living Allowance (DLA) after 84 days in hospital to be scrapped.

Under the current system, parents' Carer’s Allowance is also suspended after the same time period, despite the extra costs incurred by a family with a child in hospital, such as loss of earnings, travel and parking.

"The DLA regulations are penalising vulnerable families at very distressing times of their lives," said Srabani Sen, Contact a Family chief executive. "Not only are they dealing with a very sick child and, in some cases, faced with the prospect of losing their child, they are being pushed to their financial limits."

The call has been made in a joint response submitted by the organisations to the Department of Work and Pensions’ (DWP) 21st Century Welfare consultation, which proposes significant reforms to the benefits system.

Published in July, the consultation sets out Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith’s plans to improve the benefits system.

"Disability Living Allowance isn't paid based on the condition someone has, but on the extra costs they may have because of their specific needs or difficulties," a DWP spokesperson said in response to the call. "During a stay in hospital, these costs, and any associated care required, are already met by the NHS. It's only fair on the taxpayer that the state doesn't pay twice for the same provision.

"Payment of an individual's DLA would restart once they leave hospital," he added.

According to the charites, the DLA cut-off has led some families to deliberately and illegally conceal when their child is in hospital from the authorities, because they can’t afford to lose their benefits payments. Such actions can lead to the family being prosecuted for benefit fraud.

The organisations estimate that between 400 and 500 UK families are affected by the issue each year, and calculate that it would cost £2.5m to £3.1m per year to amend the regulations.

"The government has pledged to make the welfare system work for those who need it most," said Andrew Ross, chief executive of The Children’s Trust. "Here is a clear opportunity to do just that."

source: Gabriella Jozwiak, Children & Young People Now

21st September

Sure Start Can Stimulate The Big Society, Argues Family Action Chief
A keynote speaker at the Sure Start conference (21 September) will warn the coalition government against paring back Sure Start to work solely with the most vulnerable.

Helen Dent CBE, Family Action’s chief executive, will give a wide-ranging speech picking up some of the major themes around the current debate on Sure Start.

She will call on the government to harness the power of early intervention and home-based family support as one of the building blocks to tackle family disadvantage and provide a stimulus for the big society.

"Sure Start centres can provide a starting point for the big society. At a time when the political parties have approximately half a million members between them, and when the Church of England has 1.14 million regular weekly church-goers, Sure Start is engaging more than half a million children and has capacity for up to 2.7 million children and their families to access children’s centres every week," said Dent.

"There is massive potential there and working in the most deprived communities the best centres engage parents, build their confidence, get them participating in activities and feeling empowered to work in their communities through volunteering."

Dent will challenge schools to learn from the Sure Start model of engaging with parents and will warn against reverting to a narrow vision of Sure Start and a tick-box-driven approach to improving outcomes for children at the expense of working to improve outcomes for the whole family.

Dent will also map out the future for services, acknowledging that in times of cuts, providers should think creatively about making some changes and getting better use out of buildings. She will also call on the government to support the pledge to protect Sure Start centres.

source: Kat Baldwyn, Children & Young People Now

14th September

Schools Incorrectly Labelling Children As Having SEN, Says Ofsted
Thousands of children have been wrongly labelled as having special education needs (SEN) because of systematic failures, Ofsted has found.

The damning report, A statement is not enough, found that large swathes of children are being offered extra support for SEN when all they really need is better quality teaching.

The wide-ranging review also uncovered massive inequalities in the way that pupils’ needs are assessed and met, both between and within local authority areas.

Children with similar needs were frequently identified as requiring different levels of additional support, and more articulate middle-class parents were more likely than disadvantaged families to secure support for their children.

Across education, health and social care services, the various approaches to identifying needs and the different thresholds for intervention were found to hamper joint working, confuse parents and lead to weak and inconsistent plans for supporting children and young people.

Inspectors even found that some schools are identifying pupils with SEN to boost their inspections ratings.

"Some schools visited believed that identifying more pupils with special educational needs resulted in a positive influence on the school’s contextual value-added score," the report said. "This provided an incentive for higher levels of pupils to be identified as having special educational needs. In some of the less effective schools visited, this over-identification contributed to lowering expectations for children and young people."

Extra funding for pupils with SEN was another factor that encouraged schools to specify that more pupils had additional needs.

"In local areas where the formula for funding schools took into account the proportions of children identified as having special educational needs, this gave an obvious motivation for schools to identify more such children," the report explained.

Despite the massive over-identification of children with SEN, inspectors found that this did not necessarily lead to appropriate, good-quality support for the child concerned.

Young people aged 16 to 19 were among the worst affected by substandard levels of support.

The choice of education and training opportunities at 16 was limited for many young people with learning difficulties or disabilities and there were few full-time college courses for this group of learners.

Christine Gilbert, Ofsted’s chief inspector, claimed there needs to be a shift in the direction of the SEN system.

"Higher expectations of all children, and better teaching and learning, would lead to fewer children being identified as having special educational needs," she said.

"For those children with complex and severe special needs, schools often need the help of health and social care services. All these services should be focused on the quality of what they are doing, and how well young people are doing as a result. At the moment too much effort is going into simply checking that extra services are being provided."

But Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said teachers need more support to work with pupils who have additional needs.

"Teachers do a great job in often very difficult circumstances to meet the needs of all their pupils, and for Ofsted to suggest otherwise is both insulting and wrong," she claimed.

"All too often schools are left without the necessary back up and support that is required."

In England, 1.7 million school-age children are identified as having special educational needs or a disability. Ofsted inspectors visited 22 local authorities and a total of 228 nurseries, schools and colleges while researching this report.

source: Lauren Higgs, Children & Young People Now

13th September

Children's Minister Unveils Plans For Education Of SEN Pupils
Ministers are considering how to ensure parents can send their child with special educational needs (SEN) or disabilities to their preferred educational setting – whether that is a mainstream school, special school or an academy.

The plans were outlined today as Children’s Minister Sarah Teather called on parents, charities, teachers and LAs to contribute to the Government’s SEN Green Paper.

The Green Paper, to be published in the autumn, aims to improve radically the entire SEN system and will cover issues including school choice, early identification and assessment, funding and family support.

Ministers are considering a range of options including how to

• give parents a choice of educational settings that can meet their child’s needs
• transform funding for children with SEN and disabilities and their families, making the system more transparent and cost-effective while maintaining a high quality of service
• prevent the unnecessary closure of special schools, and involve parents in any decisions about the future of special schools
• support young people with SEN and disabilities post-16 to help them succeed after education
• improve diagnosis and assessment to identify children with additional needs earlier.

Children’s Minister Sarah Teather said:

Children with special educational needs and disabilities should have the same opportunities as other children, but the current system is so adversarial that too often this doesn’t happen. I want parents, teachers, charities, teaching unions and local authorities to come forward with the changes they think are needed to make the system better for children with SEN and their families.

Parents should be in control of their child’s education and future. Importantly, they must be involved in discussions and decisions about the support they need rather than feel they have to battle the system. I want to make it easier for parents to choose where their child is educated.

I want to look at every aspect of SEN – from assessment and identification to funding and education. We need to strip away the cumbersome bureaucracy but ensure there is a better, more comprehensive service for families.

Christine Lenehan, Director, Council for Disabled Children, said:

CDC is delighted by the Government's continued focus on the needs of disabled children and those with SEN. We hope people involved in the lives of disabled children take this opportunity to respond to the call for views.

Julie Jennings, Chair, Special Educational Consortium, said:

I am delighted that disabled children and children with special educational needs have been made a high priority by the Government. I am pleased, too, that there is no suggestion that we are starting from a blank sheet of paper – so much evidence has been brought together over the last few years that this invitation to contribute to the Green Paper is rightly focused on setting priorities and practical action that is going to make a real difference.

To support fundamental changes to the SEN and disability system, ministers are looking at how to identify children’s needs earlier, develop fairer and more transparent funding arrangements, and streamline assessments to make life easier for parents and families.

Ministers are seeking a wide range of views to help them develop proposals for consultation that are practical to implement, reduce bureaucracy and build on current effective practice as well as make the most of the available funds.

Alongside the launch of the Call for Views, the Children’s Minister today confirmed the end of the national disabled children’s services parental survey. Only a limited number of parents could respond to the survey and ministers want all parents to have the opportunity to get involved in how local services are designed and delivered. The Government welcomes views on how to strengthen the process for ensuring parents’ views affect the services their family receives locally.

source: Department for Education

7th September

Study Shows Sure Start Centres Effective At Reaching Vulnerable Families
Sure Start children's centres are effectively targeting the most vulnerable families, according to the latest study of Ofsted reports by 4Children.

The charity looked at recent Ofsted reports into the effectiveness of centres’ outreach work in supporting vulnerable families. Inspectors found that just one in 10 was not effective, compared to 57 per cent gaining "highly positive" feedback and 32 per cent labelled as "adequate".

4Children is using the findngs as part of its campaign to urge the government not to cut funding for Sure Start in the forthcoming comprehensive spending review.

David Cameron has already suggested that Sure Start could be scaled back from offering a universal service to all families to focusing only on the poorest. Last month he said that too often services are monopolised by "sharp-elbowed middle-classes".

Anne Longfield, chief executive of 4Children, said: "It is important that myths about middle-class families monopolising Sure Start are not used to justify cutting back on the important support they provide to families across the country."

4Children has also carried out a survey into public attitudes to Sure Start, as part of its ongoing Family Commission research project into family life. This found that one in four people is concerned about Sure Start services being cut.

source: Joe Lepper, Children & Young People Now

2nd September

Revised SEN And Disability Tribunal Rules Come Into Force
New rules giving parents greater access to special educational needs (SEN) and disability tribunals came into force on 1st September.

The changes allow parents to appeal to the SEN and disability tribunal if their local authority does not amend a child’s statement following their statutory annual review. Previously there was no right of appeal if local authorities failed to act on a review, even when parents and teachers felt that change was required.

Brian Lamb’s 2009 report for the former DCSF highlighted the lack of parental confidence in aspects of the SEN system of assessment and recommended the changes.

The new rights are introduced through the Children, Schools and Families Act 2010. Parents will now have a two-month window to appeal following a local authority’s decision not to amend an SEN statement. In the past, parents were forced to request a re-assessment if their wishes were ignored.

In addition to the new provision, the chief inspector of education, children’s services and skills now has a duty to report on the extent to which education in mainstream schools meets the needs of children with SEN and disabilities, creating a more transparent and accountable environment.

source: Stuart Derrick, Children & Young People Now

1st September

After-school Activities 'Out of Reach' Of Poorer Parents
Nearly two-thirds of parents cannot afford to send their children to after-school activities that have a positive impact on their educational performance, according to latest research.

A poll of more than 800 parents with at least one child aged four to 18 found that 62 per cent were "saying no to vital after-school activities because they can’t afford it".

The research, conducted by charity Save the Children, also found that three out of four parents (74 per cent) "living below the poverty line" could not afford after-school activities.

Of those parents who do pay for after-school activities, nearly half (49 per cent) spend over £10 per child per week to pay for activities, while more than one-fifth (22 per cent) pay more than £20 per child per week.

The charity said that, for many of the UK’s poorest parents, £20 per child per week is "out of reach".

Sally Copley, head of UK policy at Save the Children, said after-school activities were just as important to a child’s education as what happened during school hours.

"Children who do after-school activities have more confidence, see the world in different ways and have a stronger sense of identity. This ultimately translates into doing better in exams and getting a better job," she added. "We’re particularly concerned that poorer children are missing out as a result."

More than half (51 per cent) of the parents polled said after-school activities provided their children with "educational benefits", while 71 per cent said their children would "miss out on social skills" if they were not involved in such activities.

Donald Hirsch, head of income studies at Loughborough University’s Centre for Research in Social Policy, said: "Out-of-school activities are not just an optional extra but an important part of children’s education and development."

source: Ben Cook, Children & Young People Now