8 November 2024 weekly update

Dear Colleagues,

I hope you had a lovely half term break.

National policy announcements

Despite government funding for School Improvement ceasing in 2022-23, Kent County Council continued investing in school improvement services through commissioning TEP. The council’s current financial position means that this is no longer possible and the recent School Services consultation gathered views on the different funding options for the future. A report on the outcomes of the consultation is on the agenda for the December Schools Funding Forum to agree the way forward. In the meantime, the government recently announced the intention to establish its own regional school improvement teams. This generated discussion about where the capacity would come from, so it was interesting to find out this week that the intention is for DfE to commission services from LAs and MATs. You can see more detail in this Schools Week story

We are waiting for the formal communication from DfE to better understand the process, but this is an interesting policy development in a number of ways. It represents a significant shift from a school-led improvement system, acknowledging the need for some overarching leadership and infrastructure, but it also seems to move the DfE into the accountability arena that LAs operate within. If you are a policy geek like me, then watch this space. For the rest of you hopefully this will bring some assurance about the future of school improvement services.

The second notable announcement was from  Bridgit Philipson, Secretary of State, at the Confederation of School Trusts’ conference, where she shared the appointment of Dame Christine Lenehan, former director of the Council for Disabled Children, as the government’s “strategic advisor” on SEND. Alongside this was the announcement of the creation of a new expert panel to oversee reforms to make mainstream schools more inclusive led by  Tom Rees, Academy Trust Chief Executive.

From the Kent perspective, I am really pleased to say we are on the money in terms of our own reforms which are well underway. Philipson talked about the need for parents and children to be assured of a clear, core offer for pupils with additional and special needs in mainstream schools - we have the Mainstream Core Standards which are now well established and are building on this model by developing the SEND Continuum of Needs and Provision which is already attracting national attention. A national expert panel in neurodivergence will be advising the government on improving provision in mainstream schools. Kent is now into the second year of a partnership with the Autism Education Trust to support schools in developing this capacity and we have recently launched the PINS project in Maidstone as a pathfinder for new ways of working with health on better early identification and intervention with children who are struggling.

I have been spending some time reading school Ofsted reports to include evidence of SEND inclusion in my next report for Scrutiny Committee and I have to say I am so proud of the work going on across the county on levelling the playing field for our most vulnerable children which shines through. One of the more irritating questions I keep being asked is "When are you going to start doing work to make mainstream schools more inclusive?", as if we are going to do something new. As you know, that work has been going on for years and there is outstanding practice to build on and share - our challenge is getting greater consistency across all schools and other national planned reforms, including to Ofsted, will really help with this.

Headteacher briefings

The dates, times and locations for the briefings are as follows:

• Monday 11 November from 1pm to 4pm
  Ashford International Hotel, Simone Weil Avenue, Ashford, Kent, TN24 8UX

• Friday 15 November from 9am to 12noon
  The Inn on the Lake, 36 Lake Place, Hoylake, Kent DA12 3HB

• Monday 18 November from 9am to 12noon
  Mercure Great Danes Hotel, Ashford Road, Maidstone, Kent, ME17 1RE

• Friday 22 November from 1pm to 4pm
  Darwin Conference Centre, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NZ

To book a place, please complete the booking form

School visit

I very much hoped when the Improvement Notice was removed that I could spend less of my time reporting but alas national scrutiny has been replaced by local scrutiny and so reporting is still taking up a great deal of time. Anyway I was delighted to manage to have a school visit this week to Green Park Community Primary School in Dover, which blew my socks off! David Adams, Assistant Director Education East, and I had a wonderful visit. Headteacher Richard Hawkins had planned out a full programme to give us a really in depth understanding of the school’s approach to inclusion. I was particularly interested to find out they haven’t seen the same spike in parental complaints that we are seeing across the education system and it was fascinating to hear staff views on why this might be. The morning ended with a delightful and touching performance by the Signing and Singing Choir. A huge thank you to Richard and his team for a great morning.

SEN and funding

A big thank you to the many of you who have been working in various ways on developing the proposed models for school funding for the Communities of School and the tariffs for pupils with EHCPs. The consultation will be going live soon, with a report being taken to the School Funding Forum in December. Just to make sure everyone has an opportunity to ask questions we are planning 10 SEND Funding Myth-buster briefing sessions which will start at the end of this month. So if you are not clear then please do join one of the sessions.

And finally…

Today is Alison Farmer’s last day before she starts her journey sailing around the world in the Walrus with a small crew. Alison is a hugely experienced and knowledgeable Principal Educational Psychologist (and AD for SEN) who leaves a lasting legacy in Kent through her work. We wish her all the best and look forward to finding out about her adventures, first stop is the Caribbean for Christmas - lucky her!

Best wishes

Christine McInnes
Director of Education and SEN