Please see information below published today on the new Department for Education guidance on mobiles phones.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mobile-phones-in-schools

The guidance essentially advises schools to develop a policy to prohibit the use of mobiles phones in schools. The guidance is non-statutory.

The guidance helpfully reminds schools of the duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled pupils and highlights that some pupils may require access to mobile phones for reasons relating to their disability.

On the occasion of her retirement as CEO of the Council for Disabled Children, Dame Christine Lenehan delivered a Valedictory lecture to guests at an event on Monday evening in Westminster.

 A video is available here.

National Children's Bureau CEO, Anna Feuchtwang, alluded in her opening remarks to the National Children’s Bureau’s 60th anniversary, and the interactive timeline of NCB’s work over the last 60 years that they have produced. You can access the interactive timeline here.

You may also be interested in the interview that Christine did with Woman’s Hour on the day of her speech. You can access that here. The feature highlighted a Disabled Children’s Partnership report on the challenges facing the SEND tribunal system.

School census figures have been published today:

https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/special-educational-needs-in-england

Headlines are;

Over 1.5 million pupils in England have special educational needs (SEN)

An increase of 87,000 from 2022. Both the number of pupils with an education, health and care (EHC plan) and the number of pupils with SEN support have increased:

  • The percentage of pupils with an EHC plan has increased to 4.3%, from 4.0% in 2022.
  • The percentage of pupils with SEN but no EHC plan (SEN support) has increased to 13.0%, from 12.6% in 2022.

Ofsted has published their response to the consultation and new guidance. It is summarised with links in a commentary by Amanda Spielman here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/hmci-commentary-publishing-our-new-area-send-framework

The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT), the National Deaf Children’s Society, Speech and Language UK (formerly I CAN) and Voice 21, a broad coalition of over 110 charities, royal colleges, professional bodies, professional associations, trade unions, parents and carers and others have publicly written to the ministers in charge of the SEND Review to ask them to invest in the specialist workforce for children and young people.

The open letter is now published and accessible on this link: https://www.rcslt.org/news/rcslt-leads-coalition-calling-for-investment-in-the-specialist-workforce

Today the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel published their phase 1 report on safeguarding children with disabilities and complex health needs in residential settings, which can be found at: Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Following publication of the report, our new Secretary of State for Education, Gillian Keegan MP has laid a written ministerial statement in response to the report’s publication.

Written statements - Written questions, answers and statements - UK Parliament

Dear colleague,

I hope this message finds you well. I am writing to introduce myself as the new Director of the SEND and Alternative Provision (AP) Directorate in the Department for Education (DfE). This is a very exciting and time to be joining DfE and taking up this important role; and I look forward to working with many of you over the coming months on how best to deliver on our shared ambitions to improve the experience and outcomes for children and young people with SEND, and those in AP, as set out in our March 2022 Green Paper.

Consultation on the Green Paper closed on 22nd July, and I thought it would be helpful to give you a brief update on the current position. We are continuing to consider thousands of responses received through our e-consultation and from the 175 consultation events – many thanks to all of you who participated. As you can imagine, working through all this feedback is a major task; and we continue to engage with colleagues in the SEND and AP systems as we develop our next stage of proposals. We remain committed to publishing the Government’s response to the Green Paper consultation in a National SEND and AP Improvement Plan by the end of the calendar year.

As you may already be aware, confirmed portfolios for our DfE Ministerial Team have now been published on gov.uk. I am pleased to confirm that Kelly Tolhurst, Minister for School Standards and Childhood will be responsible for SEND and AP. More details about the new minister’s portfolio are at https://www.gov.uk/government/people/kelly-tolhurst; wider ministerial portfolios can be accessed at the bottom of the DfE homepage at: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-education.

Thanks, and I very much look forward working with you.


Best wishes

Alison

 

Director of SEND and Alternative Provision