Royal Borough Of Greenwich – Why Our SEND Provision Works
The Royal Borough of Greenwich recently received a favourable local area inspection of its SEND services from Ofsted and the CQC – here, Cllr. Chris Kirby describes the steps they’ve taken to make that provision work…
We believe that strong partnerships, where roles and responsibilities are clearly understood, is what’s resulted in children in Greenwich making better progress at both primary and secondary level, compared to nationally.
By working closely with schools, health providers, our local NHS clinical commissioning group, young people and parents we’ve been able to develop an integrated approach, as demonstrated through our joint commissioning of services, deployment of staff and actual service delivery.
We offer non-statutory early years funding to ensure that 2 and 3-year-olds receive personalised support before starting primary school.
At one children’s centre, for example, an educational psychology parent drop-in service enabled one parent to share concerns she had about her son when he was just two years old.
A single referral was made, which led to health and children’s services working with his parents and staff to understand his complex needs.
There then followed two years of early specialised support, including video interaction guidance sessions, to ensure a comprehensive EHCP and help prepare him and his family for primary school.
Our Early Years inclusion team liaises regularly with NHS colleagues so that we’re able to have health knowledge from birth and joint working in place right from the start.
An example of this is the support that was provided to a 3-year-old boy with ASD and his parents, who were struggling to access appropriate services.
A referral was made to the Early Years co-ordination team, and they allocated an area SENCo who supported his setting, applying for one-to-one support. An inclusion worker supported the boy’s mother, and ensured that an EHCP was ready for when he started primary school.
Budget pressures
Senior managers from across the partnership regularly meet and work on monitoring and reviewing what we do in order to improve outcomes.
Our staff are vital to us achieving our vision, so we’re pleased that they describe themselves as being supported, well-trained and able to influence policy and processes.
Our SENCo network provides twilight sessions for sharing best practice, CPD and induction for SENCos who are new to the post or to Greenwich.
Part of our vision for children and young people with SEND is that they’re able to have their needs met locally. We’ve successfully identified gaps in our offer and opened new provisions to meet those needs.
We also have a programme that’s developing provision for children with ASD in mainstream schools, and are growing our dedicated specialist provision within mainstream settings.
Like all LAs, we’re acutely aware of budget pressures.
In Greenwich we have a growing population, and with school funding under pressure, we’ve had to work even harder to meet the level of need. We devolve money straight to schools, so that it’s easier for schools to deliver the interventions that are needed.
We aim to keep children local, both to reduce transport costs and because we believe it leads to better outcomes. We also invest heavily in our outreach services, which provide excellent support.
Greenwich Parent Voice, which is an independent group of parents who have children with SEND, was rightly singled out for special mention in our inspection letter. The passionate and enthusiastic volunteers who run it ably meet their objectives of informing, connecting and empowering their fellow parents.
The group’s free sessions include popular monthly rambles, arts and crafts sessions, an informative website (greenwichparentvoice.com) and school-based coffee mornings that provide parents with some much needed ‘me time’ – which isn’t always easy to carve out when your child has complex needs.
Greenwich Parent Voice representatives and young people also play a critical role in both our commissioning of services and recruitment of key staff. Both groups also meet regularly with Members of the Council and senior leaders from the partnership to ensure that their voices are heard in any future developments.
Cllr Chris Kirby is cabinet member for human resources, co-operatives and social enterprise at the Royal Borough of Greenwich.
