Young people to be funded to remain in foster care until age 21 if they wish

Posted on December 4, 2013 by Chris

Children and young people brought up by foster carers in England will be allowed to remain with families until they are 21 if they choose to under a new legal duty for councils – this is brilliant news – it was always crazy to force young people to live on their own at 18 by withdrawing their funding:

Children and young people brought up by foster carers in England will be allowed to remain with families until they are 21 if they choose to under a new legal duty for councils, ministers will announce on Wednesday.

Charities have long argued for a change in the law, which currently forces many young people to live on their own at 18. The government has set aside £40m for local authorities over the next three years to put support arrangements in place.

The decision marks a U-turn for ministers, who had previously resisted calls to expand Labour’s pilot Staying Put programme – a scheme that gives young people the option to stay with foster families until they are 21.

The Labour scheme had been piloted in 11 English local authorities since 2008 and evaluations showed that young people who stayed on with foster carers were twice as likely to be in full time education at 19 as those who did not.

Education minister Edward Timpson, whose own mother fostered 90 children, said: “I know from the many foster children I grew up with how crucial it is for them to be given sufficient time to prepare for life after care. A growing number of local authorities already offer young people the choice to stay, but with little financial support it can be challenging for their foster families. This is a further reform to our much wider package of support for care leavers, including much greater financial support for young people leaving care at 18.”

The government will now put forward an amendment at the third reading of the children and families bill in January.

Robert Tapsfield, chief executive of the Fostering Network, which campaigned on the issue, said: “This change in the law will make a massive difference to the lives of this and future generations of care leavers in England. This issue has, however, not been resolved for young people in Wales and Scotland. We will continue to campaign for this change in the law to be replicated”.

Currently, local authorities in England fund the cost of children in foster care until they reach 18. At that point, support varies across the country. In many areas, teenagers are forced to live by themselves at an age when others would remain at home. Statistics from the Department for Education revealed only 10 more young people stayed with their foster carers after the age of 18 in 2012-13 than in 2011-12.

Natasha Finlayson, chief executive of the Who Cares? Trust, which supports children in care, said: “This represents the most significant reform to the support children in care are given in a generation. Time and again we hear from young people who are extremely anxious about having to leave their carers when they turn 18 and effectively no longer having somewhere they can call home, especially when the average age for young people who aren’t in care to finally leave home is (at least) 24.”

UK Teens ‘Tempted’ By Glamorous Cigarette Packaging

Posted on October 13, 2013 by Chris

A Cancer Research UK study reveals for the first time that glitzy and glamorous cigarette packaging makes children susceptible to smoking — tempting them in to a habit that kills. The research is published in the journal BMJ Open.

The results are further proof that the UK government’s decision not to protect children from the tobacco industry’s marketing practices risks harming the UK’s public health legacy. The government claims it wishes to wait and see the impact of similar moves in Australia – where the weight of evidence led to the introduction of standardized packaging last year.

During this delay the tobacco industry is reaping the benefits of slickly designed packs that help to recruit new smokers. Nearly 570 children under-16 start smoking in the UK every day.

In the new study, researchers at the University of Stirling examined the reactions of 1,025 UK children aged 11-16 who had never tried smoking. They were given three different types of cigarette packs: regular, novelty and standardized packs. Novelty packs were those with an unusual shape, color or system of opening, and included a slim “perfume” type pack and a pack in the shape of a giant lighter. Standardized packs were brown packs of a uniform shape with all branding removed apart from a brand name.

Children preferred the colorful and novelty packs – such as Silk Cut Superslim’s elegant and feminine slim pack shape, Marlborough Bright Leaf’s Zippo style flip-top opening and Pall Mall’s bright pink pack.

Alarmingly children who liked these packs were the same children who said they were more tempted to smoke – for example those receptive to the Silk Cut pack were over four times more likely to be susceptible to smoking than those who were not receptive to this pack.

In contrast plain, standardized packaging reduced the appeal of smoking to the children.

Every Day of World War II in Europe Mapped

Posted on October 13, 2013 by Chris

I’ve always enjoyed studying and reading history, but EmperorTigerstar have helped to visualise it through a map showing the allegiance or occupation of Europe for every day of World War II. Watch the slow, steady, ominous growth of Nazi-controlled territory. The map also shows the massive involvement and contribution of the USSR, which America downplayed in history classes due to Stalin’s reign of terror. Here’s what the colors mean:

Maroon: Axis Power members, their dependencies/colonies, and annexed lands.
Burgundy: Areas militarily occupied by the Axis Powers.
Red: Axis puppet states.
Pink: Axis gains during that day.
Blue: Allied powers and areas occupied by the allies.
Light blue: Allied gains for that day.
Purple colors (left to right): Finland, occupied by Finland, and Finnish gains that day.
Dark Green: The USSR before it joined the allies and annexed lands.
Green: Areas militarily occupied by the USSR before it joined the allies.
Light Green: Soviet gains for that day.

As you watch, remember that there were people dying because of the war every day, both in the red and at the fronts. EmperorTigerstar has lots of other animated history maps.

Eric Pickles tells survivor of alleged child abuse: ‘Adjust your medication’

Posted on September 29, 2013 by Chris

I was amazed to read in the newspaper that Eric Pickles told a survivor of alleged child abuse to “adjust your medication”.

The minister for Communities and Local Government told a survivor of alleged child abuse to “adjust your medication” when she accused him of ignoring her. He made

the comment in a recorded confrontation with constituent Teresa Cooper earlier this month. Ms Cooper was one of at least six women who say they were drugged as teenagers at the Kendall House care home, Kent, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, whose children now have genetic defects:

Confronting Mr Pickles, who is her constituency MP, she said: “Nothing has changed on the Kendall House abuse. Only you have ignored it. You have ignored it.” Pickles then interjected, shouting: “just, just, adjust your medication”.

Below is the transcript of the conversation and below that the audio recording of the conversation.

Teresa Cooper: you need my signature for…

Eric Pickles: you’ve consistently… you change your na [unfinished word]… you’ve changed your views… You give me different stories.

TC: Different stories?

EP: and before I act I need your signature

TC: different stories.. its been proved publicly

EP: [aside]sorry about this

VOICE: no .. its okay

TC: we’ve got all this stuff its been proved publicly and its you – you tell different stores – nothing has changed on the Kendall House abuse? – only you have ignored it. You have ignored. You have ignored it.

EP: just, just, adjust your medication

TC: no you…. I am not on medication right, but you need to be, you ignore child abuse and people should know about it.

The two met while at a wildlife event in Ongar, Essex, on 14 September and Ms Cooper recorded the conversation. Ms Cooper, 46, said: “I was shocked to be honest. He’s implying I’m mentally ill which is really rude of him because people do have mental health problems and they should not be spoken to that way.”

She added: “The Conservatives say ‘we need to change attitudes about mental health’ but clearly they need to start with Eric Pickles.”

Mr Pickles’ adviser said that the comment was said in “the heat of the moment” and was his way of giving a blunt piece of advice. Mr Pickles had corresponded with Ms Cooper about some of her concerns but she claims she has been trying to speak to him in person for 16 years.

Mr Pickles said: “It was never my intention to insult Teresa Cooper. I was giving her a frank piece of advice in private.”

Unsurprisingly Mr Pickles has been criticised by a wide range of organisations and individuals including Paul Farmer, chief executive of the mental health charity Mind:

“It is disappointing that a minister would use language that can feed the prejudice around mental health. We would encourage everyone to really consider the impact of using mental health language in a way that could contribute to fuelling stigma.”

I believe that Mr Pickles should offer a full unreserved public apology to Teresa Cooper – we shouldn’t have MPs let alone Ministers using language like that.

SEN Conference – Maximising the Impact of Teaching Assistants

Posted on September 26, 2013 by Chris

The last session of the Hampshire County Council SEN Conference was entitled “Maximising the Impact of Teaching Assistants” and led by Rob Webster, Principal Special Needs Officer

Working in HCC since April 2013. Was at the Institute of Education in London before that.

Some aims:

Understand why schools need to examine how TAs are used
Take a closer look at factors that affect TAs effectiveness
What is the role and purpose of TAs?
Explore things shcools could do different. Maximising the impact of TAs.

Background

There is an assumption that TAs help raise pupil standards, but there had been little systematic research on impact over long-term and under everyday classroom conditions – there had been bits on literacy interventions etc. The Deployment and Impact of Support Staff (DISS) project (2009) focussed on all support staff, especially TAs. This then led to the Effective Deployment of TAs (EDTA) in 2011.

Scale of the DISS project

17,800+ biennial national questionaire survey.
Analysis of impact of TA uspport on 8,200 pupils in 153 mainstream schools.
Observations of 680+ pupils and 100+ TAs in 114 schools.
Detailed case studies in 65 cschools.
Interviews with 280+ heads, SENCos, teachers and TAs.
Analysis of adult-to-pupil talk (teacher and TAs) in 16 lessons

Comparison of TA Support verses non TA Support within a classroom environment.

Year	National Curriculum sub-level
Year	English	Maths	Science
1	-1.5	-1
2	-1.5	-1	-1
3	-2	-2
6	-1	-0.75	-1
7	-2	-1.5
9	-1	-0.75	-1
10	-1*

expressed as 1 GCSE grade

Pupils with Statements profoundly affected by current arrangements: those with the most TA support, made the least progress.
Used statistical techniques that control for variables known to affect attainment (e.g. SEN, FSM, prior attachment).
It is NOT the fault of TAs
Organisational and structural factors over which TAs have little or no control.

Issues of

Conditions of employment
Preparedness
Characteristics

DISS: Which pupils do adults work with

Interaction by pupil level of SEN	Teacher	TA
Non-SEN	55%	27%
School Action	24%	32%
School Action Plus or SEN statement	21%	41%

TAs rarely worked with middle and higher attaining pupils. The higher the level of need, the more interaction with TAs and the less interaction the teachers.

Teachers spent more time explaining concepts. TA explanations were sometimes inaccurate or confusing.
Teachers provided more feedback. TAs more likely to prompt pupils and supply answers.
Teachers linked current lesson to pupils’ prior knowledge, promoted pupils’ thinking and cognitive engagement in a task. TAs more concerned with task completion.
Teachers ‘open up’ talk; TAs close talk down.

Preparedness

75% teachers have no training to work with/manage TAs
75% teachers no allocated planning or feedback time.
Teacher-TA meetings depended on TA’s goodwill.
TAs underprepared: having to tune into teachers talk for content/instructions.

Key messages from the research

Pupils with SEN receive more support from TAs than teachers
TA support is alternative to teacher support – not additional
Pupils with SEN separated from classroom, teacher and peers
TAs have main responsibility for teaching pupils with statements
Training for teachers key factor in current arrangements
TAs pedagogical input is well intentioned, but unlikely to narrow attainment gap
Currency of statements seem problematic as written in hours for TA.

Implications for practice

A fundamental rethink is required if schools are going to get the best use from their TAs – and help pupils.
Organisational and strucutral factors need attention:
Deployment of TAs (and teachers)
Practice: TAs interactions with pupils
Preparedness of teachers and TAs.

Rethinking the TA’s role

Pupil Premium is built on spending the money leading to outcomes, but that isn’t the case. It is how and on what you spend it than can cause outcomes to be met.

Effective Deployment of TAs Project

Collaborated with 40 teachers and TAs in 10 schools (20 pairs) with the aim to develop and evaluated alternative strategies to TA preparedness, deployment and practice under normal funding.
Developed over one academic year, spending one term on each of the three areas.
This has become the basis for Maximising the Impact of Teaching Assistants which has a programme of work that any school can work through and examine how they use TAs.

Conduct an audit

Changes cannot be decided until you know what requires change.
Decision-makers: make sure you know what you think you know.
Obtain objective and subjective pictures of current practice.
Opportunity to identify and build on existing good practice.
Check out www.schoolsupportstaff.net/mitatools.html

Decisions about deployment

What do you want the role and purpose of TAs to be? Teaching role and non-teaching roles (admin, SEAL, mobility, class organisation). This is a collaborative process of challenge and change – not about assessing how effective TAs are. The problem arise when TA role “drifts” from non-teaching towards teaching. 25% of the school workforce are currently TAs.

Key questions

Can/should TAs be as effective as teachers without the same professional development? Or pay?
Should TAs routinely teach pupils with the most demanding SEN?
If TAs can be as effective as TAs then teachers should be worried as they cost a lot less!

TAs and Pupils with SEN

What OFSTED are looking for:

Quality of teaching – Inspectors must evaluate the use that is made of TAs.

The Teacher is responsible for progress and development of all pupils.

TAs and Interventions

When TAs lead interventions they often get positive outcomes. Why does this impact get lost in the terms of wider/annual attainment? There often seems to be the world of the Classroom and the world of the TA with the pupils having to make the link themselves. Teachers and TAs need to help them make sense of this. An interventions health check:

Are we using good intervention programmes, are we using good programmes badly?
Do we need to update the training?
How effective are our reporting mechanisms to teachers?
Do teachers engage with interventions and progress data?

Making best use of TAs time

A third of the time teachers are just being part of the classroom audience – that raises questions around value for money. The TA repeats word-for-word the teachers instructions for a specific child, creating “stereo-teaching” – the child is now trying to listen to two voices instead of one.

Decisions about Practice

Set TAs free from unhelpful patterns of behaviour that underpin less effective types of talk:

The impulse to complete tasks
Not allowing time for pupils to think and respond
Taking peer role of “talk partner”

Teachers use more open ended questions than TAs who used closed questioning. Need to reflect on forms of questioning that keep responsibility for learning with pupil. Pupils can become dependent on TA, they can almost not engage with work unless TA does the work for the pupil. Changing this helps to avoid spoon-feeding and pupils developing independence.

Key Findings

All the schools involved made widespread changes “no going back” to how things were. Teachers spent more time with pupils with SEN – a professional satisfaction.

Teachers made better use of TA time in lessons.
TAs questioning improved.
Quality and clarity of lesson plans improved; less “going in blind”.
TAs feel more valued, appreciated, more confident about role.

Questions, Comments, Discussion

In your research were TAs more effectively used in Primary than Secondary given they more often stay in 1 classroom? The research seems to suggest not, but there are greater challenges in secondary schools moving from classroom to classroom, where inconsistency is much more of an issue according to the research.
Where were the schools located? The first study was from England & Wales and representative of the population, e.g. rural v urban.

Further reading

Reassessing the impact of Teaching Assistants – that’s the research
Maximising the Impact of Teaching Assistants – designed for Head Teachers and Teachers
Teaching Assistants: A guide to good practice – download at www.oxfordprimary.co.uk

SEN Conference – Pupil Premium

Posted on September 26, 2013 by Chris

The third session of the Hampshire County Council SEN Conference was entitled “Pupil Premium” and led by Glynis Wright, County Inspector/Adviser (PDL)

Outcomes, outcomes, outcomes

What do we want for all of our young people?

To maximise potential, to be self-assured, confident, enthused with great aspirations with life skills prepared for adult life.

Interestingly when we talk with parents they don’t include academic achievement.

The Pupil Premium has been given to this to help resolve this.

FSM, Service Children, CiC, SEN

In each school we will have pupils on FSM, pupils entitled to FSM but parents haven’t completed paperwork. The news this week about pupils in Infant schools gaining FSM will change this, especially if widened to .

CiC may be worth double funding if they’ve been registered for FSM – £900 for FSM Ever 6 and a claim for being in care for 6 months plus. Service children can claim £300. Under Ever3 you can claim for 3 years after the parent(s) have left the forces. So are you asking the questions that need to be asked.

SEN children some of whom gain additional funding, and some you find funding for from the budget. If you have Service Children with SEN there is a concern over the delay in getting them assessed – the issue of turbulence contributing.

Who are the vulnerable groups in your schools?

What characteristics might they show? Traveller families, SEN, CiC, high turbulence, young carers, EAL, BME, boys. OFSTED will want to know how you’re addressing these issues, and what individual teachers are doing to address these needs.

For those CYP who are vulnerable but as yet gained no funding how can you scoop up and help them benefit from what htey’re putting in place. 218 out of 581 schools responded to Pupil Premium survey – used a small portion of Pupil Premium to better train Teachers and Staff, e.g. in doing 1-2-1 or peer educators – that is how it will be sustainable post 2015 if the funding stops.

Background to Pupil Premium

Introduced in April 2011 for FSM only at £450. No real pressure on schools, and so an ad-hoc system developed with some schools putting it in general budget. £623 in 2012. £900 in 2013 with the proviso of accountability. Only 47% of HCC Schools have anything on website in March 2013. Will be £1,300 for Primary only on 1st April 2014. Josie Matthews at HCC says still no news for Secondary, but £500 catch up for every child who arrives in school with no Level 4+ in English and Maths.

Sutton Trust EEF Teaching and Learning Toolkit 2011 “What works”

Effective feedback
Metacognition and self-regulation
Peer tutoring
Early intervention
1-2-1 tutoring
ICT
Phonics
Parental involvement

Sutton Trust Research 2013

Effective feedback ££ +8mths
Metacognition and self-regulation ££ +8mths
Peer tutoring ££££ +6mths
Early Years interventions £££££ +6mths
1-2-1 tutoring ££££ +5mths
Homework (secondary) £££ +5mths
Collaborative learning £ +5mths
Phonics £ +4mths

What else

Sometimes schools are too focussed on academic – more of the same that has already failed them. We need to help unlock their lust ofr learning. Some of these soft interventions do make a real difference:

Breakfast clubs
After-school programmes – e.g. ROC challenge, school productions
Multi-agency teams in school
Parenting support
Allocate best teachers to disadvantaged children

Yes you need to show progress but there are other ways of measuring in addition to levels of progress.

OFSTED Report January 2013

Pupil Premium: How schools are spending the funding successfully to maximise achievement is the follow up to the report published in September 2012. Need to use the Pupil Premium Analysis & Challenge Toolkit for Schools:

Governor’s knowledge and awareness
Leaders and managers actions
Pupil’s progress and attainment

Overall, will governors know and be able to intervene quickly if outcomes are not improving in the way that they want them to?

The Government have been very clever putting the onus on Governors and have parents as sentry’s checking up on this via the info you have to place on your website.

SEN Conference – The Local Offer

Posted on September 26, 2013 by Chris

The second session of the Hampshire County Council SEN Conference was entitled “The Local Offer” and led by Tesni Mason, Parent Partnership Officer.

Check out www.hampshirelocaloffer.com for more information.

Andre spoke about the need for people to have clear information – not just contact details, but information on how to access services. The Local Offer is not just for education, but education, health and care, for CYP with SEN and/or disability.

The LA has to publish that information, but also comments on the Local Offer – so it is very transparent system. In addition they have to publish their response to the comments developing a clear link between commissioning and clients.

The Local Offer is a live set of information which will be reviewed and amended regularly.

Hampshire has worked with the other LA in the SE7 Pathfinder Authorities. Parents want to compare information to be able to understand the Local Offer.

Regional Principles

Co-produced – working with CYP, Parents and Schools to create a sensible way of moving forward together.
Holistic – all information has to cover 0-25 – that is a big challenge as most info is 0-16 and 16+.
Accessible – partly about the language that is used – much is not new information but information that is hard to find and understand.
Factual – only want to know things that are actually there – they want to know aspirations but also what the current situation and service is.
Empowering – accessing those services ASAP – important not just for families but also for professionals.
Sustainable – get up-to-date, asking schools to help with this.
Transparent – much more information about how decisions are made, what eligibility is.
Widely available – start with easy access that require no further assessment then moving onto specialist support.

Schools, Social Care, Health, Parents, Adult Services – links to housing, employment etc. Spent a lot of time developing the guidelines, now putting into practice, in an implementation stage. Specific groups looking at specific issues – schools, parents, but no governors, services such as Ed Psych, Early Years.

Publishing the Local Offer

Developed a partnership with Parent Voice to deliver and develop the IT for the Local Offer, linked to the Parent Voice and Hampshire Gateway websites. Hampshire Parent/Carer Network, NHS and others have developed the web site.

Aiming to publish the first version of the offer in January 2013.

Research on Parental Journeys

Research on parental journeys – to understand how parents find information – what works well, what is hard to find, and what the emotional impact of the information is. Sent out a questionnaire, receiving 117 response, anonymous, and then selected 40 families (5 from each of the 8 Districts, with age 5-22 year old children, and mild, moderate and more complex needs). Interviewed 31 families, and completing analysis, with report coming in the next few weeks.

Key findings – What Works Well

A single point of contact with someone they can talk things through with.
Having information prior to appointments – knowing who’s who and what to expect.
Effect signposting – often when not eligible they aren’t signposted to an appropriate resource.
Shared decision making and being listened to.
80% of parents send they were left to their own devices, trying to find the information, professionals assumed knowledge.
Felt some information was hidden – especially around Statementing and Social Care assessment.
They felt they had to learn to be pushy – threaten legal action or exaggerate symptoms to be heard. Conflict could be avoided if greater transparency.

In December develop a prototype of website, publishing in January, and by March a full version of the Local Offer with further info to follow.

What do you need to do?

Questions for schools have come from what parents said they want to know, and link to SEN Information Regulations which state what schools legally have to publish. Piloted with a number of schools and realised that some questions led ot professional language and are producing guidance which will be finalised by the end of October, with briefings for schools from 11th November.

All schools will produce their own Local Offer including the roles of LA, Schools and Governors. The LA will produce their guidance on the offer under School Action and School Action + until the Draft Code is published. Gosport have looked at it as both individual schools and clusters – looking at who else you engage with to support children with SEN and Disability.

How do we do co-production? Can be a scary idea, but quite simple, invite in a couple of parents to review the questions, some supportive and some who challenge you quite a bit. That can be quite small and simple. Then build on that by adding detail to the headings – some further broadening of parental survey. Important that everyone has some say in that.

Discussion

The Local Offer is what is already done and in the SEN Policy – so surely we’re just creating another document from existing documents. It is slightly more parent friendly but surely the policy should be written in a better way. Sharing information of services would be beneficial but that seems like an LA role not local schools.

How much freedom in your final Local Offer? It will need some prescriptive questions as there are some things which are important and we want some
When does it have to be done, and who do we submit it to? Can start doing it now, have to do it by the end of the year. It can take several drafts. Working out the quality control, and when publish the guidance that will be included. Will be circulated to Head Teachers.
How do you share across a consortium? Gosport has devised a shared Local Offer which is then adapted by each individual school.
It seems an example of creating more work, and not streamlining a service? The responsibility of each school is to produce a Local Offer in partnership with parents.
But if you’re a mile apart you would end up replicating the same document as the other school as the same services would be there. Yes but we need to allow individual schools to share their views.
Surely one needs a standard document if it is to benefit parents give they’re not the same. There will be a form, containing guidance, which will provide uniformity.

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