Noticeboard

Noticeboard - 25 May 2023

Welcome to this week's Noticeboard containing an important Oracle Update, an opportunity to join the newly formed Inclusive City Steering Group, training opportunities, and more! Wishing you all a warm and sunny half-term break!

Oracle System – Finance Update for Schools

Work on Reconciliation File functionality continues as a priority, with additional resource assigned to boost support. The Cashbooks Team continues to identify missing income postings for schools and will continue contact with schools over the coming weeks, to request input and additional information to support identification and coding.

We continue to engage with a number of schools to provide regular progress updates for key technical fixes, with an onward cascade via schools’ business managers to their colleagues and networks. This collaborative approach ensures that we provide the right levels of support, with schools having input into proposed solutions, as well as help with testing. If you would like to be part of this collaborative approach, please get in touch via the SchoolsTransactionalServicesQueries@birmingham.gov.uk mailbox, stating “Schools Engagement” in the subject heading. You can also contact us via this mailbox to seek help with any finance related Oracle transactional queries such as Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Cashbooks, Payroll or Pensions. More information regarding this support process is set out in the 30 March edition of the Schools Noticeboard bulletin.

  • Reconciliation Files technical fixes – the council’s Digital & Technology Services (DTS) continue to work on resolving known issues, including:
    • Information not captured or incorrectly captured by reconciliation files including Journals, Salaries, Duplicate Payments & Cancelled Invoices
    • Files Failing to download / load
    • Invoices not Automatically Reconciling
    • Week 13 & 14 files not being produced – see additional information in the next bullet point below
  • Week 13 reconciliation files – the current priority for DTS is to identify the root cause of failure; a rewrite of the integration will be needed to resolve long term but in the short term a work-around will be run to get the files up and running. To support this, we need to understand whether data from the initial week 13 file was processed onto your MIS systems successfully or if it resulted in failures. A total of 51 schools received a week 13 file, with 31 schools downloading the file and 20 yet to download the file. An update for these 51 schools will be issued via direct email.                                                                                      
  • Missing Income – additional resources are now assisting with processing unallocated items. One main issue is the identification of an Oracle code to post the income to. To help address this, it was agreed at the recent Schools Discovery Workshop, that all relevant income will be posted to each individual school on a specific ‘miscellaneous income’ code This will speed up the process of allocation to schools and if required, will allow for recoding within MISs once the reconciliation files are processed. To accelerate the work for year-end we have increased focus and targeted additional internal and external resources on addressing schools unallocated income. Please therefore be aware that you may be contacted direct via email or phone, if additional information is needed to enable income allocation.

Payroll

  • Moving from paper payslips to e-payslips – paper payslip production for May payroll will cease for over 11,000 staff who have enabled Oracle self-service to access digital payslips. This leaves around 6,000 staff who have not yet enabled their Oracle self-service access.
  • Hard to reach/offline staff – the Payroll Team will be contacting schools during June to help reduce the remaining 6,000 cases and enabling as many staff as possible to switch from paper payslips to e-payslips. This work will also establish hard to reach/offline cases for which paper payslips need to continue by exception.

Warning: Knives Disguised as Pens

It has come to our attention that ‘knives disguised as pens’ are being sold over the internet by a company called SHEIN for less than a £1.00.

Schools should be mindful of such items, and if support is required, please don’t hesitate to contact the Safeguarding team: EducationSafeguarding@birmingham.gov.uk

Medicines & Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency Emmerade Alert

The Medicines & Healthcare Products and Regulatory (MHRA) Agency have issued a medication alert for the recall of some doses of Emmerade, the auto-injector given for anaphylaxis. 

The alert relates to those who have been prescribed Emmerade 500 micrograms or Emmerade 300 micrograms. 

Please refer to the guidance from MHRA to raise awareness and ensure these devices are replaced for adults, children and young people who have been prescribed them: Advice for patients who have been prescribed an Emmerade auto-injector

Inclusive City Steering Group

Please see below detail of the new ‘Inclusive City Steering Group.’ This is going to be a multi-agency meeting and we would like a representative from both primary and secondary schools. The group will meet every two months, starting from July. If you would like to be a part of this, please send your name to Charlotte Behan, charlotte.behan@birmingham.gov.uk by Wednesday, 7 June 2023.

Purpose

Birmingham Children and Young People’s Partnership Inclusive City Steering Group (‘Inclusive City Steering Group’) will drive a whole-place approach to implementation of Birmingham’s Inclusion Strategy, and partnership approaches to:

  • relationship-based and inclusive practice in our schools, settings and services, including through DLP Phase 2
  • understanding and tackling inequalities, disproportionality, and disparities
  • connecting our children and young people to meaningful opportunities, so they can thrive

The Inclusive City Steering Group’s core aim is to secure collaborative delivery of outcomes for children and young people. The Inclusive City Steering Group’s will

  • Maintain oversight of delivery of our Inclusion Strategy, steering the coproduction of our collective inclusion action plan to encourage meaningful presence, participation and progress, enabling a sense of belonging and opportunities to fulfil dreams and aspirations
  • work strategically to make best use of evidence, data analysis, insight and lived experience to develop a common understanding of issues, interconnections, relationships, and the barriers faced by babies, children and young people to connecting with meaningful opportunity across our city  
  • Forge collaborative working across the partnership, providing challenge, quality assurance, and problem solving in relation to the collective action plan,
  • Maintain overview of system-wide priorities, such as anti-racism, tackling poverty and inequalities faced by babies, children, young people and families, and act to identify and reduce gaps, and build on strengths across the partnership, 
  • Ensure the action plan meets the development requirements across relevant sectors in the local system, and enables production of support, provision and resources aligned with local and national evidence and best practice, and
  • Oversee the development of multi-agency frameworks, such as partnership-wide approach to implementing relationship-based and inclusive practice in our schools and setting

The Birmingham Children and Young People’s Partnership Strategy Group will be responsible for holding the chair (Helen Ellis, Director of SEND and Inclusion) to account for the delivery, outcomes and benefits driven by this group on our strategic action to create an inclusive city.

Children and Young People’s Mental Health Scrutiny Inquiry

A Task and Finish Group, with members from Overview and Scrutiny committees for both Health and Social Care and Education and Children’s Social Care, was formed to conduct an inquiry into Children and Young People’s Mental Health.

To enable a better understanding of what schools know about mental health and how children and young people obtain mental health support, they’d be grateful if schools could complete a simple on-line survey. The survey is anonymous and no personal details will be disclosed.

The survey will only take a few minutes to complete and can be found here: Children and Young People’s Mental Health Survey. The closing date for the survey is 19 June 2023.

The information provided will be used to produce a public report that will make recommendations at a meeting of the City Council. Individuals that respond to the survey will not be identified in the report.

Urgent mental health support for children and young people can be found here: Forward Thinking Birmingham - Get urgent help

Dingley’s Promise Parent/Carer Representatives

Dingley’s Promise is a registered charity and is delivering a five-year programme of free training courses funded by Comic Relief, to support the improvement of outcomes of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) to early years and childcare settings.

Birmingham parents/carers of children aged 0-5 years old are invited to support the delivery of this inclusion project by becoming a Parent/Carer Representative for the project. This is a rewarding role and will also be a great opportunity for parents/carers to access training that will support their knowledge and understanding around SEND and inclusion.

The project will ensure co-production with families and a local stakeholder group with parent representation as part of a National Parent Board to help oversee the project. This includes enabling representation at Dingley’s National Steering Group.

The first stakeholder group meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, 20 June 2023:13:30-15:30 via Microsoft Teams.

Interested in becoming a Parent/Carer Representative? Simply email your full name and contact number to eyduty@birmingham.gov.uk by Friday, 9 June 2023. Please use ‘Dingley’s Parent Rep’ in the subject header.

Training opportunities and more information can be found here: Dingley’s Promise Early Years Inclusion Programme

ECINS Early Help Case Management System 

Birmingham Children’s Trust (BCT) is offering all Early Help partners in the city free access to their shared case management system called ECINS. This has been open to schools since September 2022. BCT is funding the software and a support team to offer training and technical support for all partners. So far over 120 schools in the city are on board. From May 2023 Family Support Workers covering all cases at RHRT Additional Needs level will also be using this system. Being on the same case management system will significantly improve collaborative working between BCT workers and schools. 

The full promotional slide show can be found in the Early Help section of Birmingham Education Hub https://birmingham.eduhub.org.uk/ 

All the information you need to apply is in this presentation. 

Some schools showed initial interest but were concerned about the legal implications of signing up to the Data Sharing Agreement (DSA). Legal advice has been taken by BCT and the council and the advice was that an organisation’s own Data Protection Officer should look at the application to be part of the Data Sharing Agreement and confirm that they were clear about the implications for their organisation. For a MAT this would be someone acting on behalf of all schools, maintained schools apply individually and their own DPO can do the check. 

If you have any questions about ECINS or the DSA application process, you can contact the ECINS team on ECINSsupportteam@birminghamchildrenstrust.co.uk or susan.dancer@bep.education  

Menopause Training

The Occupational Health, Safety and Wellbeing (OHSW) team is providing Menopause Awareness Training:

  • Menopause Awareness for Employees – 21st & 30th June 2023
  • Menopause Awareness for Managers – 23rd & 28th June 2023

The cost is £20.00 per person, but for schools with a current Safety Service Subscription agreement there is no charge.

Please be aware that places are limited and will be offered on a first come first served basis.

To book a place simply follow the appropriate link:

For any queries, please contact: schoolsafety@birmingham.gov.uk    

Supported Internship Programme

The 14-19 Full Participation and Skills Team, in partnership with DFN Project Search, have developed a Supported Internship Programme with placement opportunities across several sites within Birmingham City Council who also currently have job vacancies.

All interns must:

  • Be 16 to 24 years old
  • Have Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) or/and an Education, Health, and Care Plan (EHCP)
  • Have a desire to achieve paid employment of 16 or more hours a week

All interested parties can find out more by joining the ‘fact finding’ session taking place on Thursday, 1 June 2023: 13:00-14:00.  Simply click here to join the session:  14-19 Supported Internship Programme or contact the team at 14-19supported.internship@birmingham.gov.uk for more information.

AET Schools: Good Autism Practice

Monday, 12 June 2023: 09:00-16:00 – Oakhill Centre, Oakhill Close, Birmingham B17 8BB

This module is for practitioners who work with autistic pupils (5-16). It provides practitioners with practical strategies when working with autistic pupils. The module also takes participants through guidance on developing a pupil-centred education plan (PCEP) for an autistic pupil.

Although only students with SEN are currently required to have a PCEP, the vision is that if, in the long term, inclusive practice is embedded in school provision, fewer pupils will require something additional to that which forms part of universal provision.

Not all staff who work with an autistic pupil will be involved in the creation of a pupil-centred education plan, however, all staff will benefit from being aware of the content of the PCEP.

Book your place by simply following this link: Good Autism Practice - 12 June 2023

AET Early Years: Leadership, Inclusion and Structural Reasonable Adjustments

Thursday, 22 June 2023: 13:00-16:30 – via Microsoft Teams

The Leadership, Inclusion and Structural, Reasonable Adjustments Module is part of the Suite of Resources for Leaders. It has been compiled for leaders and leadership teams within education settings to embed culture change across their provision and support them on their journey to become an outstanding and inclusive setting. The resources will support leaders to fully embed the 8 principles of good autism practice as outlined in the Good Autism Practice Report.

This module will help leaders to understand what is needed to fully embed an inclusive culture. It looks at education legislation and guidance surrounding inclusion, the steps required to lead culture change and the importance of considering structural reasonable adjustments and AET resources to support leaders with this.

To book your place simply follow this link: Leadership, Inclusion and Structural Reasonable Adjustments - Thursday, 22 June 2023

BCHC Plus - Medical Needs in Early Years Training Service

Birmingham Community Healthcare Plus (BCHC Plus) provides a Medical Needs Training Service to early years and childcare settings.

The Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage - September 2021 places a statutory duty on early years providers registered with Ofsted to ensure training is provided for staff where the administration of medicine requires medical or technical knowledge.

BCHC Plus provides training on the following topics:

  • Allergies
  • Asthma,
  • Epilepsy/seizures
  • Buccolam - this training should only be accessed as a stand-alone training if recent Epilepsy training has been accessed.
  • Febrile Convulsion Awareness
  • Diabetes
  • Eczema
  • Medication administration

If schools would like to discuss training needs and potential costs, please contact BCHC Plus on 0121 466 6266 or email bchc.bchcplus@nhs.net

Services for Education

Understanding and Responding to Sexual Harassment & Sexual Violence in Secondary Schools – Wednesday, 7 June: 09.00-12.00

The ‘Everyone’s Invited movement’ and Ofsted’s subsequent review into Sexual Harassment and Sexual Violence have highlighted the sheer prevalence of these behaviours in secondary schools. This course aims to give a greater understanding into “Harmful Sexual Behaviour,” how it can be challenged, what responses should be given and how schools can an embed a culture that raises awareness of, minimises, or even eradicates the prevalence of this. Bookings can be made at this link: Understanding and Responding to Sexual Harassment

Update for Existing DSLs on Safeguarding and Child Protection – CENTRE BASED- Monday, 19 June: 13.00-16.15

This centre based course is for existing Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs) and Deputy DSLs who have previously attended the two-day DSL training course. It will focus on best practice, current issues of concern and the leadership and management aspects of safeguarding. It ensures that existing DSLs and DDSLs meet their statutory obligation to have training updated regularly. Bookings can be made at this link: DSL Update

Schema & Curriculum – Thinking Critically – Tuesday, 20 June 2023: 09.00-12.00

If schema is a mental structure to help us understand, then how do you help students to see the structure of the subject we are teaching? How do you transfer information to students whilst ensuring the context required allows them to process and remember it? Bookings can be made at this link: Schema & Curriculum

Birmingham Connected

Bike Week and Clean Air Day

There are two fantastic campaigns this June for schools to participate in to promote walking, cycling and scooting to school, and cleaner air for your pupils. Remember to include all of the good work you do to encourage active and sustainable travel in your Modeshift STARS Action Plan.

Bike Week – 5-11 June 2023

The 100th annual Bike Week has arrived, marking a century of celebrating everyday cycling for everyone.

There are lots of exciting and interactive bike themed activities that can be used in school or at home:

Happy cycling!

Clean Air Day – 15 June 2023

The UK's largest air pollution campaign is back! This year’s theme is “Clean up our air to look after your mind”

Air pollution is the single biggest environmental health risk in the UK. YOU can play a big role in raising awareness of the need for clean air and taking action to improve air quality in and around your school.

Follow these 3 easy steps to take part in Clean Air Day:

  1. Run a learning session in your school: Use the resources within our Switch Off School Streets toolkit, or the official Clean Air Day learning session pack
  2. Help spread the word: Use the social media pack to communicate the importance of clean air
  3. Celebrate Clean Air Day: Download the Clean Air Day pack including banners, pledge cards and bunting

This year, Birmingham City Council will be supporting Clean Air Day through hosting a #TimeToAct pledge event

On June 15, join us at Grand Central (outside Pret) to make a pledge to improve air quality across Birmingham. This community engagement event calls on members of the public to make a pledge of their choice. We will also be showing a screening of our #TimeToAct short film about the importance of air quality, featuring pupils from schools across Birmingham. We hope to see you there!

Have your say! TfWM Washwood Heath Travel Survey

Is your school located in Alum Rock, Saltley or Washwood Heath? In these areas of Birmingham, works to accommodate the arrival of HS2 will be ongoing over the next decade and shortly gather momentum. These works include the demolition and reconstruction of both Saltley Viaduct and Aston Church Road overbridge, with the latter works scheduled from Autumn 2023. 

To help us support you on your journeys when travelling in, through and around this area of Birmingham and to keep you moving during any improvement works fill in the short travel survey, and share it with your network, so we can understand how and why you travel.

For any queries or further information please contact: connected@birmingham.gov.uk

 

This entry was posted by Dawn Evans on 25/05/2023.

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