Noticeboard - 5 October 2023

This week's Noticeboard includes details on a briefing session for New SENCos, important information on immunisation, an opportunity to find out more about Birmingham's 'Dream Team' Project, and more!

Included in this update

Briefing for New SENCos

We are delighted to invite all new SENCos to a briefing on Thursday 26th October 2023 1:00 - 3:00pm. The briefing is aimed at SENCos who are either new to the SENCo role this term or experienced SENCos new to post within Birmingham.

The aim of the briefing is to introduce SENCos to the senior leaders within the LA SEND teams as well as to representatives from the Local SENCo Consortia groups.

The afternoon will give an opportunity to:

  • Find out who the SEND teams are and what support they are offering
  • Have an overview of the Birmingham funding system
  • Understand the Local area SENCo groups
  • Understand the LA communication process to SENCos
  • Learn about the Balanced system approach to SALT across the city
  • Find out who the SEND OT locality therapists are and what they offer
  • Network with other SENCos

The Council House has kindly offered to host this event for us and the team will be providing light refreshments on arrival.  A place has been reserved for each new SENCO and an email link will be sent out to confirm whether they would like to attend.

For further information, please contact Heather Wood, Head of SEND Advisory Services at heather.wood@birmingham.gov.uk

Immunisation Update (COVID, flu, MMR) for all early years settings and schools in Birmingham

A message from the Health Protection Team

Dear Colleagues

Thank you for your continued support in protecting the health of the children of Birmingham.  As we are now in the autumn/winter period, we encourage staff, parents/carers and all those who are eligible, to have their flu and COVID-19 vaccinations, to protect themselves and their loved ones.  It is important to remind parents/carers to check that their children are up to date with their vaccinations, especially MMR.  This is because we know there have been outbreaks of measles in England this year and we are at risk of having an outbreak in Birmingham, especially with the lower vaccination rates that we have in our communities.  Any unvaccinated person who is exposed to someone who has measles will be advised to isolate at home for 3 weeks, which will be disruptive to their learning/work.

We have some updates on the latest rules around COVID-19 in schools, nurseries and other education settings which can be found here.  In addition to this, there is a blog about getting winter strong here.  In September, The Chief Medical Officer and leading health professionals wrote to schools to provide a clinical and public health perspective on mild illnesses and school attendance, which can be found here.

Other guidance has been updated to provide a practical guide for staff in children and young people settings, including education, those working in children and young people’s social care, on managing a range of infections, and minimising disruption. This includes advice on managing coronavirus (COVID-19) and other infections. Further and higher education providers should also take note of this guidance: Health protection in children and young people settings, including education - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) There is also a-parents-guide-to-keeping-kids-healthy-this-school-year.  And, (e-bug.eu), a health education programme which aims to promote positive behaviour change among children and young people to support infection prevention and control efforts and to respond to the global threat of antimicrobial resistance.

Finally, we will be conducting a series of webinars on health protection issues (COVID-19, vaccinations, etc) this month of October, starting with a webinar for special schools, hosted by our Director of Public Health, Dr. Justin Varney, our Assistant Director of Public Health Dr. Mary Orhewere and other members of the health protection team – more information will follow shortly and we look forward to seeing you soon.

Best wishes

The Health Protection Team, Birmingham City Council

For more information or any health protection queries, please contact us on:  hpteam@birmingham.gov.uk

Birmingham’s ‘Dream Team’ Project

Birmingham City Council is looking to end child bed poverty in Birmingham and would like your support!

In partnership with Birmingham Voluntary Service Council, and supported by Barnardo’s, Birmingham City Council is looking to ringfence some of the Round 4 Household Support Fund money to support families suffering from bed poverty. This funding is currently available until 31st March 2024.

Bed poverty has a severe impact on children’s educational attainment, development, and family life. At the most fundamental level, a bed is a safe space for a child especially in a high stress household, it offers warmth, independence, privacy, and comfort. If that bed is taken away, a child is further exposed to the anguish and solitude that growing up in poverty can bring.

It is a hidden truth that many households cannot afford to provide each child with a bed of their own, and is estimated to affect 30% of the UK population, with over a million children estimated to have to share a bed with parents or siblings, or sleep on a floor, sofa, or in the bath.

With the short-term challenges of sleep deprivation come the lifelong consequences of bed poverty.

Find out more by attending a virtual drop-in session on one of the following dates – simply click the appropriate link to access the Teams Meeting.

Or contact Lucia Hedderley at lucia.hedderley@birmingham.gov.uk for further details.

SEND Area Self-Evaluation

Parent Engagement

Schools will be aware that we are currently undertaking a SEND self-evaluation across the whole of the area, and the contribution of parents and carers is essential.

More details on how parents and carers can get involved can be found at Area SEND Self Evaluation - Local Offer Birmingham or by emailing the dedicated mailbox at tellusaboutSEND@birmingham.gov.uk

We’d be grateful if schools could share this information with parents and carers to ensure we encourage as many as possible to participate in the survey. Thank you!

School Survey

Thank you to those schools who have already completed the self-evaluation survey. To those who haven’t yet had the chance, the deadline has been extended to Friday, 20 October so there is still time to do so by following this link – SEND Self-Evaluation Survey

For any queries or further information, please contact Kevin O’Brien at kevin.obrien@birmingham.gov.uk

Early Education Entitlement - Parental Declarations

For Autumn 2023 term children need to be in attendance with you for headcount day as per the terms and conditions of funding detailed in the EEE Provider Agreement in order for you to receive funding.

The Provider Agreement states:

2.32. The Provider must ensure that a parental declaration is completed in English for each child entitled to an early education entitlement place.  If a parent is unable to understand what they are declaring or agreeing to, the provider should provide the appropriate translation support.  If this support is not available, the provider must contact earlyeducation@Birmingham.gov.uk  requesting the appropriate support.  A parental declaration must be signed, fully completed or updated for each term the child is in attendance at a provider, even if there is no change. The parental declaration form will confirm when a parent is using multiple providers to access their entitlement.  Providing the parental declarations confirm that the parent is receiving their eligible entitlement, funding will be split and paid in accordance with the signed parental declaration forms.

Parental declarations must be signed at the start of every term by both parent and provider. Please note that children must be in attendance on or before headcount date in order to claim a funded place for Autumn term. If children don't start with you until very close to headcount date, please ask whether they have visited / attended / signed up to another setting before coming to you.  If they have– check - have they told the other setting that they are not going back? Do they know they might have to pay fees to the setting they are leaving? Duplicate claims will be investigated and may mean that the funding is split between providers.

Please ensure you include any eligibility codes and complete the schedule of planned attendance, this provides a clear picture of what hours and days the child is attending, the start date for each term, and if they attend more than one provider.  This also shows if children stretch their provision over more than 38 weeks of the year.  For 30 hour parents who use two providers, it is also really important to state who the Universal provider is, this must be the parent's decision. 

Please complete the parental declaration form with your parents – it is an opportunity to get to know parents and an opportunity to have conversations with them about whether they have registered at another provider, you can then discuss the implication of funding and the potential costs for parents and the provider involved in duplicate claims.

Remember to keep your parental declarations as they may be required for audit purposes. You can use your own parental declaration, but it must include at a minimum all the information in the BCC parental declaration.  You can find blank parental declarations and an example of a completed one on EYMIS: www.ted-birmingham.org.uk

  • Username: PVI2
  • Password: PVI2year

If you have any queries, please email earlyeducation@birmingham.gov.uk

Birmingham Safeguarding Children Partnership Safeguarding Newsletter

For the attention of Designated Safeguarding Leads

The Birmingham Safeguarding Children Partnership launched its Safeguarding Newsletter on Friday, 29 September and you can read the newsletter in full on their website.

The first edition focuses on tackling neglect in Birmingham, details of the upcoming Practitioners’ Conference, a feature from Independent Chair, Penny Thompson CBE, and a Practitioner Spotlight feature – focusing on Dr Yasmin Husain, a Named GP for the NHS Birmingham and Solihull ICB Safeguarding Team.

If you haven’t already done so, please fill out a subscription form now to ensure you receive future notifications.

Please feel free to share the newsletter within your own organisations and encourage your colleagues to sign up too.

If you have any feedback please don’t hesitate to contact Katherine Adams  BSCP Social Media and Comms Officer at katherine.adams@birminghamchildrenstrust.co.uk

EYSFF Returns for Autumn Term 2023

For schools with Early Years provision for 2, 3 and 4 year olds

Each term you are required to submit and return an on-line EYSFF submission to provide us with your numbers of eligible 2 year olds, EYPP and FSM take up so that we can reconcile your early years funding. It is the school’s responsibility to ensure that the form is completed within the time frame - failure to do so will result in incorrect budget allocations.

The link to the form will be emailed to schools during Census week and you will be required to complete the form between 5th and 12th October 2023. The email is sent to your enquiry@ email address so please ensure that the person responsible for this mailbox knows who to forward the link to within your school. We do not have the facility to use individual email addresses.

Please only include your Early Years Children on this form - do not include children in Reception.

Remember that all 2 year olds that you claim for and all 3 and 4 year olds that you are claiming EYPP and FSM for must have an eligible code that you must keep a note of on the children's records for the purpose of EEE audit. If the system does not confirm eligibility, you can contact earlyeducation@birmingham.gov.uk for support.

Please note there is no facility to receive a copy of your on-line submission - however you should have the details of numbers of eligible children on your records in line with the terms and conditions of EEE funding. The EEE Provider Agreement detailing the terms and conditions of delivering early education entitlement can be found on EYMIS: http://www.ted-birmingham.org.uk  

To access EYMIS please use:

  • Username: PVI2
  • Password: PVI2year

If you have any queries regarding the on-line form or the eligibility of children, please email earlyeducation@birmingham.gov.uk FAO Dee Sterling-Miller

If you have any queries regarding your funding allocation, please email fairfunding@birmingham.gov.uk

Schools HR Conference – Tuesday, 10 October 2023

With only one week to go until this year’s Schools HR Conference there’s still an opportunity to book tickets!

With a focus on Safeguarding and Wellbeing, you’ll hear from our keynote speaker Lee Parkinson, Teacher, podcaster, influencer, trainer, and author; and be uplifted by a motivational address from disabled adventurer, author, and resilience coach, Daren Edwards.

There are workshop sessions hosted by colleagues from NACRO, ACAS, Education Support and Legal Services; and opportunities to network and visit exhibitor stands throughout the day. 

You can find out more about the event and book tickets here: Schools HR Conference 2023

Governors Financial Assurance Checklist

Following meetings with all relevant stakeholders, the Governors Financial & Governance Report templates that schools are required to submit twice yearly, have been updated.

The three governor appendices have been replaced with one document – Governors Financial Assurance Checklist

This now forms a more streamlined document checklist for schools, and will only require completion once a year in the Autumn Term. This will commence with immediate effect.

Schools are no longer required to copy data produced in other reports. However, there is a requirement for schools to confirm and sign to say that they have discussed and minuted the information in each of the questions and make further comments where necessary.

The document is to be retained internally only, but must be made available on request during a school audit.  Requests may also be made by other local authority teams, such as Schools Causing Concern or SFS. 

If you have any queries please contact Husham Khan at Husham.Khan@birmingham.gov.uk

BCHC Plus School Nursing Service

BCHC Plus School Nursing provides additional education focused services that supplement the NHS ‘core’ school nurse service. The link between educational attainment and positive health is well documented; however sometimes schools find that incidence of health-related needs amongst their pupils requires more clinical support. We offer schools the opportunity to buy additional dedicated school nurse time to address health needs that lie beyond the scope of the core service. Services are available as individual modules supplementing existing provision or as part of a comprehensive package of support.

Individual schools have differing health related needs and objectives, and your BCHC Plus service would be tailored to these. School health topics that we provide support for include:

  • Curriculum input focused on health and wellbeing
  • Issues arising in school that may have a link to health
  • Dedicated support addressing a school’s wider health related challenges
  • Liaison with GP’s Health Visitors and other professionals
  • Health education and promotion activities

To find out more about how BCHC Plus can benefit your school; pupils; families and staff; please contact our BCHC Plus team on 0121 466266 or email bchc.bchcplus@nhs.net

Services for Education

Full Day Online Conference - 9 November 2023

Services for Education (SFE) are excited to present a full-day online conference covering all aspects of reading!  

SFE have the pleasure of sharing presentations from some of the very best national experts from universities and organisations around the country. They will be covering such intrinsic elements of our practice as: Building a Reading Culture, How to Teach Reading Fluency, Phonics Teaching, Developing Comprehension, and more! "

Simply follow this link for more information and to book your place

Improving Primary Writing Attainment - 19 October 2023

With writing results suffering more than other core subjects in the wake of the pandemic, class teachers and school leaders are grappling with the inevitability of needing to raise expectations and attainment levels in this area. Simply follow this link to book your place

Supporting Refugee & Asylum Seeking Young People

Great new resource for schools with pupils from refugee families

This resource for schools was developed by Gateshead Psychological Service: Supporting Refugee and Asylum-Seeking Young People: Best Practice from Research

It breaks down practical approaches and strategies at whole-school, classroom and individual levels.

Menopause Awareness Day

Celebrating World Menopause Day, Wednesday 18 October 2023, at 7pm on Teams

The Library of Birmingham and the Menopause Workplace Forum have come together and invite you to an exclusive author event this World Menopause Day.

The event is called Midlife Reimagined: a fiercely honest and wildly encouraging virtual story sharing workshop for midlife women. 

Host, Ann Douglas, an international author and speaker, brings this FREE event to celebrate all things female wisdom, an awakening which often comes with reaching midlife or our ‘second spring’.

Ann has published 26 non-fiction books including bestselling titles about pregnancy and parenting and is known as Canada’s go-to expert on all things parenting. Now her children have grown and left home she’s turned her attention to the glorious messiness that is midlife. 

Ann told us: “Midlife requires a radical imagination: a willingness to tell ourselves new and better stories about our lives. We need narratives that encourage us to connect the dots between past, present, and future in a way that allows us to reflect on who we’ve been, who we are, and who we hope to become, and to reconnect with our hopes and dreams for ourselves, our families, and our communities."

This thought-provoking workshop will reflect on conversations with more than 100 midlife women Ann interviewed for her new book, Navigating the Messy Middle: A Fiercely Honest and Wildly Encouraging Guide for Midlife Women, and will share highlights from her research.

Participants are invited to reflect on their learning and growth as midlife women, and where willing share their thinking and learning.  Expect a workshop that is kind, encouraging and real – leaving you feeling anything but alone! 

Join the event from the comfort of home, during a break if you work out of office hours, and female allies are welcome to attend: Click here to join the meeting

Check out Ann’s web page: www.anndouglas.ca and Where to Buy The Book — Ann Douglas.ca

 

This entry was posted by Jaspal Shambi on 03/10/2023.