Unconference - amazing day!

Thanks so much to everyone who attended the unconference today.

A special, big thanks goes to our excellent speakers, Katherine Runswick-Cole, Nick Hodge, Damian Milton, Di Kay, Barney Angliss and, of course Nye - what a diverse range of topics and perspectives!

The contributions which followed in the open sessions were really thought-provoking and we are grateful that people gave so generously of their time and energy to attend. The commitment to working together to create change was inspriring.

We intend to give a full report back together with a summary of the main points - to be agreed by attendees. This is a collaborative effort.

We also want to share some of the ideas people had for future action and to build on this event.  We want to take the momentum from this event forward to find ways of working together with those who attended and others who are interested in getting involved.

So watch this space! It may be a few days before things appear but, in the meantime, if you attended and would like to provide feedback but didn't get a form, or didn't get a chance to complete one before you left, please do complete the form here. You can send it to educationalrightsalliance@live.com

We genuinely welcome all your views. This was a first for us too so your feedback is really appreciated.

Draft manifesto

Following on from above, and as a result of discussions on the day, we have pulled together some key views which appeared to shared by all attendees and we have put them in a 'draft manifesto'.

You can read the Manifesto here.

This document does not belong to the ERA. We want this to be a genuine reflection of the views expressed and a summary of aims which people feel they can openly support.

The next step will be to identify actions which can be taken in support of these aims.

Let us know what you think - we welcome amendments, suggested additions and, of course, declarations of support!

How do I sign?

If you would like to 'sign' this, contact us at educationalrightsalliance@live.com or tweet at us @era_tweet or you can leave a comment on the page.

You can sign in your personal capacity and/or on behalf of your organisation. It is up to you as to how you describe your position/role.

Unconference agenda!

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek"

There are not many days to go now before we can all meet, share ideas and plan for action at the 'sold out' unconference on inclusion in education!

We are facilitating this event so we want to leave as much time as possible for people to discuss their own views. We know that structure and a bit of planning relieves anxiety for some, so we have put together a time schedule for the day (big thanks to George Julian and Damian Milton for their advice on this).

The schedule is here.

We have also put together a 'break out' session plan so you can see how many sessions are available and think about what you might like to discuss and when. You can view the plan here

How will it work?

We have a big hall and a meeting room. You can see the venue here. Thanks again to Irwin Mitchell for all their help and their kind, no strings attached sponsorship!

We think there should be space for four discussion groups in the main hall and two in the meeting room. We will also see if we can identify a 'quiet space' in an office for those who need a bit less noise.

You can book your slot when you arrive at the unconference. The idea is that you tell everyone what you want to 'host' a discussion on and let us know if you want 20 or 40 min slot. If you're a bit nervous about these things, just let us know by email or at the event and we can try and support you to share your ideas.

You can also volunteer for time slots in advance by email. Of course, you don't have to host a slot. You can just turn up and listen and/or share your thoughts.

The slots will be booked up and people can choose where they want to go and can move between the groups. What happens in those discussion groups is up to you!

There are scheduled speakers at regular intervals giving short talks in the main hall in between sessions. They are:

Nye Doherty, 11 year old pupil with Asperger's Syndrome 

Diane Kay, ERA member and parent with a disabled child

Dr Katherine Runswick-Cole, parent and academic together with fellow academic (and partner in crime) Professor Nick Hodge

Barney Angliss, secondary school SENCO who has Asperger's Syndrome

Damian Milton, academic and autism campaigner

The ERA team will introduce themselves on the day and act as helpers at the sessions. We can help record conclusions and help you give feedback at the end of the day.

In the last session of the day, we hope to share what has gone on in the sessions and draw up a basic plan for future collaborative action!

Refreshments

There will be tea, coffee and biscuits available. We will be asking for donations. As for lunch, please feel free to bring your own and use the kitchen or go and explore the cafes and shops nearby.

Live tweeting

Join in online using #ERAwematter.

Bear with us on the day as we do our very best to include everyone!

Please contact us by email (educationalrightsalliance@live.com) or tweet at us with any concerns, ideas, suggestions for time slots and of course, do tell us what we have missed.

Rome wasn't built in a day but this is a start. A chance to change the tired old conversation. Be kind and patient with us: we are parent volunteers and we want to ensure everyone has a say!

Welcome to the unconference!

We are really excited that we are getting so close to the date for the unconference on inclusion in education. Read here for more details. There are now only 6 tickets left!

On 3rd February, we will get to meet many empassioned activists, parents, teachers and academics. One important core value unites us - a determination to find effective ways of protecting rights and promoting equality in education.

We have no Government funding, no publicity or communications department, and we are not interested in jargon. We want to include as many as we can so we can open the debate up as widely as possible.

Clearly, the problems of the current system will not be solved in a single day. But we hope the unconference could be the start of a grass-roots campaign for real change by people who are actually affected by the current system. We really believe there is a need to find ways of extending effective campaigning beyond the 'usual suspects'!

Below we have posted a bit more information about the day but there will be more to come!

Event

All the details about the event are available here. Again, a big thank you to Irwin Mitchell for funding the hire of the room.

Agenda

Although the unconference format (see here) allows for an informal agenda with attendees setting the schedule and topics of discussion, we are going to add a bit of structure. We think this particular helps those who find lack of structure challenging.

There will be very short presentations throughout the day on inclusion and the following attendees have kindly agreed to speak or prepare a power point:

• Nye Doherty, 11 year old pupil with Asperger's Syndrome 
• Diane Kay, ERA member and parent with a disabled child
• Dr Katherine Runswick-Cole, parent and academic
• Barney Angliss, secondary school SENCO who has Asperger's Syndrome
• Damian Milton, academic and autism campaigner

We will post more details on the specific agenda when we have it and we will provide details for how you can start to contribute towards the agenda by suggesting topics for discussion.

Live tweeting

We aim to live tweet the event! If you want to help with this let us know.

Refreshments

There will be tea, coffee available and biscuits available. We will be asking for donations.

As for lunch, please feel free to bring your own and use the kitchen or go and explore the cafes and shops nearby.

Contact us

Contact us at any time with any concerns, queries, accessibility requirements or other issues. You can email at educationalrightsalliance@live.com

The unconference on inclusion in education: tell us what you would like to see covered. In ten words!

We are really excited to see so many people have already signed up for our unconference on inclusion in education. See our previous post here  for full details and book your ticket on Eventbrite here.

We would like to ask all those who have booked a place to let us know what they would like to see covered.

The challenge is to do this in ten words!

Let us have your ideas and we will post them here.

What you want to talk about

How do you achieve inclusion in a resistant community? 
Charlotte Buckby, parent, social worker and IPSEA Rep.

Inclusion into what? Normative assumptions, 'reasonable adjustments' and appreciating diversity.

Damian Milton, parent, academic, campaigner

Has the SEND reform given parents and young people any more control over their own education - or just more meetings?

Barney Angliss, SENCO

How can Special and Mainstream collaborate effectively to support inclusion?
Simon Knight, Special School Deputy Head, Associate Director at the National Education Trust and Director of Teaching School at the Oxfordshire Teaching Schools Alliance.


How do we make special schools redundant?

Jarlath O'Brien, Special school headteacher


How can children's rights and the UNCRC be utilised to promote inclusion and social justice in education?

Sophie Christophy, journalist, 'childrens' rights geek' social historian

Blog posts

For excellent contributions to the discussion about 'inclusion', you could also look at the following blog posts. We have listed the posts alongside the author's username so you can follow them on twitter.

@jarlathobrien  Entitlement? Yes. Inclusion? No. 

@bjpren Parenting and schooling 

@JulesDaulby How normal do you have to be for mainstream? 

@jordyjax Inclusion or exclusion? The great SEND debate! 

@SimonKnight100 The things we do to be more inclusive

@SimonKnight100 Perceptions of difference in the inclusive classroom

@judeenright  To include or not to include? 

@JayeRHill Special needs are a special case

@90_maz Inclusion?

@cherrylkd Inclusion. A few thoughts.

  @jarlathobrien Guest Inclusion Blog #1

@nancygedge Who’s Afraid of the Special School?

@nancygedge Battle weary

@nancygedge The Crystal Hedgehog

@gdmorewood What does inclusion mean in 2015? (Part 1 of a 4-piece post!)

          @gdmorewood What does inclusion mean in 2015? (Part 2)

          @gdmorewood What does inclusion mean in 2015? (Part 3)

         @gdmorewood What does inclusion mean in 2015? (Part 4)

@ChildrensComm My life at School

@headguruteacher Inclusion and Exclusion in a Community School.

@NDempseyDTA Inclusion: the enterprise of putting all of the children into the same building?

Unconference on inclusion in education: come and share your views!

We have been actively following the SEN reform process.

The passing of the Children and Families Act has felt like little more than a fight to stand still.  'SEN issues' have not been mainstreamed: instead, they continue to be sidelined as if they were a topic of interest for 'experts' affecting only a few 'special' children. There has been scant talk of equality and human rights. Instead, the talk is usually about 'support' and 'signposting' which can feel like a rather patronising pat on the head.

This kind of approach impacts heavily on our children and young people as it affects the perspectives on disability we encounter in society generally.

We, at the ERA, feel it is time to change the conversation.

We would like a genuine and frank discussion about SEN, disability and equality in our schools. This is a massive topic so there are many issues which could be discussed. For example, what is 'inclusive education'? Does inclusion differ from equality? How? Does this matter in practice? How do we ensure people are aware of their equality rights and that they are enforced? What is the role of special schools? Do resource bases work? What is the state of evidence about inclusion? What do our children and young people think? Do we know? How should we plan for, implement, and fund inclusive education? There are many, many more questions to ask on this topic but we think we need to start somewhere!

What do you think?

We are a small, completely unfunded, parent-led organisation. We are not a charity. We are not connected to any charity or organisation. We have no power to decide anything for anyone neither do we have any desire  to silence or exclude. We are trying to create a space to give a voice to our young people's experiences. So, we thought it might be a good idea to set up a meeting to try and kick-start a debate about SEN and equality but we certainly don't want this to be a one-off.

We would really like to involve all those involved in the SEN system who can speak of the realities of practice: kids, parents, people with disabilities (especially those who have recent school experiences), teachers, lawyers, academics and organisations working on the frontline.

In raising this, we are very conscious that there are many different and complex views about inclusion in education. Our aim is to try to pull people together with potentially very different experiences and views and to try and find common ground. Our priority remains those who experience the system.

The event

Irwin Mitchell have very kindly agreed to provide funding for an event in London. We have set the date of 3 February 2015 for the meeting.  They are as follows:

Date: Tuesday 3rd February 2015 at 10.30 to 5pm

Place:  The Arc Centre, 98B St Paul Street, London N1
7DF

Nearest tube:Angel (Northern line)

Nearest rail:Essex road

Buses: 38, 73,56, 76, 141, 271,341, 476 (get off at the Packington Street stop on Essex Road near to Islington Green)

Parking: Pay and Display on surrounding streets

You can book FREE tickets event on Eventbrite here.

Online preparation and attendance

We are committed to organising this as openly and inclusively as possible. It is absolutely essential that the voices and experiences of disabled people are heard so please contact us to get involved. We would like to hear from YOU as there is much left to be discussed. We welcome your suggestions, ideas, advice, involvement, offers of help etc.

We intend to set up a blog so people can record their own views and raise issues publicly for discussion. In this way they can still contribute if they are unable to attend (or if they would prefer to contribute in this way).

If there is anything else you think we should be doing to make this project work, please let us know.

Hardship travel fund

Irwin Mitchell has kindly agreed to offer £250 towards travel costs for those who would not otherwise be able to attend.

If you are unwaged, disabled or have would otherwise find it difficult to attend without financial assistance, please contact us now at educationalrightsalliance@live.com and we will see if we can help. The funding is extremely limited so a contribution rather than full costs may be offered. Assistance will be offered on a first come, first served basis.

Health Committee report into CAMHS confirms "serious and deeply ingrained problems"

In March, we asked for your experiences of CAMHS for an inquiry being undertaken by the House of Commons' Select Committee on Health.

Our report can be read here. And once again, we thank you all so much for participating.

The Select Committee has today published its report. You can read the report in full here.

The Select Committee has concluded:

"that there are serious and deeply ingrained problems with the commissioning and provision of children’s and adolescents’ mental health services. These run through the whole system from prevention and early intervention through to inpatient services for the most vulnerable young people".

Their conclusions are as follows:

• There are major problems with access to inpatient mental health services, with children and young people’s safety being compromised while they wait for a bed to become available. Often when beds are found they may be in distant parts of the country, making contact with family and friends difficult, and leading to longer stays.

• Early intervention services provide support to children and young people before mental health problems become entrenched and increase in severity. These services reduce the need for higher tier services including admission. However in many areas early intervention services are being cut or are suffering from insecure or short term funding. We welcome the announcement of the DH/NHS England Taskforce and recommend that it should audit commissioning of early intervention services in local authorities, and report the best mechanisms to provide stable, long term funding for early intervention services.

• While demand for mental health services for children and adolescents appears to be rising, many CCGs report having frozen or cut their budgets. CCGs have the power to determine their own local priorities, but we are concerned that insufficient priority is being given to children and young people’s mental health.

• The Committee is particularly concerned about the wholly unacceptable practice of taking children and young people detained under s136 of the Mental Health Act to police cells, which still persists. In responding to this report we expect the Department of Health to be explicit in setting out how this practice will be eradicated.

• Concerns have also been raised about the quality of education children and young people receive when they are being treated in inpatient units. We recommend that OFSTED, DFE and NHS England conduct a full audit of educational provision within inpatient units as a matter of urgency. 

• In community CAMHS services, providers have reported increased waiting times for CAMHS services and increased referral thresholds, coupled with, in some cases, challenges in maintaining service quality, as a result of rising demand in the context of reductions in funding. Not all services reported difficulties – some state that they have managed to maintain standards of access and quality –but overall there is unacceptable variation. Young people and their parents have described “battles” to get access to CAMHS services, with only the most severely affected young people getting appointments; they also described the devastating impact that long waits for treatment can have.

• We recommend that NHS England and the Department of Health should monitor and increase spending levels on CAMHS until we can be assured that CAMHS services in all areas are meeting an acceptable standard. Service specifications for Tier 2 and 3 services should set out what acceptable services should be expected to provide, and NHS England and the Department of Health should carry out a full audit to ensure all services are meeting these.

• A crucially important time for promoting good mental health is the perinatal and infant period, but there is unacceptable variation in the provision of perinatal mental health services, and the Committee recommends that these services must be available in every area.

• It is clear that there are currently insufficient levers in place at national level to drive essential improvements to CAMHS services, including insufficient scrutiny from the CQC. There must be a clear national policy directive for CAMHS, underpinned by adequate funding. 

In addition, the report highlights further areas for action:

• Problems persist in the commissioning of CAMHS. Despite the move to national commissioning of inpatient services over a year ago, many of the perceived benefits of national planning have not been realised, and we intend to review NHS England’s progress in address this this area early in 2015.

• Out-of-hours crisis services, paediatric liaison teams within acute hospitals, and Tier 3.5 assertive outreach teams can have a positive impact, including reducing both risk and length of inpatient admission; however availability of services which bridge the gap between inpatient and outpatient care is extremely variable, and current commissioning arrangements act as a perverse incentive driving admissions as these are then funded by NHS England rather than CCGs. We call on the Department of Health and NHS England to act urgently to ensure that by the end of this year all areas have clear mechanisms to improve commissioning arrangements. We welcome the extra funding for early intervention in psychosis services and crisis care and recommend it is clearly set out how this will improve services for young people.

• It is ten years since the last survey of children’s and young people’s mental health, and the lack of reliable and up to date information in this area means that those planning and running CAMHS services have been operating in a "fog". Ensuring that commissioners, providers and policy makers have up-to-date information about children's and adolescents’ mental health must be a priority for the Department of Health/ NHS England taskforce.

• We heard from young people that while some teachers and schools provide excellent support, others seem less knowledgeable or well trained, and can even seem ‘scared’ of discussing mental health issues. We recommend the Department for Education looks to including a mandatory module on mental health in initial teacher training, and should include mental health modules as part of ongoing professional development in schools for both teaching and support staff. We also recommend that the Department for Education conducts an audit of mental health provision and support within schools, looking at how well the guidance issued toschools this year has been implemented, what further support may be needed, and highlighting examples of best practice. OFSTED should also make routine assessments of mental health provision in schools.

• Children and young people also need to know how to keep themselves safe online. We recommend that as part of its review of mental health education in schools, the Department for Education should ensure that links between online safety, cyberbullying, and maintaining and protecting emotional wellbeing and mental health are fully articulated. We recommend clear pathways are identified for young people to report that they have been sent indecent images of other children or young people, and that support is provided for those who have been victims of image sharing. Pathways should also be established for children and young people who have experienced bullying, harassment and threats of violence. 

• The Department of Health/NHS England taskforce should also report on the most effective ways of supporting CAMHS providers to help young people cope with the challenges of online culture, and also on how agencies can make better use of online means of communication for reaching out to young people.

The Department for Education and the Local Offer: Part Two

On 2 October, we provided an update on our attempt to obtain clear information from the Department for Education (DfE) about the implementation of the Local Offer.

The DfE's response, which you can read here, confirmed that 99% of LAs had now published a Local Offer or, perhaps, something which the DfE referred to as 'an initial Local Offer'.

We queried this figure. Did this mean that 99% of LAs had now published statutorily compliant Local Offers, e.g. had the Local Offers been published as a result of statutory consultation, or had LAs just been told to stick something (anything) on their websites?

We also queried the term 'initial Local Offer'. The term is, of course, entirely meaningless legally. The law recognises only one type of Local Offer: the Local Offer set out in the Children and Families Act,  its Regulations and the Code of Practice.

This week we received this further email response.

Dear Dr Sayers, 

Thank you for your email dated 25 September 2014 about the local offer. 

I am sorry not to have replied sooner.  As you rightly point out, there is not a separate legal definition of an “Initial local offer".  I can explain why I used the term in my earlier reply.  Under the statutory requirements in the Children and Families Act, local authorities are required, from September 2014, to consult children and young people with special educational needs or disabilities and the parents of disabled children and those with SEN in developing the local offer and publish it on a website. The implementation date is the same for both aspects of the requirements: the duty to consult and the duty to publish information, but you would expect publication to follow consultation.  Since a key feature of the local offer is that it should be developed, reviewed and kept up to date and local authorities have been required to publish different information about support for children and young people who are disabled or have SEN for some time, we encouraged them to publish information in a local offer in September and work with families to develop and update it.   Our initial check of local offers - and the basis of my '99% figure' - was a check to see that there was a local offer website up and running.  Of course, local authorities will be developing those local offers over time. 

I am happy for you to publish my responses to your queries - and there is no need to redact my name.  (I also agree that using the generic email address can seem rather impersonal - however, it has the advantage of ensuring that the correspondence is properly logged on the Department's systems.)

Your correspondence has been allocated reference number 2014/0063754. If you need to respond to us, please visit: www.education.gov.uk/contactus, and quote your reference number.
Yours sincerely,

Stephen Kingdom
Childcare, Special Educational Needs and Children’s Strategy

We are grateful for this response. However, it seems clear to us that all the DfE has done is made sure LAs have something on their websites and  that it is simply hoping that compliance with the law may 'develop over time'. An approach which parents will be all too familiar with and which is unacceptable.

Then, today, we have noted a flurry of tweets from the DfE making wholly unevidenced claims about the reforms such as:

"'Parents are delighted, equipment is cheaper and their personal budgets are really successful' - LA Pathfinder #SEND"

We think a bit more Departmental time spent on protecting children's rights and a bit less on pumping out obvious spin is needed. There will be no long-lasting change to this dated 'SEN model' while the legally rights of children and young people can be so easily pushed to one side and given a lower priority than the needs of the authorities charged with their implementation.