Tuesday 14 January 2025

A message from Sara

Welcome to the new look ecourier, which joins the weekly Together and ecourier updates, giving you all of the news you might need in one place. We've brought them under one banner after feedback from you, but we'll still keen to use this as a space to share your good news and highlight the great work happening in schools, colleges and early years settings. Please get in touch if you have something to share, by emailing jonathan.nice@norfolk.gov.uk.

Hopefully, you will have received my start of term letter last week but if not, you can find it here (PDF, 154 KB). It includes updates on the Local First Inclusion programme; the first Together summit, and information on the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill: Children's bill to keep children safe from exploitation - GOV.UK.

Last week also saw a key vote linked to Local Government Reorganisation and the publication of committee papers on Elective Home Education and our School Sufficiency Plans, which you can read here: CMIS > Committees > People & Communities Select Committee.

There's certainly a lot happening as we start the new year and new term, so hopefully you find the additional sections of this update useful. I'm always keen to hear your thoughts and feedback, so if there's things you want more or less of in these updates then just let me know by emailing sara.tough@norfolk.gov.uk.

Thanks 

Sara Tough OBE

Executive Director of Children's Services
Norfolk County Council
Chair of the Children and Young People Strategic Alliance

Local Government Reorganisation 

County councillors last week backed a bid to secure new powers and funding to benefit Norfolk. The cabinet agreed to apply to be part of the government's priority programme for devolution. 

The government wants to extend devolution of powers and funding, plus local government reform, across England. It invited councils to express an interest in being part of the first phase, by today (January 10). The proposal would mean we would move away from two-tier government in Norfolk, with one or more unitary authorities. 

What this means for Children's Services will take some time to work through. I will continue to keep you up to date, as and when we know more. However as always, our priority is children and young people helping them to flourish and that remains our focus. 

SEND Survey

I am pleased to share with you that the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Survey for 2025 which opened yesterday. This survey is a crucial tool for gathering valuable insights and feedback to improve the support and services provided to children and young people  with SEND across Norfolk.   

The SEND survey gives everyone involved in the lives of children and young people with SEND and the children and young people themselves (aged 0-25 yrs), a chance to give their views about SEND services and support in Norfolk.   

We would really appreciate your participation, as well as support in sharing the survey, to ensure a comprehensive and inclusive response from all stakeholders. You can help by:  

• Asking your staff to complete the professionals SEND survey  
• Sharing the parents/carers SEND survey in your communications with families  
• Making time in the school day for your pupils up to 25 years old to complete the survey.   

More information, a link to the survey and resources to help you share it with children and young people with SEND are available here.  

You can also download and print and share this poster (PDF, 402 KB) to encourage others to participate.  

Local First Inclusion 

Your start of term letter included some key updates on LFI, including Element 3 funding guidance and the work that is progressing to support young people in secondary schools, who at risk of inclusion. 

In case you haven't had a chance to read the letter, we recently met a key milestone in our work to develop more Alternative Provision, with the registration of our first Alternative Provision Centre, at King's Lynn Academy, supporting secondary students who are at risk of exclusion. 

Our AP model, developed with schools, expands the outreach and prevention support on offer. The strategy is still based on the DfE three-tiered approach to provide a continuum of support for children who are at risk of exclusion. 

The outreach and prevention offer will ensure school staff have access to high quality training, including the Norfolk Secondary Steps programme and Trauma Informed training in partnership with the Norfolk Virtual School. 

To support the transition of pupils who are vulnerable to suspension and / or exclusion in Key Stage 3, we will be piloting a targeted offer of outreach support to provide direct interventions for children, during summer 2025, prior to their transition into the next academic year. 

For pupils who need support to prevent their needs escalating, we have enhanced our plan to create Early Intervention Bases and Alternative Provision Centres across Norfolk. 

Nine Early Intervention Bases are planned to open from September this year, and will provide support, intervention and assessment for up to one term for up to 90 pupils. 

Following the first Alternative Provision Centre opening this term, a further nine are planned, creating 224 places for intensive support and intervention for up to three terms. The next centres will be opening from September 2026.