LA/ Schools E-Circular Monday 25 November 2019

Halton Children and Young People Safeguarding Partnership
National Professional Qualification for Senior Leaders
Runcorn Town Hall Open Day
Education Select Committee Report – published October 2019
Reading every day, everywhere, for everyone

Halton Children and Young People Safeguarding Partnership

Applies to-All schools

Tracey Holyhead, the former business manager of the LSCB, has now left Halton. She contributed significantly to the development of the new safeguarding partnership and we wish her well for the future. Melanie Skelton, remains the administration officer and 2 new appointments have been made. Angela Houghton, Performance Manager, who will lead on audits, performance information and analysis, starts on 9 December 2019. The new Head of Safeguarding, Susanne Leece, starts on 3^rd February 2020. We are shortly interviewing for the Safeguarding Development Officer post, who will lead on training, workforce development and communications.

In the interim if you need to contact the HCYPSP please use the new generic email address CYPSafeguardingPartnership@halton.gov.uk . For any urgent matters please contact Tracey.Coffey@halton.gov.uk directly. If you wish to discuss any safeguarding issues, then please contact iCART.

Contextual Safeguarding Workshops

The HCYPSP is launching a number of workshops following the Joint Targeted Area Inspection on exploitation. These workshops will outline:

Contextual Safeguarding – what does it mean for vulnerable young people and exploitation

Halton’s current profile

Halton Levels of Need Framework – revised indicators to support each Level of Need

Pan-Cheshire launch of Exploitation Strategy, new shorter screening tool and revised assessment tool

Local Pathways for services linked to Levels of Need – role and function of meetings

Governance – role of information-sharing and Halton Contextual Safeguarding Operational and Strategic Groups

Runcorn Town Hall Civic Suite

16 December 2019 1 – 3pm

13 January 2020 9.30 – 11.30am

Halton Stadium Bridge Suite

17 December 2019 9.30 – 11.30am

16 January 2020 1.30 – 3.30pm

National Professional Qualification for Senior Leaders

Dear Colleagues

The North West Learning Partnership (formerly St Helen’s TSA) in association with Best Practice Network (BPN) is offering NPQSL (National Professional Qualification for Senior Leaders) and NPQML (Middle leaders)

SPRING term 2020 Start.

As you may be aware, scholarship funding for eligible state-maintained schools and academies looks likely to run out prior to the Spring deadline due to higher than anticipated national enrolment,

Therefore, BPN has set an initial application deadline of 3 December to ensure eligible candidates have the best chance of receiving a scholarship.

Applications received after this date will still be accepted and we will continue to seek scholarship funding where applicable, although the likelihood of DfE approval is significantly reduced.

The official deadline for Spring 2020 applications will remain Friday 20 December. This will then be reviewed and likely extended to the end of January.

Candidates can apply at the following links:

NPQML: http://outstandingleaders.org/qualifications/npqml
NPQSL: http://outstandingleaders.org/qualifications/npqsl

Please type in our partner code which is STHN-TSA.

This will help BPN to confirm groups more quickly.

Please find attached the latest NPQs flyer to provide further information.

To find out more or for further queries please contact:

Kate Smart Candidate and Partner Support Team – Senior Coordinator, Programmes and Partnerships

0117 920 9424 www.bestpracticenet.co.uk

Runcorn Town Hall Open Day

Applies to-All schools

Saturday November 30 , 10am – 4pm.

Runcorn Town Hall Open Day.

The Mayor of Halton Councillor Margaret Horabin officially opens the doors to a fantastic annual festive event for everyone to explore Runcorn Town Hall and gardens. Whether you are visiting to take in the striking features of the building, including the silverware, china and oil paintings or to see Santa in his grotto, there really is something for everyone.

We will have live performances from a number of Halton schools singing everyone’s favourite Christmas carols alongside various Christmas craft stalls and tombola’s. A great opportunity to explore Halton’s heritage and get into the Christmas spirit.

Money raised from the event will help to support 2 local organisations, Nightstop Communities Northwest and The Lets Go Stroke Club.

Education Select Committee Report – published October 2019

Applies to-All schools

In 2014, the Government introduced wide-reaching changes to the SEND system, with the intention of offering simpler, improved and consistent help for children and young people with SEND. The Government claimed these changes would give families greater choice in decisions. The Education Committee Enquiry is intended to review the success of these reforms, how they have been implemented, and what impact they are having in meeting the challenges faced by children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.

I have attached a three documents to this item. The first is a copy of the full report, the second is just a summary of the recommendations the third document is an easy read summary of the report.

At this stage we do not know if these proposals will be taken forward by a future government, nevertheless if is a useful read.

Ann McIntyre

Operational Director – Education, Inclusion and Provision

Reading every day, everywhere, for everyone

Reading, whether it be for pleasure, work purposes or just to navigate everyday life, is an essential skill.

The Council is currently producing a new reading strategy to look at how we can improve the level of reading skills across all age groups in the borough.

As part of this we are looking to understand more about the community’s reading habits, like how often they read for pleasure, or how important reading is to the job that they do and if they have any particular difficulties with reading.

Over the next couple of weeks, we will asking local employers, employees and adult learners to complete a short survey.

It would also be really helpful if your staff, parents and pupils could take a few minutes to complete the survey. It can be done online via the links below:

Teaching staff

Children and Young People

Parents