Early Years L3 SENCO Award Project Mandy Wilding, Project Lead, - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Early Years L3 SENCO Award Project Mandy Wilding, Project Lead, Education Development Officer at nasen

Who are nasen? are the UK’s leading organisation supporting those who work with or care for children and young people with special and additional educational needs and disabilities. “We believe that the best outcomes for children and young people with special educational and additional needs are secured by working together in partnership with schools, settings and colleges to influence government policy to inform and provide effective practice.” www.nasen.org.uk

Who are School Improvement Liverpool? School Improvement Liverpool offer a wide range of services to support with training, consultancy, CPD, quality marks and awards, qualifications, as well as in-school support - designed to meet the needs of all staff working in schools, academies and early years settings. They deliver consultancy, training and professional development to schools via their experienced team, who have proven track records of excellence and credibility. Their aim is to challenge and enable schools and other settings to be the best they can be. They are dedicated to offering outstanding support to ensure every child and young person has the opportunity to develop, learn, achieve and excel. School Improvement Liverpool developed the Accredited Level 3 SENCO Award and have successfully delivered it for 4 years across Liverpool and the Wirrel.

Rationale According to the Government survey of childcare and Early Years providers published in November 2018, 77% of school-based nurseries were likely to have children with SEND in their provision, but 72% of group-based providers and 19% of childminders were also likely to have children with SEND. While school-based nurseries had an average of four children with SEND registered at their setting, group-based providers had an average of 3 with SEND. These figures highlight the need for qualified SENCOs in group-based PVI settings and Area SENCOs to support childminders.

The importance of early identification ‘It is particularly important in the early years that there is no delay in making any necessary special educational provision. Delay at this stage can give rise to learning difficulty and subsequently to loss of self-esteem, frustration in learning and to behaviour difficulties. Early action to address identified needs is critical to the future progress and improved outcomes that are essential in helping the child to prepare for adult life.’ (Code of Practice, para. 5.36)

The importance of early identification ‘Once early years provision is in ‘Overall, the evidence place, improving the quality of suggests that early years and provision, for example by pre-school interventions have training staff to improve the a positive impact, delivering interaction between staff and an average of around five children, appears to be more additional months' progress. promising than increasing the The approach appears to be quantity of provision (by particularly beneficial for providing extra hours in the day), children from low income or changing the physical families.’ environment of early years settings.’ https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/

Local Authorities involved in the Project Cohort 1 London Borough of Newham, London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham, Birmingham, Blackpool, Bristol, Durham, Lincolnshire, Manchester, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Northumberland, Plymouth, Sheffield, Staffordshire, Warrington Cohort 2 BCP, Barnsley, Derby, Derbyshire, Kirklees, Nottinghamshire, Solihull, Portsmouth

Delivery Model Train the Trainer Delivery of Recruitment of Quality Award Liverpool 23 LAs Assurance Residential (23 LAs) nasen ‘Hub and Spoke’ Accreditation Sustainability membership model

Project Delivery 507 Early Years SENCOs from PVI settings are on track to achieve the accredited award by March 2020 • 15 trainers were trained on a 4-day residential in Liverpool in January 2019 • 310/315 participants completed the Early Years SENCO Award course (15 cohorts of 21 participants ) in June 2019 • A further 8 trainers were trained on a 4-day residential in Liverpool in June 2019 • A further 192 participants are on track to complete the Early Years SENCO Award course (8 cohorts of 24 participants) by December 2019

Contract Aims • Build capacity in the system by training 23 Early Years SENCO trainers • Train 507 Early Years SENCOs to secure a Level 3 accredited qualification spanning 23 Local Authorities • All SENCO trainers deliver one cohort of training in their own Local Authority and commit to delivering a further cohort beyond the scope of the project • Raise the profile of the Early Years SENCO Award, demonstrate its impact and develop a franchise model that allows it to be scaled beyond the 23 Local Authorities and sustained

Cohort 1 (January 2019) “The training delivered has been of an excellent standard. Fast-paced but not so that I couldn’t keep up.” “Extremely intense but extremely exciting training - this SENCO Award is much needed for PVI SENCOs”. “A great experience and I feel very supported by Jennie, nasen, the group and JMT.” “Thank you for the fantastic opportunity.”  The feedback from the training was very positive with all trainers who answered the question, rating it as ‘Excellent’.  When asked what the main learning points they had taken from the training were, comments included: “Some fantastic ideas about empowering SENCOs to see themselves as part of a bigger picture in the setting” ”This will be very empowering for SENCOs and that it will raise standards across the PVIs leading to bett er provision for children with SEND”. “A clear emphasis that this is about improving outcomes for children” “I can’t wait to share this with SENCO leads back in Brum” “Lots of examples of good practice from colleagues in other LAs.”

Cohort 2 (April 2019) ‘I feel I have a thorough knowledge of what is required on the course’ ‘I feel that we have been provided with everything we will require to deliver the training along with additional resources and examples from the trainer who has been amazing’ ‘Excellent overview given of all twelve sessions. Good overview of the three assignments and how they weave through the sessions’ ‘The course has prepared me fully with plenty of opportunities to plan ahead and reflect and learn from colleagues’ ‘A thoroughly enjoyable week well spent - I feel more valued as an LA advisor now than I have done for many years, thank you’ ‘Fantastic trainer - really lovely style to presenting. It was great to have key speakers’ ‘Thank you so much. I have learned so much this week. Lots of opportunity to gain knowledge and understanding of how to train and support learning from our SENCOs. Time to ask questions and reflect has been invaluable. Excellent opportunity to widen our view of high-qu ality practice and provision’ ‘Thorough, detailed, excellent group size with opportunities for professional discussion and thinking. Thank you for the opportunity’

FREE nasen Early Years SEND resources www.nasen.org.uk Free training is available in some regions of England: go to www.nasen.org.uk/EYSENDPVI

Why did the PVI practitioners apply for a place on the course? “ To know all the relevant information to be able to give children the best start in life, flourish and progress to their best ability” “ I feel confident in my setting but I’m not sure I’m doing enough” “ To be able to fulfill by role to the highest standard possible with confidence” “To gain confidence and increase my knowledge in SEN and how to improve my SENCO skills”

What did the PVI participants gain from the course? “I feel much more confident in the role as I have a wide variety of knowledge on the expectations. I can share my knowledge with practitioners and if there is something I am unsure of I have the support network to ask for help” “I am clearer on my boundaries when talking to parents” “Since this training started I have found the SEND Code of Practice much easier to understand and I also have website links to other sources of information” “This has made my practice more efficient, such as using the DEYO more frequently for assessments and creating SMART targets for children”

Evaluation of the Project An Independent Evaluation of the Early Years SENCO project is being carried out Wolverhampton University. Qualitative and quantitative data will be collected and analysed and an independent report will be published in March 2020.