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Douglas Silas,
Specialist SEN Solicitor 27th September 2021 
You’ve always got to be as patient and flexible as possible…
One of the hardest things that we have to do as human beings is to just be patient enough to wait for things to happen naturally. Also, we sometimes have the inability to be flexible enough to just accept that things do not always go the way that we had planned them to (or in the way that we may have seen them happening in our heads), nor happen at the time that we wanted them to. But, ironically, being patient and being flexible are also the greatest gifts we have as humans as well! For example, although we may really long for something to happen, which then doesn’t, we usually ultimately accept that it has not happened and just get on with things. In fact, it sometimes even goes further than this, as sometimes we say in hindsight afterwards, that we are actually relieved that some things did not turn out in the way that we had initially wanted them to and say things like: “It was a blessing in disguise”, or that: “You need to be careful about what you wish for”. A bit strange and contradictory, isn’t it? We just have to remind ourselves that we always need to be patient enough to wait for things to happen in their own way and at their own time, yet still be flexible enough to get on with other things in the meantime. We also usually will wait for something we want and will also adapt to not having it, even though we want it. In fact, as I have said, sometimes something happens in the meantime that is better than what we had at first planned! And just a last thought, other people, especially children, will always learn from our behaviours. Therefore, this means logically that if we do not show them that we are patient and flexible as often as we can, other people or children will then not be patient and flexible with us!
In this week's SEN Update, you will find sections entitled:
I know how busy everyone always is, so please feel free just to read the sections that are of interest to you or read everything; the choice is always yours. 
SEN NEWS
It's been a bit of a quiet week for SEN News this past week. What I did find is the new Guidance issued by the DfE (Department for Education) entitled: 'Promoting children and young people's mental health and wellbeing' whose webpage states: "This document describes 8 principles of a whole school or college approach to promoting mental health and wellbeing which, if applied consistently and comprehensively, will help contribute towards protecting and promoting children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing. Each principle is considered together with some examples from practice and a question to help the reader to reflect on the implications for practice in their own setting. The document also signposts to resources to support implementation. This document will be useful to anyone responsible for promoting and supporting the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people in schools and colleges, including:
NEWS ONLINE In terms of other SEN news, here are the articles that I found of interest this week: Covid ‘high alert’ warning as more than 100,000 pupils in England miss school Primary Sats tests in England ‘do not appear to harm children’s wellbeing’ Schools in England struggling to stay open amid soaring Covid cases
USEFUL INFORMATION
Again, aside from clicking on the relevant links for more information, I would also remind you of the very useful resources and information provided on the following websites: - IPSEA - Council for Disabled Children - Special Needs Jungle I would also highlight again the magazines: SEN Magazine and Autism Eye which are both very helpful to any parents or professionals involved with children/young people with SEN. And this week I also want to highlight the TES SEN Show on 8/9 October 2021 at the Business Design Centre in London. Keep safe until next week. With best wishes Douglas 
P.S. Don’t forget, to ensure that you never miss one, you can get my SEN Updates personally by completing your email details above, or by following me on one of the social media platforms I use (i.e. Twitter/Facebook).
P.P.S. You can also share this SEN Update with others (please only do so if it may be relevant to them) by using one of the icons, usually to the right or at the bottom of this page.
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Douglas Silas,
Specialist SEN Solicitor 20th September 2021 
You never usually get something right the first time that you do it…
Many people feel that you need to get something right the first time that you do it, don’t they? Actually, I may be touching on a bit of a raw nerve here for some people without them realising it, as I have noticed over the years that often people like this (who usually call themselves ‘perfectionists’) think that what I am saying applies to somebody else and not to them! These types of people also often have unrealistic expectations of what they can achieve the first time that they try something, so they do not realise for themselves (although they are very good in pointing it out to others) that learning to get better at anything requires you to initially make mistakes, but to then keep trying again until you succeed. The irony is that, inwardly, we do understand this basic principle and, outwardly, always tell it to others, especially children, but then too often we seem to forget it ourselves and then are surprisingly disappointed if things do not go to plan the first time that we try to do something. I think that, unfortunately, people often carry around the voice of somebody else in their head, such as a parent or teacher when they were growing up, or someone else at a different time, who said that they had to get something right the first time that they did it, and they then listen to that voice more than the one in their own mind telling them that it is alright to not get something right the first time that you do it. Funnily enough, it is actually often quite good to make mistakes, because that is how we then learn (as long as they are not mistakes that we could or should have avoided if we had applied ourselves properly, or if we keep on making the same mistakes and never learn from them!) Let me end my thought this week by just saying that you should please reflect on what I am saying here and, if it resonates with you, ask yourself why that is?
In this week's SEN Update, you will find sections entitled:
I know how busy everyone always is, so please feel free just to read the sections that are of interest to you or read everything; the choice is always yours.
Don’t forget, to ensure that you never miss one, you can get my SEN Updates personally by completing your email details above,
or by following me on one of the social media platforms I use (i.e. Twitter/Facebook). You can also share this SEN Update with others (please only do so if it may be relevant to them) by using one of the icons, usually to the right or at the bottom of this page. 
LATEST SEND BRIEFINGS
It wouldn't be a SEN Update if I did not bring you a briefing from the Department for Education (DfE), would it! Well this week, to make up for last week/last month, I am bringing you not just one briefing but two briefings!! The first is an email I received this week from the DfE's SEND Division entitled: "Delivery of specialist 1:1 and group interventions for children and young people in education settings", which stated: "Dear Colleague, We know that COVID-19 has impacted on services and as a result many specialist services have adjusted their delivery models during their recovery. We have worked with education and health partners, including the Royal Colleges and the Association of Educational Psychologists, Chartered Society of Physiotherapists, Association of Colleges, the National Sensory Impairment Partnership, the National Network of Parent Carer Forums and the Council for Disabled Children, to develop this guidance which sets out the expectations for the delivery of specialist support for children and young people. We are clear that education settings should welcome all specialist staff and facilitate their work with children and young people. This guidance aims to address any misconceptions around what should be delivered and to provide clarity in three broad areas: ensuring full access to provision; what safety precautions should be considered; and the importance of working with families and carers. Please find a link to the document here. Many thanks, Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Division" The second briefing came to me (again by email) over the summer and was entitled: "SEND tribunal: single route of redress national trial" and stated: "Dear Colleagues, On 20 July 2021, we confirmed that we would be continuing the extended powers given to the SEND Tribunal to hear appeals and make non-binding recommendations about health and social care aspects of Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans, provided those appeals also include education elements. These extended powers were being tested under a National Trial, which ended on 31 August 2021. We have now updated the guidance ‘SEND tribunal: single route of redress national trial’ to remove references to the National Trial and explain that the extended powers will continue, providing details on how appeals which include health and social care aspects (now known as extended appeals) work. This guidance is intended for all local authorities, health commissioning bodies and parents and young people in England. Many thanks, Special Educational Needs and Disability Division" 
LATEST NEWS ONLINE
In terms of news, here are the articles that I found of interest this week: Parents warn of tsunami of school-anxiety cases Covid teams can vaccinate pupils against parents’ wishes, schools told Pupils only need to isolate if they have symptoms of Covid-19 or if they test positive
USEFUL RESOURCES/INFORMATION
Again, aside from clicking on the relevant links for more information, I would also remind you of the very useful resources and information provided on the following websites: - IPSEA - Council for Disabled Children - Special Needs Jungle - Contact - Scope I would also highlight again the magazines: SEN Magazine and Autism Eye which are both very helpful to any parents or professionals involved with children/young people with SEN. Keep safe until next week. With best wishes Douglas 
P.S. I understand that there are many educational items, news articles, or other useful resources on the web, so I would be very grateful if you could let me know of any that you find that you think that others may find useful, so that I can direct people to them.
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Douglas Silas,
Specialist SEN Solicitor 13th September 2021 
As we have just started the new academic year, with many people going back to school/college and work (whether that be in the home, or back to a physical building) I have decided to keep this week's SEN Update very short and not bring you any news, to give you a chance to focus on what you need to do. I will return to normal service next week!
Just to say first that over the summer I updated my 7-day email course entitled: 'How To Win A SEN Tribunal Appeal', so it now also advises on the best way to handle video hearings. So please subscribe again to it if you need it (don't worry if you did subscribe previously, it is a fresh course). But as normal, here's my thought this week: Every new year allows us to hit a reset button in our lives… Whether it be the start of a new year, chronologically or academically, we all have the chance to start again and do something differently from the way that we were doing it before. It’s like restarting your computer or phone again afresh. Some people like to call these: ‘New Year Resolutions’, whilst others say that they may be: ‘Turning over a new leaf’). Either way, you are basically changing yourself in some way at a given time. Personally, I try not to wait for particular times to start doing something differently if I think of something that can change my life, if I can, because I believe that if you think of something that can improve your life in some way, you should start to try and do from there and then, if you can. However, I realise that this is not always realistic for some people and that, sometimes, we need to build up to doing something differently over time, or wait for a particular time when the odds are on our side, or when the ‘planets seem to be in alignment’, as people also like to say. Wise people have always said that you should try to develop an insight into yourself and regularly reflect on what you do every day, every week, every month, or every year if you can, so that you can then make changes frequently if you need to. However, again this may seem unrealistic for some people, for the reasons I have given above. In any event, you need to factor in that other people also then need to accept that you are changing your outlook, or the way that you do things. Too often I am afraid that I see people trying to change themselves for the better, but then being dragged back to the way they were before, purely by the fact that other people do not want to or allow them to change, probably because they are afraid of how this may affect them unconciously. Funnily enough, the fact that we are not prepared to let people change sometimes says more about us than it does about the people who are trying to change. We have to question why we just cannot accept that somebody wants to do things differently sometimes. Finally, as a last thought here, please try and find time within the next week to reflect on things in your life and perhaps use the opportunity of a new academic year (and following a year and a half of many difficulties for everybody) to see if you can change things in your life for the better by hitting the ‘reset button’ in your life! With good wishes Douglas 
P.S. I understand that there are many educational items, news articles, or other useful resources on the web, so I would be very grateful if you could let me know of any that you find that you think that others may find useful, so that I can direct people to them.
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Douglas Silas,
Specialist SEN Solicitor 19th July 2021 
We all need to recharge our batteries once in a while...
Rest is very important and, although ideally for me, you should really rest at least once a week, I know that this doesn't always feel realistically possible for a lot of people. But imagine that you are a mobile phone battery, you still need to recharge yourself every night and then keep things topped up regularly to work properly - your mobile phone will not go on forever without being recharged! Everybody needs a break from time to time, to allow themselves time to rejuvenate properly. Even a change is as good as a rest they say. In fact, most of the time, you cannot just stop and start again instantaneously, but you need to let yourself unwind gradually, before being able to rest properly. It's like creating a regular time to wind down every night in a routine before being able to get a good night's sleep, Things like this just don't happen - you need to properly plan for them to happen. And remember, you are not as important or as indispensable as you think you are. The world will go on without you for a little while, believe me. Also, there's no good supposedly taking a holiday but then still thinking about work. You need to properly switch off to really get the benefit of a rest, otherwise it is not a true rest and you will continue to run a deficit. So "work hard and play hard" as people say. I wish you well for the summer break!
This is my last SEN Update for this academic year - I will write again when we start the new academic year 2021/22 in September.
In this week's SEN Update, you will find sections entitled:
I know how busy everyone always is, so please feel free just to read the sections that are of interest to you or read everything; the choice is always yours.
Don’t forget, to ensure that you never miss one, you can get my SEN Updates personally by completing your email details above,
or by following me on one of the social media platforms I use (i.e. Twitter/Facebook). You can also share this SEN Update with others (please only do so if it may be relevant to them) by using one of the icons, usually to the right or at the bottom of this page.
REVIEWS, REFORMS AND REPORTS
A bit unusually for me, I am going to try to cover three different things in the first section of this update. Delay to the SEND Review The first is that the cross-Government SEND Review proposals that were going to be published for consultation in summer 2021 have been delayed. The letter that I have seen from Permanent Secretary, Susan Acland-Hood, on behalf of the Government, to Meg Hiller. chair of the Commons Public Accounts committee, states the following things: "The pandemic has both unavoidably delayed the pace of the work of this important Review and, crucially, has materially altered the context for reform." "We only have one chance to get this right and have, after careful reflection, decided we should take more time to ensure our reform plans can deliver the systemic change needed." "We will be using this time to make certain our plans complement the wider work being done on recovery and school reform, and that they have the longevity needed to offer stability to the sector." "We will work at pace over the coming months, so we are in a strong position to publish bold proposals for public consultation." 'Left Behind' report The second thing that I ant to refer you to is the report entitled: 'Left Behind' published this week by the Disabled Children's Partnership. I can do no better than to point you to their website, which states: "The final survey of our parent panel, together with Freedom of Information (FOI) requests from councils and health trusts, shows that whilst the rest of the country slowly returns to normal, disabled children and their families are being left behind. On 16 July, we published Left Behind. It reports on our survey of nearly 300 parent carers in June 2021 alongside the findings from a series of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests of local authorities and health service providers, showing how. The survey exposes the impact of the pandemic on the progress of disabled children and young people, and the ongoing issues of social isolation and poor mental health; and the FOIs how disabled children’s health and care services have been drastically reduced during the pandemic.
These worrying statistics therefore show that urgent action is needed to address the fact that support services are not reaching children fast enough – creating devastating health impacts." SEND Review again The third and last thing that I want to bring your attention to is a news article I read on the TES website this week entitled: 'SEND review looking to reduce parent need for EHC plans', which stated: "The Department for Education's top civil servant has said that the government's SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) review is focusing on ensuring more parents do not need to get an education, health and care plan (EHCP) in order to get what they need for their child. Permanent secretary Susan Acland-Hood also ruled out getting rid of these plans when she appeared before MPs on the Commons Public Accounts committee this week. But she declined to say when the government's ongoing SEND review would be completed when asked if it would be published before the end of the financial year. An EHCP is a legal document that describes a child or young person's special educational, health and social care needs, and sets out how these will be met. They were introduced in 2014. Committee chair Meg Hiller described an EHCP as being a parents' "golden ticket" to ensure their children with additional needs get the funding they need throughout their education and she asked whether the system could be replaced as part of the government's ongoing SEND review. Ms Acland-Hood said that EHC plans would be kept in place, but she added: "I think the key focus is trying to make sure that for many many more parents they don't need to pursue an EHCP in order to get the things that they want." The latest government figures show that there were 325,618 pupils in schools with EHCPs in 2020-21 up from 294,758 a year earlier. Ms Acland-Hood suggested that there has been an issue with the balance of funding being provided to ensure needs are meet through EHCPs. She said: "The huge value that the EHCP gives to the parent and the pupil is certainty about what is going to be provided. "The risk is that that comes at the cost of resource to try to make earlier provision in the system before people have had to go through the process that leads to an EHCP. "We absolutely need a SEND review that addresses that fundamental conundrum." She was also questioned about when the review will be published. The ongoing review was launched by education secretary Gavin Williamson in September 2019. Last year, he told MPs on the Commons Education Select Committee that its findings would not be published until the early part of this year, having been delayed because of the Covid crisis. Ms Hillier said: "I wanted to ask you again about the SEND Review .The last time you were in front of us you told us you would expect it by the end of June. That date has been and gone, so where is the special educational needs and disabilities review?" Ms Acland-Hood said: "We have had some challenges with the SEND Review because of Covid over the past year but also more fundamentally as the chief inspector noted in her recent report we can see the system in which the SEND system needs to land changing quite fundamentally as a result of the pandemic." She said the department wanted to take "a little bit longer" to ensure that the review has taken account of the changing picture caused by the Covid pandemic." 
LOOKING AHEAD
As this academic year now draws to a close, we need to reflect again on it being the second year now in a row that children have had things very disrupted for them by Covid-19. I know that there is a real hope that things will be gradually getting back to some degree of normality soon, even though things seem still sometimes to not always be going to plan. I therefore really hope and pray that things will settle down by the beginning of next term. In the meantime, I guess it is best summed up for now by the Children's Commissioner, Rachel de Souza, who this week said in an article entitled: 'A joined-up vision for children’s support will improve the lives of children with SEND'': "The impact of the last year and a half on children’s lives has been enormous – not only bringing into focus the many generational problems facing young people, but multiplying and accelerating some of them. As we come out of the pandemic, this should be the moment to tackle them with best practice, new ideas and big ambitions. We owe it to children for the huge sacrifices they have made for us, despite them being at least risk of becoming ill. We must start with children and families placed at the heart of our thinking – designing systems around them so we can better achieve more integrated services that best meet their needs, and which give children the best opportunities to prepare for adulthood and live healthy and successful lives. In order to do this, we need reform, both of children’s social care and the SEND system, and this reform needs to make sense as a whole. I don’t underestimate the challenges, but I believe that we can bring about reform by focusing first on what we can achieve. The SEND review, the Care Review and the Integrated Care System white paper are all important elements for making strong and lasting change and give us an opportunity to tackle some of the long-standing problems that have held back some children. I don’t underestimate the challenges, but I believe that we can bring about reform by focusing first on what we can achieve There is no doubt that the Covid pandemic has put new stresses on many families and the systems that support vulnerable children. The pandemic’s impact on the SEND system has materially hugely changed the context that SEND local areas, schools and those supporting children and young people with SEND are now operating in. It is vitally important that the SEND review reflects that, and I do understand why the Government has said it needs more time to ensure that any proposals from the review take full account of the unexpected changes there have been over the last 18 months. I know children and their families, those who support them and those working in the SEND sector are impatient for change. I share that impatience, and I have made it one of my priorities as Children’s Commissioner to follow closely the progress of the SEND Review. I intend to continue that involvement, to offer my ideas and the expertise of my office, and to challenge the SEND Review team to make sure that this once-in-a-generation opportunity to improve the outcomes for children with SEND delivers the improvements the system needs." 
LATEST NEWS ONLINE
And in terms of news, here are the articles that I found of interest this week: Lockdown: 'Children behind in speech and understanding' 1.5m pupils out of school in England last week ‘Creativity crisis’ looms for English schools due to arts cuts, says Labour Funding halved on services for vulnerable children in England Schools in England shut early for summer as record numbers are forced to isolate
Again, aside from clicking on the relevant links for more information, I would also remind you of the very useful resources and information provided on the following websites:
- IPSEA - Council for Disabled Children - Contact - Scope - Special Needs Jungle I would also highlight again the fact that you can now get a digital copy of the magazine: Autism Eye which is very helpful to any parents or professionals involved with children/young people with Autism. Keep safe until next term. With best wishes Douglas 
P.S. I understand that there are many educational items, news articles, or other useful resources on the web, so I would be very grateful if you could let me know of any that you find that you think that others may find useful, so that I can direct people to them.
How useful do you find my SEN Updates?
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Douglas Silas,
Specialist SEN Solicitor 12th July 2021 
Being busy is not always being productive...
A lot of people mistake being 'busy' for being 'productive'. They naturally think to themselves that if they put the hours in, they will then see the consequential productivity rewards come at the end of a task or job. But that does not always work in the reality of today's world, where we are now often dealing with the mindset of a knowledge worker, rather than the mindset of a manual worker. Let me explain. You measure a manual worker's productivity by the amount of manual work that they get through in a given time frame. Logic then dictates that, if they can do a certain number of tasks within a given timeframe, you can then easily measure if they are being more or less productive in the time allocated to them by calculating their output. However, somewhat counter-intuitively, this is almost the opposite way of measuring a knowledge worker's productivity. A knowledge worker is usually more creative and their creativity usually comes in moments of inspiration. Just sitting at a desk for a set period of time and feeling busy because they are speaking to people, dealing with emails or phonecalls, or organising what they have to do into lists, does not mean that they always 'do' and will have been necessarily productive for that same length of time. And, funnily enough, creativity often comes at moments that a knowledge worker is actually away from their desk (although they often then need to be at their desk to ultimately turn that theoretical creativity into something more practical and tangible). I have found that I am actually more productive when I have less to do, but am then able to just focus on the task that I want or need to do, without having any distractions to interrupt me. This then means that I can just get on and 'do' it. Ironically, when I work this way, it also allows me to do more things in less time (provided that I have also organised myself efficiently). But it is no good you just reading this, as you will not truly believe that what I am saying may be true. You need to also take a leap of faith and really try it for yourself in practise to see that it actually can work for you too. And if it doesn't work for you the first time, or even the first few times, don't just give up, keep trying after checking to see whether there is really a distraction that you hadn't noticed before standing in your way. It really works - honestly!
In this week's SEN Update, you will find sections entitled:
I know how busy everyone always is, so please feel free just to read the sections that are of interest to you or read everything; the choice is always yours.
Don’t forget, to ensure that you never miss one, you can get my SEN Updates personally by completing your email details above,
or by following me on one of the social media platforms I use (i.e. Twitter/Facebook). You can also share this SEN Update with others (please only do so if it may be relevant to them) by using one of the icons, usually to the right or at the bottom of this page. 
PLANS TO END COVID RESTRICTIONS IN EDUCATION SETTINGS
With the announcement at the beginning of the week about the Covid-19 restrictions being eased, the Government/Department for Education (DfE) has issued a raft of new guidance for educational settings I can do no better than to quote from an email that I subsequently received from the DfE's Special Educational Needs and Disability Division, which stated: "Dear colleagues, The lifting of Covid restrictions in education settings will take place in line with the general removal of restrictions for England at Step 4. Subject to a final review of the data next week, these legal restrictions will end on Monday 19 July. We are changing the controls that apply in early years, schools, colleges and higher education institutions to maintain a baseline of protective measures while maximising attendance and minimising disruption to children and young people’s education. When we move to Step 4 of the roadmap, we will be removing the need to keep children and young people in consistent groups (‘bubbles’) in schools, colleges and out-of-school settings and the need to reduce mixing in early years settings. To support this we have published new guidance for arrangements in education settings from Step 4, covering both the summer period and the following term, when children will return to school: · Guidance for special schools and other specialist settings · Actions for schools during the coronavirus outbreak · Actions for FE colleges and providers during the coronavirus outbreak · Actions for early years and childcare providers during the coronavirus outbreak · Use of PPE in education, childcare and children’s social care Guidance for out-of-school settings, children’s social care, apprenticeships and parents will be updated over the next 2 days. From 16 August, the legal requirement to self-isolate for contacts of a positive case will end for everyone aged under 18, and for adults who have been fully vaccinated. This means that from the autumn term, only those who test positive will need to self-isolate. From Step 4, NHS test and trace will carry out contact tracing in all education settings rather than it being run by the school or college. Those identified as close contacts will be advised to take a PCR test, and only need to isolate if they test positive. Everyone must self-isolate if they have symptoms of Covid or a positive test result. More details on the announcement can be found here Covid restrictions in education settings to end at Step 4 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)" Hope that this helps. 
CONSULTATION ON BEHAVIOUR MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES
The Department for Education (DfE) also sent out another email later this week through the SEND Division entitled: 'Consultation on Behaviour Management Strategies'. Again, I can do no better than to quote from the email, which stated: "Dear colleagues, Earlier this year, the Secretary of State announced that we will be consulting on revisions to both the behaviour and exclusions guidance later this year. To help inform guidance revisions we launched a call for evidence on behaviour management strategies, mobile phones, managed moves, and in-school units on 29 June 2021. The call for evidence will be open for a total of six weeks and will close on 10 August 2021. You can submit your views here: Behaviour management strategies, in-school units and managed moves - Department for Education - Citizen Space We would be grateful if you could disseminate this amongst your networks. We would like to add that this will not be the only point that we expect individuals to provide their views to us on these areas and intend to provide further time for the sector to provide evidence to us during the consultation period in autumn. We look forward to receiving your response. Many thanks, Special Educational Needs and Disability Division' From what I have read, not everyone agrees with how this may affect children and young people with SEN, so if this is something that concerns you, I encourage ou to respond. 
LATEST NEWS ONLINE
In terms of news, here are the articles that I found of interest this week: Huge surge in number of pupils sent home due to Covid UK Covid: rates of long Covid likely to increase significantly, particularly among young, warns Chris Whitty – as it happened Covid bubbles to be axed in England's schools Ofsted: Put SEND pupils 'at centre' of Covid recovery
Again, aside from clicking on the relevant links for more information, I would also remind you of the very useful resources and information provided on the following websites:
- IPSEA - Council for Disabled Children - Contact - Scope - Special Needs Jungle I would also highlight again the fact that you can now get a digital copy of the magazine: Autism Eye which is very helpful to any parents or professionals involved with children/young people with Autism. Keep safe until next week. With best wishes Douglas 
P.S. I understand that there are many educational items, news articles, or other useful resources on the web, so I would be very grateful if you could let me know of any that you find that you think that others may find useful, so that I can direct people to them.
How useful do you find my SEN Updates?
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Douglas Silas,
Specialist SEN Solicitor 5th July 2021 
Don't give somebody your advice unless you are specifically asked for it...
How often we become so eager and forthcoming to give our advice to someone about what they should do or say in any given situation, even though they have not specifically asked us for what we think! Yes, a person may be telling us about a problem that they have; and yes, it may seem that they are asking us what we think, but it is always far too easy for us to proffer our thoughts to them, even though they have not specifically asked us for them. The advice we may be offering them may, in fact, be good; but it is not enough for us to say it, they also need to be prepared to hear it. In fact, giving advice when you are not asked for it, can even sometimes be counterproductive, as if the other person is just telling us something because that they want to get it off their chest and unburden themselves, if you then offer them your advice without being asked for it, they my actually become upset with you, because they may feel that you have spoken out of turn. So they may sometimes get defensive and end up doing exactly the opposite of what you are saying! Also, even if you are fairly sure that they are, in fact, genuinely asking for your advice or your perspective, please be careful to always try to understand before you advise. Remember what I said previously about 'active listening'. Make sure you are really hearing what they are saying, not just projecting onto them what you think they have said, or what you would like them to have said. If you don't do all of this, you may find that, to them, you are actually not helping and then just making a bad situation even worse!
In this week's SEN Update, you will find sections entitled:
I know how busy everyone always is, so please feel free just to read the sections that are of interest to you or read everything; the choice is always yours.
Don’t forget, to ensure that you never miss one, you can get my SEN Updates personally by completing your email details above,
or by following me on one of the social media platforms I use (i.e. Twitter/Facebook). You can also share this SEN Update with others (please only do so if it may be relevant to them) by using one of the icons, usually to the right or at the bottom of this page. 
MORE SEN STATISTICS
The Department for Education (DfE) published more statistics this week on SEN, entitled: 'National statistics on special educational needs in England' (not to be confused with the statistics that they issued last week!) They cover the statistics on pupils with SEN, including information on educational attainment, destinations, absence, exclusions, and characteristics. The contents say they cover the following issues:
Of course, you can read them for yourself here if you want to, but I thought today that I would look at the third of these issues, the analysis of children with SEN' in more depth below. 
The relevant document is entitled: 'Special educational needs and disability: an analysis and summary of data sources' and says it provides data analysis and links to statistical release data sources on children and young people with special educational needs (SEN) or a disability.
The introduction states: 'This document provides a combination of analysis and links to the key data sources on children and young people with special educational needs and / or a disability (SEND). This is the eighth release in this format1 and follows on from the initial publication in November 2015. The table below lists the topics included in this publication with a link to the source data and whether time series and local authority (LA) level data is available. Commentary on the data trends and more detailed analysis can be found by clicking on the link in the publication title column. You may also wish to use this publication alongside benchmarking data tools, such as the Local Authority Interactive Tool (LAIT) and LG Inform. Further details are provided on page 24. This is a collated product from data published throughout the year. As such, trends across sections might not be directly comparable. More detail can be found in the text.' The contents section then adds that it covers:
Under: 'Prevalence and characteristics - Key trends', it states: 'The number of pupils with special educational needs (SEN) increased to 1.37 million pupils in 2020. The proportion of pupils with SEN has been decreasing since 2010 (21.1%), however it has increased for the last 3 years. The decline since 2010 in the percentage of children with SEN could be as a result of more accurate identification. This may have been as a consequence of the 2010 Ofsted Special Educational Needs and Disability review which found that a quarter of all children identified with SEN, and half of the children at School Action, did not have SEN. It is possible that the implementation of the SEND reforms in September 2014 has also led to more accurate identification which has led to the steep decline in the number with SEN in January 2015. The proportion of pupils with a statement of SEN/ Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan increased to 3.3% in 2020, following increases in 2019 and 2018 and a long period of stability since 2007. Pupils with an EHC plan made up 21% of all pupils with SEN in January 2020.' Under: "Type of need', it states: 'In January 2020, the most prevalent type of primary need identified among pupils with SEN was ‘Speech, language and communication needs’, with 21.9% of pupils having this recorded as their primary need. For pupils with EHC plans, ‘Autistic Spectrum Disorder’ was the most common primary type of need, with 30.1% of pupils with statements or EHC plans having this primary type of need. For pupils on SEN support, ‘Speech, language and communication needs’ was the most common type of need; 23.7% of pupils on SEN support had this recorded as their primary type of need.' Under: 'Types of school', it states: 'The percentage of pupils with a statement or EHC plan attending state-funded special schools increased year on year from January 2010 to January 2018 but has decreased since then. In January 2010, 38.2% of all pupils with statements attended state-funded special schools, and this has increased to 42.6% of all pupils with an EHC plan in January 2020. The percentage of pupils with a statement or EHC plan attending independent schools has increased significantly in recent years. In January 2010, 4.2% of all pupils with statements attended independent schools, and this has increased to 6.4% of all pupils with an EHC plan in January 2020. Under: 'Post-16 – attainment by age 19', it states: '30.0% of pupils identified with SEN in year 11 achieved Level 2 (equivalent to 5+ A*-C/ 9-4 at GCSE) including English and mathematics (GCSEs only) by age 19 in 2019/20, which is 44.6 percentage points lower than pupils without SEN (74.6%).' Under: 'Preparation for Adulthood/Post-16 learner participation', it states: 'Participation for 16 and 17 year olds 88.5% of 16-17 year olds with an EHC plan were in education and training in March 2020 compared with 93.2% of those without SEN. The percentage point gap in education and training participation of 16-17 year olds between those with an EHC plan and those without SEN has increased in recent years, from 3.3 percentage points in 2017 to 4.7 percentage points in 2020. Participation in Further Education In the 2019/20 academic year 17.5% of FE and skills participants aged 19 and over had a self- declared learning difficulty and/ or disability (LDD).' Under: 'Progression to higher education', it states: 'In 2018/19, 8.9% of pupils with a statement or EHC plan progressed to HE by age 19, compared to 20.6% of pupils with SEN support and 47.3% for pupils with no SEN. The progression rate for pupils with a statement or EHC plan increased in the latest year, whilst the rates fell for pupils with SEN support and pupils with no identified SEN.' Under:'Experience of the SEND system', it states: 'Total number of EHC plans maintained by local authorities There were 430,697 children and young people with Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans maintained by local authorities as at January 2021. This is an increase of 40,588 (10%) from 390,109 as at January 2020. This is driven by increases across all age groups, with largest percentage increases in the 20-25 age group (17%). The total number of children and young people with statements or EHC plans has increased each year since 2010. Number of new EHC plans issued by local authorities There were 60,097 children and young people with new EHC plans made during the 2020 calendar year. This is an increase of 11% when compared to 2019.' Under: 'Timeliness of issuing statements and EHC plans', it states: 'In 2020, 58.0% of new EHC plans were issued within 20 weeks. This shows a decrease from 2019, when 60.4% of new EHC plans were issued within the 20 week time limit. This figure excludes exceptional cases where the local authority need not comply with the 20 week time limit if it is impractical to do so.' Under: 'Appeals registered with the SEND tribunal', it states: 'Parents/carers and young people can register an appeal with the SEND tribunal if, for example, there is a refusal to assess or they are unhappy about the contents of the plan. There were 7,385 appeals registered in 2019 (calendar year), which is equivalent to 1.8% of appealable decisions. This is an increase compared to the previous year when there were 6,023 appeals registered equivalent to 1.6% of appealable decisions. Of the 7,917 registered SEND appeals in 2019/20 (academic year), 29% were against ‘refusal to secure an Education, Health and Care (EHC) assessment’ or ‘refusal to re-assess’ and 60% were in relation to the content of EHC plans; these proportions are similar to 2018/19. The most common type of need identified in SEND appeals continues to be Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD), accounting for 47% (3,722) of all SEND appeals; this reflects the most common primary type of need for all pupils with an EHC plan. The most common age for the child or young person for whom the appeal is registered is aged 5-16 (80%), followed by the post-16 age group (11%). The percentage in the post-16 age group increased between 2013/14 and 2015/16, following the extension of the right to appeal to this age group. This percentage has stayed broadly the same since 2015/16.' Interesting information... 
LATEST NEWS ONLINE
And here are the news articles that I found of interest this week: Pressure from MPs on rise in pupils sent home Williamson wants to scrap bubbles to keep pupils in school ‘Children are not guinea pigs’: parents and teachers on plans to stop self-isolation in England Recovery plan for pupils in England is ‘feeble’, former catch-up tsar says
Again, aside from clicking on the relevant links for more information, I would also remind you of the very useful resources and information provided on the following websites:
- IPSEA - Council for Disabled Children - Contact - Scope - Special Needs Jungle I would also highlight again the fact that you can now get a digital copy of the magazine: Autism Eye which is very helpful to any parents or professionals involved with children/young people with Autism. Keep safe until next week. With best wishes Douglas 
P.S. I understand that there are many educational items, news articles, or other useful resources on the web, so I would be very grateful if you could let me know of any that you find that you think that others may find useful, so that I can direct people to them.
How useful do you find my SEN Updates?
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Douglas Silas,
Specialist SEN Solicitor 28th June 2021 
I think that we probably need to learn to communicate properly again..
True communication, unfortunately, seems to be a bit of a dying art these days. Ironic isn't it, when the world that we now are currently living in has given us so many new forms of communication, like email, social media, etc. I sometime feel that people seem now to be drowning in so much communication 'noise' that they probably currently find it incredibly hard and time-consuming to actually find the 'signal' that they truly want to hear. Communication is also a two-way thing. Unfortunately, too many people see it (probably subconsciously) as a one-way thing, by truly believing that another person is going to be more interested in listening to what they have to say, than what the other person is saying to them. Really listening to someone (people often call it 'active listening') is more than just letting someone say to you what they want to say and then telling them what you want to say to them, especially if you actually have really been spending your time formulating in your mind what you want to say whilst they have been speaking and therefore not listening to them properly at all! Also, be careful not to always respond too quickly to something that someone else is saying to you - please be very wary of this, as they may, in fact, be going in a completely different direction than you at first thought and so then be ending up in a completely different place to where you think they were at first going. So what you were thinking about saying in response to them would be wrong anyway. And let me leave you with just one final thought today - remember that we have two ears and one mouth for a reason - it shows that we should be listening twice as much as we should be speaking!
In this week's SEN Update, you will find sections entitled:
I know how busy everyone always is, so please feel free just to read the sections that are of interest to you or read everything; the choice is always yours.
Don’t forget, to ensure that you never miss one, you can get my SEN Updates personally by completing your email details above,
or by following me on one of the social media platforms I use (i.e. Twitter/Facebook). You can also share this SEN Update with others (please only do so if it may be relevant to them) by using one of the icons, usually to the right or at the bottom of this page. 
ANNUAL SEN STATISTICS
As you may know, it is about this time of year (a bit later I think this year) that the Department for Education (DfE) publishes its national statistics on SEN. It is again entitled: 'Special educational needs in England' and says in its introduction: "This publication combines information from the school census, school level annual school census, general hospital school census and alternative provision census on pupils with special educational needs (SEN). The publication includes breakdowns by type of SEN provision (either SEN support or EHC plan), type of SEN, age, national curriculum year group, gender, ethnicity, English as a first language and free school meal eligibility. While schools were only open for vulnerable children and the children of key workers on census day, schools were asked to record pupils on roll as if in normal circumstances.' It helpfully highlights two headline facts and figures for 2020/21 as:
and adds:
There are 5 files you can then download, as follows:
Or you can download:
There are also separate individual sections on:
If this is something of interest to you, you can read everything here. 
SUMMER SCHOOLS
Again, Vicky Ford, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families, has this week written: 'An Open Letter to Leaders Of Special And Alternative Provision Schools' about summer schools , which says: '"Dear Colleagues, As we approach the end of one of the most challenging and extraordinary academic years in recent history, I wanted to write to you to extend my thanks for your continued dedication. The dedication and adaptability which you and your staff members have shown in uncertain circumstances never fails to amaze me. It has been invaluable in enabling some of the most vulnerable children and young people in special settings and AP across England to attend and re-engage in education, spending as much time in school as possible. As we look ahead to the summer holiday, I am sure that many of you will all be looking forward to the opportunity for a well-deserved rest. I wish you all the best and hope that you and yours have a pleasant time wherever you choose to spend it. I am, however, conscious that many of you are already thinking about how the children and young people that attend your settings can be best supported throughout the summer holiday. I want to use this opportunity therefore to remind you of two key areas of support which the government is offering this summer to pupils in your settings and ask for your cooperation: 1. Summer schools - Firstly, I would like to draw your attention to the £200m of funding which is available for secondary schools to deliver face-to-face summer schools this year to support children with their mental health and wellbeing and to catch up on missed face-to-face learning. For pupils in your settings (special schools, AP or special units in mainstream schools) funding is £1791 per pupil (3x the standard rate) for a two-week summer school (or £179.10 per day). This is in recognition of the importance and increased costs of providing high-quality support for pupils with additional or complex needs and ensuring that they can access the same opportunities as their peers in mainstream settings. Funding for your settings has now been calculated on the basis of 50% of your year 11 cohort, in recognition that your settings generally have few year 7 pupils. For any special settings or AP whose year 7 cohort is larger than their year 11 cohort, those schools’ initial funding allocations will stand. If you haven’t yet decided whether your setting will be running a summer school, I recommend visiting the GOV.UK page, where you can find published guidance and the funding allocation for your setting. The guidance also includes links to potential sources of support in planning and delivering a summer school. You can then confirm whether you will be running a summer school and secure your funding allocation here by 30 June. 2. Holiday Activities and Food – Secondly, I want to remind you of the Holiday Activities and Food programme which will be running once again this summer. We have made up to £220 million available to local authorities to coordinate free holiday provision, providing nutritious food, as well as activities like arts and crafts, sport, and music. The programme offers free places to children in receipt of free school meals in every local authority in England. Local authorities have flexibility to expand the reach of their programme beyond children who are eligible for free school meals, by using their funding to provide subsidised holiday club places. This may include children who are considered by the local authority as vulnerable or in need of this provision. Please contact your local authority for further information and consider advertising this to children and young people in your settings. I myself saw first-hand how local partnerships helped to deliver these excellent schemes last summer. Finally, I would again like to express my appreciation for your continued support, patience and dedication whilst we navigate through these challenging times. Yours sincerely, Vicky Ford MP Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families" 
ATEST NEWS ONLINE
In terms of the other news, here are a few articles that I found of interest: Is the DfE deliberately ignoring pupils with SEND? Quarter of a million children in England missed school last week due to Covid Our defences are not ready for this tsunami SEND referrals
Again, aside from clicking on the relevant links for more information, I would also remind you of the very useful resources and information provided on the following websites:
- IPSEA - Council for Disabled Children - Contact - Scope - Special Needs Jungle I would also highlight again the fact that you can now get a digital copy of the magazine: Autism Eye which is very helpful to any parents or professionals involved with children/young people with Autism. Keep safe until next week. With best wishes Douglas 
P.S. I understand that there are many educational items, news articles, or other useful resources on the web, so I would be very grateful if you could let me know of any that you find that you think that others may find useful, so that I can direct people to them.
How useful do you find my SEN Updates?
Created with Quiz Maker
Douglas Silas,
Specialist SEN Solicitor 21st June 2021 
Your first reaction is always emotional…
Your first reaction to anything is always an emotional response - it is just human nature, we cannot hide our true initial feelings about anything when we are caught off-guard and not expecting something to happen. We need to realise that this is the same for every one. Some people's initial reactions to things (even just after a few milliseconds), especially when they are upset or angry, is often to try to be a bit 'passive/aggressive' and therefore try to look as though they are fine with things that have happened or been said. However, even though their response might at first seem alright to you or others, their body language, or the deeper and true meaning behind their words, usually gives them away; if you look close enough and pay proper attention to things. If you are really good, you will then be able to see their true and immediate reaction, even if it is very fleeting (called a 'micro-expression'), before they try to cover-up how they truly feel, using the words that they say. And remember, on some rare occasions, you come across people who may be 'passive/passive', but more often you will come across people who seem 'aggressive/aggressive'! But the real reason for me wanting to tell you all of this, is to try and highlight for you that it is our own reactions to things immediately that are also our emotional ones. We can try as best we can to hide them from others, but we should note how we immediately respond to things. We then might find ourselves blaming somebody else for something, only to realise a few seconds later that it was actually our fault, or we may find ourselves criticising somebody or something else, when really we should be the one being criticised, or what we are criticising is just plain wrong! Interesting isn't it? It is fascinating how much insight we can have about others, but how we often don't develop that same level of insight into ourselves and our own reactions to things. So go on, try and catch your own true first reaction to something emotionally - you may be surprised at what you find!
In this week's SEN Update, you will find sections entitled:
I know how busy everyone always is, so please feel free just to read the sections that are of interest to you or read everything; the choice is always yours.
Don’t forget, to ensure that you never miss one, you can get my SEN Updates personally by completing your email details above,
or by following me on one of the social media platforms I use (i.e. Twitter/Facebook). You can also share this SEN Update with others (please only do so if it may be relevant to them) by using one of the icons, usually to the right or at the bottom of this page. 
SEND REVIEW
Ofsted and the CQC (Care Quality Commission) jointly launched a report this week entitled: 'SEND: old issues, new issues, next steps'. It looks at a number of issues, including whether children and young people with SEND and their families have been helped by the changes to the SEND framework brought in by the Children and Families Act 2014. The 'executive summary' states" "Children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), their families and those who work with them have faced significant challenges during the pandemic. The extent to which education, health and care providers in different local areas rose to these challenges to meet children and young people’s needs led to hugely varied experiences. Yet, few of the negative experiences that many children and young people with SEND and their families had during this time are new. There are long-standing issues in the SEND system. The pandemic has highlighted and intensified these issues. It has also deepened the effects that they have on children and young people with SEND. In 2009, in the final report of his inquiry, Brian Lamb called for a ‘radical overhaul’ of the SEND system. The report called for greater ambition for children and young people with SEND. It cited a culture of low expectations and a system that too often failed to deliver what children and their families really needed. The Children and Families Act 2014[ and the subsequent ‘SEND code of practice: 0 to 25 years’, also published in 2014, set out some key principles. A very important one was that children, young people and their families should play a much more central part in making decisions about the way in which needs could best be met. This is known as ‘co-production’. Alongside this, there was a strong emphasis on education, health and social care services working closely together to meet children and young people’s needs, rather than as separate entities. It was intended that children’s needs would be identified earlier and that support would continue until the age of 25 where necessary. Ofsted’s area SEND inspection evidence suggests that many local areas have struggled to implement these reforms successfully. From their introduction in 2016 through to March 2020, we routinely found local areas that were not properly implementing the requirements laid out in the code of practice and related legislation. Common weaknesses included:
Many local areas were not clear about who is – or should be – held accountable for services and provision. Problems with the identification and assessment of children and young people’s needs also continued to be prevalent. Successive area SEND inspection reports have commented on a continuing lack of ambition for pupils with SEND. Attendance at school for this group remained below national averages and exclusions were often high. There seemed to be greater opportunities for further education, supported employment, and training for young people with SEND in many areas. However, only a tiny minority ended up in sustained employment. Over time, the number of children and young people identified as having SEND has grown, in all types of settings. Most are educated in mainstream settings, although numbers in state-funded special schools are increasing each year. How well children’s needs are identified varies from one local area to the next, and one setting to another. Sometimes, needs are missed or are not identified accurately. For example, speech, language and communication needs may be identified as moderate learning difficulties. Underachievement, sometimes due to a poorly designed or taught curriculum, is sometimes wrongly labelled as ‘SEND’. Pupils who are not taught to read well in the early stages of their primary education are particularly susceptible to being wrongly identified as having SEND because they cannot access the curriculum. As numbers of pupils with SEND have increased, various stakeholders have questioned the sustainability and sufficiency of funding. Given this context, we know that many children and young people with SEND and their families were already experiencing flaws in the services that they were receiving before the first national lockdown began in March 2020. There were also many existing concerns about their outcomes. The effects of the pandemic and the related lockdowns served to exacerbate these issues enormously. Through our research visits to local areas, schools, early years settings, children’s services providers and further education and skills providers in the autumn term 2020, we found that children and young people with SEND were often not receiving education. Some important healthcare, such as physiotherapy, had also ceased. This left children and young people immobile and sometimes in pain. A lack of speech and language therapy, or communication devices not being available, left them unable to communicate properly. Social care and health-funded respite provision for families had also not been available. Parents and carers told us of their frustration and exhaustion, and sometimes of their despair. A few had found that the relative calm of being at home through the first lockdown had been beneficial for their children. However, this was more unusual. Many children and young people, including those with complex needs, did not attend school or college during the first national lockdown. Some did not have a place in school because they did not have an EHC plan. Some did have a place, but did not attend because their parents were too anxious to send them in. Others could not attend because schools said that their health or personal care needs could not be met. Some received remote education and coped well with this; others did not. When schools and colleges opened fully to all pupils in September 2020, not all those with SENDreturned. Those who did return were sometimes given a narrower curriculum than usual. By the time of the third national lockdown in spring 2021, we heard even greater concerns from parents and carers in the 4 local areas we visited than we had in 2020. For many, life had become more difficult over time. Children and young people, particularly those who had moved to a new school or college in September 2020, were feeling isolated and lonely. The issues that were raised in the autumn term visits to local areas – a lack of health and care provision, inconsistent provision from schools, long waiting times for assessments – continued. Many parents expressed concerns about the now-evident impact of these issues on their children and on their own physical and mental health. Throughout the pandemic, local areas have had to adapt their ways of working frequently and significantly to continue to provide services for children and young people with SEND. The success with which they adapted appeared to be closely related to the quality of their work with families before the pandemic. It also depended on the extent to which they had implemented the 2014 reforms in a way that created the right relationships, systems and structures. Some areas quickly managed to adapt; others struggled. Nevertheless, families clearly appreciated the support and care given to them by individual professionals. Even where systems seemed to be overwhelmed by the challenges of the pandemic, families praised some individuals from education, health, social care or wider children’s services for the great efforts they had put into supporting them. However, although there were areas where professionals managed to adapt well and where different parts of the system worked together effectively, it is evident that children and young people with SEND are now even more vulnerable than they were before. Missing out on education – in some cases, missing vast amounts – means that these children and young people will be further behind their peers. Missed support for physical health, communication needs and mental health has had a seriously detrimental, and in some cases potentially permanent, impact. Some children and young people with SEND have been out of sight of safeguarding professionals. Preparation for adulthood, including for education, employment and training, has been adversely affected. Delays in identifying needs have meant that some children and young people’s needs may not have been properly assessed or even noticed. As recovery from the pandemic begins, we cannot underestimate the importance of good-quality universal services for children and young people with SEND across education, health and wider children’s services, alongside more specialist health or social care support where needed. The availability and effectiveness of these universal services can prevent a child or young person from needing something additional or different. A child or young person should never be labelled as having SEND because of a poor-quality curriculum or ineffective teaching, or weaknesses in universal health or care services. This was something that we saw too frequently in 2010 and, worryingly, something we still too often find. Further reform to the SEND system has become even more urgent than it was before the pandemic." You can read the full report here. (Or you can watch the accompanying video here). 
SOCIAL CARE REVIEW
There was also another report issued this week entitled: 'Case for Change' which was issued by 'The Independent Review of Children’s Social Care in England', whose tagline says it is: 'a once in a generation opportunity to transform the children’s social care system and provide children with loving, safe and stable families.' The best summary that I found was on the National Children's Bureau's website, on a page entitled: 'Children’s social care review makes for ‘depressing reading’, which stated: "Too many previous reviews, reports and researchers have made the same points. We know what’s wrong with the system, what we need is the political will and urgency to change it. The ‘Case for Change’ makes for depressing reading. It is unacceptable that so many children and families are being let down and denied the support that could allow them to enjoy healthy and stable lives. Too many previous reviews, reports and research have made the same points. We know what’s wrong with the system, what we need is the political will and urgency to change it and invest in children’s futures. The Independent Review has again underlined how children’s social care is increasingly focused on investigating serious cases and putting children into care, rather than supporting struggling families to prevent harm from happening in the first place. This isn’t simply the result of a more risk-averse system. It is inescapably linked to the devastating erosion of central Government funding for children’s services over the past decade. There is also an important acknowledgement that children from poorer backgrounds, disabled children, and those from black and ethnic minority communities are often hardest hit by the cuts in early intervention. NCB fully supports the Review’s call for a more effective and compassionate response to families facing conditions of adversity. We cannot avoid tackling thorny issues like poverty and discrimination if we are going to reduce the number of children coming into care, and avoid the spiralling costs of child protection. A co-ordinated strategy from across Government is urgently needed that looks at children’s lives in the round, and brings together work in social care, education, health and SEND. But first we need proper investment in early help and early intervention at this year’s Spending Review. The Review’s analysis is comprehensive, strong and thoughtful – we hope the recommendations will be equally so and acted on swiftly." You can read the full report here. 
LATEST NEWS ONLINE
Not much in the news I'm afraid this week, but here are a few articles that I found of interest: Parents of children with special needs tell Ofsted of Covid despair Care services too focused on investigating families in crisis, says review The ‘catch-up plan’ for schools needs to start with the Department for Education
Again, aside from clicking on the relevant links for more information, I would also remind you of the very useful resources and information provided on the following websites:
- IPSEA - Council for Disabled Children - Contact - Scope - Special Needs Jungle I would also highlight again the fact that you can now get a digital copy of the magazine: Autism Eye which is very helpful to any parents or professionals involved with children/young people with Autism. Keep safe until next week. With best wishes Douglas 
P.S. I understand that there are many educational items, news articles, or other useful resources on the web, so I would be very grateful if you could let me know of any that you find that you think that others may find useful, so that I can direct people to them.
How useful do you find my SEN Updates?
Created with Quiz Maker
Douglas Silas,
Specialist SEN Solicitor 14th June 2021 
Give people the chance to learn from a mistake…
We often say, where children are concerned, that if they make a mistake, we should usually not make a big deal out of it, but rather realise that this was an accident and let them learn from it (or us use it as a way to teach them how they can learn from it). We also know not to do something for them, otherwise they will never learn. Yet how many times do we do this in our personal lives with adults? Too often we are too quick to judge and condemn someone when they just make a mistake. We say to ourselves or others, things like: "They should have known better" or "They are always like that". We sometimes even imagine that they have done it deliberately and not even think that it could have just been a mistake. How often do we really try to put ourselves in their shoes and see things from their perspective? They may have said or done something which they genuinely thought would work and now, not only do they have to face the consequences and disappointment arising out of their actions, but they now also have you judging them for not being good enough! Not only is that twice the amount of hurt or shame, it also means that you will have potentially taken away from them a valuable learning opportunity, as people usually become instinctively defensive when they feel like they are being criticised and, not only then try to justify their actions to you or themselves, but also become more entrenched in believing what they did or said was reasonable and find even harder to then admit that it was a mistake, to you or themselves. And it probably was also a mistake that you would have wanted to learn from, if you had been in their place. So, next time something like this happens to someone around you (adult or child), try not to be too quick to judge them and give them the chance to correct their mistake. It is what you would want somebody to do for you if the roles were reversed.
In this week's SEN Update, you will find sections entitled:
I know how busy everyone always is, so please feel free just to read the sections that are of interest to you or read everything; the choice is always yours.
Don’t forget, to ensure that you never miss one, you can get my SEN Updates personally by completing your email details above,
or by following me on one of the social media platforms I use (i.e. Twitter/Facebook). You can also share this SEN Update with others (please only do so if it may be relevant to them) by using one of the icons, usually to the right or at the bottom of this page. 
THINGS USUALLY COME IN THREES (MORE GOVERNMENT GUIDANCE)
Things usually come in threes, don't they? Well, it's time for more Government guidance/information and this time it is three things at once! I received an email this week from the SEND Division at the Department of Education (DfE), entitled: 'Summer Schools, Transition to employment toolkit & new NSPCC/DfE helpline', which said: "Dear colleagues, There are three things that we would like to draw your attention to this [week]: Summer schools: updated funding allocations and guidance As part of the wider recovery package to support children and young people with their mental health and wellbeing and to support recovery from the impact of missed face-to-face learning, £200m of funding is available for secondary schools to deliver summer schools this year. Over 80% of eligible mainstream schools have now signed up to the programme. To maximise the funding available for special schools and alternative provision settings, we have now calculated their funding allocations on the basis of 50% of their year 11 cohort being offered a two-week summer school, in recognition that these settings generally have few year 7 pupils. For any special schools or alternative provision settings whose year 7 cohort is larger than their year 11 cohort, those schools’ initial funding allocations will stand. Today, we published a form at https://form.education.gov.uk/service/summer-schools-programme, asking schools to confirm their arrangements for their summer school by 30 June. Schools that did not complete the initial sign-up form can still join the programme by completing the June confirmation form. Subject to overall take-up, schools may be able to claim funding to cover additional places and can request this in the June confirmation form. Those schools will be notified quickly of any additional funding, but should plan to deliver their summer school within their published maximum allocation in the meantime. The guidance on summer schools reflects the change to SEND/alternative provision funding. It also confirms the conditions of funding, has an expanded section on academic, enrichment and mental health resources and provides a link to the DfE summer schools webinar which includes input from headteachers and other experts. If you have any questions, please contact us at learning.recovery@education.gov.uk. Transition to employment toolkit launched by Ambitious about Autism and the Autism Education Trust Ambitious about Autism and The Autism Education Trust have today launched a new employment toolkit to support autistic young people into the job market. The Transition to employment toolkit is free to download and aims to prevent autistic young people falling out of education, employment or training when they leave school. The toolkit is not just for young autistic people to use, but also for careers professionals and employers, to help them better understand the needs and skills of young autistic people and support them into further education or work. Sections of the toolkit can be easily downloaded and edited and are designed to be used flexibly. Launch of new NSPCC/DfE helpline for children and young people subjected to unwanted sexual behaviour in an education setting A new UK wide dedicated helpline has been set up by the NSPCC and the Department for Education to support those who may have been subjected to unwanted sexual behaviour or abuse whilst in an education setting. The helpline is equipped to cover personal incidents or concerns for others, and for both recent and historical events. DfE has set-up two social media resource packs on Dropbox containing assets to promote the helpline, one to target children and young people, and another for adults. We ask that education settings, along with wider sector organisations, use these resources on their own channels, and also cascade to their community networks. All amplification would be extremely valued, and ultimately help reach someone who vitally needs this support. Many thanks, Special Educational Needs and Disability Division" 
THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON TRIBUNAL HEARINGS (REPORT)
I know that this will not interest/affect everybody, but if it does interest/affect you, I wanted to bring it to your attention, as it is very interesting. The Legal Education Foundation has just produced a report this week entitled: “Understanding the impact of COVID-19 on tribunals: The experience of tribunal judges“ which was commissioned by the Senior President of Tribunals to understand the impact of COVID-19, identify opportunities for improvement and guide future developments. (If you don't know, The Legal Education Foundation is an independent grantmaking foundation that focuses on the role of legal education in helping people understand and use the law as a tool for change, as they know there are many people who cannot obtain justice in relation to everyday problems). The report examines the impact of remote hearings under COVID -19 and sets out 35 recommendations to guide their use as the tribunals move toward recovery and their website says: "The grant-giving charity The Legal Education Foundation has today published research that sheds light on the experience of tribunal judges as they adapted to the use of remote hearings in the early months of the pandemic. The report: “Understanding the impact of COVID-19 on tribunals: The experience of tribunal judges“ was commissioned by the Senior President of Tribunals to understand the impact of COVID-19, identify opportunities for improvement and guide future developments. ... The survey on which the report is based captured the experiences of over 1500 tribunal judicial office holders who were asked to reflect on the remote hearings they had taken part in between March and July 2020. The 35 recommendations presented in the report set out immediate practical and longer- term steps to improve the experience of judicial office holders and to ensure that remote hearings are deployed in a manner that secures safe, effective and efficient access to justice. ... The research gathered the views of judicial office holders on a range of topics including: i.) their satisfaction with the support and guidance they were offered; ii.) their views on the technology that was used, iii.) their perceptions of the impact of remote hearings on the practical and emotional barriers to participation experienced by appellants; iv.) the effect of proceeding remotely on their ability to identify and make adjustments for vulnerable appellants; v.) the influence of remote hearings on the structure of hearings and vi.) any changes to their decision-making process that had occurred in response to proceeding with hearings remotely. The survey also explores the impact of remote hearings on the well-being and morale of judicial office holders. ... The report’s recommendations include:
You can read the full report here. 
LATEST NEWS ONLINE
Again, here are other news articles that I found this week: Is sleep a ‘magic pill’ for teen wellness in a mental health crisis? Girls asked for nudes by up to 11 boys a night, Ofsted finds Unions call for return of masks to secondary classrooms in England After a year at home, children with disabilities deserve priority vaccination ‘Tutors change daily’: headteachers call for schools to control England Covid catchup money
Again, aside from clicking on the relevant links for more information, I would also remind you of the very useful resources and information provided on the following websites:
- IPSEA - Council for Disabled Children - Contact - Scope - Special Needs Jungle I would also highlight again the fact that you can now get a digital copy of the magazine: Autism Eye which is very helpful to any parents or professionals involved with children/young people with Autism. Keep safe until next week. With best wishes Douglas 
P.S. I understand that there are many educational items, news articles, or other useful resources on the web, so I would be very grateful if you could let me know of any that you find that you think that others may find useful, so that I can direct people to them.
How useful do you find my SEN Updates?
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Douglas Silas,
Specialist SEN Solicitor 7th June 2021 
Be prepared to change your mind…
Sometimes you think that you understand something, but then somebody comes along and presents a different view of the same thing. Human temptation is normally to think that you are right, so that the other person must therefore be wrong. But you must resist this temptation and be prepared to look at things again from a different perspective. You will then usually find, as counter-intuitive as it seems, that both you and the other person may be right. This happened to me this week. In my update last week (below) entitled: 'Don't let is sound like criticism', I presented an argument that we should always be careful not to say something to someone else that sounds like criticism. However, although I thought that I had given it a lot of thought to it before I wrote it, I soon received an email from a reader pointing out to me that criticism can also be constructive and that, in fact, my accompanying cartoon made him think that it is the recipient of criticism who is more at fault than the critic. Of course, this is also correct (although I mainly chose the cartoon because I thought it was funny!) Like the famous quote says: 'When the facts change, I change my mind, what do you do?'
In this week's SEN Update, you will find sections entitled:
I know how busy everyone always is, so please feel free just to read the sections that are of interest to you or read everything; the choice is always yours.
Don’t forget, to ensure that you never miss one, you can get my SEN Updates personally by completing your email details above,
or by following me on one of the social media platforms I use (i.e. Twitter/Facebook). You can also share this SEN Update with others (please only do so if it may be relevant to them) by using one of the icons, usually to the right or at the bottom of this page. 
'CATCH-UP' FUNDING/VACCINATIONS FOR CHILDREN & YOUNG PEOPLE
You'd have thought that with a shorter week because of the Bank Holiday and it also being half-term last week, that there wouldn't be too much for me to report for you this week? Wrong! There has been so much in the news in the past few days that I have again dedicated the first section of this SEN Update to a number of new articles about the issues of 'catch-up' funding/school recovery plans and also the issue of providing a Covid-19 vaccine now to children and young people. Rather than me telling you what has been happening, I will just provide the relevant links here below (I think the headline titles also speak for themselves): 'Catch-up' funding/school recovery plans: What students really want from school catch-up Teaching unions criticise plan to extend school day in England Pupils in England to be offered 100m hours of tuition in Covid catch-up plan Covid catch-up plan for England pupils ‘pitiful compared with other countries School catch-up tsar resigns over lack of funding Are school catch-up plans scuppered by resignation? Providing a Covid-19 vaccine to children and young people: India Covid variant spreading in England’s schools, data shows UK approves Pfizer jab for 12 to 15-year-olds The pros and cons of giving Covid vaccines to UK children School leaders say pupils should be vaccinated as matter of priority 
LONELY IN LOCKDOWN REPORT BY SIBS
I usually use these weekly updates to highlight for you the main things that I have found In the news in the past week, which may affect children and young people with SEN. However, once in a while, I see something else which is related that I also want to highlight for you, which I save to bring to you later. Well, today is one of those weeks, as today I want to highlight the organisation: 'Sibs', which provides a voice and support for siblings of children and young people with SEN, Sibs recently issued a report entitled: 'Lonely Lockdown. Life for siblings of disabled children in the UK', whose title I think also speaks for itself. It highlights the impact the latest lockdown has had on the health and wellbeing of siblings of disabled children. The relevant page on Sib's website says: 'Children and young people growing up with a disabled brother or sister often get less attention from parents and have more worries and responsibilities than their peers. Lockdown and the Covid-19 pandemic has created further isolation and challenges for this group of children and young people. Our last survey in May 2020 told us that life had been tough for siblings, and ten months on, we wanted to understand how this latest lockdown had impacted on siblings' health and wellbeing. Many siblings have also become young carers for the first time. "Lonely Lockdown" is a collaboration with UCL family researcher Dr Georgia Pavlopoulou. Sincere thanks to all parents who took the time to share their views with us. Key statistics revealed:
To read the full Lonely Lockdown report go here: Interesting. 
LATEST NEWS ONLINE
And here are the other news articles that I found of interest this week: A sacrificed generation’: psychological scars of Covid on young may have lasting impact Covid: Pupils fell behind again in second lockdown Labour flags concern over outsourcing of England catch-up tuition Tory group demands rethink on recovery plan for English schools Covid has eroded progress by disadvantaged pupils in England, finds study
Again, aside from clicking on the relevant links for more information, I would also remind you of the very useful resources and information provided on the following websites:
- IPSEA - Council for Disabled Children - Contact - Scope - Special Needs Jungle I would also highlight again the fact that you can now get a digital copy of the magazine: Autism Eye which is very helpful to any parents or professionals involved with children/young people with Autism. Keep safe until next week. With best wishes Douglas 
P.S. I understand that there are many educational items, news articles, or other useful resources on the web, so I would be very grateful if you could let me know of any that you find that you think that others may find useful, so that I can direct people to them.
How useful do you find my SEN Updates?
Created with Quiz Maker
Douglas Silas,
Specialist SEN Solicitor 1st June 2021 
Don't let it sound like criticism...
It's very easy to criticise, isn't it? Sometimes, even if we really mean well when we say something, the other person who we are speaking to, may feel as though they or another person you have referred to, are still being criticised, directly or indirectly. I have actually noticed that a lot of criticism is delivered in an unconscious way much of the time. The person speaking does not think that they are being critical, but the person that they are speaking to, hears it that way, rightly or wrongly. In fact, I could spend a lot of time here discussing the intricacies of interpretation (I am a solicitor, aren't I!), but the simple truth is that, no matter that you may say something with no intention of meaning it to sound critical, another person may not take it that way and believe that you are criticising them or another. They may even take it worse than if they thought that you had criticised them directly, as they may then think even worse of you, because they may feel that you have tried to criticise in an indirect (at best) or underhand (at worst) way. As such, in my humble opinion, you should always first think before saying anything and, if you do choose to say something, you should then choose your words very carefully, knowing that they may be misinterpreted or misconstrued. And remember the wise saying: "If a child lives with criticism, he learns to condemn..."
In this week's SEN Update, you will find sections entitled:
I know how busy everyone always is, so please feel free just to read the sections that are of interest to you or read everything; the choice is always yours.
Don’t forget, to ensure that you never miss one, you can get my SEN Updates personally by completing your email details above,
or by following me on one of the social media platforms I use (i.e. Twitter/Facebook). You can also share this SEN Update with others (please only do so if it may be relevant to them) by using one of the icons, usually to the right or at the bottom of this page. 
YOU'RE SOMETIMES TOO YOUNG
For some years now there has been ongoing debate about whether summer-born children should be allowed to delay the year of their admission to primary/infants school. This week, the Department for Education released a report entitled: 'Delayed school admissions for summer born pupils (2020)', which comprised of surveys of local authorities and of parents and carers of summer-born children requesting delayed admission to reception. The report's summary states: "This report provides findings from 2 surveys designed to understand:
This research provides an update to research published in 2018 and 2019, providing trends in the number of requests received since 2016. Guidance on school admissions for summer born pupils is available." You can read the full report here. 
PARENT'S SURVEY
Although I drew attention last week to a news article about it, this week I want to highlight another report, the parent's survey conducted by the 'Disabled Children’s Partnership', entitled: 'No End In Sight'. The summary on their website says: "On 14 May, we published the findings of the third survey of our “Parent Panel” on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on their families. Our report reveals that, despite the easing of lockdown restrictions, a high proportion of disabled children and their families are still experiencing severe levels of social isolation. Although there has been some improvement for families in terms of accessing support via school or the health service, the difference between current and pre-pandemic levels of support is vast. More than half of families are unable to access therapies vital for their disability. Sixty percent are experiencing delays and challenges with accessing the health service appointments they need. These figures in isolation are concerning, but to an even greater extent alarming when considered in context. A large proportion of families with disabled children have multiple diagnosis culminating in multiple appointments with a variety of services. Lack of support and its impact on parents’ mental wellbeing has been well documented in our two previous survey reports. This survey confirms that anxiety, stress and mental wellbeing levels experienced by our panel are significantly worse than the general population. Consecutive surveys demonstrate that this is an ongoing problem for families rather than a short-term response to the events of the pandemic. The lack of access to multiple services across education and health has been detrimental to the mental health of parents as carers, with their disabled children and wider family persistently isolated. Disabled children and their families are at risk of developing additional long-term health problems, ultimately culminating in adverse outcomes for their future goals and aspirations." You can read the full report here. 
LATEST NEWS ONLINE
And here are the other news articles that I found of interest this week: Abuse helpline takes hundreds of calls, says NSPCC Teachers 'struggle to deal with classroom sexual abuse' DfE had no plan for dealing with a pandemic, says critical report by MPs Ministers urged to release data on Covid variants in English schools Longer school hours won’t plug Covid learning gaps, says Cambridge academic
Again, aside from clicking on the relevant links for more information, I would also remind you of the very useful resources and information provided on the following websites:
- IPSEA - Council for Disabled Children - Contact - Scope - Special Needs Jungle I would also highlight again the fact that you can now get a digital copy of the magazine: Autism Eye which is very helpful to any parents or professionals involved with children/young people with Autism. Keep safe until next week. With best wishes Douglas 
P.S I understand that there are many educational items, news articles, or other useful resources on the web, so I would be very grateful if you could let me know of any that you find that you think that others may find useful, so that I can direct people to them.
How useful do you find my SEN Updates?
Created with Quiz Maker
Douglas Silas,
Specialist SEN Solicitor 24th May 2021 
Give yourself time to panic…
That probably seems a bit of a strange thing for me to say, but please bear with me and hopefully things will make sense to you when I have finished! We are all human and things do not always go the way we have planned them to. This may be because of a genuine mistake that we or someone else has made, that could or should have been foreseen, or it may be because of a genuine accident, that nobody could have foreseen. But it is no good at these times for someone (even yourself) to tell you not to panic - that is a completely unnatural reaction or instinct for most people. So, unless you are very experienced and have been through the same or a similar situation before; or are that character in a movie or TV show you saw once, that is always very cool in a crisis, you will panic. (N.B. please note that this is not usually real life and just comes from somebody's imagination as a scriptwriter). But, although we usually panic when something goes wrong, it is about how we then deal with that panic that is important. As I say, there is no good saying don't panic, as we respond with 'fight', 'flight' or 'freeze'. Human nature usually dictates that when we panic, we try to do something quickly to try and stop things before they get any worse. But that often actually makes things harder to come back from than they were before (remember the phrase: 'Be careful what you wish for'). In my view, the best way of handing a crisis is just to accept that you are going to panic and therefore be realistic and give yourself the time to panic. As a result, this additional time (it doesn't have to be for very long) will then give you the space to calm yourself, to look at things as objectively as possible and then to work out the best thing for you to do to resolve the situation as best you can. In fact, that extra time may even be enough time for the crisis to resolve itself naturally. Also, remember to narrow your vision, so that you only focus and concentrate on the thing or things that you need to do and, if you determine that things are going to take more time to sort out, explain what is happening to other people so that they know what you are going through and how long it may take. You may be surprised at how understanding people may be. It's always better also if you can share your crisis with somebody else since, as many people often say, a problem shared is a problem halved. To sum it up, when something bad or unforeseen happens to you, give yourself time to panic and to focus on the problem, then work out what you need to do, then do it!
In this week's SEN Update, you will find sections entitled:
I know how busy everyone always is, so please feel free just to read the sections that are of interest to you or read everything; the choice is always yours.
Don’t forget, to ensure that you never miss one, you can get my SEN Updates personally by completing your email details above,
or by following me on one of the social media platforms I use (i.e. Twitter/Facebook). You can also share this SEN Update with others (please only do so if it may be relevant to them) by using one of the icons, usually to the right or at the bottom of this page. 
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Things were a bit quieter again on the SEN front in the news this week, although there was a bit of discussion/criticism of a few things, which gives food for thought. Although I will direct you as usual below to some other stories in the news online that I found of interest, I thought that I would first also highlight a few of these things here, which I think are also worth taking the time to read: Ofqual: bias against disadvantaged and SEN pupils ‘common’ in assessments Give struggling pupils four years to retake GCSEs, says catch-up tsar Focus on preschools during Covid recovery, UK ministers urged Teachers' grades biased to more 'agreeable' pupils Gavin Williamson to face legal challenges over claims children denied Right to Education during lockdown 
THE AUTISM SHOW
One of the things I used to do when writing these SEN Updates termly/half-termly, was to try and look ahead to forthcoming SEN events. Although, during the past year or so, most 'in-person' events have gone 'online' (usually successfully), with all the Covid-19 related news, I think that I may have overlooked a few things. If so, please accept my genuine apologies. But, in this week's update, I thought that I would draw your attention again to the forthcoming 'The Autism Show' webinar week that is taking place on 14th – 19th June 2021, which says on their website: 'Welcome to The Autism Show: Webinar Week An online learning series: In partnership with the National Autistic Society. The Autism Show has gone digital again to offer you over 30 hours of new online learning, designed to make a positive difference to the autistic children and adults you care for, support or teach. Over six days in June, you will have the opportunity to watch a huge range of webinars live streamed from across the UK and beyond. Our webinars will provide you with the latest autism news and views, practical strategies and approaches, and direct insights from adults on the spectrum. You’ll be able to learn from the experiences of other attendees and have the opportunity to quiz the speakers for personalised advice via the in-webinar chat box. Your ticket also includes 30 day access to stream recordings of all the week’s webinars, so you don’t need to worry about missing any and can watch when it’s most convenient to you. Plus, you can watch a whole host of additional pre-recorded webinars from a selection of autism specialist suppliers. In this, our 11th year, we are particularly excited by our world renowned speaker line-up which includes Dr Temple Grandin, Dr Peter Vermeulen, Carol Gray and Dr Wenn Lawson.' You can find out more and book tickets here: The Autism Show. 
LATEST NEWS ONLINE
And here are the other news articles that I found of interest: Why Ofsted is wrong about TA support for SEND pupils SEND education in crisis as Ofsted and Observer highlight provision and budget shortfalls of over £0.5 billion Ofsted: 9 in 10 parents say their child’s school handled Covid well ASCL comments on Ofsted Parents Survey for 2021 No 10 ‘tried to block’ data on spread of new Covid variant in English schools
Again, aside from clicking on the relevant links for more information, I would also remind you of the very useful resources and information provided on the following websites:
- IPSEA - Council for Disabled Children - Contact - Scope - Special Needs Jungle I would also highlight again the fact that you can now get a digital copy of the magazine: Autism Eye which is very helpful to any parents or professionals involved with children/young people with Autism. Keep safe until next week. With best wishes Douglas. 
P.S I understand that there are many educational items, news articles, or other useful resources on the web, so I would be very grateful if you could let me know of any that you find that you think that others may find useful, so that I can direct people to them.
How useful do you find my SEN Updates?
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Douglas Silas,
Specialist SEN Solicitor 17th May 2021 
Don’t offer your advice unless you’re specifically asked for it…
Unfortunately, how often does someone tell us about a problem that they are having, or we find ourselves discussing something that has caught our attention in the news, do we start to offer our perspective or advice, without being asked for it. This often makes a difficult situation much worse than it has to be; for example, because the other person was just wanting to get something off their chest and confide in us, or because the difficult situation that we have identified is actually a very complicated one and our simplistic and often ill-thought out answer is way off the mark, as it only sees things from one perspective. Things are not always what they seem, or just because you haven't seen something, doesn't mean that it hasn't happened. Or you can be interpreted as taking sides if there is an argument, which might well curry favour with the person you seem to be siding with, but may then lose you all credibility with the person on the other side of the argument, or other people who are watching from the sidelines. There will be a perception of 'bias'. I see this all the time I'm afraid, from my position as a lawyer, as there is often not just one 'right' and one 'wrong' in a given situation, but many people on opposite asides of an issue can be both right and wrong on many things (and sometimes even the same thing) at the same time! But, what I really want to highlight for you today, is the need for you not to feel that you have to offer your advice in every situation, unless you are specifically asked for it. Even then, you need to still first look at things from as many different perspectives as you can, before saying anything. In fact, the less you say sometimes, the better, as the more you say, the more it can be interpreted differently to how you meant it, especially if what you say is taken out of context, or another meaning projected onto it. So, as I say, be careful and only offer your advice if you are specifically asked for it.
In this week's SEN Update, you will find sections entitled:
I know how busy everyone always is, so please feel free just to read the sections that are of interest to you or read everything; the choice is always yours.
Don’t forget, to ensure that you never miss one, you can get my SEN Updates personally by completing your email details above,
or by following me on one of the social media platforms I use (i.e. Twitter/Facebook). You can also share this SEN Update with others (please only do so if it may be relevant to them) by using one of the icons, usually to the right or at the bottom of this page. 
SEND REPORTS
I am going to cheat a little this week, by slipping two things into the first section of this update! One is new, but one is about a month old, but is still worth highlighting. The new thing is a press release issued by Ofsted, entitled: 'Some pupils with SEND missing out on specialist support': "A new research report shows that some pupils with SEND in mainstream schools are not getting enough help to support their learning and development. Some pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) in mainstream schools are not getting enough help to support their learning and development, even when external services are involved, according to a new research report by Ofsted. Read the Supporting SEND report. Published today, the study finds that specialist support from multi-agency services often complements the support offered by schools. Although families and school staff value this external support, it is not always timely or implemented appropriately. Many of the schools and families participating in the research had experienced long wait times and high levels of bureaucracy in the education, health and care (EHC) plan process. In some instances, families were commissioning or paying for additional services themselves. This suggests that the playing field is not level for pupils from poorer backgrounds. Through different case studies, the research identifies important issues that influence how in-school support, therapies and other multi-agency services are provided for pupils with SEND. The findings include the following." The other (not so new) thing that I want to refer to is the report entitled: "Forgotten. Left behind. Overlooked." where the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) recently reported on experiences of young people with SEND. The best summary I have found is on nasen's website, which reads: "The All Party Parliamentary group for SEND have issued their report into the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on educational transitions for young people with SEND. The group collated input from oral evidence meetings and written evidence around young people’s mental health and wellbeing and learning. It is quite challenging reading and has shone a spotlight on some of the inequalities within the education system and how Covid-19 amplified these and left young people with SEND feeling like an ‘afterthought’. The key findings are:
You can read the full report for yourself here. 
UPDATED COVID-19 GUIDANCE
I received another email this week from the SEND Division at the Department of Education (DfE), entitled: 'Updated Guidance for SEND and Specialist Settings', which said: "Dear colleagues, Guidance updates Following the Prime Minister’s statement yesterday regarding the further easing of lockdown restrictions from the 17 May, we have updated our SEND and specialist settings - additional operational guidance: COVID-19. This guidance should be read alongside the main pieces of guidance for schools and post-16: Schools COVID-19 operational guidance and Further education COVID-19 operational guidance, which have also been updated to reflect the upcoming changes. Also updated yesterday was the guidance for Early years and childcare providers, Out of school settings and higher education providers The key changes within the SEND guidance are:
Please see the guidance on the COVID-19 response – Spring 2021 (Roadmap) for additional information. PPE Portal All Special Schools in England are eligible to access the personal protective equipment (PPE) portal provided by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). The PPE portal allows eligible providers to order free PPE on a weekly basis for their Coronavirus (COVID-19) PPE requirements. Since January 2020, all special schools will have received an email asking them to register with the PPE portal. Those who have not registered will shortly receive another email invitation from ppeportal.queries@unipart.com. This email invitation will be sent to the email address which your setting used to register with the DfE Get Information About Schools Database. This is the only email address which is eligible to register. Please ensure that you have checked your junk folder. If you have not received the email invitation or would like to change your registered email address, please contact the Customer Service team at 0800 876 6802 who will be able to help support you in registering with the portal. All other settings should refer to the safe working in education, childcare and children’s social care settings guidance to understand how they can access PPE to meet their Covid needs. Many thanks Special Educational Needs and Disability Division" 
LATEST NEWS ONLINE
And here are the other news articles that I found of interest: Pupils in England ‘waiting up to five years for special needs plan’ Helping pupils in England catch up on lost learning will cost £13.5bn – report Councils in England facing funding gaps plan to cut special needs support
Again, aside from clicking on the relevant links for more information, I would also remind you of the very useful resources and information provided on the following websites:
- IPSEA - Council for Disabled Children - Contact - Scope - Special Needs Jungle I would also highlight again the fact that you can now get a digital copy of the magazine: Autism Eye which is very helpful to any parents or professionals involved with children/young people with Autism. Keep safe until next week. With best wishes Douglas. 
P.S I understand that there are many educational items, news articles, or other useful resources on the web, so I would be very grateful if you could let me know of any that you find that you think that others may find useful, so that I can direct people to them.
How useful do you find my SEN Updates?
Created with Quiz Maker
Douglas Silas,
Specialist SEN Solicitor 10th May 2021 
You can’t be good at everything...
Try as we might, we can never be good at everything we put our hand to. There will always be people who are better or worse than us at things and, so too, there will always be things that we are better or worse at than others. We just have to accept this fact, as to do otherwise will just infuriate us, since we will constantly be trying our best to achieve something all the time, but will then find, to our disappointment (and sometimes anger or despair), that somebody has got there before or after us. You will therefore always drive yourself crazy if you think like this - there is no clearer path to madness. So, through a process in life of 'hit and miss' we gradually need to work out what our strengths and weaknesses are and then play to our strengths and minimise our weaknesses. This doesn't mean that we should not still enjoy doing the things we may not be so good at, especially if they bring us pleasure, but we should recognise that we will probably not excel at them and then concentrate our time on things that we can do better. And the irony of all of this is often that, when other people tell us we cannot do something just because they may have seen us try and fail, perhaps a few times, it is sometimes the moment when we then become more determined to prove them wrong and usually ultimately succeed at the things they said we could never do! And a further irony is that we can then use the principles that we learn through these trials and tribulations of achieving this, to be successful at something else!! Yet, despite this, the initial principle usually remains the same - you cannot be good at everything and it is easier if we eventually accept this.
In this week's SEN Update, you will find sections entitled:
I know how busy everyone always is, so please feel free just to read the sections that are of interest to you or read everything; the choice is always yours.
Don’t forget, to ensure that you never miss one, you can get my SEN Updates personally by completing your email details above,
or by following me on one of the social media platforms I use (i.e. Twitter/Facebook). You can also share this SEN Update with others (please only do so if it may be relevant to them) by using one of the icons, usually to the right or at the bottom of this page. 
MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS WEEK
Thankfully, there was a fair bit of information I saw that I thought I would bring to people's attention this week. In fact, ironically, there was more this week than I could highlight in my first two sections, so I have put more links in the third section under 'Latest News Online'. In this first section, I want to highlight mental health again. I saw that it is 'Mental Health Awareness' this week. We are all very aware of the impact the pandemic this past year or so has had on the mental health of our children and young people. I then realised that, after looking, I had overlooked noting that 'Children's Mental Health Awareness' week was at the beginning of February! However, after some further research, I came across the website for the 'Mental Health Foundation' and there found a number of useful bits of information about 'Mental Health Awareness Week 2021', which the year's theme is 'Connect with Nature'. I found my way to a webpage where you can download a 'Connect with Nature School Pack', which says: "Connecting with nature in a great way you can help young people improve and maintain their mental health and wellbeing. Our ‘Mental Health in the Pandemic’ study found that going for walks outside was one of our top coping strategies and 45% of us said that being in green spaces was vital for looking after our mental health. The Mental Health Foundation’s Peer Education Project is a Secondary School-based project that gives older pupils the tools to deliver mental health lessons to younger pupils. The project has worked with pupils and staff from participating Secondary Schools to create the Connect with Nature School Pack, which is available for all schools across the UK. This school pack will provide the materials and resources needed to support pupils to connect with nature in a meaningful way. The pack is designed to be used in secondary schools, but it has lots of useful information for primary schools too. It is available in English and Welsh. The pack includes:
Hope this helps. 
AREA SEND INSPECTIONS AND OUTCOMES
This week Ofsted also published their official statistics on 'Main findings: area SEND inspections and outcomes in England as at 31 March 2021'. Obviously, you can click on the link if you want to read everything for yourself (there are a number of charts), but they also provide a helpful summary of things, which says: "This is the main findings report for the area special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) inspections and outcomes in England 2021 release. The following are also available:
This release contains:
lmpact of COVID-19 (coronavirus) On 17 March 2020, all routine Ofsted inspections were suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, we suspended area SEND inspections and re-visits to local areas that had been required to produce a written statement of action (WSoA). We have included all reports published by 31 March 2021 in this release. Between October 2020 and March 2021, Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) carried out a series of interim area SEND visits, visiting 10 local areas across the country. Participating local areas will remain anonymous, but learning has been shared in several thematic national reports. Main findings Since 2016, Ofsted and the CQC have carried out joint inspections of SEND arrangements in 116 of the 151 local areas across England. Just over half (59 out of 116) of the areas inspected have been required to produce and submit a WSoA to Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector (HMCI). This is an indication of significant weaknesses in the local areas’ SEND arrangements. The proportion of local areas required to produce a WSoA varies across the country. At a regional level, the proportion of local areas with a WSoA ranges from 1 in 4 in London, to more than 4 out of 5 in the East of England. Inspection outcomes have not varied much in the last 3 years. Relatively similar proportions of local areas have been required to produce a WSoA each year, from just over half to under two thirds. Twenty-one local areas have received a re-visit. Inspectors determined that 9 local areas were making sufficient progress in addressing all the significant weaknesses identified during their initial inspection." 
LATEST NEWS ONLINE
And here are the news articles that I found of interest: Call for masks to remain compulsory in England’s schools Popularity at school linked to age position in class – study Secondary school pupils no longer advised to wear masks in class, Williamson confirms Autism more common in children in England than previously thought – study Pupils should keep wearing masks into the summer, Sage told ministers Covid: Poor pupils fall further behind in maths Infection rates dropping in schools: What does the latest data show
Again, aside from clicking on the relevant links for more information, I would also remind you of the very useful resources and information provided on the following websites:
- IPSEA - Council for Disabled Children - Contact - Scope - Special Needs Jungle I would also highlight again the fact that you can now get a digital copy of the magazine: Autism Eye which is very helpful to any parents or professionals involved with children/young people with Autism. Keep safe until next week. With best wishes Douglas 
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Douglas Silas,
Specialist SEN Solicitor 4th May 2021 
You can't finish something until you start it...
We too often (and too easily) fantasise in our minds about how good something is going to be after we finish it, that we sometimes actually forget to start it in the first place! We then find when we eventually do, that it is by then too late to do everything that we wanted to, or in the way that we wanted to do it, so we then find ourselves with our backs up against the wall, trying to meet a deadline. Actually, I'm not against deadlines - in fact, I think that deadlines are good things. Setting yourself self-imposed deadlines is also important if you really want to get something done. I remember reading once a quote from somebody successful saying that they did not need more time, they needed a deadline! In fact, setting yourself a deadline is especially good where you tell another person (or other people) publicly about it. This is because you are then ultimately accountable to them and so will do whatever you can not to let them down. People say that it's very easy to let yourself down, but it's much harder to let another person down. To meet deadlines properly, you always need to start something as early as possible, workout properly what you have to do, create a timeline and then try and stick to it. You then constantly need to prioritise and re-prioritise, as things usually never go the way you planned. So always build in a little extra time for yourself to do things. Finally, you should always break big tasks down into lots of little ones and do them (successfully) one at a time. You will be amazed later to then look back and see how much you have achieved by doing things in this way, expending much less effort than you had at first thought the overall job would take. But like so many things - you will have to first try to do things in this way and be prepared to fail a few times but be willing to learn from your mistakes, before you will see that it actually works Go on, try it!
In this week's SEN Update, you will find sections entitled:
I know how busy everyone always is, so please feel free just to read the sections that are of interest to you or read everything; the choice is always yours.
Don’t forget, to ensure that you never miss one, you can get my SEN Updates personally by completing your email details above,
or by following me on one of the social media platforms I use (i.e. Twitter/Facebook). You can also share this SEN Update with others (please only do so if it may be relevant to them) by using one of the icons, usually to the right or at the bottom of this page. 
YOU CAN END UP IN A DIFFERENT PLACE TO WHERE YOU STARTED
When I started writing this first section, I was intending to share with you an article I had seen on the Council for Disabled Children's website. However, whilst then trying to find the original source of the writing, I found myself reading a number of things on the Department for Education's 'blog' called: 'The Education Hub', with recently published articles entitled: We're making school uniforms more affordable - here's what you need to know Everything you need to know about summer schools What you need to know about Primary School National Offer Day So, I have first provided the above links to the articles, which you may find useful. 
BUT YOU CAN AWAYS GO BACK AGAIN
As I say, I was at first going to share with you an article I had seen on the Council for Disabled Children's website, entitled: 'Minister Ford Publishes Blog on Her Visit to Special Schools and the Impact of the Pandemic on Children and Families',. It reports on the writings from Vicky Ford MP, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families, about her visits to Special Schools during the pandemic. But just because it didn't make it to the first section, I'm still including it here, so you can still read it for yourself if you want to. 
LATEST NEWS ONLINE
There was actually quite a lot of news of interest this week. Here are the news articles that I found useful: Lockdowns hurt child speech and language skills - report Autistic teens face 'barbaric' treatment, parents tell MPs NSPCC child abuse helpline has record call numbers in pandemic Labour says catch-up scheme ‘failing’ as tuition reaches only 1% of pupils in England Ministers urged to ‘come clean’ over pupil funding changes in England Schools struggling to access tutoring programme for disadvantaged children
Again, aside from clicking on the relevant links for more information, I would also remind you of the very useful resources and information provided on the following websites:
- IPSEA - Council for Disabled Children - Contact - Scope - Special Needs Jungle I would also highlight again the fact that you can now get a digital copy of the magazine: Autism Eye which is very helpful to any parents or professionals involved with children/young people with Autism. Keep safe until next week. With best wishes Douglas 
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Douglas Silas,
Specialist SEN Solicitor 26th April 2021 
Don't draw attention to a mistake…
That's another thing I like to say to people regularly. It's so normal for people to want to tell someone something that they have done wrong when they do not actually need to. Or they may feel it necessary to highlight when they have not got something quite right, or at least to their liking, but which the other person would not have noticed otherwise. Heaven forbid, if you interpret this as me suggesting that you should not tell the truth. That couldn't be farther from the truth itself of what I am saying (and be careful, as this probably says more about you then me)! But a lot of information does not need to be shared a lot of the time. In fact, it can actually be distracting and irrelevant most of the time. This principle applies to so many things, from what happens in the playground to what happens in the boardroom! Let me give you a very basic (and you may feel a bit of a trivial) example. You are speaking with someone face-to-face (either in person or over videoconference) one afternoon, after having lunch where you spilt a little something on your top. Don't then start the conversation by apologising for the stain, as the other person will then notice it, even though they may not have noticed it before; and they will keep noticing it when you are speaking with them. It is as though they will be unconsciously and magnetically drawn to it, even though they may not have noticed it before, if you had not brought it to their attention, and will just then serve as a distraction to what you are saying. Of course, if you do notice a small stain on somebody's top, they also would become distracted by it if you bring their attention to it, as they may have not noticed it before, but will then become distracted by it if you point it out to them. And the paradox to this is that, if somebody is compromised by having something on their face, for example (let's stay with the lunch theme analogy and say it is a bit of sauce or topping), then you should probably quietly point it out to them (not in earshot of others, so as not to embarrass them), otherwise they will feel mortified later to discover it for themselves looking in the mirror and realise that lots of people may have seen it and, like you, did not tell them about it. A hard one, isn't it? I guess that it will always depend on the specific circumstances and your relationship to the other person, as if you do point it out with the best of intentions, they may then think that you are belittling them. So, my best advice is to just always try and put yourself in their shoes and ask yourself, if it was you in their place, what would you want another person to do? Not a perfect answer, I know, but something to think about!
In this week's SEN Update, you will find sections entitled:
I know how busy everyone always is, so please feel free just to read the sections that are of interest to you or read everything; the choice is always yours.
Don’t forget, to ensure that you never miss one, you can get my SEN Updates personally by completing your email details above,
or by following me on one of the social media platforms I use (i.e. Twitter/Facebook). You can also share this SEN Update with others (please only do so if it may be relevant to them) by using one of the icons, usually to the right or at the bottom of this page. 
THE BIG ASK
Do you remember at around the time last year, when the first Covid-19 'lockdown' was still within its first few weeks? I recall that you couldn't move then for being bombarded with so much information on the internet, from Government guidance/new legislation, to many news stories in the media (both bad and good), to many educational and other resources being made available for free. Well, here we are a year on and, although it is clear that things have yet got back to 'normal' (whatever that is) and we may actually never do, there does not seem to be as much on the web that I consider important or interesting enough to share with you in these (now weekly) SEN Updates. One thing that did catch my eye though this week is the launch of 'The Big Ask' survey by the new Children's Commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza. If you go to the Children's Commissioner website, you are greeted by a welcome from her that reads: "Hi, my name is Rachel de Souza and I’m the Children’s Commissioner for England. My job is to speak up for children in England, stand up for their rights, and make sure that the people in power listen to what children need and want. It’s time to give something big back to young people like you after COVID — and we need your help to do it. This is the largest ever survey of children and young people in England. We’ll use what you tell us to show the government what you think, and what children need to live happier lives. This survey will only take you 5-10 minutes." The webpage then provides options for the following age groups:
There are also 'Easy read versions' of the survey available for the following age groups:
There is also a survey for 'Adults' (where the webpage says: "If you are aged 18+ and are a care leaver, parent, or you work with children please complete our adult survey to share your views.") Then, under a section entitled: 'Why you should take part', it says: "This is your chance to have your say on the things that matter to you. You can tell us what your life is like, what you want in the future, and anything you think is holding you back." Finally, there is a free 'Resources' section for teachers, youth groups and parents to help children complete the survey and a section on 'FAQs' as well. Important I think for as many children/young people to complete. 
SUPPORT FOR CHILDREN WITH SEND
This week there was also a Westminster Hall debate on support for children with SEND led by Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi MP. You can watch it here 
LATEST NEWS ONLINE
And here are the news articles that I found of interest this week: Big Ask: Children in England asked their hopes for post-Covid future Children ‘left behind’ in Covid-19 vaccination programme – JCVI expert Blended learning: How to make your resources accessible
Again, aside from clicking on the relevant links for more information, I would also remind you of the very useful resources and information provided on the following websites:
- IPSEA - Council for Disabled Children - Contact - Scope - Special Needs Jungle I would also highlight again the fact that you can now get a digital copy of the magazine: Autism Eye which is very helpful to any parents or professionals involved with children/young people with Autism. Keep safe until next week. With best wishes Douglas 
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Douglas Silas,
Specialist SEN Solicitor 19th April 2021 
Just because you can do something, doesn't mean that you should do it...
People say that this is sometimes better referred to as knowing the difference between the theory and the practice, or knowing when it is better to think something only and not say it. This latter principle is a favourite of mine and you will often hear me telling people that, although they can think something when speaking to someone, they should not always say it out loud, as if it is the wrong thing to say, it is now out there and they can never take it back, no matter how hard they try. This is especially true these days, when what you say can be so quickly amplified by social media - it can really have devastating and life-changing consequences for someone in just a short while. Too often, we just want to demonstrate to the world how clever we are because we can do or say this or that. But as I also often say, there is a difference between being clever and being wise. The clever person will want other people to know how clever they are, but the wise person will keep silent or not do anything, as they know that speaking or doing a lot is often not very wise in the long run. So, when you find yourself about to say or do something, stop yourself for just a second and internally ask yourself if you are only saying or doing it because you can and are really just trying to show other people how clever you are and the wisest thing is actually not to say it or do it. If you then don't say it or do it, just because you can, you may have just saved yourself from a difficult situation afterwards! In this week's SEN Update, you will find sections entitled:
I know how busy everyone always is, so please feel free just to read the sections that are of interest to you or read everything; the choice is always yours.
Don’t forget, to ensure that you never miss one, you can get my SEN Updates personally by completing your email details above,
or by following me on one of the social media platforms I use (i.e. Twitter/Facebook). You can also share this SEN Update with others (please only do so if it may be relevant to them) by using one of the icons, usually to the right or at the bottom of this page. 
NOTHING REALLY HAPPENS SOMETIMES
This is, for most people involved with schools/colleges (either directly or indirectly), the first day back after the break (yes, I know that many of you, like me, only really had the Bank Holiday weekend off!) Again (this is the third week), there has not been much to report on and the only thing that I think that is worth my bringing to your attention (aside from the new stories below) is the fact that the charity/organisation, IPSEA has dated its webpage entitled: 'IPSEA update on COVID-19 and SEN provision' that contains summaries of the current government advice. 
LATEST NEWS ONLINE
And here are the news articles that I found of interest this week: Covid: Colleges face losing tens of millions of pounds Government urged to scrap plans to assess youngest primary kids
Where can I find further information?
Again, aside from clicking on the relevant links for more information, I would also remind you of the very useful resources and information provided on the following websites: - IPSEA - Council for Disabled Children - Contact - Scope - Special Needs Jungle I would also highlight again the fact that you can now get a digital copy of the magazine: Autism Eye which is very helpful to any parents or professionals involved with children/young people with Autism. Keep safe until next week. With best wishes Douglas 
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Douglas Silas,
Specialist SEN Solicitor 12th April 2021 
Wasting time is not time wasted...
I can't claim that one! I think I read it on a poster I saw once and it resonated with me, like I hope it does for you too. Unfortunately, we always seem to be in such a hurry to do things and are constantly chasing our tails in the process, or we always seem to be internally telling ourselves that we cannot do this or that as we think of it as unproductive (or 'wasting time'), that we often convince ourselves that we will therefore be losing valuable time, where we could be doing something else more productive and worthwhile. Well, believe it or not, this is not true! That's because the time that we think we are wasting being unproductive actually usually helps us to relax and refresh ourselves. This, in turn, means that when we then return to doing the 'productive' thing that we were worried about losing time over, we can do it much more quickly and creatively, sometimes even in half the time that we would have taken to do it, if we hadn't taken a break to do something where we thought that we were wasting time! It's like not making yourself stay up at night to finish a piece of work, but instead stopping at an earlier hour (when you still have energy and can think more clearly to do this) and then, after getting a good night's sleep, coming back to it again afresh in the morning. You will really be amazed at how much quicker you can then do something and how much better it may also be. Go on try it. In this week's SEN Update, you will find sections entitled:
I know how busy everyone always is, so please feel free just to read the sections that are of interest to you or read everything; the choice is always yours.
Don’t forget, to ensure that you never miss one, you can get my SEN Updates personally by completing your email details above,
or by following me on one of the social media platforms I use (i.e. Twitter/Facebook). You can also share this SEN Update with others (please only do so if it may be relevant to them) by using one of the icons, usually to the right or at the bottom of this page. 
A QUIET WEEK AGAIN
Whenever I sit down to write my weekly SEN Update on a Sunday afternoon, I review what has happened in the news since my last update and then ask myself what information I can usefully pass on. But I'm afraid that again, like last week, it has been a bit of a quiet week, so I am just going to skip again to the news articles which I have found of interest (but you can ignore if they are not of interest to you). 
LATEST NEWS ONLINE
Here are the news articles that I found of interest: Secondary school pupils to keep wearing masks after Easter Schools 'a lifeline to many students' in past year' £280m for SEND school places and improvements Pupil premium changes: Useful or just more paperwork?
Where can I find further information?
Again, aside from clicking on the relevant links for more information, I would also remind you of the very useful resources and information provided on the following websites: - IPSEA - Council for Disabled Children - Contact - Scope - Special Needs Jungle I would also highlight again the fact that you can now get a digital copy of the magazine: Autism Eye which is very helpful to any parents or professionals involved with children/young people with Autism. Keep safe until next week. With best wishes Douglas 
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Douglas Silas,
Specialist SEN Solicitor 6th April 2021 
People say that you can get used to anything...
I guess the past year, with so many changes arising out of the Coronavirus pandemic, has proved this idea, with so may of us doing things so very differently to the way that we had ever imagined before. The saddest thing I have heard during this past year (but only after the personal stories of loss, which are all so really, really tragic to hear), is the story of the physically disabled university student, soon after the first lockdown, who said that she had been pleading with her university for many years to allow her access to her courses online, but they had consistently told her it was not possible. However, within just a few days after lockdown, the university had miraculously found a way to put, not only her course, but all courses online. This made her then sadly realise that it had always been possible, but they just did not want to make it accessible for her. Sad isn't it and makes you think doesn't it? The trick is now also not just to go back to our old ways of doing things, if we have found new ways now of doing things that are better for us and those around us in the long run. But also remember, it is very easy to change things when things change around us, but also for us to go back to old ways when things go back to what they were, so try not to just go back to old ways, if you have found better ways now. In this week's SEN Update, you will find information about:
I know how busy everyone always is, so please feel free just to read the sections that are of interest to you or read everything; the choice is always yours.
Don’t forget, to ensure that you never miss one, you can get my SEN Updates personally by completing your email details above,
or by following me on one of the social media platforms I use (i.e. Twitter/Facebook). You can also share this SEN Update with others (please only do so if it may be relevant to them) by using one of the icons, usually to the right or at the bottom of this page. 
WE ALL NEED A BIT OF QUIET TIME NOW AND THEN
I'm afraid that there doesn't seem to be a lot for me to talk to you about this week. I am also conscious that schools are now on their break and many parents/professionals may have their domestic responsibilities piled up on them. We all also need a bit of quiet time now and then. As such, I have decided to skip my normal three 'middle' three sections of my update this week and jump straight onto the new stories that I have found of interest. 
LATEST NEWS ONLINE
Here are the news articles that I have found of interest: Tackling sexual abuse not just for schools, say heads Everyone's Invited: Schools abuse helpline and review launched 'Inadequate funding' is school Covid risk, says union ADHD in girls: why aren’t schools spotting it? School moves are adding to children’s trauma, psychotherapist warns
Where can I find further information?
Again, aside from clicking on the relevant links for more information, I would also remind you of the very useful resources and information provided on the following websites: - IPSEA - Council for Disabled Children - Contact - Scope - Special Needs Jungle I would also highlight again the fact that you can now get a digital copy of the magazine: Autism Eye which is very helpful to any parents or professionals involved with children/young people with Autism. Keep safe until next week. With best wishes Douglas 
How useful do you find my SEN Updates?
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Douglas Silas, Specialist SEN Solicitor 29th March 2021  Hi Sometimes you can't do everything that you want to... I'm afraid that I have realised that I am going to be unable to get my 'SEN Update' to you this week. With a day off for religious reasons, a day-long hearing and another day off on Good Friday (as well as several other matters to deal with), I knew already last week that I would not have the time to do everything that I wanted to do, even if I tried. I actually wrote this last Wednesday - see, it pays to look ahead! Anyway, I have still included a cartoon for you as usual, which I hope you will enjoy. I will catch up with you I hope next week (although on Tuesday, because it is also Bank Holiday Monday next week). Hope that you have a good and productive week (you probably will also need to squeeze 5 days into less!) Keep safe. With best wishes Douglas  P.S I understand that there are many educational items, news articles, or other useful resources on the web, so I would be very grateful if you could let me know of any that you find that you think that others may find useful, so that I can direct people to them.
Douglas Silas,
Specialist SEN Solicitor 22nd March 2021 
You can see a lot when you just watch!
Seems really obvious doesn't it, but you will be surprised at how often we fail to notice what it right ahead of us and sometimes staring us in the face. And sometimes the reason we don't see things coming that we should do, is that we are usually too wrapped up in thinking our own thoughts, or spending our time telling other people what we think (whether or not they have asked us!) Another very common reason why we don't see things sometimes, is that we fail to spot patterns repeated by other people, or in repetitive situations. If we don't want to believe something, we often, subliminally, try to convince ourselves that what we are seeing is not really happening (or is not happening again). We don't see the patterns of behaviour at play. It is like we are sometimes in denial and do not want to unconsciously face up to the truth or reality. Yet, in the end we always try to comfort ourselves, by telling ourselves that, deep down, we always knew it and we should have trusted our gut instincts, or have people around us telling us (albeit with the best of intentions) that: "I told you so", which then just makes us feel even worse, or even more defensive. Again, it seems obvious, but we can often notice things if we just look at them more closely and think about them. Like someone once said (and apologies if you have heard another version of this before) - if it looks like a duck and it acts like a duck, it probably is a duck! In this week's SEN Update you will find information about:
I know how busy everyone always is, so please feel free just to read the sections that are of interest to you or read everything; the choice is always yours.
Don’t forget, to ensure that you never miss one, you can get my SEN Updates personally by completing your email details above,
or by following me on one of the social media platforms I use (i.e. Twitter/Facebook). You can also share this SEN Update with others (please only do so if it may be relevant to them) by using one of the icons, usually to the right or at the bottom of this page. 
NEW CHILDREN'S COMMISSIONER
After I said in my SEN Update at the beginning of last week that there was not a lot of news to report the week before, the past week has now made up for it with lots of news and articles! So today, although, as usual, I am going to still share a few new stories which I found of interest, in the third section of this update, I want to use the first two sections to look at some of those stories in more detail. The first bit of news I want to share with you is the appointment last week of Dame Rachel de Souza, as the new Children's Commissioner for England (I shared some departing words from her predecessor, Anne Longfield, a few weeks ago). Although widely covered in the media, I can do no better than to quote from the BBC's website article entitled: 'New children's commissioner pledges to 'rebuild' childhood', which said: 'The new children's commissioner for England wants to "rebuild childhood" after the disruption of the pandemic. Dame Rachel de Souza says the scale of the challenge is like reconstructing the social security system in the wake of World War Two. She also wants short-term measures - such as free school meals - being extended into the summer holidays, and not "dropping" Universal Credit levels. Dame Rachel says she will be "fearless" in representing children's interests. The new children's commissioner is launching what is claimed to be England's biggest survey of children - the "Big Ask" - which will gather children's views on the impact of the pandemic, and what they think are the barriers to children's ambitions 'Once in a generation' The online survey, to be sent to all schools and also children in youth custody, children's homes and mental health units, will provide information for a "once-in-a-generation" review of how children's lives might be improved. It takes its "spirit and the ambition" from William Beveridge's 1942 report, which laid the foundations for the post-war welfare state, identifying the five great challenges as "want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness". "Our response to the trauma of the Second World War was to create a blueprint for a social service system and a National Health Service that improved our lives. We have the chance to do the same again now for children," says the children's commissioner. Dame Rachel, who ran schools in Norfolk and Suffolk, wants a 10-year plan to emerge from her review - with the promise of tackling a political system which can "often short-change children". For more immediate challenges, on whether free school meals should run across the summer holidays, she told the BBC: "I absolutely want to see free school meals extended. "And I'm very concerned about suggestions of dropping Universal Credit. If it was dropped down again, I'd like to see services provided in its place, but I'd rather it wasn't dropped." A former teacher, head teacher and chief executive of a school academy trust, Dame Rachel promised to be an "independent voice, there to fight to protect and promote the rights of children". If government was "doing something wrong", she said, "I will be fearless in exposing that and challenging them". 840 million missed days in school The review will consider how children will recover from so much disrupted education - calculating that collectively pupils in England have lost 840 million days of in-person schooling since the start of the pandemic, representing about 19 weeks each. It will address the "social fault lines" and inequalities that have been exacerbated by the pandemic, between generations, the wealthy and the disadvantaged, by ethnicity and geography. This includes how the gulf between rich and poor and young and old has widened, with older, higher earners increasing their savings in the lockdown, while poorer families and younger people have faced job losses and increasingly fragile finances. Today's young people are the first post-war generation to be less well-off than their parents, says the report launching the children's commissioner's review. Catch-up funding "As we emerge from the Covid pandemic, this is the moment for something big, for children to recognise the sacrifices they have made," said Dame Rachel. "I have seen first-hand the effect of this crisis on young people's hopes and dreams, and sometimes our answers simply have not been good enough." Labour's Shadow Education Secretary Kate Green said: "Over the last decade the Conservatives have overseen record numbers of children being pushed into poverty, a worsening mental health crisis and an 18-month gap in learning between disadvantaged children and their peers at GCSE." A Department for Education spokeswoman said: "We know that children and families have faced unprecedented challenges during the pandemic. "We've expanded frontline charity support and provided new resources for schools and teachers to support children and young people's mental health. "Our £1.7bn investment in recovery support will help tackle the impact of any lost learning and we are investing an additional £79m to increase the number of mental health support teams working with schools and colleges."' There was also a video, which you may find of interest to watch... 
A NEW WAY FOR SEN?
The second bit of news that I want to share with you is an article written for TES by Heba Al-Jayoosie, who is assistant head (Inclusion) at Mayflower Primary School in London, entitled: 'Covid has opened teachers’ eyes to SEND possibilities'. I would usually just suggest you click the link to read it if you want to, but since it is so insightful, I thought I would quote from it here fully, as follows: 'The pandemic has been hard for everyone but, for many pupils with special educational needs and disability (SEND), and their families, the past year has been particularly challenging. Many of these families already felt marginalised and the sudden shift to remote learning exacerbated difficulties for some.But there were also pupils with SEND who adapted really well to the change, with schools demonstrating creativity and flexibility in meeting their unique needs. So, what has the past year taught us about effective SEND education? And how could this help us to change provision for good? Working collaboratively with families has always been crucial and the pandemic has highlighted just how important school-home collaboration is. In trying to plan any kind of provision for pupils with SEND during lockdown, schools needed to know each individual’s strengths and challenges, as well as the context of their family. SEND support This meant answering countless questions: is school or home more conducive to learning? What about the wellbeing of the child? What can the child do independently? How can we use the parent/carer strengths? What resources are needed? These are questions that continue to matter at all times, not just in the midst of a pandemic. And the solutions that schools devised during lockdown show how we can use such questions to tailor our support. Some children had home programmes that their families were able to help deliver and many schools were able to lend resources, including gym equipment. Interventions such as reading recovery, speech and language or occupational therapy are an essential part of provision for many, and teletherapy offered a successful way of delivering some of these remotely. Those who may have struggled with sensory overload in a regular class enjoyed learning from the comfort of home. The ability to take part in class discussions using the chat function helped many to make extended contributions (much more so than they may have made in class). Many teachers also planned specific online times for social connection, and the clear rules and codes of conduct were reassuring for some SEND students, particularly in comparison with a busy playground. Asynchronous online teaching also brought benefits, enabling students to repeat lessons as needed, as well as working to flexible deadlines, giving them more control of their day. While it might not be easy to replicate all of these benefits in the future, it certainly shows what can be achieved if we take a more flexible approach. Perhaps, for instance, a blended model combining in- and out-of- school learning will really become a feasible option for some pupils. The pandemic has forced us to rethink how we do things for pupils with SEND – and has given us fresh insight into what matters most for these pupils and their families. We’ve seen benefits and disadvantages, but there can be no denying that it has opened our eyes to what is possible. I hope that the biggest takeaway from this past year is that we can be more flexible than we used to be. As much as we all want things to return to normal, I’m hopeful that “normal” can become something better than it was before.' 
LATEST NEWS ONLINE
In terms of other news articles, here are the others I found of interest: - School attendance back at high levels in England - Schools Covid catch-up programme 'not reaching disadvantaged pupils' - Teachers face 'epidemic of demotivated children' - Families facing special education needs 'postcode lottery' - Pupils in England less likely to get special needs support in poorer areas
Where can I find further information?
Again, aside from clicking on the relevant links for more information, I would also remind you of the very useful resources and information provided on the following websites: - IPSEA - Council for Disabled Children - Contact - Scope - Special Needs Jungle I would also highlight again the fact that you can now get a digital copy of the magazine: Autism Eye which is very helpful to any parents or professionals involved with children/young people with Autism. Keep safe until next week. With best wishes Douglas 
P.S I understand that there are many educational items, news articles, or other useful resources on the web, so I would be very grateful if you could let me know of any that you find that you think that others may find useful, so that I can direct people to them.
How useful do you find my SEN Updates?
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Douglas Silas,
Specialist SEN Solicitor 15th March 2021 
Too often, I find that we wish for something, but when our fantasy becomes reality and we eventually get it, it then actually does not make us as happy as we thought it would.
In fact, sometimes when we get something that we previously wished for, it can actually make us unhappier than we were before (as our expectations have then been boosted unrealistically, so we then have farther then to come down)! We regularly let ourselves drift into fantasies in our minds, imagining that doing this or that, or getting this or that, will somehow magically take us away from our everyday realities. I am all for visualisation of success, but am always very clear to always point out to anyone who asks me that visualisation alone is not sufficient and you always need to also put in good old fashioned hard work behind the scenes constantly (and often for many months and years) perfecting a skill privately, before the rest of the world sees you succeed publicly; and even then you need to again concentrate on the next thing to achieve. Like I heard someone say once, everybody wants to succeed, but not everybody (often very few people in reality) are prepared to do what it takes to succeed! Unfortunately, our society seems to be fixated on so many things that aren't real - whether it is an everyday fear of missing out (FOMO), just because we think that other people are doing better than us in life (which is usually not the case in reality, as they are usually just good at giving others that impression, by hiding away their difficulties), or because we try to believe what we see on-screen or in the movies, where everything always seems to work out for the best in the end. But that is just fantasy, not reality. So, whilst I always encourage people to pursue their dreams, I need to warn you to also recognise when those dreams are just fantasy and will leave you ultimately disappointed. But please do not think that I am trying to burst anyone's bubble. The greatest achievements that have been made over many years and centuries have been by people who have usually been told by others that they cannot do this or that, but have ignored them, worked hard and usually failed many times, but have never given up. As I also heard someone say once, remember the person who gave up? No, no-one else does either! In this week's SEN Update you will find information about:
I know how busy everyone always is, so please feel free just to read the sections that are of interest to you or read everything; the choice is always yours.
Don’t forget, to ensure that you never miss one, you can get my SEN Updates personally by completing your email details above,
or by following me on one of the social media platforms I use (i.e. Twitter/Facebook). You can also share this SEN Update with others (please only do so if it may be relevant to them) by using one of the icons, usually to the right or at the bottom of this page. 
PART-TIME TIMETABLES
It's been bit of a slow week this week on the internet, with most people now focused on schools and colleges going back and so many parents and professionals trying to try and get back to some semblance of reality. As one of my friends also said to me, at this time last year, we were heading into our last week before the first 'lockdown'. Who could have known that the world could change so much? Anyway, rather than bombarding you with Government guidance again this week, I want to share with you a very good (previous) factsheet that I found, which is still quite relevant, that has been shared by the IASS (Information. Advice and Support Service network), entitled: ''Part-time timetables', which they described/tweeted as follows: "Here’s a factsheet about part-time timetables. It includes information relating to school attendance, reasons for giving a part-time timetable and examples of case law: http://bit.ly/PTFactsheet" I hope this is helpful. 
SEN MAGAZINE
This week I also want to highlight for you the good work that is done (and has been done for many years) by SEN magazine and direct you to their website: senmagazine.co.uk where you will find lots of interesting news, articles and information about SEN issues. Whilst you are there, you can also download a free trial of their magazine and sign up to their monthly SENExtra newsletter. 
LATEST NEWS ONLINE
As I say, it's been bit of a slow week this week, so I've only found a few news articles of interest: First day back at school has 'gone well', say heads Me and my neurodiverse family: ‘It’s chaotic, frenetic and hilarious’ Allow school trips in summer term, UK outdoor education centres say
Where can I find further information?
Again, aside from clicking on the relevant links for more information, I would also remind you of the very useful resources and information provided on the following websites: - IPSEA - Council for Disabled Children - Contact - Scope - Special Needs Jungle I would also highlight again the fact that you can now get a digital copy of the magazine: Autism Eye which is very helpful to any parents or professionals involved with children/young people with Autism. Keep safe until next week. With best wishes Douglas 
P.S I understand that there are always many educational/news items or other useful resources now on the web, so I would be very grateful if you could let me know of any that you find that you think that other people may find useful, so that I can direct people to it.
How useful do you find my SEN Updates?
Created with Quiz Maker
Douglas Silas,
Specialist SEN Solicitor 8th March 2021 
I often hear people saying that you can't do the wrong thing, if you try to do the right thing...
But this begs the question as to what the 'right' thing is, because what might feel 'right' to you, may feel 'wrong' to somebody else. Over the years, I have come to see that (apart from clearly 'wrong' acts, which greatly harm someone else), there is usually no one objective 'truth' in most situations, as two or more people usually just have their own 'truth', which then compete against each other, even where they may see exactly the same thing as one another. I guess we just have to always try and look as carefully as possible at any given situation, including through other people's eyes, before we determine what seems to us the right thing for us to do. We should also try to consider as many different perspectives as we can, before reaching any conclusion and acting accordingly. Hard I know isn't it? We are always in such a hurry in life and are therefore very quick to make assumptions or draw on our unconscious biases. Yet, when somebody does something differently to the way we would do it, or just has a different view from us, we are always very slow to let ourselves wonder if their way of doing things, or their view may actually be more 'right' than ours. So, always try to do what seems to be the right thing to do, but only after trying to see things from other people's perspective first. You don't have to always agree with them, but at least you will know in yourself (or you can later tell them) that you first looked at things also from their perspective, before you did anything. In this week's SEN Update you will find information about:
I know how busy everyone always is, so please feel free just to read the sections that are of interest to you or read everything; the choice is always yours.
Don’t forget, to ensure that you never miss one, you can get my SEN Updates personally by completing your email details above,
or by following me on one of the social media platforms I use (i.e. Twitter/Facebook). You can also share this SEN Update with others (please only do so if it may be relevant to them) by using one of the icons, usually to the right or at the bottom of this page. 
BACK FOR GOOD?
I was very taken by this and had a big smile on my face when watching it! I can do not better than to quote Sky News when it said: "A group of teachers have filmed a parody video ahead of the return of students to classrooms on Monday. Four teachers from The King's School in Rochester banded together for a lockdown version of the 1995 Take That hit Back For Good. It's sung by school principal Ben Charles, head of the preparatory school Tom Morgan, and Catherine Openshaw, headmistress of the nursery and pre-preparatory school. Chaplain Father Padfield also features in the video, which has been viewed over 1,000 times on YouTube. However, the usual lyrics have been changed to reflect the current pandemic. The trio sing: "Whatever we said, whatever we did, we've been through it, we just want you back for good." 
LATEST GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCEMENTS (AGAIN!)
Every Sunday afternoon now, I sit down at my computer to review the week's SEN/Education news, in order to prepare my SEN update, to go out on Monday morning. Although this week I am doing the same, this week feels a little bit different with many schools reopening physically on a part/full-time basis, after being closed and then open and then being open and then closed, albeit that there has been a lot of remote learning in-between for many children/young people. As I have said now many times, it feels a bit like the 'hokey-cokey' ("in, out, in out..."). Also, when I sit down, I have grown used to now first checking my emails from Friday evening, to see first if there is any latest news again from the Department for Education's (DfE's) SEND Division and, sure enough, there was once more. This week there was another letter from Vicky Ford MP, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families, which said: "Letter to parents and carers of children and young people with SEND, their families and those who support them. On Monday 22 February, the Prime Minister announced that all children and young people should attendtheir educational setting from the 8 March. Alongside this, the government published a document setting out the roadmap out of the current lockdown for England: COVID-19 Response - Spring 2021 - GOV.UK(www.gov.uk) and the Secretary of State wrote to all parents, carers and guardians (https://dfemedia.blog.gov.uk/2021/02/23/an-open-letter-from-education-secretary-gavin-williamson-to-parents-carers-and-guardians/). I am writing to you today to highlight key information and support which is provided for children and young people with SEND as they return to full attendance at schools and colleges. I want to start by thanking you all, as well as schools and colleges for your tremendous efforts in supporting the education, health andwellbeing of our children and young people during this current national lockdown. Over the past three months, I have undertaken a number of ‘virtual’ visits to special schools to hear from staff, children and young people with SEND about their experiences during the pandemic. It is abundantly clear that schools are absolutely committed to working with children, their families and specialist supportservices to ensure the continued delivery of high-quality education and support. In the next few weeks I will be writing a blog on the Council for Disabled Children’s website to review my experiences, so pleasekeep an eye out for that. Attendance at Education Settings From 8 March school attendance is mandatory again for all pupils and I strongly encourage you toensure that your children attend. I know that some of you will be feeling anxious about your children returning. If you have concerns you should discuss these with your school or college. Our guidance makes clear that schools and colleges should identify pupils and students who are reluctant or anxious about attending or who are at risk of disengagement and develop plans for re-engaging them. I know settings are working to ensure the smooth transition for all pupils and students back to the routines of in-school and in college learning. We have published a checklist to support staff in this which includes how to plan, communicate, be consistent, and how to support, monitor and improve, including for children with SEND. The link to the check list is here for your interest Checklist for school leaders to support fullopening: (publishing.service.gov.uk) It is possible that a small number of pupils and students will still be unable to attend school or college in line with public health advice to self-isolate because they: have symptoms or have had a positive test result; live with someone who has symptoms or has tested positive and are a household contact; are a close contact of someone who has coronavirus (COVID-19); or have been asked to shield by their GP or health professional. In the above circumstances schools and colleges are required to provide remote education for pupils and students. I recognise that some pupils and students with SEND may not be able to access remote education without adult support and so we expect schools and colleges to work with parents and carers on this. Further details on delivering remote education for children and young people with SEND is set out in Remote Education Good Practice If your child has been advised to shield because they are clinically extremely vulnerable, they shouldstay at home as much as possible until further notice and not attend their school or college. The current advice to shield will be reviewed soon and applies across the whole of England until at least the 31March. Public Health Advice I want to reassure you in regard to wider reopening that the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health has made clear that the overwhelming majority of children and young people with COVID-19 have either no symptoms or very mild illness. As new evidence or data emerges, we will update our advice accordingly to ensure that all our settingshave the right safety measures in place, which is known as the ‘system of controls’. We have developed the ‘system of controls’ measures with PHE for each of our settings. All settings must cover all elements ofthe ‘system of controls’, but the way the measures are implemented will differ based on their individual circumstances. The ‘system of controls’ measures outlined in our guidance (Safe working in education, childcare and children’s social care - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)) create an environment for children and staff where the risk of transmission of infection is substantially reduced. Set out below are some of the key elements, which I have covered in detail to reassure you of the measures being undertaken. Testing As you will be aware schools and colleges have been delivering rapid asymptomatic testing since the beginning of January. Rapid testing remains an important part of the government’s plan to suppress the virus, in education and childcare settings and across society and we are further expanding it. This sort of testing means that people who have COVID-19 but do not have any symptoms, who might otherwise continue to attend educational settings, can be identified and self-isolate. This helps to break chains oftransmission. I recognise that testing children and young people with more complex SEND can be distressing and challenging so we have given specialist settings greater flexibility to make reasonable adjustments when delivering testing. Mainstream schools and colleges should retain minimal testing capacity on site so they can offer testing to pupils and students who are unable to test themselves at home. Specialist settings should work with pupils and their families to agree the most appropriate way of them participating in twice-weekly testing. Please see the guidance for further information - Special schools and other specialist settings: coronavirus (COVID-19) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). To help you to support your child or young person to self-swab at home, this NHS video demonstrate how to carry out a testand a detailed How to Guide for home testing, is available. In addition, if you are a member of a household, childcare bubble or support bubble of staff or a pupil you can get a twice-weekly test. I would encourage you and your family to consider seriously taking up the regular testing on offer, as this is a way that you can help keep Covid out of our schools and protect all those in your school community. You can find out more on how to access this at Rapid lateral flow testing for households and bubbles of school pupils and staff - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). Furthermore, testing technology is developing all the time. We are continuing to explore other approaches to testing for children and young people who are unable to have a throat and/or nasal swab, such as saliva- basedtesting. Participation in the testing programme is voluntary. I want to provide reassurance that no child or young person should be tested unless informed consent has been given and the child and young person is willing to be tested. We’ve also made it clear to our schools and colleges that children and young people must still be able to attend even if they do not wish to be tested or are not able to be tested. However, I strongly encourage you and your children to take part if this is possible to help break the chains of transmission and manage the virus. These arrangements do not replace the current testing policy for those with symptoms. Anyone with symptoms (even if they recently had a negative test result via a rapid lateral flow device (LFD) test), should still self-isolate immediately according to stay-at-home government guidelines. Face Coverings Face coverings are really important, but we recognise that there are some SEND specific issues. We have published updated guidance for schools which includes a section on face coverings, which takes effect from 8 March. Further information can be found in Face coverings in education - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk), guidance for specialist settings and guidance for further education.There is separate guidance for early years and childcare providers and guidance for higher education. We have made it clear that some individuals are exempt from wearing face coverings. This applies to those who cannot put on, wear or remove a face covering because of a physical impairment or disability, illness or mental health difficulties. This also applies to those who speak to or provide help to someone who relies on lip reading, clear sound or facial expression to communicate. We have emphasised in our guidance that schools and colleges have duties to make reasonable adjustments for disabled children and youngpeople, to support them to access education successfully. Vaccinations The vaccine programme has made fantastic progress. As of 3 March 20,703,615 people have received their first dose. Phase 1 will capture all those over 50 years of age, and all those 16 years of age and over who are clinically extremely vulnerable or have certain underlying health conditions. This captures almost all preventable deaths from COVID-19 and will include thousands of staff in the education, childcare and children’s social care workforce as well as unpaid eligible carers who are in group 6. Moving forward, we aim to offer every adult aged 18 and over a first dose of the vaccine by 31 July. I strongly advise that people promptly take up the offer of vaccination when it is offered. This is the most effective way we can reduce the spread of this terrible virus. Education Recovery I recognise the impact of the pandemic on you and on children and young people. It is vital that we support children and young people to get back on track as soon as possible. As part of the announcements on education recovery made on 24 February, the new one-off £302 million Recovery Premium for state primary and secondary schools will build on the Pupil Premium to further support pupils who need it most,including those with SEND, in the 21/22 academic year. Additional weighting will be provided to eligible pupils in specialist settings, including special schools,alternative provision and hospital schools. Eligible pupils attending special units within mainstream schools will also attract the higher funding rate. In addition, mainstream schools, special schools and alternative provision (AP) will be able to access funding to provide summer schools, which will be able to target provision based on pupils’ needs, and theNational Tutoring Programme (NTP). Summer schools will not be mandatory, and it is up to individual schools to decide whether or not this is the best way to help support children and young people in their own community. Young people with SEND aged 19 to 24 who have an Education, Health and Care plan will be eligible for support via the 16 to 19 Tuition Fund, where they meet the fund criteria. Sir Kevan Collins has been appointed Education Recovery Commissioner to engage with parents, teachers, and education providers to review how evidence- based interventions can be used to address the impact the pandemic has had on learning. Sir Kevan will be advising the Secretary of State and the Prime Minister on a longer-term plan. Therapies On the issue of specialist support including therapies, we know that their delivery is an important part of what education settings offer to children with SEND. Guidance from NHS England to local commissioning bodies and health providers specifies that community health services that support children and young people with SEND (including therapy services) should continue to be prioritised. The redeployment ofAllied Health Professionals should therefore be avoided wherever possible. Our guidance for education settings confirms that specialists, therapists, clinicians, and other support staff for pupils with SEND can provide interventions as usual where this is reasonably necessary, including where this requires them to move between settings. In all circumstances, we encourage education settings to work collaboratively with local health services and families to ensure support can continue,even if this means some differences in delivery. Mental Health and Wellbeing I know that many of you have been very concerned about the mental health and wellbeing of your children throughout the pandemic. This is also something I am very focused on which is why we have worked with partners across the SEND sector to deliver training to the education workforce on supporting children and young people with SEND with their mental health and wellbeing. This includes funding the Whole School SEND consortium to deliver webinars on themes of wellbeing for pupils and staff, and funding the Autism Education Trust to develop a guidance and advice hub which includes guidance and tools on anxiety and wellbeing. We have also worked closely through Whole School SEND with the Association of Educational Psychologists (EPs) to produce a handbook for schools and education settings following critical incidents. A link to the handbook and related webinars is here: www.sendgateway.org.uk/resources/recovery-re-introduction-and-renewal-safe-and-successful-returns-school. To coincide with Children’s Mental HealthWeek (1 February), we published a blog, signposting schools to the range of mental health resources available to support children, young people, parents and staff. We have recently announced a £79 million boost to children and young people’s mental health support, including Mental Health Support Teams. Children and young people will benefit from significantly expanded mental health services as schools and colleges return, and the support teams – which provide early intervention on mental health and emotional wellbeing issues in schools and colleges – will grow from the 59 set up by last March to around 400 by April 2023. This national lockdown has been challenging for so many of us, but particularly for children and young people with SEND and their families. As we move to the next phase and recovery, engagement with you the families will remain a key part of our plans and I thank you for your continued engagement. Yours sincerely, Vicky Ford MP Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families" 
LATEST NEWS ONLINE
Finally, in terms of news, here's a few news articles that I found of interest: Special needs pupils in England living in dread of returning to the classroom Back to school: 'I'm ready for a coffee in peace' Covid: Parents worry about lost learning as schools reopen Enough of the ‘lost generation’. Instead, let’s reimagine school for our children Pupil wellbeing must be priority, teachers say as classrooms in England reopen
Where can I find further information?
Again, aside from clicking on the relevant links for more information, I would also remind you of the very useful resources and information provided on the following websites: - IPSEA - Council for Disabled Children - Contact - Scope - Special Needs Jungle I would also highlight again the fact that you can now get digital copies of the magazines: SEN Magazine and Autism Eye which are both very helpful to any parents or professionals involved with children/young people with SEN. Keep safe until next week. With best wishes Douglas 
P.S I understand that there are a number of educational or other useful resources now on the web, so I would be very grateful if you could let me know of any that you find that other people may find useful, so that I can direct people to it.
How useful do you find my SEN Updates?
Created with Quiz Maker
Douglas Silas,
Specialist SEN Solicitor 1st March 2021 
Too many people seem to not complete one thing before starting another...
Unfortunately, we have become overly fixated on the idea of multitasking, especially as smartphones/the internet have taken over more and more of our lives and constantly distract us. Once, we would start something and then finish it, before moving on to doing something else. However, too often I see people now (including myself) trying to start something else, before first completing the thing that we are doing. It doesn't take a genius to also work out that if you go on like this, you just end up with lots of things increasingly started but not yet completed. We are very good though at rationalising everything and convincing ourselves and others that we will be able to finish something off when we have more time - but the trouble is that we never then seem to be able to find more time! It's very dangerous also when we start to think like this, as the logical conclusion is that we just start amassing more and more jobs to finish, which then weigh us further and further down emotionally. We then feel more and more guilty about not doing them. This is especially the case if the things we need to finish off can be seen and then are staring us in the face to make us feel guilty. As people like to say: "out of sight, out of mind", but it really should be: "in sight, in mind!". So, it's really simple - just try and complete one thing before starting something else - you may find that doing things this way will then start to make life a bit easier for you.
In this week's SEN Update you will find information about:
I know how busy everyone always is, so please feel free just to read the sections that are of interest to you or read everything; the choice is always yours.
Don’t forget, to ensure that you never miss one, you can get my SEN Updates personally by completing your email details above,
or by following me on one of the social media platforms I use (i.e. Twitter/Facebook). You can also share this SEN Update with others (please only do so if it may be relevant to them) by using one of the icons, usually to the right or at the bottom of this page. 
I'm starting to expect this now most weeks and have also noticed that it now seems to be getting later on a Friday (I hope this doesn't carry on like this, as most people will have already switched off for the weekend and may not see this information till the start of the next week).
At 6.45pm this time (I can't even call that late on Friday afternoon, as it is more like Friday evening), I received the latest email bulletin from the Department for Education's (DfE's) SEND Division, this week entitled: "***SEND Newsflash*** Announcements & publications during w/c 22 February ", which said: "Dear colleagues, It has been a busy week, and there is a lot to take in! We thought it would be helpful to draw together the various announcements and publications into one bumper newsflash for ease of reference:
- Actions for early years and childcare providers during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak - Guidance for higher education providers - Coronavirus (COVID-19) contingency framework for education and childcare settings
- we published an Evidence summary: COVID-19 - children, young people and education settings - the Secretary of State wrote to education leaders setting out in more detail the plans to fully re-open schools. He also thanked leaders for their continued work and support during the latest lockdown. Leaders of special, special post-16 providers, and alternative provision schools were thanked in particular, for remaining fully open to children and young people with SEND.
- awarding qualifications in summer 2021 - making alternative arrangements for the award of VTQs and other general qualifications in 2021 Testing in specialist settings We have worked hard to give specialist settings additional flexibility on testing as attendance increases. For specialist settings this means:
A step-by-step guide to testing and frequently asked questions are available on the schools google drive. We will be publishing updated guidance on testing in specialist settings in the next week, the guidance will be published at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-for-full-opening-special-schools-and-other-specialist-settings/mass-asymptomatic-testing-in-specialist-settings Many thanks Special Educational Needs and Disability Division" There is more, so I have split this into two parts this week... 
...the email attached two things.
The first was entitled: "Message to education leaders from the Secretary of State for Education, Gavin Williamson" and said: "I would like to thank you for the huge effort that you have put in to provide remote and on-site education for pupils and students during these national restrictions, andindeed all of your hard work throughout the pandemic. I would particularly pay tribute to those leaders of special and alternative provision schools, and special post-16 providers, which have remained fully open to vulnerable children and young people throughout the latest lockdown. I recognise that this has been a verychallenging time. I am continually impressed with, and immensely grateful for, the tremendous work in ensuring that schools and colleges have been able to ensure children and young people continue to receive the best education possible. I am writing to set out in greater detail the easing of restrictions on face-to-faceteaching announced today. When the Prime Minister announced this lockdown, he was clear he would review the situation in mid-February and that the outcome of this review would be dependent upon the most vulnerable people being offered the first dose of the vaccine by 15 February, meaning they should have developed some immunity from the virus by about three weeks later, that is by 8 March. I am pleased to say that, thanks to the efforts of the NHS, volunteers and scientists, the Government has achieved this target and, following an in-depth analysis of the virus prevalence data, and the data on NHS capacity, both suggestthat infection rates have fallen across all ages, including in children and young people. Today, the Prime Minister set out the next phase of the Government’s response to coronavirus (COVID-19), including where restrictions on attendance at education settings can be lifted. The decision to ease restrictions is made on the balance of risk to public health and educational considerations. Return All schools, colleges and further education settings should allow full attendance from 8 March. Wraparound childcare, including childminders should also allow attendance for eligible children. School attendance will be mandatory for all pupils, with secondary schools and colleges able to phase return over the week of 8 March to allow students to be offered testing on return. The usual rules and duties around school attendance are in place from 8 March (including mandatory attendance). All schools should communicate expectations about regular attendance to pupils and parents. Schools should identify pupils at risk of disengagement and develop plans to re-engage them. Early years settings will continue to be open to all children, as they havethroughout the period of national restrictions. In further education settings, we expect that every 16 to 19 student (or 19 to 25 with an EHCP) will undertake the majority of their planned hours on site. For adults, as is best practice, further education providers should determine the appropriate balance of on-site and remote education and training, based on the type ofprogramme and the student’s ability to engage with the programme remotely. Higher education providers should recommence in-person teaching and learning from 8 March for students on practical or practice-based (including creative arts)courses who need access to specialist equipment and facilities. The Government will review, by the end of the Easter holidays, the options for timing of the return of remaining students. This review will take account of the latest data and will be a key part of the wider roadmap steps. Students and providers will be given a week’s notice ahead of anyfurther return. Based on the recent ONS data, the risks to education, childcare and HE staff aresimilar to those for most other occupations. Although the public health picture is improving, it remains crucial that steps are taken to reduce and mitigate any risks within education and childcare settings. DfE has worked closely with PHE to develop and refresh the system of controls to reduce the risk of transmission in education and childcare settings, based onscientific rationale. Rapid testingSince January, education leaders across schools, colleges and universities have been involved in a fantastic national effort to test their staff and students. Over 4 million tests have already been completed under your collective leadership and I would like to thank you for all the work you have done to set up the programme so far. Rapid testing will continue to remain a vital part of the Government’s plan to supress this virus, in education and childcare settings and across society. This sort of testing means that asymptomatic people who might otherwise continue to attend educational settings are identified and self-isolate. Twice-weekly asymptomatic testing is already available for secondary school, most college, primary school, special school, special post-16, school-based nursery and maintained nursery school workforce, including support staff such as teaching assistants and those supporting with wraparound childcare. Secondary schools and colleges have also been able to offer testing on return for their students, and we are now asking those leaders to put this in place for all students across the week of the 8 March as they return. Today, we have also announced the further expansion of this asymptomatic testing programme to include offering regular twice weekly testing of secondary school andcollege students at home, home based testing for secondary staff. Home testing willalso be available for Independent Training Providers and Adult and Community Learning Providers by the end of March. Rapid testing is already in place for those arriving or staying at university. We ask HE providers to offer two tests to all students eligible to attend their university or HE institution upon their return, and twice weekly asymptomatic testing to all students eligible to attend on-site, as well as providing testing for staff. All staff at private, voluntary and independent nurseries will have access to tests to use twice weekly at home, building on the testing already available to maintained nursery schools and school-based nurseries. Childminders can continue to accesscommunity testing, and the Department continues to work with colleagues across Government to review the testing approach available for childminders. Safety measures The return to on-site provision for all education, childcare and children’s social care settings will be supported by a range of actions designed to minimise the spread of coronavirus (COVID- 19). I know how hard you have all worked to implement thesemeasures and this continues to be vital. We have worked closely with PHE to develop and refresh the system of controls to reduce the risk of transmission in education and childcare settings, based on scientific rationale. The system of controls supports you to assess risk and implement measures to mitigate risk, including ventilating occupied spaces, introducing enhanced cleaning and retaining bubbles of students. We ask pupils, students and staff to continue to do everything they can to adhere to these measures, because it is vital that they are implemented well and consistently. In addition to the system of controls, where pupils in year 7 and above are educated, we recommend that face coverings should be worn by staff and pupils where social distancing cannot easily be maintained when moving around the premises outside of classrooms or teaching spaces, such as in corridors andcommunal areas. In the same settings for a limited period, we recommend the use of face coverings in classrooms and other teaching spaces, unless wearing a face covering would impact on the ability to take part in exercise or strenuous activity, for example in PE lessons, or for those who are exempt from wearing a face covering as set out in Government guidance. In primary schools and early years settings, face coverings should be worn by staff and adult visitors where social distancing between adults is not possible. Children in primary schools do not need to wear a face covering. Education recovery and qualifications I know you are completely aware that missing face-to-face education has severeimpacts for children and young people, with clear evidence that time out of face-to-face education is detrimental for cognitive and academic development, learning,health and wellbeing. That’s why the Government has been clear that restricting attendance in education settings was a last resort, and why education is being prioritised as we begin to ease restrictions. We will be setting out further measures for immediate support to children, early years settings, schools, colleges and local authorities later this week. I and Ofqual will also be setting out very soon further details of the alternative arrangements to exams. This follows the consultation which received over 100,000 responses, including from so many of you and your students. I am very pleased that we are able to return children and young people across England to their classrooms and colleges, to allow them to spend time with their friends and teachers and get back into the rhythms of the school or college year. Iwould like to thank you again for all the hard work you have done and continue to doto ensure that children and young people can return to face-to-face learning as smoothly as possible. The Rt Hon Gavin Williamson CBE MP Secretary of State for Education" The second attachment was entitled: 'Briefing Note for SEND stakeholders – Covid Recovery' and, in the interest of trying to keep this week's update shorter (it is already quite long as it is), although I'll include it here, please skip over it if it is of no interest to you...
The 'Briefing' said as follows:
"Briefing Note for SEND stakeholders – Covid Recovery As you will have seen, on 24 February, the government announced an additional £700m for a range of additional measures to give early years settings, schools, providers of 16-19 education – including specialist settings - and local authorities the tools they need to target support for all students. This builds on the £1 billion catch-up package announced in June 2020, and forms part of the wider response to help pupils make up their lost learning. Details of the package are set-out below. Recovery Premium A new one-off £302 million Recovery Premium for state primary and secondary schools will build on the Pupil Premium, to further support pupils who need it most. Schools have flexibility in how they choose to spend the premium. Primary schools will receive around £6,000 additional funding, and secondaries around £22,000 additional funding – bolstering summer provision for students. This funding can be used to lay onadditional clubs or activities or for other evidence-based approaches for supporting the mostdisadvantaged pupils, including those with special educational needs and disability (SEND), fromSeptember. The one-off Recovery Premium will be allocated to schools based on the same methodology as the pupil premium, including an additional weighting to specialist settings, recognising the significantly higher per pupil costs they face. Pupil premium eligible pupils in mainstream schools will attract £145 to their school and pupil premium eligible pupils in special schools, AP, hospital schools and special units in mainstream schools will attract £290 over the 2021/22 academic year. The Recovery Premium will be paid as a grant to all state-funded primary, secondary and special schoolsin England over the 2021/22 academic year. The timing of the payments will be confirmed shortly. Tutoring The announcement also confirmed £200 million (from the £300 million to expand successful tutoringprogrammes, announced by the Prime Minister in January), which will fund: An expansion of the National Tutoring Programme for primary and secondary schools, to allow more pupils to benefit from the power of regular tutoring which has been shown to boost catch-up learning by as much as 3-5 months. This will increase access to high-quality tuition for disadvantaged pupils, helping to accelerate their academic progress and tackling the attainmentgap between them and their peers. As with the current programme, we are committed to being as inclusive as possible by supplying suitable provision for supporting SEND pupils within all schools, including Special Schools. An extension of the 16-19 Tuition Fund for a further year to support more students in English, maths, and other vocational and academic subjects. Providers are asked to have regard to the needs of students with SEND when prioritising students that would benefit most for small group tuition. In line with usual 16-19 funding, children with SEND aged 19-24 who have an education, health and care plan will be eligible for the Tuition Fund where they meet the criteria. Adults are able to pause their learning where it has been significantly impacted by coronavirus and, in agreement with their provider, pick up from where they left off at a later date. Support for early language development in the early years, supporting a critical stage of childdevelopment. Summer Schools £200 million (including the final £100 million from the Prime Minister’s announcement) will be available to all secondary schools, including specialist settings, to deliver face-to-face summer schools. Schools will be able to target provision based on pupils’ needs but the government is suggesting they may want to initially target initially incoming year 7 pupils. This is alongside wider support funded through our Holiday Activities and Food Programme across the country. A range of high-quality online resources will be available for all teachers and pupils, starting from thesummer term and throughout summer holidays, will be provided by Oak National Academy, to help givepupils the confidence they are ready for the next academic year. The funding available for the summer schools programme supports a 2-week scheme for pupils most in need. The size and shape of the summer schools will be decided by school leaders who know best what a most effective summer school will look like for their pupils. We expect that most schools will want to offer a mix of academic, enrichment and pastoral activity to appeal to pupils and deliver the range of benefits that the evidence shows summer schools can deliver. Teachers will not be forced to do anything. Schools will need to determine how best to use the fundingand staff the scheme to ensure that the extra time is used effectively: teachers are best placed to deliver high quality educational content. Guidance will be published shortly. Next Steps Sir Kevan Collins has been appointed Education Recovery Commissioner to engage with parents, teachers, and education providers to review how evidence-based interventions can be used to address the impact the pandemic has had on learning. Sir Kevan will be advising the Secretary of State and thePrime Minister on a longer-term plan." 
Finally, in terms of news, here's a few news articles that I found of interest:
Covid tests and masks: School prepares for return to class Summer catch-up schools planned for pupils in England Doctors fear new child mental health crisis in UK, made worse by Covid Vulnerable children 'forgotten' in Covid vaccine rollout, say UK charities
Where can I find further information?
Again, aside from clicking on the relevant links for more information, I would also remind you of the very useful resources and information provided on the following websites: - IPSEA - Council for Disabled Children - Contact - Scope - Special Needs Jungle I would also highlight again the fact that you can now get digital copies of the magazines: SEN Magazine and Autism Eye which are both very helpful to any parents or professionals involved with children/young people with SEN. Keep safe until next week. With best wishes Douglas 
P.S I understand that there are a number of educational or other useful resources now on the web, so I would be very grateful if you could let me know of any that you find that other people may find useful, so that I can direct people to it.
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Douglas Silas,
Specialist SEN Solicitor 22nd February 2021 
I hope that many parents and teachers (or those who are both currently) managed to get a bit of a rest over this last week, if it was half-term break for you (I know that not everyone was off at the same time).
There always seems so much still to do though, so it's good therefore for us to stop once in a while and think about what we are doing, before we do it. We are usually so busy though trying to get through all the tasks on our lists everyday, that we often forget to first ask ourselves if the task we are doing is really necessary or not. And the reality is that few people ever really get to the end of their task list each day, which means that the remaining tasks are then just added onto our task list for tomorrow, which we will never get through again, so that the remaining tasks are then just added to our task list for the day after - it is a never ending cycle which will eventually just overwhelm us! So, try and stop for a minute first and think about what you are doing and the decide if it really needs to be done, or even if it can be done in a different way. Sometimes, when you stop and think about something you are going to do, you will be surprised to find that you may not have to do it, either now, later or at all. Go on, try it - you may find that you do not really have to do so much...
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I hope many parents and teachers have had a chance in the last week or so to take it a bit easier over the half-term break
I saw a tweet this week (again) from 'Contact' which I thought may be helpful to share here, which said: "Dreading the return to home schooling after this week's half-term break? We can help. With so many children struggling to adapt to #remotelearning, our Listening Ear team have put together some top tips to help you out. Check them out below" It then gave a link to a page called: 'Top tips for home schooling', which some parents may find useful. Hope this helps.
There were also a couple of interesting things I saw this week in respect of children and SEND provision.
The first was the final speech in post by Anne Longfield, Children’s Commissioner for England, entitled: 'Building back better', which said it was: '...a challenge to the Prime Minister to show he is serious about children by putting them at the heart of his post-Covid plans' and that warned: '...that the Prime Minister’s promise to ‘level up’ will be ‘just a slogan unless it focuses on children’. In the speech, Anne Longfield reflects on her six years as Children’s Commissioner and looks ahead to the challenges to childhood brought about by the pandemic. You can read the speech for yourself here, or you can watch a video of an interview with her about it here. --- The second thing that I saw was the report by Special Needs Jungle entitled: 'Provision denied', which said 'Children with SEND have had their needs and education “pushed to one side, for the convenience of the majority.”' and summarised itself as follows:
'Special Needs Jungle survey shows a widespread failure to restore disabled children’s SEND provision when children returned to school in the Autumn Term 2020.
45 recommendations sourced from parents' comments to put things right for disabled learners' educational support in 2021'
You can read it/about it again for yourself here.
Finally, in terms of news, it was a bit slow (I guess that some education journalists are parents too or also need a break!)
But still, here's a few news articles that I found of interest: Covid: Testing means 'staggered' school return, say heads Special needs pupils in England 'pushed to one side' in Covid crisis 'Reckless' if all pupils back 8 March, say teachers' unions
Where can I find further information?
Again, aside from clicking on the relevant links for more information, I would also remind you of the very useful resources and information provided on the following websites: - IPSEA - Council for Disabled Children - Contact - Scope - Special Needs Jungle I would also highlight again the fact that you can now get digital copies of the magazines: SEN Magazine and Autism Eye which are both very helpful to any parents or professionals involved with children/young people with SEN. Keep safe until next week. With best wishes Douglas 
P.S I understand that there are a number of educational or other useful resources now on the web, so I would be very grateful if you could let me know of any that you find that other people may find useful, so that I can direct people to it.
How useful do you find my SEN Updates?
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