Solihull Council supports schools with learning outside the classroom opportunities and arranging a wide range of out of school activities, e.g. visits to museums, trips to the countryside, taking part in adventurous activities and residential trips etc. In preparation for new visits in the autumn term, we wanted to take the opportunity of reminding schools of the information, guidance and support which is available to ensure that educational trips and visits are safely managed and continue to be successful learning opportunities.

The guidance includes some changes to the approval of visits from 1 September 2019 to help streamline the process in the planning of educational trips. Please ensure all relevant staff including senior leaders and educational visit coordinators are aware of this information.

The annual DSL conference days (8.30 am – 4 pm) are to be held at Sans Souci on Monday 30 September 2019, Monday 7 October 2019, and at Grace Academy on Thursday 24 October 2019.

The annual governor safeguarding conference is at Solihull School on Wednesday 9 October 2019 at 6.30 pm.

Please confirm which day you wish to attend to inset@solihull.gov.uk.

Thank you.

Lorraine Lord, Senior Education Safeguarding Officer

Dear Colleagues

We are delighted to announce the launch of Solihull’s quality assurance framework for alternative provision. It is designed to support schools, and other commissioners, in monitoring consistency and quality in off-site alternative provision for school-age pupils. It sets out the high expectations that Solihull has in relation to the quality of education that we seek and expect for our children and young people in alternative provision.

Schools, as the commissioners, are responsible for the pupils on their roll that they place in any alternative provision. It is, therefore, their responsibility to undertake the initial and subsequent regular checks to ensure that the provision is safe and suitable – including for each individual pupil.

Where the local authority (LA) is the commissioner and is responsible for the pupil, the LA will undertake the initial checks and continuous monitoring.

We expect any provider offering placements for Solihull pupils to meet the quality assurance expectations within this document. Providers, therefore, should expect regular monitoring, including visits.

This framework provides us all with a consistent approach to ensuring that our pupils in AP are safe, learning well, making good progress and having their needs met.

Please do contact us with any feedback about the framework: alternativeprovision@solihull.gov.uk

We will review the document regularly in light of your observations and comments so that the framework is consistently robust and helpful.

Thank you.