Solihull’s inclusion charter

The draft inclusion charter is now out for sign off to parents groups, schools through collaborative groups, early years settings, local authority, health and social care colleagues. It will be finalised and published in December 2019. Work on Solihull’s SEND strategy will be based on the values of the inclusion charter and will commence in November 2019.

Speech and language strategy

Six schools have just completed the first year of the ELKLAN pilot. This is a joint project delivered by SISS and the speech and language therapy service (SALT) aimed at supporting schools to gain communication friendly status.

A huge well done to the 27 school and SISS ARC support staff who have worked hard to achieve their level 3 award in speech and language support for 5-11 year olds. Five of the six schools are now beginning their level 4 award to become accredited communication friendly schools by the end of this academic year.

In addition, for 2019/20 we are running a pilot with SALT for early years ELKLAN, supporting eight settings to become communication friendly.

The ELKLAN projects are the next phase of delivering Solihull’s speech and language strategy. Language link continues to be used successfully in most schools, with particular successes for the language link training with parents.

Policy work

We are working alongside colleagues form adult services and schools to produce a draft policy for provision of equipment and a corporate manual handling policy. Policies will be finalised by Easter 2020.

Solihull Council has been given the green light by the Department for Education to establish a special free school to support children with autism.

The new school, which is likely to be open in two years, will have up to 100 places for children and young people with autism aged between seven and 16 years old.  The Council’s preferred option is for a dual site school with locations in both the north and south of Solihull.

It will provide an outstanding education for pupils attending the school together with support for children with autism at mainstream schools through an assessment centre based at the new site.

Councillor Ken Meeson, Cabinet Member for Children, Education and Skills, said: “This is fantastic news for children and families across Solihull.  We know we have comparatively high rates of autism diagnosis in the borough.  This funding means we can take an important step in delivering the Council’s ambitious programme to provide an exceptional educational environment which fully understands and caters for the individual needs of children and young people with autism.

He continues: “For those pupils with more complex needs, creating a special free school will mean we can better meet current and future demand for places, whilst also extending local choice.

“On a practical level it also means we can educate more children and young people nearer to their homes.  Spending less time being transported to and from school means they should receive a better learning experience.”

In line with Department for Education guidance, the Council can now start advertising the opportunity for potential trusts to apply to establish the new school.  The specification has been published on Solgrid and can be seen by selecting this link.