These resources will be useful to senior leaders and managers who have overall responsibility for ensuring the inclusivity of their organisation and to managers of SEND provision.
The Children and Families Act 2014 places a duty on providers to co-operate with partners to meet the needs of young people with special educational needs. At the same time, services for those with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) are changing fast. Our free online Systems thinking for special needs course is designed to help you to rethink the way you work. To approach work from a systems perspective so that you can lead beyond your organisation through insightful collaborative working. To access the course you must register on Foundation Online Learning.
You will find more resources to support quality improvement of SEND provision below.
How well is your organisation meeting the SEND Reforms?
Use the Foundation's self-assessment tool to evaluate your organisation's practice in relation to the expectations of the SEND Code of Practice. The tool will enable you to undertake an in-depth evaluation, to start planning improvements and to generate key statements for your annual self-assessment report (SAR) or position statements. The Self-assessment tool is available on Foundation Online Learning; register to gain access.
This useful guide explains
the Further Education (FE) sector's provider types and qualification choices to anyone who is new to FE. A useful resource for those engaging school-leavers, adults returning to learning and new partnership organisations. Also useful for inclusion in initial teacher training provision and for newly recruited practitioners to gain a basic overview of the FE sector.
Co-creating the curriculum
is a great way to involve learners in deciding what to learn and how they might be taught. It can help you personalise study programmes, as well as providing an excellent context for helping learners with SEND to take more control over their lives as they practise making decisions and expressing preferences about their learning.
This toolkit has been designed to help curriculum managers and tutors in FE settings to explore co-creation, explain the concept to colleagues and engage their learners with SEND in co-creating their curriculum in a meaningful way.
Following an area based review for Norfolk and Suffolk which concluded colleges and the local authority could do more to work together with schools to anticipate the transition of you people with SEND from school to FE, the City College Norwich led a Foundation funded SEND Workforce development programme – Improving transition. The project bought together post 16 providers, schools and the council where they discussed challenges and recognised the need to share information sooner to enable learners to make informed decisions. They now have a transition framework in place for Norfolk. Watch the video to learn more.
Are you finding transition into FE is not as effective as you would like? Our SEND network meetings will be exploring the challenges and working towards solutions.
Learning support assistants (LSAs) are the most commonly used form of support in the FE sector – and the most expensive. That makes it especially important for providers to deploy LSAs efficiently and effectively, so that they have a positive impact on learner progress and independence.
We have put together an in-house development activity to help you consider how to make the most of the LSAs in your setting. The activity has been designed to be facilitated by managers with SEND responsibilities and undertaken by teams of tutors and LSAs working together. In the pack you will find facilitator notes, a presentation and a hand-out. Managers are advised to read through the facilitator notes for guidance on using these materials to set up and run an interactive CPD session for their team.
Manchester Metropolitan University has written a series of papers providing advice and guidance to senior managers in their journey towards or in sustaining inclusive provision when working with learners with SEND. A number of the papers highlight the need for effective partnership working: Organisational Structures to Support Inclusion and Organisational Arrangements for Working with a Local Authority For details about all nine papers, see the Background to the Resources paper.
The Building partnership guide 
produced by AoC in partnership with the Department for Education and the Local Government Association to help build relationships between colleges and local authorities when working with students with EHC plans who require high needs funding.
The Department for Education have published a new report, Work experience and vocational/technical provision for young people on SEN support: A rapid evidence assessment. The aim of the rapid evidence assessment was to identify evidence on the benefits (or otherwise) of work experience for these young people as they prepare to enter paid employment. The report highlights a number of principles of good practice for post-16 providers in finding work experience/placements for young people with less complex SEND.
The Leadership hub, funded by the Foundation, aims to create opportunities for current and aspiring leaders, working in the education and training sector, to develop professional relationships through which to share their expertise and experiences of leadership in education and training. Find out more by visiting the Leadership hub website.
Our News and Events page highlight events and courses relevant to the sector. And don't forget the Foundation's mainstream offer. Take a look on the Foundation's website for a range of courses to support teachers, leaders and managers across the FE and Skills sector.
Visit the Society for Education and Training (SET) website to find out how our professional membership body can support you in your role. You'll find a range of development opportunities including webinars releated to implementing the SEND reforms and inclusivity.
Are you looking for specific training in relation to SEND for your staff? As part of a mapping exercise of SEND CPD training and qualifications available from the Education and Training Foundation and a wide range of other organisations we have produced a SEND CPD Framework. The information is provided to raise awareness to the SEND workforce of the variety CPD opportunities available.
