TSIL - frequently asked questions

Transforming SEND and Inclusion in Leicestershire, or TSIL as it has become known, is a piece of work which aims to improve the experience of children with special educational needs and disabilities.

The programme builds on work that’s already been done, takes into account the increasing demand for support, and the need to ensure children get the right support, at the right time, in the right place.

It's different from past work because there is a focus on all the organisations involved in supporting a child. This is sometimes called 'the system'.

Between December 2021 and March 2022 a review took place.

Over the summer of 2022, more data was analysed and we heard from people who have experience of services.

By October 2022, we'd held an engagement event and focus groups. We began to come together as 'design groups'.

By the end of 2022, we expect to have divided the work into chunks, known as 'workstreams'. Each design group will set their timescales and we'll put this on our website.

Yes. Cllr Deborah Taylor, who is the cabinet member for children and families, has attended several events.

Yes, and they are going to be involved in some of the design groups in future.

Each year, the government provides a grant to each council to fund school places for children with special educational needs and disabilities.

At the moment, Leicestershire is overspending this grant by around £10m every year.

Our aim over the next five years is to meet the needs of children fairly and bring our costs in line with the grant we receive.

Our aim is to reduce our spend so it’s in line with the government grant we receive to support children with special educational needs and disabilities.

There are strict rules about what the government grant can be used for. This includes specialist school places, support for high needs, services for pupils at risk of exclusion, some inclusion services and specialist teaching.

If we spend less than the grant we receive, this must be invested into services for children with SEND. It can’t be used on other council services.

All decisions made about a child’s provision, support, placement and EHCNAs should be done in a legally compliant way.

The program will seek advice from legal experts to support this aspect of the work.

One of our workstreams will be looking at the evidence for this. This is so that we can be confident that the money we spend is achieving outcomes for children.

We will be looking at a range of evidence, including:

• Special educational needs and disability: an analysis and summary of data sources (DfE)
• Special educational needs in mainstream schools – Guidance report (Education Endowment)
• Trends in spending for children and young people with SEND in England (LGA)
• Evidence of the link between inclusive education and social inclusion

Currently, 90% of what we spend to support high needs funds specialist placements and supporting SEN pupils in mainstream schools.

Last year, we spent more than the government grant by £10.8m.

National data shows that Leicestershire has high numbers of Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs), high spending, but low additional needs within the general population.

From mid-November, we’ll be contacting people who said they would be part of the design groups.

We aim to have all design groups set up by the end of 2022.

Health organisations and neighbouring councils joined us at our event on the 12 October.

We have a joint strategy and people working together on an action plan.

We are considering the priorities which were set out in the government’s green paper, much of which was based on research and best practice.

We are working with experts and using evidence to make improvements.

The previous work with Newton Europe was a first look at the opportunities. It’s been used to make the case for this dedicated programme.

Evidence from that first piece of work has also informed the Children and Families Overview and Scrutiny Committee report, published in September 2022.

Now that the TSIL programme is underway, data and analysis from the diagnostic, together with more up-to-date information, is being used to inform work. Some of this is being shared through engagement events, design group meetings and other communications.

We aim to address this in three ways:

1. Improving how processes are followed, decisions are made and feedback at individual case level
2. Ensuring people from across the partners are part of designing solutions
3. Keeping people informed about the programme progress.

We have the below list of case workers. We do our best to update this with any changes that are made.

SENA casework directory 2022

You can also use this list of email contact details to contact the SENA service.

We are finalising some technical issues and working through some information governance arrangements, but we will soon be able to start testing Synergy through some pilots before the end of 2022.

There will be further updates made available.

Leicestershire’s Local Offer - contact the SENA service

Special Educational Needs and Disability Information, Advice and Support Service (SENDIASS)

Leicestershire SEND Hub led by parent carers.

In February 2020, Leicestershire’s Ofsted report identified two areas to improve.

This programme isn’t only focused on these areas, but the work we do will contribute to improvements.

Leicestershire has:

• Five area special schools
• Three additional special schools focusing on communication and interaction / social emotional and mental health
• 31 specialist enhanced resource bases attached to mainstream schools (three attached to special schools)
• Four specialist nurseries

Leicestershire also has a resource base for Deaf and Hearing-Impaired pupils at Beauchamp Academy known as the Hearing Support Centre.

Every school must have a qualified SENCO, this is also the case for maintained nurseries.

The Senco works with school leaders on the development of SEN policy and provision, day-to-day responsibility for the SEN policy and co-ordination of specific provision made to support individual pupils.

The Senco provides professional guidance to colleagues and works closely with staff, parents and other agencies.

For non-maintained nurseries there are ‘Area Sencos’ who provide advice and support to early years providers.

Schools must also publish a SEN Information Report on their website. This should explain arrangements for admission, support, facilities, and their accessibility plan.

A full list of what these should include can be found on page 106 of the SEND Code of Practice, it includes staff training.

We are not able to offer funding or payment for people to take part in TSIL.

We want to make contributing as easy as possible by creating both face-to-face and virtual opportunities, as well as considering the timing of events.

We will keep working hard on this as we plan future events..