REGIONAL HEADS OF VISUAL IMPAIRMENT SERVICES

(YORKSHIRE AND THE HUMBER)

MINUTES
VENUE
Wakefield County Hall / DATE
15.05.15 9.30 start
1. / Apologies
Peter Bowles, Linda Tackie, John Olma,
Martin not responded for a couple of meetings
2. / Minutes of the Last Meeting
Karen Basile is now the VI Lead for NE Lincs
3. / Matters Arising
4. / Standing Items
  1. VI Quality Standards
  2. Bradford are unable to progress to validation this term, but would like a date late September/ early October.
  1. Restructuring Services / Children and Young People’s Services feedback.
  2. Barnsley – BESST has launched. Schools are not clear about the new process, and children are not being seen quickly. The team are able to see more EY children, because they are free, and the team has capacity. Parents have not been communicated with directly. Could parents commission the RNIB for support?
  3. Rotherham – commissioners are running the LA. New consultant is looking at SEND
  4. NE Lincs – new Head of team. Working on the same model as Hull.
  5. Sheffield – new QTVI and TA appointed for post 16 work, and there will be an additional TA for working with immigrant families. Funding has also been made available for someone to go on the Habilitation course.
  6. Bradford – re-structure on-going. Some issues with historical nursery nurse posts.
  7. Calderdale – now have 2 Habilitation Specialists. Brighouse High School could be re-opening its resource base for September 2016.
  8. N Yorks – New head of Inclusive Education, covering EP’s, Early Years, Sensory, etc. Lead for HI is now Head of Sensory.

4. / Standing Items
  1. Regional Groups
Primary.
Good meeting. Focussed on Listening skills, and new ICT curriculum programming using Jaws.
Next meeting 13th October at Dalton PS, Kirklees
Early Years
Meeting 22nd June at Future House, Bradford. Agreed to pay travel expenses for a parent.
MDVI
Meeting 10th June at Future House, Bradford. Also agreed to pay expenses for speaker on colour tents.
Habilitation
Minutes to be sent out.
Discussion in the meeting about accreditation of current qualifications; the N Yorks team have been accredited as either Habilitation specialist, or Habilitation Assistants.
Discussion about training; course run by St Vincents (this has now been sent out; cost £2000)
Also discussion about the on-going contact from Guide Dogs. Many services are having children referred to them by guide Dogs, after a family have attended an event or a weekend, and some of these referrals are outside the remit of Services. Agreed to ask Mike England to attend the next meeting, to address working protocols with Services.
Secondary
Meeting 26th June at Forge Valley School, Sheffield. This will be a working day, focussing on AQA Unit Awards. There will be a session on accreditation, but staff should come with any topics to write an award, ie Hab / Study skills / Curriculum.
Any Services who have already written and accredited any awards should send them to Anne, for collation for the Website.
5. / Outcomes.
There is some useful information on the websites – (last meeting)
Peter had sent outcomes which were circulated.
Anne brought some anonymised examples, to be sent round.
There will be an Outcomes section on the Website, so again, please send any to Anne for collation.
6. / The Local Offer
Question – Where children don’t have EHC plans, what happens about Admissions?
No one knows.
7. / Regional Specialist Curriculum
The website has been up-dated, and Habilitation is now there.
It was agreed that whilst it is in development it will remain discrete to this group.

username - vscyorkhumber
password – visionsupport
Documents will be both Word and pdf.
Julie will send primary documents electronically to be uploaded, and will contact Andy Spong about IT and braille.
George will continue to set up the structure, and then Leeds resource officers will take over, and will be paid.
We will aim to launch to the Services from September.
Please send any documents to Catherine to pass to George.
8. / Feedback on Update on Quality Standards for resource bases – NatSIP
Anne has checked the new NDCS Quality Standards for Resource bases, and there are no significant changes which would need to be made in the VI document.
Julie has created a table to record the standards, and will share this with the group.
9. / Election of Officers
Catherine White was elected Chair
Anne has agreed to remain as Secretary for one more year.
10. / AOB
Up-to-date remit for group sent to SEND Partnership group.
VI training
Birmingham University MQ course is reportedly full, but they may extend to 45 places. No funding is available this year. Anne is attending a meeting in Birmingham on 17th June about the future of the MQ course; please send Anne any issues.
Sheffield are looking at developing an MQ course with Sheffield Hallam; a business case is being developed, but there is no additional funding.
Concerns about just one remaining course; Plymouth and Cardiff are not delivering now. Scotland ?
Positive Eye regional training for new QTVI’s and TA’s
Rotherham – 1 teacher
Sheffield – 1 teacher and 2 TA’s
Braillenote training
Barnsley are hosting Humanware for Braillenote training on 2nd July at Horizon Community School; contact Louise.
Technology Assessments and training
Lucy Winton, Somerset, from Actionnaires will come to services for free, and carry out individual pupil assessments, and provide training for teams. The technology assessment will then support a bid to Blind Children UK to match school equipment at home.
Discussion about funding for IT equipment. Some services fund through Access. In Leeds, schools fund up to £1000, in N Yorks up to £500. Some schools are given money through a funding formula.
Use of free software – free Jaws, NDVA
Use of iphone and ipads, all impacts on funding.
Data collection
Hull – collection of data through LA?
Leeds – School opt-in to a central system so don’t need to send data in.
Set up a Virtual School, so that data can be collected?


Barnsley, Bradford, Calderdale,Doncaster, East Riding, Henshaws College, Hull, Kirklees, Leeds,

North East Lincolnshire, North Lincolnshire, North Yorkshire, Rotherham, Sheffield, Wakefield, York