Empower Trust Schools are dedicated to ensuring the provision of an outstanding education for every child within our family of schools. Our mission is to ensure that every child experiences a consistently high-quality education; to ensure that all children, with all levels of SEND, become successful learners and develop into young people who contribute to our world and succeed in their ambitions.
The SEND Code of Practice underpins all that we do throughout all of our schools but we also draw upon the skills and expertise of local professionals, including the Shropshire Local Offer, and national experts.
To achieve our mission, every school has a dedicated SENCO who leads and guides the SEND provision in their school. They are supported in this by the Trust SENCO and the Trust SEND Strategic Lead. This leadership structure for SEND ensures consistent policies, procedures and practices are used throughout all of our schools; enabling a consistently high quality SEND offer to be experienced by all of our children.
The SEND Strategic Lead endeavours to work collaboratively with key members of the LA to secure the right provision at the right time for our children. They have been part of several working groups at LA level that have sought to develop LA policies and procedures. These collaborative initiatives have seen systems and processes change county wide, streamlining paperwork and reducing workload for SENCOs. The SEND Strategic Lead supports all our schools to secure the correct level of funding for all children with an EHCP; part of this work has included developing a document called ‘A Day in the Life’ which exemplifies a typical day for a child with an EHCP and how the provision specified in the EHCP is provided. This document has been instrumental in supporting discussion around funding and is now used county wide.
The SEND landscape is constantly changing and, at Empower Trust, we are forward thinking, we look to future proof the SEND provision experienced by our children. We ensure that all staff, teaching staff and support staff, are aware of our approach to SEND and provide CPD and training to support this. We are keen to take part in national trials. Some of our schools are currently taking part in ELSEC and PINS projects with a view to using this as CPD across all of our schools. We also welcome the opportunity to discuss our SEND offer with other schools and share our practice with them. Our CPD offer through Shropshire Primary Partnership is open to schools beyond Empower Trust.