PINS Project Update

30/09/2024

The Partnership for the Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools Project aims to improve the experience of neurodivergent pupils in schools.  This pilot is currently being delivered in 20 primary schools in Shropshire and includes individualised training and coaching for school staff and leaders and support to ensure that Parent Carers have a voice in how schools respond to the individual needs of neurodivergent young people.

PACC is supporting the creation of Parent Carer groups in the schools participating in PINS.  All schools received an initial visit from PACC before the summer break and since the start of the new school year the work on establishing school-based Parent Carer groups as part of the PINS project, has progressed at pace.

We had a great response to the survey sent out to all families at the participating schools, receiving 320 responses in total.  The survey asked families to tell us how welcoming they found the school environment, how included in the school community they felt and how well informed they were about the support their child received at school, amongst other things.  Out of the total responses, nearly 200 were from Parent Carers who were supporting a child with SEND or suspected SEND.  A wide range of experiences were shared but there are consistent themes around the benefit of improving communication between schools and families and the need for a consistent approach to understanding the needs of individual young people, throughout the school environment.  Summaries of the survey responses for each school, including key themes have been produced and will be shared with senior teaching staff and Parent Carers.

We are now booking the second Parent Carer group meetings with schools, all of which will be completed by the end of November.  These will take place during the hour after drop-off or the hour before pick up and will be open to any parent carer with SEND attending the school.  The meetings will be a chance to discuss the themes in the school’s survey responses, to identify the top 3 issues that Parent Carers would like to discuss with the school leaders, and to talk about how everyone can keep in touch and up to date with SEND news.  Each Parent Carer group has a closed Facebook group host by PACC, to support ongoing discussions and to enable information about the support and services available in Shropshire and wider to be shared.

After meeting with each Parent Carer group, PACC will work with the school leaders to understand the feedback from families and to work together to respond to the key areas for improvement. While PACC will host a further Parent Carer group meeting in the New Year as part of PINS, ongoing communication and discussion between schools and their Parent Carer community will be encouraged.