Rediscovering your SEND Mojo and making a difference with it!

1. Rediscovering your SEND Mojo and making a difference with it! Jane Friswell SEND Consultancy St Helen’s SEND Conference 20 March 2019

3. Mojo? • mojo meaning, definition, what is mojo: a quality that attracts people to you and makes you successful and full of energy • The word originally means a charm or a spell • But now its more commonly said meaning;sex appeal or talent. It’s the magic of SEND!

4. The Magic of SEND! • Magician; meaning • Sorcery; sleight of hand; entertains; uses magic to entrance…….. OR • A person with exceptional skill in a particular area

5. The Landscape • Inclusion – St Helen’s • Local Area Review for SEND • New Education Inspection Framework • The bite of austerity • Breaking habits of the past? • Key messages for SEND

6. What’s your exceptional skill (s)?

7. Lets look at some of the evidence • Leaders have a deep and accurate understanding of the local area’s strengths and weaknesses. • The majority of parents and carers are pleased with the help and support that families and children receive in St Helens. • Joint commissioning is a strength of the local area • St Helens is embracing co-production • Professionals work well together to identify the needs of children and young people in the local area

10. "A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members." - Mahatma Ghandi

11. The struggle • across the country, educational leaders are struggling in the current policy context of more challenging standards, increased accountability, reduced budgets, and limited community support, while also trying to bring about educational improvements at all levels of the system. • reform focus on technical aspects of educational change • BUT are we focusing at the relational level?

13. The magic of relationships • Research has found that schools and institutions with collaborative or trusting cultures are more likely to show signs of improvement and innovation (see for example, Bryk & Schneider, 2002).

14. Social Capital & Value • Capturing the social capital which exists between individuals through person-centred practices and approaches • Develop your approach to harness the value in relationships and explore the important resources, such as knowledge, information and advice which can and should flow between individuals through these relationships.

15. Managing Complex Change • Complex change of the magnitude that we’ve implemented in the current educational system for SEND, particularly in the most challenging communities, requires attention to capacity building and relational trust – two critical, system-wide components that are overlooked in the current agenda.

16. Social Justice • Promoting a just society by challenging injustice and valuing diversity should at the heart of any successful organisation. • How well are you doing with this?

17. How your social justice values support leadership • Learners who utilise more flexible ideas about how to promote social justice might be able to more successfully integrate these activities into their personal and professional lives. • In contrast, viewing social justice–related efforts as difficult, challenging, or overwhelming might serve as a barrier toward social action.

18. The end goal : to live an ordinary life

19. What do we want to achieve • Maximize the impact of improving outcomes for children, young people and their families with SEND

20. How? • Influence and inspire those who wish to transform • Be generous in sharing the talent which exists in SEND • Generate mutual trust and support of one another by one another • Challenge and overhaul existing SEND systems, supports and approaches • Provide a person - centred, systemic model that emphasises capacity building, collaboration and deep support

21. Core values : J Friswell • We question, challenge and innovate; on the front-line and behind the scenes  • We lead and support by embedding self- improvement strategy • We focus on long term sustainability • We support each other to achieve our goals • We seek out and foster valuable connections between people we know • We maximise our impact by working out loud • We are led by the voices of the people we support • People matter most

22. Culture of appreciation • How often do we encourage people to do the right thing? Do we let them know when they have? • Recognition and appreciation • Thank people at the right times for doing the right thing • If you can show people what ‘great’ looks like, you’ll see it repeated • Sometimes to make a difference all it takes is telling people that what they did was right which encourages them to do more of it • http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/14568253.Waitrose_store_s_act_of_kindness_towards_nurse_goes_viral_on_social_media/

23. Culture of Well Being • Maximise access and inclusion • Focus on outcomes • Evidence-informed and reflective practice • Holistic approach • Person-centred and family sensitive practice • Partnerships with families and communities • Cultural competence • Commitment to excellence

25. Personalisation • Personalisation is about whole system change, not about change at the margins. • It will require strong local leadership and support to convey the vision and the values, which • underpin it and to reach beyond the confines of education, health and social care.

26. Neglecting leadership is not an option • Lord Darzi’sNHS final review report (DH, 2008c, p 66) stated that: • Leadership has been the neglected element of the reforms of recent years. • Thatmust now change … leadership will make this change happen [and facilitate] meaningful conversations that transcend organisational boundaries.

27. Emotionally intelligent approaches • Coulshed and Mullender (2001) make the point that at a time when commercial and industrial organisations were bringing in more human and emotionally intelligent approaches (Goleman, 1996), public sector organisations were often reverting to a more mechanistic approach. • Leadership of personalisation and inclusion may need to develop and deploy some of the most cutting-edge ideas to be successful.

28. Ethical leadership • There seems to be some congruence developing in thinking about public sector leadership at the moment that delivering benefits across complex systems demands leadership that is ethical, humanistic, facilitative and available. It needs to be founded : • on an ability to work creatively with relationships, out of which can emerge common understandings and shared energy. • This type of collaboration is at no time more necessary than when resources are squeezed

29. Leaders as “hosts” • McKergow (2009) suggests the metaphor of leader as ‘host’, • someone who selects and prepares the venue, invites people who need/want to be together, • oils the discussion, attends to people so they feel able to contribute, holds the boundary against intruders and creates more than the sum of the parts.

30. Mentoring & Coaching • Mentoring and coaching approaches to leadership bring a focus on ensuring leaders are available for conversation, knowledge sharing and discussion with staff and others. • This approach emphasises a positive perspective on the motivations and abilities of people that the mentor or coach seeks to release.

31. Leadership value base – what’s yours? • Leadership driven by public service ethics • Leadership that embodies human values • Equalities and human rights-based leadership • Outcomes and governance-driven leadership ALLof the above

32. If we plant a seed in a desert and it fails to grow, do we ask, “What is wrong with the seed?”.

33. No. The real conspiracy lays in this: to look at the environment around the seed and to ask, “What must change in this environment such that the seed can grow?”.

35. Been inspired to rediscover your mojo?jane@friswell.com0784 0756109