On On 17th December the government published the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill and on 3rd January the House of Commons Library published a Research Briefing on the bill

December’s newsletter details the regional work over the last quarter and gives information about upcoming events

On September 27th, 2024, colleagues from Bedford facilitated an online Sharing Workshops for colleagues from across the region, to give them the opportunity to hear how Bedford have managed to make significant cost savings in this area through a full review of their offer and a significant procurement exercise. The workshop covered the following topics:

• Procurement processes and marketing
• QRoutes

The event was well received and the feedback was extremely positive.

On September 20, 2024, over 150 colleagues from all 11 local authorities in the region convened at the Hertfordshire Development Centre for the first Eastern Region Leaving Care Network Conference to network, share best practice, and focus on practice. The conference highlighted key topics such as transitional safeguarding, NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) to EET (Education, Employment, or Training), and trauma-informed practice.

The event featured inspiring keynote speeches from Dr. Jenny Malloy, author of “Hackney Child,” Scott King, Director of Section 31 Training, and the Eastern Region Care Leavers Participation Group. Their powerful stories and experiences resonated with the audience, challenging and motivating attendees.

In addition to the keynote addresses, the conference included workshop sessions that concentrated on enhancing EET opportunities for Care Leavers and implementing trauma-informed practices.

The Eastern Region Leaving Care Network plans to leverage the knowledge gained from the conference to drive further regional initiatives aimed at bettering the experiences and outcomes for Care Leavers across the East.

On September 19th, 2024, colleagues from Hertfordshire facilitated a Sharing Workshops to give colleagues from across the region the opportunity to hear how they were progressing on their improvement journey following their SEND inspection in July 2023. They talked through their ambitious transformation programme ‘Making SEND Everyone’s Business’ and covered the following topics:

• Workforce transformation at scale; with a focus on drawing our community into our workforce and valuing lived experience
• Building the Hertfordshire SEND Academy; professionalising the workforce and better support for our frontline professionals with a strong training and development offer
• Enhancing our Quality Assurance function to support and drive improved practice across the directorate

The event was well received and the feedback was extremely positive.