A snapshot of the work in the region this quarter March 25 Improvement East Spring Newsletter
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Improvement East Newsletter – March 2025
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The Big Get Together 07/02/25
On Friday 07/02/25, the first Eastern Region Big Get Together took place in Stevenage. It was a great day that was attended by over 300 children, young people, school and college staff and professionals from local authorities and partner organisations. The event gave an amazing opportunity for the voices of children and young people from across the region to be heard and celebrated some of their achievements.
The event was opened by keynote speeches from Dame Christine Lenehan, Government SEN strategic advisor, Khadija Hussain, Voices of the East member & ambassador, Lenny Rush, Actor & SEN advocate, Multi-Schools Council ambassador (Virtual) and Hermoine Greenhalgh, Children’s Commissioner Office, Senior Policy Advisor, DfE.
The day included a variety of workshop options chosen by the children and young people to attend and enjoy. Purple All-Stars gave an amazing performance for all delegates to enjoy.
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Eastern Region Residential Care Providers Event 31/01/25
On Friday 31/01/25, the first Eastern Region Children’s Residential Care Providers event took place in Stevenage. It was well attended by colleagues from LAs and residential care providers from across the region. This event marked the start of our collaborative efforts to innovate and refine processes, aiming to improve outcomes for children and their families and enhance efficiency.
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Eastern Region Anti Racist Practice Pledge
The local authorities in the Eastern Region have collaborated to create and endorse the Eastern Region Anti-Racist Practice Pledge, to which all 11 local authorities are committed. This pledge underscores our regional dedication to active allyship and the promotion of an anti-racist, diverse environment.
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Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill 2024-25
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
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Improvement East Newsletter
December’s newsletter details the regional work over the last quarter and gives information about upcoming events
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Improvement East Sharing Workshop – Home to School Transport & QRoutes
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.
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Eastern Region Leaving Care Network Conference
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.
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Improvement East Sharing Workshop – SEND
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.
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Improvement East Newsletter
June’s newsletter details the regional work over the last quarter and gives information about upcoming events