Education Training Opportunities

Training Available – Education & Equalities

Our Education and Equalities team have a suite of training available for practitioners and parent carers who support disabled children and young people or those with Special Educational Needs (SEN) from 0 to 25 years.

Some of our training is free to access, funded by the Department for Education as part of the Early Years SEND Partnership:

• The Essential Guide to Disability Duties in Early Years for Practitioners
• The Essential Guide to Disability Duties in Early Years for Parent Carers
• Sensory Processing in the Early Years: What it is and why it matters for Practitioners
• Sensory Processing in the Early Years: What it is and why it matters for Parent Carers

Click here to book a place on any of our free training and events

Our established training packages are listed below. We can also provide bespoke packages to schools, local authorities, and other education-based groups on a particular area of focus or need. If you are interested in discussing what training options we can offer you, please contact us at [email protected].

Ordinarily Available Provision (OAP)

The Children and Families Act (2014) requires local authorities to set out what special educational provision and special training provision it expects schools, early years and post-16 providers to make available. Setting out a clearly defined set of expectations of the provision made ‘ordinarily available’ will improve practitioners and parents’ confidence that children with a range of learning needs can be well supported in a mainstream setting.  

Aims of the training:

• Provide an overview of what Ordinarily Available Provision is and its legislative underpinnings.
• Improve practitioners’ understanding of OAP to ensure it is embedded consistently across a local area.
• Showcase best practice examples of OAP and inclusive approaches from other local areas.

Equality Act Training for Practitioners and Parents/Carers

The Council for Disabled Children offers training on understanding disability duties and discrimination according to the Equality Act (2010). We can improve access and inclusion in education settings for disabled children and young people by increasing practitioners’ understanding of disability duties and their responsibilities to make reasonable adjustments.

Aims of the support for practitioners:

• Improve senior leaders’, teachers’ and practitioners’ understanding of the Equality Act, disability duties, and how the legislative framework applies to their own practice.
• Develop senior leaders’, teachers’ and practitioners’ confidence to have positive conversations with parents, carers and children and young people about reasonable adjustments.
• Enable stakeholders to establish a shared vision of improving inclusion and access in education settings and schools in line with Equality Act duties.

Aims of the support for parent carers:

• Improve parent carers’ understanding of the Equality Act, disability duties and what their legal rights are in relation to disability discrimination.
• Develop parent carers’ understanding of a school or setting’s responsibility of making reasonable adjustments for a child or young person and facilitating their communication and support.

An introduction to Positive Behavioural Support (PBS) - Workshop for practitioners, parent carers and senior leaders/commissioners

Behaviour that challenges usually happens for a reason and may be a child or young person's only way of communicating an unmet need. PBS helps us understand the reason for the behaviour so we can better meet people’s needs, enhance their quality of life and reduce the likelihood that the behaviour will happen.

PBS has been recommended in several policy documents and professional guidance as an effective and ethical approach to supporting children and young people with learning disabilities and/or autism. These include Ensuring Quality Services; Positive and Proactive Care: Reducing the need for Restrictive Interventions; NICE guidelines for Challenging Behaviour; A Positive and Proactive Workforce; and Supporting Staff who work with People who Challenge Services. PBS applies the science of learning and uses it to understand the purpose of behaviour and how to support people to develop skills and achieve their goals.

Aims of the support for practitioners and parent carers:

• Understanding the values underpinning good quality services and how they are reflected in the PBS framework
• Person-centred planning and action
• An insight into supportive and enabling environments
• Understanding behaviour

Aims of the support for senior managers/leaders/commissioners of services:

• To understand what PBS is and isn’t
• To understand the conditions needed for implementation of PBS
• To understand what’s required to monitor PBS and how it can be maintained
• To understand how to drive through continuous improvement in PBS practice