Wednesday 15 September 2010

I started the day having breakfast with the SILC Principals...

It was a great start to the day. Bill Chatwin, John Fryer, Andrew Hodkinson, Michael Purches, Diane Reynard and Michelle Wilman are leading our special educational needs work at the front line and we were talking about the journey we have been on with special needs provision and the development of the SILCs. We have achieved so much together in this vitally important area over the last few years and we have seen a transformation in provision and outcomes for these very special children. The SILCs provide brilliant core provision which is supported by innovative and creative partnerships which the SILCs have established with primary and special schools. As centres of excellent around inclusion they also provide some amazing outreach and development work pioneered by the SILCs in areas like hospital provision, work on the autistic spectrum and emotional and behavioural provision.

We also talked about how we take the SILC model into the new world of Children's Services to connect with the well-being teams, the complex needs teams and the continuum of provision around behavioural support. We have built something wonderful in the SILC model which we need to use as some of the foundations for the next stage in our constant and relentless search for excellence. What must remain central to everything we are doing here in Leeds are the unique promises we continue to make to our children and young people, their families and the communities we serve. Promises that make a reality of the statement that 'every child does matter' and that ensure that we continue to work to ensure that every child is happy, healthy, safe and increasingly successful... whatever it takes!

Chris

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