Learner Voice Video

As part of the Enhancement of learning support programme a learner consultation was undertaken and the short video below is a edited version of the outcome

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=griCj4EtbUM

Call for Evidence on the Future Funding of Care and Support

As you may be aware the  government  has set up a commission to look a the funding of long term  care and support with Andrew Dilnot as the Chair.The commission was set up by government as an independent body to make recommendations on how to achieve an affordable and sustainable funding system for care and support, for all adults in England, both in the home and other settings.

This call for evidence seeks views on what a future funding system for care and support should look like.

It is particularly aimed at those with an interest in future funding models.

You can find  further information  here

http://www.dilnotcommission.dh.gov.uk/call-for-evidence/

Forced Marriage and learning disability: new guidelines to help prevent abuse

New guidance to prevent people with learning disabilities being victims of forced marriage has been launched by the Foreign Office´s Forced Marriage Unit

You can find the full details and the document on the Foreign Office Website at

http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/news/latest-news/?view=News&id=293008682

Do You Wish You Could Buy Time!!

Busy managers have a lot on their plate and sometimes it can be difficult to juggle  the competing demands. With budgets tight, and limited scope for adding extra  capacity, that challenge can only grow.

When managers are stretched,  stress levels rise which can  lead  to problems for busy organisations. Successful organisations  are  committed to the wellbeing of their  staff and  to supporting  them  to work at their best. 

At K&A we understand those pressures  and we can ease the burden on organisations and their managers by providing a range of support options to make  the demands more manageable.

We offer  a range of flexible  and innovative options that  support  managers to  perform at their best and make the most effective use of their limited time.

We have called our latest product          "In Box Overload"

The name says it all! When you get to the stage where there are just too many things to do but not enough time to do it- why not ask us to do some of it! Perhaps you are in the run up to inspection or  engulfed by an operational crisis that demands your full attention,  and yet, there is still  a plan to draft,  a submission to make or a tender you really wanted to apply for.

Just pick up the phone or send us an email, tell us what you want done and  . It is as simple as that!  

We have the Technology... we just need to learn how to use it.

Do you have to read government publications online where the text is in columns and you keep having to scroll up and across and down the page to follow the paragraph - frustrating  isn't it!

Help is at hand

As part of the work we are doing on the Enhancement of Learning Support Project I was at a regional event recently and saw  a presentation from Alistair McNaught at JISC TECHDIS. Amongst many other brilliant  things Alistair demonstrated a very clever way of reformatting the page so that you can read it down..... in one column.

Obviously  the purpose of the presentation was not to help me with my IT issues. Alistair was also able to provide a whole host of tips and techniques that can be used to adapt everyday software to make them more effective and accessible for disabled learners, as well as demonstrate more bespoke tools from JISC TECHDIS.

It really was a revelation and demonstrates that even in these difficult economic times you can make a huge difference with simple  changes to everyday tools - it does not always require an expensive piece of software or  hardware to create a solution that works

All of Alistair's insights are available at 

http://www.techdis.ac.uk/development/ELS/

You will also find Alistair's presentation from the day 

"Wolf in Sheep's Clothing the Disruptive Potential of Learning Support Staff"

which is well worth a look

What it really showed was that sometimes,with best intentions, we often over complicate our response when  a simple solution is just as effective.

Government Departments Publish Business Plans

 For something that was supposed to be about transparency it took a bit of finding but the government departments have published their  business plans as as part of the new transparency  agenda. If you go over to the Number 10 website you   "check how every government department is performing in delivering on the priorities set out in its business plan"

http://transparency.number10.gov.uk/transparency/srp/view-srp/37

Not too much to interest us there other than the committment to the Green paper on SEN  in December

What do we think - is the business plan a good idea or is it tokenistic?

More interesting you can find on the education dept a list of all the gifts and hospitatlity enjoyed by our ministers civil servants and their Special Advisors!!