VIEW LogoThe MSI-Deafblindness Forum is moderated by Caireen Sutherland.

What is the MSI-Deafblindness Forum?
The MSI-Deafblindness Forum is an e-mail discussion list for people with a professional role in the education of children and young people with MSI/deafblindness.  Messages posted to the forum, via email, are automatically sent to all members.

The purpose is to share good practice, to ask and share questions and queries, and to disseminate research, information and ideas relating to Deafblindness. It is chiefly related to education and learning.

 The value of the forum is:

  • It is free to join
  • It provides an opportunity to exchange views and opinions with similar professionals.  
  • It allows professionals to share expertise and questions within a safe space
  • It can reduce professional isolation.

Members of the forum need to be aware of the public nature of exchanges and ensure that they are not compromising their organisations when they reply, as replies are sent to the forum list (not the indivdual who sent the original message) by default.

We operate the usual basic courtesy rules.  Please be supportive and reflective in your postings.

Members can post fliers for events or jobs, but please make sure that these are related to deafblindness.  Make sure that an email address is included in the body of your message to which people can reply, so these replies do not go to the forum.

Who can join the MSI-Deafblindness forum?

To join the forum, you must have a professional role in the education of children and young people with MSI/deafblindness.  The forum is open to teachers and other professionals who have such a role in the field.  Membership applications are reviewed by the moderators before access is granted.

How to join the forum:

Complete the online form you can find here.

About the SI Forums

The SI Community Forums were originally provided by BECTA, and then hosted by the DfE, until July 2019, when the DfE finally withdrew their servers.

NatSIP provided an interim solution during extended DfE server downtime during 2018-19 for the HoSS Forum, to keep communication flowing to Heads of SI Services.  In October 2019 NatSIP offered a permanent solution to the wider SI community, with four forums live on the new platform in November 2019, initially supported by DfE through Whole School SEND/nasen.

There are now five forums in the family, with the addition of the Lead QToD (Resource Provisions) Forum in February 2022.

Subscription to any of the five SI Community Forums is free. Colleagues, who meet the eligibility criteria, are encouraged to subscribe to more than one of the five forums.

The SI Community Forums project was founded, created and is powered by NatSIP, which has taken on the running and technical management of the SI Forums Platform.