Funding for children’s activities, News, Dates & Maps 10th January 2016 Dear All Our first newsletter of the 2016… it’s going to be an eventful year.
Money for children’s activities… Rachel Derrick & the SEND Family Voices group for Short Breaks have, with Caroline Jager from AfC, put together an ‘Easy Read’ guide to applying for Aiming High funding. During this last year there has been an underspend – hence there is more money available that usual - and families can now apply for annual memberships or passes between now and end of March 2016. Now is a really good time to apply for funding! The full amount that can be applied for is £500 per tax year, per child. The attached document contains all the information you need (including ideas on what the funding could be spent on), plus full contact details if you have any questions. You can also find a copy here: www.sendfamilyvoices.org/useful-documents
Top Ten queries from SNJ TO DfE Special Needs Jungle (SNJ) asked their readers to put forward their questions about the SEND Reforms. The response was immense and SNJ collated the questions into themes which the Department of Education (DfE0 have taken some time to answer in full. These two posts are well worth reading. Sit down with a cup of something nice. Part one covers SEN Support, Inclusion, Training, EHC Plan Assessments, and transfers of Statements to EHC Plans. http://www.specialneedsjungle.com/the-dfe-answers-your-top-10-questions-on-thechanges-in-sen-and-disability-education/ Part two has answers about Provision, Personal Budgets, Appeals, Post 16 and Alternative Provision http://www.specialneedsjungle.com/the-dfe-answers-your-top-10-questions-on-thechanges-in-sen-and-disability-education-part-2/
Local provision… Locally, there are discussions to develop new educational provision, which means more children being able to be educated near their homes rather than spending longer than is perhaps kind travelling to & from school. These are at the very earliest stages and we know that SEND Family Voices will be working with the commissioners to collectively plan for provisions that we all want – and we will consult every step of the way (as we did with the SEN Transport Policy).