Our Voices, News, Sesame Street & Cooking 30th October 2015
Dear All Read on…
we’re keeping busy!
SEND Family Voices – our voices News #1 By now, many parents will have received a letter from SEND Family Voices with an invitation to attend one (or more) of our Open meetings in November. If you haven’t received a letter… then it’s on its way! These letters came with our new introductory leaflet and the Guide to SEND Reforms. Today a parent called asking if there was a typo in the Guide as their child had not yet moved from their Statement to an Education, Health & Care Plan (EHC Plan); as the published transfer schedule said this should have happened. Having spoken to the SEN Team, there are some Year 5 and Year 2 children who have not – for all sorts of reasons – transferred to an EHC Plan yet. The SEN Team are working on this and please feel free to call us, or the SEN Team, with any query. If you would like to see a full list of our Open meetings (including the SEN Transport Consultations), please visit the our events page: www.sendfamilyvoices.org/events
News #2 Our next Open meeting is on the school’s Accessibility Strategy (and Chocolate Cake). So far, the first two (of five) meetings on this subject have already made clear the need to develop a School Trips policy that considers the needs of children & young people with SEND (hooray!). There are plenty of parents who will be delighted to read the sentence “parents should not be expected to attend a school trip with their child”. We are also considering how to include playground equipment within this strategy. Details of the next meeting on this subject are: Thursday 5th November – 10.30am to 12.30am Bedelsford School, Grange Road, Kingston, KT1 2QZ
News #3 Next week, the SEND Family Voices steering group, along with representatives from schools (ie SENCo’s), Health and Achieving for Children are holding a developmental workshop on the subject of participation. Our objective is to answer the question: “How do we work together to maximise positive consequences, and minimise negative consequences, for the child or young person & their family?” The principles and intended working practices we produce from this workshop will, we hope, continue to enhance equal partnership in developing services for our children and young people. This is ever more important as there are likely to be central government cuts that affect our families (ie the Spending Review). More news to follow.
SEN Strategy Achieving for Children (AfC) are seeking feedback on the new SEN Strategy. The Strategy outlines the values, principles and key priorities for AfC over the next 3 years in supporting children and young people (and their families and/or carers) who have Special Educational Needs (SEN) in Richmond and Kingston. The Strategy has been developed by AfC with input from SEND Family Voices. AfC welcome all comments and if you would like to contribute, please contact Oliver Sheppard by the closing date of 13th November: oliver.sheppard@achievingforchildren.org.uk The aim is to publish the final strategy on the Local Offer by the end of November. http://www.afclocaloffer.org.uk/blog_articles/290-achieving-for-children-specialeducational-needs-strategy
What else is new on the Local Offer? We’ll leave you to follow these links… and add that if you are looking for information relating to SEND, please go to the Local Offer. If you can’t find what you are hoping to, please contact the Local Offer manager (Karen Lowry) via the feedback page. http://www.afclocaloffer.org.uk/blog_articles/296-wiki-news and whilst we’re on the subject of Wiki’s, we’ll include this: http://rixmedia.org/#section-340 http://www.afclocaloffer.org.uk/organisations/14457-ymca-london-south-west?term=ymca for paths to employment opportunities
Links Independent Parental Special Education Advice IPSEA request that you please make sure that you understand the law regarding transfers to Education, Health & Care Plans - rather than relying on informal local information that may not be entirely correct: https://www.ipsea.org.uk/what-you-need-to-know/transition
NHS England The new NHS Mandate is out for consultation, the consultation period closes on 23rd November. “The mandate to NHS England sets the government’s objectives for NHS England, as well as its budget. In doing so, the mandate sets direction for the NHS, and helps ensure the NHS is accountable to Parliament and the public. In accordance with the Health and Social Care Act 2012, the Secretary of State must publish a mandate each year, to ensure that NHS England’s objectives remain up to date. A new mandate to NHS England is due to be published following the completion of the Spending Review, to take effect from April 2016. This consultation document sets out how the government proposes to set the mandate to NHS England for this Parliament. The final mandate will be subject to the outcome of the government’s Spending Review.” https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/setting-the-mandate-to-nhs-england-for2016-to-2017
Department for Education Their October newsletter on matters relating to the SEND Reforms is attached (no link, just the attached pdf)
Tax Credits Contact a Family is leading calls to the government to consider the impact cuts to tax credits will have on families with disabled children and to think again about making the cuts. Follow this link to join their petition: http://www.cafamily.org.uk/news-and-media/tax-credits-next-steps-must-consider-familieswith-disabled-children/
Council for Disabled Children This month, the CDC newsletter includes: News on the Ofsted SEND inspections and ways to give your views Opportunities to get involved with this year's national Anti-bullying Week Details on IASS legal training and an upcoming seminar to improve your participation skills with young people http://us9.campaignarchive1.com/?u=93ca41ab24380caf57761bd37&id=c2f766e09e&e=[UNIQID]
Driver Youth Trust …is a charity dedicated to improving the life chances of children and young people with a focus on those who struggle with literacy, particularly children with dyslexia. They recently published a report on the last five years of SEND, including the recent SEND Reforms. In essence, the message appears to be that the “charity is calling for school leaders to regard SEND pupils' achievement as a whole-school priority, not just that of specialist staff.” These articles give more information: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-34516202 http://www.specialneedsjungle.com/driver-youth-trust-report-send-reforms-led-tofragmented-provision-chaos-and-confusion/
ADHD Richmond ADHD have placed an ‘Our Videos’ tab onto their website. If you're looking for videos taken at any of their monthly Talks you will now find them on this tab; most recently Dr Alex Doig (CAMHS Richmond) talked about ADHD: Adolescence, anxiety, depression & relationships. http://adhdrichmond.org/our-videos/ Dr Doig mentioned the following link for advice on sexual health for young people, which we include as some might find this useful: http://www.gettingiton.org.uk/
Sesame Street & Cooking OK, so this is two separate links. The Sesame Street people have created a character with autism into their programmes. Details and resources can be found here: http://autism.sesamestreet.org/ And at Channel 4, Michel Roux Jr. puts eight out-of-work people with disabilities through an intensive four week introduction to catering, one of the toughest jobs around: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/kitchen-impossible-with-michel-roux-jr As ever, if you have any queries at all, please ask and we'll do our best to find an answer. With best wishes, Romany (for Richmond) and Caroline North (for Kingston) Phone: 07469 746 145 www.sendfamilyvoices.org