Quick start guides, travel, health & a little light relief pdf

Quick Start Guides, Travel, Health & a little light relief 10th May 2015

Dear All As well as the usual news, there’s something of a Preparing for Adulthood theme...

The Last of the Open Meetings The Open Meetings are coming to an end and we extend our thanks to Anna Chiva (Head of SEN Services), the Independent Supporters from both the IS Partnership & EnhanceAble, Eamon Gilbert (14-19 Parternship mgr & Lead Commissioner) and Sophie Marshall (Support Broker from KCiL) for their support.

Anna has attended every single meeting; so if you haven’t come along yet and have questions to ask, please come. Details are of the last meetings are: Jo & Penny The Terrace Room Anna Chiva Monday 11th 6.30pm to York House, Twickenham & Eamonn Gilbert May 8pm TW1 3AA J Rourke (IS - P) S Marshall – support broker Friday 15th May

12.30pm to 2pm

Thursday 21st May

10.30am to 12noon

Moor Lane Centre Meeting Room 1 Chessington, KT9 2AA

Downs Syndrome Assoc, Langdon Down Ctr 2a Langdon Park Teddington, TW11 9PS

Romany & Prisca Anna Chiva & Eamonn Gilbert Janelle Ihaia (IS - E) Romany & Penny Anna Chiva Jackie Grimes (IS - E)

In June, we will publish a highlights report that will include Frequently Asked Questions as well as a ‘You said, We did’ type report and will circulate this as widely as possible.

Currently, the plan is:  to run more of the Open meetings, in the Autumn, with Anna and the SEN Team  Caroline Jager, the Aiming High & Short Breaks manager is keen to meet families and dates for events in Kingston & Richmond are being planned for the next few weeks  to hold (in each borough) a ‘surgery’ or ‘clinics’ event with SEN related professionals.

Our query on what would be useful for you yielded positive results and news of this will follow for the Autumn. If you have more ideas, please reply to this e-mail.

SEN Team – alphabetical or locality?

Last week we published the letter from Wendy Bolsover detailing the alphabetical allocation of SEN Case managers. A common question is ‘If the allocation is alphabetical, why is there still a locality listed?’ The answer is that this is for schools’ benefit. If they have a query about a child or young person without a Statement or EHCP, they contact the Case Officer for their locality.

Quick Start Guides for getting, or transferring to, an Education, Health & Care Plan (EHCP).

Penny (one of the RSFV team, focussing on EHCPs) put these together for the Open Meetings and they are very proving one of the most popular handouts. The Quick Start Guides are intended to answer immediate questions and point you in the right direction without the need for reading pages of Guidance. You can also find these under Useful Documents (soon they will also be uploaded onto the Local Offer).

We’ve only just created the Useful Documents page, so please keep re-visiting it! www.richmondsendfamilyvoice.org/useful-documents What is an inclusive activity?

To my mind, inclusion is when an organisation asks ‘How’ to work with your child or young person without blinking. As parents, we’re probably all familiar with organisations and people who do this better or worse than others. Whilst there are groups that provide activities specifically for children with disabilities, there are others that just include most children or young people as a matter of course.

And wouldn’t it be great to have some kind of a list for these?

If you know of any mainstream organisation, group or service that is inclusive (probably without realising it), please send their details to this e-mail address – ask their permission first!

We’ll forward their details on to the Inclusion Officers for Short Breaks in Kingston & Richmond and the team putting together the Local Offer.

Travel Training – Preparing for Adulthood Supporting young people to travel independently between home and school is such an important investment – it’s a valuable life skill, essential for future employment and not least increasing confidence in their abilities as well as supporting future development.

Achieving for Children have a Travel Training pilot project that being delivered by Balance Community Interest Company. More news on how this may support young people locally will follow. In the meantime, here is the video from the Local Offer pages (6 minutes)... http://www.afclocaloffer.org.uk/pages/home/education/sen-transport/balanceindependent-travel-training If you would like to offer any thoughts or have queries on this, please contact Eamonn Gilbert on eamonn.gilbert@achievingforchildren.org.uk Transition to Adult Health Services In keeping with this subject, below is a link for a thought provoking video being circulated by the Preparing for Adulthood people ( http://preparingforadulthood.org.uk/ ) on young people with Cystic Fibrosis moving from children’s healthcare to adult health. The themes they discuss are pertinent to anyone in this position, not just those with CF. It’s about 9 minutes long and is easy, reflective, viewing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R7djU3xlqg&feature=youtu.be The Transition Protocol Becky Powell, of Achieving for Children, has the unenviable task of drafting the Transitions Protocol across Kingston & Richmond. The Transition Protocol details each process, each step for young people as they move from children’s services to adult services. The draft is available on request and Becky is keen to have as much constructive critical comment as

possible. Please contact Becky direct: becky.powell@achievingforchidlren.org.uk or attend either of these meetings: Tuesday 19th May – 6pm-7.30pm @ The Moor Lane Centre, Chesssington, Surrey, KT9 2AA Thursday 21 May – 10am-11.30am @ The Windham Croft Centre, 20 Windham Road, Richmond TW9 2HP Family Matters from Ruils “Family Matters is a practical support service for families with children with additional needs.

We provide one to one sessions in the home where we work with the family to identify what is working and what is not working and support them to make things better. The leaflet and referral form are available on request, or contact Ruils direct.

As well as supporting families individually, there will be a Family Matters Drop-in Group where families can meet each other in a comfortable, mutually supportive atmosphere, locally, on the second Tuesday morning of each month. I would be happy to answer any questions or come and meet with you to discuss and explain the new service in more detail.

I hope we can work together to make this service a success for families in Richmond and I look forward to hearing from you in the near future.

Jackie Wade, Family Support Worker Tel: 07903 633 327 Ruils: 020 8831 6083 www.ruils.co.uk “ Links From MindEd “MindEd are working with YoungMinds to develop some new online tutorials. These will provide parents and carers with information and guidance on subjects related to children and young people’s mental health and emotional wellbeing.

MindEd are asking parents and carers, to complete this five minute survey before 5pm on Monday 18th May, whether or not your child has ever experienced mental health difficulties.

Your responses will guide the subject matter and format of the modules, helping us to create the most useful resources possible. All responses are anonymous. For further information or to find out how you can stay involved with this project, please email zoe.large@youngminds.org.uk.” https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MindEdParentsandCarers From Contact A Family & Every Disabled Child Matters “We want to know about changes to local services and support for families with disabled children across the UK. We would also like to find out how the changes are affecting your family life. What you tell us will be used to shape our campaigning work in the new Parliament. We want to make sure disabled children are a top priority for the next Government.

The results will be used anonymously by Contact a Family and our campaign Every Disabled Child Matters (EDCM). It should take about 30 minutes to complete. The deadline is the 30th June 2015. If you would like further information about the study or help completing the questions please contact campaigns@cafamily.org.uk or 020 7608 8742.

Thank you for your interest, your views are really important to us.” https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FamilyCensus

From ExpressCIC & the BBC For light relief, listen to comedian, and patron to ExpressCIC, John Williams talks about life with his son who has autism and cerebal palsy (15 minutes). http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05sttjh There are so many useful links and documents out there, that we can’t sensibly include them all in these ‘Dear All’ bulletins. Roughly once a week, we share the best of what we find on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/richmondsendfamilyvoice As ever, if you have any queries at all, please ask and I'll do my best to find an answer.

With best wishes, Romany RSFV phone: 07469 746 145