Short Breaks, School Trips, AfC_Info & Holiday reading (?) 8th July 2017 Dear All Nearly the summer holidays… which may fill you with either joy or dread. Or perhaps, a mixture of both (but oh, the joy of not supervising homework…).
More on Short Breaks 1. The Survey Thank you again to all those families who completed our survey – we summarised the key findings in our Short Breaks Special – and for those who would like more detail, you can read the summary report here: http://www.sendfamilyvoices.org/booklets-research/ Our Short Breaks Special extra newsletter received lots of positive feedback. Thank you to Rachel and Sam who wrote it! We’re very keen to hear your corrections and additions; please reply to sendfamilyvoices@outlook.com
2. Some extras SK pointed out we didn’t mention… “…the excellent TAG clubs which run at Ham Youth centre on a Friday evening, and are for disabled children (10-13) and teenagers. The older group is well attended- but they are working hard to build up the younger group which they have just started. They really put in a lot of work to have good activities and to give kids a sense of community and participation” The contact is Giles Hobart: info@tagyouthclub.org And… “Knots Arts were mentioned for social skills. They are more than that! They run excellent drama and social skills groups for children with ASD at a church hall in Sheen and a terrific youth group at the Mortlake Power station. They have started to do some "play in a week" workshops in the holidays which are the joy of my son's life. Their youth group for young people with ASD is great because they go on age appropriate excursions and do interesting teenag’ery things. So, it's more than just a social skills group. Excellent for young people with ASD who have had enough of ball pools etc. http://knotsarts.com/
Turtle Key Arts… “…formed in 1989 as a unique and ground-breaking accessible space; and accessibility for all continues to be a key philosophy of the company. They have played a committed role in advancing participation in the arts by disabled, disadvantaged and socially excluded people, and are widely recognised as a leader in this field, often charting new territories, such as Turtle Song for people with Dementia and The Key Club for young people with Autism.” http://www.turtlekeyarts.org.uk/about-turtle-key-arts
And… from Crossroads… Our Crossroads Saturday Club is based in Hampton not Ham as stated in the[SFV] newsletter. This also applies to the Karate, which takes place during the club sessions. If
parents would like to access SEND Karate sessions without registering to our Saturday Club, they can do so at MeToo&Co. If you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact Valerie Wisdom: T: 020 8943 9421 E: val.wisdom@crossroadscarerk.org.uk W: http://www.crossroadscarerk.org/
What did your child think of their School Trip? Please encourage your children and young people to complete this survey… As part of the Accessibility Strategy, SEND Family Voices are conducting a survey with pupils and schools on their experiences of school trips. SEND Family Voices’ work on Reasonable Adjustments, and the consultations we held with families illustrated how challenging school trips can be for pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and schools alike. The main objective of our survey is to identify and understand what works for pupils with SEND on school trips, and what does not.
The link to the Pupils’ survey is here: http://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/schooltripspupils There will also be exciting prizes offered to a few lucky pupils who complete this survey. We would like to thank our work experience student MM, for his help with constructing this survey and analysis of data. This same survey has gone to all schools in Kingston & Richmond with this message: “This is an important survey for all schools regarding the accessibility and success of their school trips this term. Please help the borough and families by filling out this short survey.” Sarah Herbert, Lead Education Advisor, SEND We are asking SENCo’s to circulate this to their pupils, and to complete a near identical survey themselves (a kind of self-assessment).
Early Years – SEND funding for under 5’s There are national, statutory changes to funding for under 5’s… Change means Consultation! Whilst this survey is only 12 questions long, it requires you to read the Consultation Document (on the webpage below). We’ll take another look at this for next weekend, with the aim of summarising the consultation document, in the meantime… “Achieving for Children are consulting on proposals for implementing changes to the Early Years Special Educational Needs (SEN) Inclusion Fund, which supports children under the age of five with a specific level of SEN. This consultation seeks views on introducing a consistent system of allocating Early Years SEN Inclusion Funding to providers to support children with SEN in their settings. It also seeks views on whether some two-year olds should receive Early Years SEN Inclusion Funding.” The consultation period runs from Monday 3 July to Sunday 30 July 2017.
The AfC webpage: …with the Consultation document (= pre-reading) https://www.achievingforchildren.org.uk/ey-sen-inclusion-fund-consultation/
The short Survey https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/SEN_Inclusion_Fund_consultation/
The Parents/carers event (SEND Family Voices will be there too) Wednesday 19 July - 1.00pm to 4.00pm Langdon Down Centre, 2A Langdon Park, Teddington, TW11 9PS
Reminder - CAMHS Chat - autism diagnosis… Locally, we have one more CAMHS Chat arranged, this time hosted by NAS Richmond and with Richmond’s Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) children’s commissioner: Thursday 13th July – 10am to 12noon with NAS Richmond, at York House, Richmond Road, TW1 3AA Additional guest: E Ruddy - Strategic Programme Manager (Transforming Care) - NHS England E: sendfamilyvoices@outlook.com T: 07469 746 145
Developing a New Counselling Service “MeToo&Co are working with Off The Record to create a new service that means young people with disabilities can access counselling, in the way that feels best and works best for them. We want to make sure that having a disability is not a barrier to accessing this important service. We also want to ensure that siblings have access to peer support so they are given the bespoke support they need. As parents and carers of children with disabilities and their siblings, you know how important it is to get services right and we are looking forward to your support with this project.” Please follow this link for more information on how you can help develop this new service: https://www.metooandco.org.uk/activity/70/developing-a-new-counselling-service
AfC Info & The Local Offer – launched ! Achieving for Children’s new website for children, young people and families – AfCinfo - was launched on Thursday 5th July. https://www.afcinfo.org.uk/local_offer The first thing we spotted was that Events are now under What’s On.
“The site incorporates the existing SEND Local Offer site, alongside a community section and a dedicated section for young people. We hope this will provide a one stop shop for families who can now navigate more easily between the Local Offer and services for all families. As part of the development of the new site we have been able to make some changes to the Local Offer; some of the changes are a result of feedback and suggestions for improvement received about the Local Offer website since its launch in 2015. AfC worked with parent representatives and young people through the SEND Local Offer Development Group to influence the new design of the overall new site and in designing new features. Young people were very involved in the design of the Young People’s section. Other changes include: • Clearer labelling of sections on the site • Improved searching of events in a “What’s On” calendar • Quick links to key information such as the Golden Binder • Feedback faces on every page • Linking of organisations to events in the What’s On section – Express CIC for example • Improved search results screens • Search categories on new articles • Extra accessibility features such as text to speech ( this may depend on your browser)· Changes to the registration feature to allow reminders to be set for events We have prepared some guidance to using the new Local Offer which we hope you will find useful. See here: https://www.afcinfo.org.uk/pages/local-offer/information-and-advice/find-out-more-aboutthe-local-offer/how-to-use-the-local-offer-website Please take a look at the new website and Local Offer and let us know your thoughts.” Karen Lowry - AfCinfo/SEND Local Offer Website Manager T: 020 8547 6541 E: karen.lowry@achievingforchildren.org.uk
Wiki’s The contract that Achieving for Children (AfC) has with RIX Media for wikis in Kingston and Richmond has come to an end. Whilst wikis have been used with some success in special schools (in particular Strathmore), as part of person centred planning and reviews, the take up by individual families has not been high. Given the demands on our SEND budget, we are having to take a close look at any non-essential expenditure, and having taken into account the views of parent representative groups, we've decided not to request a bulk renewal of licences. Strathmore School are negotiating separately with RIX Media to renew wikis held by their pupils. We have already done an internal review of wikis. Where it is obvious that wikis have been requested but not accessed we have closed them already. I am writing to all other owners of active wikis to let you know what your options are: • You have a wiki but are happy to let it be deleted - do nothing • You have a wiki, are happy for it to be deleted but would like to keep a copy of the contents - it is now possible to download the contents as a pdf. Log on to your wiki before 30 July to do this. • You have a wiki and would like to keep it live - let us know and we will come back to you with options for doing this. Please let us know by Monday 10th July if this is your preference. If we don't hear back from you, existing wikis will be withdrawn and content securely deleted with effect from 30th July.” Please contact Karen if you have any questions: T: 020 8547 6541 E: karen.lowry@achievingforchildren.org.uk
@SENDFamilyVoice A busy week again on Twitter - please do sign up and follow us. A few interesting links below: ASD & accessing after school activities http://ablogaboutraisingmyautisticson.com/how-can-autistic-children-access-after-schoolactivities/ London' first secure dating site for adults with learning disabilities https://www.learningdisabilitytoday.co.uk/right-to-relationships The scale of vulnerability in CYP: new report out from the Children's Commissioner https://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/publication/childrens-commissioners-report-onvulnerability/ How does a Tribunal assess school suitability http://www.hcbgroup.com/site/blog/education_blog/how-is-school-suitability-assessed She is not a spoilt brat: she is a child with serious food aversions https://faithmummy.wordpress.com/2017/07/01/she-is-not-a-spoil-brat-she-is-a-child-withserious-food-aversions/amp/ How does a school decide if it can meet the needs of a child with SEND?
https://www.mummytimestwo.com/3045/how-does-a-school-decide-if-they-can-meet-theneeds-of-a-student-withsend/?utm_content=bufferc740d&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_cam paign=buffer New film on an ASD swim team http://abcnews.go.com/amp/Health/swim-team-teens-autism-finding-joy-acceptancewater/story?id=48506354
Holiday reading…? OK – maybe not. But should you need it, here is the SEND Code of Practice… free on Kindle: “Now updated for 2016/17, this is the comprehensive guide to the Special Educational Needs & Disability Code of Practice 2014 and new SEN framework, which came into force in September 2014.” https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00N2TYKJI/ref=as_li_ss_sm_fb_gb_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&c amp=3194&creative=24814&creativeASIN=B00N2TYKJI&linkCode=shr&tag=thespeparshan21&psc=1&refRID=P8ZSY5XP3G3MZSBWVS1D
Going to University – the Disabled Students Allowance (DSA) If you your young person is off to university, then an Education, Health & Care Plan (EHC Plan) no longer applies. Instead, the student applies for the DSA. A helpful article from Special Needs Jungle: https://www.specialneedsjungle.com/going-uni-disabled-students-allowance-assessment/ As ever, if you have any queries at all, please ask and we'll always do our best to find an answer. With best wishes, Caroline North (for Kingston) and Romany (for Richmond) Phone: 07469 746 145 www.sendfamilyvoices.org