Southampton Parent Carer Forum Newsletter Summer 2018

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1 Southampton Parent Carer Forum Newsletter Summer 2018 Welcome to the Summer edition of the forum Newsletter. Time has flown by and we are approaching our 2nd Anniversary! Very exciting times and to celebrate we are holding another Open Day to celebrate. The event will be held on 12th October at the same venue as last year, Portswood Church in Portswood Road, please see attached flyer and don t forget to pop the date in your diary, full details to follow after the summer holidays and not one to be missed. We are a friendly group of parent carers who have children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities aged 0-25 years. We support and train parent carers to enable them to have input and be involved with shaping services alongside the professionals who provide health, education, adult and social services. Our shared mission is to improve and enhance the experiences and opportunities of children and young people with additional needs by enabling parents and carers to be heard and be at the heart of decisions about development and delivery of services in Southampton. The forum will represent the views of the collective community and not an individual voice. The role of the forum is not to advocate for individual families and will signpost to specialist services. The views of parents and carers in the local area are represented by our 18 Steering Group members and 4 parent representatives who are parents and carers who have children with a variety of disabilities and/or special educational needs. In other news, myself and one of our Steering Group Stacey Richards were invited to present at the Annual SENCO Conference on 27th June. It was a fantastic opportunity to share information about the forum and to talk about how the forum and key contacts within schools can work together to make our families journey through the system easier and to strengthen communication channels between families and schools. It was a bit scary as one of the biggest audiences we have presented to but a fantastic experience and we are looking forward to presenting again next year. You can connect with us via Facebook... southamptonparentcarerforum/ Twitter... Or by . clairepritchard@roseroad.org.uk

2 Forum News and Updates Short Breaks Service Consultation work continues around the re-design with Southampton City Council. Southampton City Council have appointed an intern from Southampton University, Noa Hagan for a period of 6 10 weeks and she is tasked with liaising with potential providers and families to provide further feedback for the contract and grant tender process that will start in September that will identify potential providers for the Short Breaks Service starting in April Noa will be visiting various SEN providers/sessions over the summer holidays, if you see her and wish to pass on some feedback please do so and here is her address if you wish to contact her directly Noa.hagan@southampton.gov.uk. As promised, Tammy Marks (SEND Service Manager), Jo Maxwell-Heron and myself posted another Facebook Live video earlier this week. This gave parent carers an opportunity to ask questions about the new service, the transitional offer and any other queries. So far, this has had 1000 views and we are over the moon that this method of communication is working so well. If you missed it or would like to view it again here s the link Another area of work that the forum is involved with is the CAMHS Transformation in the local area. We have regular meetings with the Service and Quality Manager, Chantal Homan and she often asks us to obtain feedback in order for CAMHS to improve and streamline the service. We have been asked to generate a survey for families who have a child or young person with ADHD and who receive medication and support from Southampton CAMHS. If you can spare a few moments, could you please complete the survey to let us know how the medication reviews appointments are working for your family here s the link- SEND Strategic Review The SEND Provision Review, which was undertaken across Southampton and Portsmouth cities, has now been completed. Aiming to identify the future needs of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities, the report presents a number of recommendations and options for how future needs can be met. The findings of the review will now be taken forward by the local authority with the support of partner agencies and parent groups. You can view the document following this link southampton_send_strategic_review_june_2017_-_march_2018.pdf (Please note you may need to copy and paste the above links into your internet browser on your computer) During April and May, the forum held 4 engagement events around the Home to Transport Consultation Feedback that will be used when the consultation starts in the Autumn. Thank you to the families that attended the events and for families that shared feedback. Keep an eye on the Facebook page and mailing list for more information about this consultation. IMPORTANT GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) If you were on our original mailing list and haven t received our new privacy statement and consent request to continue receiving information from us, please let me know and we can send this to you again, we don t want you to lose you! You can me at clairepritchard@roseroad.org.uk. If you have consented, you will have received this newsletter via . A new working group based around the EHCP Annual Review process will start in September 2018 and will include representatives from the Local Authority, local schools, Health and the SENDIASS Service. This will be in a similar format to the current working group based on the EHCP process and recommendations will be made on completion of the work around this. Please find attached some information about local activities (some are not specifically SEND) over the Summer Holidays and information regarding local support and general activities in the area. That s all for now, have a wonderful Summer and see you in September.

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5 For existing members of The Buzz Network Southampton Mencap Playscheme information below

6 Please note The Rose Road Association Bradbury Centre Summer Playscheme is currently fully booked but if you wish to be placed on the waiting list or reserve place list, please see session information below and you will need to complete a booking form and forward to servicesadmin@roseroad.org.uk

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