Wolverhampton Parent Partnership Service

For children and young people aged 7-15 years who have a disability.

No previous experience of swimming required and non swimmers welcome.

Fun and enjoyable sessions with an opportunity to learn to swim, parents and carers can go in the water if they wish.  To be held at Wolverhampton Swimming and Fitness Centre, Planetary Road, Bentley Bridge, Wednesfield, Wolverhampton, WV13 3SW. 

First session Saturday 2nd June 6pm – 7.30pm.  Spaces are limited so please ensure you pre-book.

Please complete an application form which can be accessed via the website at www.wolverhampton.gov.uk/communitydevelopment or call the community development team on  01902 556220 email: community.development@wolverhampton.gov.uk.

The Parent Partnership Service had planned to hold a drop-in session on Wednesday 23rd May.  Unfortunately this has been cancelled.  The team is involved in delivering training for professionals, to help improve the outcomes for children, young people with Special Educational Needs and their families in the city. The conference is on this day and we do not have enough staff to cover both activities.  We feel that it is vital to attend as it provides us with an opportunity to promote the service and improve partnership with parents. Members of our Parent Forum Voice4Parents are also due to attend; to represent parents views. 

We apologise for any inconvenience caused, should you have any concerns please contact us. 

Look out for new dates to follow!

The Queen’s Speech this week (Wednesday 9th May) announced a Children and Families Bill, which will include measures to improve provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities.
 
A statement from the Department for Education (DfE) describes the Children and Families Bill as ‘the biggest reform in 30 years’.  They state that the main elements for children with special educational needs and disabilities are:
• ’Replacing Special Educational Needs (SEN) statements and Learning Disability Assessments (for 16-25 year olds) with a single, simpler 0-25 assessment process and Education, Health and Care Plan from 2014
• Providing statutory protections comparable to those currently associated with a statement of SEN to up to 25 in further education – instead of being cut off a 16
• Requiring that local authorities and health services jointly plan and commission services that children, young people and their families need
• Giving parents or young people the right to a personal budget for their support’
 
The Children and Families Bill will also include measures to strengthen the role of the Children’s Commissioner, allow mothers and fathers to share parental leave, and reform family law to speed up care proceedings. Read the news story at http://www.education.gov.uk/inthenews/inthenews/a00208753/childrens-bill-family-support.

As Strategic Partner CDC is working with the Department for Education and other partners to produce an information bulletin later in May.  This will include further analysis of the likely impact of the Children and Families Bill on disabled children, young people and their families, as well as an update on the work of the SEND Green Paper pathfinders, the delivery partners and the role of the Pathfinder Evaluation team.

Click here to view the summary of the health outcomes consultation

As part of an important new health study the Council for Disabled Children would like to speak to parents of children and young poeple with neurodisabilities about their health, what health outcomes are important to them and how the NHS can measure them.  Click here for further information.

The closing date for a survey on parents/carers views of transition has been extended until May 20th!  If you have a son or daughter with a statement of Special Educational Needs (SEN) in year 10 and above and up to age 24, please complete a the survey online at; https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2NRY69K.  The survey should only take 15 minutes and your views would be really appreciated.  If you do not have access to the internet, please call (01902) 408811 to arrange for a paper copy to be sent out or to fill out over the phone if you would prefer.  Click here for further information.

Charlie Taylor, the Government’s Expert Adviser on Behaviour, has called for a crackdown on primary school absence to make sure it is not a problem later on in life. http://www.education.gov.uk/inthenews/inthenews/a00208179/government-adviser-calls-for-crackdown-on-primary-school-absence

Children’s Minister Sarah Teather has announced funding towards degree-level and specialist training for hundreds of teaching assistants and schools workers through the annual SEN support scholarship programme. http://www.education.gov.uk/inthenews/inthenews/a00208206/sen-scholarship-scheme-launched

OfSTED has designed this guide for parents and carers of children whose school is due for inspection. It gives information on why, how long and when they inspect, and also how parents and carers can share their views.http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/school-inspections-guide-for-parents-and-carers

A reminder about Parent View

Parent View hits the 24,000 mark – More than 24,000 parents and carers have completed the Parent View survey since its launch in October 2011. If you are a parent or carer, you simply need your email address and a password to register on the Parent View website. Once your login has been activated it only takes a few minutes to rate your child’s school against the 12 questions.   To read more and have your say visit http://www.wolvesparentpartnership.org/haveyoursay.php

Sometime ago, we informed you about an inquiry into exclusion from school and encouraged you to give your views.  Dr Maggie Atkinson (Children’s Commissioner) led the Inquiry and an executive summary has now been released.  It can be read by following this link 
http://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/force_download.php?fp=%2Fclient_assets%2Fcp%2Fpublication%2F562%2FOCC_Summary.pdf

Dr Atkinson discovered some good practice during her research but also discovered evidence of “illegal exclusions” where a minority of schools exclude students on an “informal” basis.  It found instances of unrecorded short-term exclusions to allow children to “cool off”, children being coerced into moving schools leaving no record of an exclusion and students being “sent home” and not allowed back into school until after a meeting has taken place with their parents.  There are numerous recommendations in the summary and there will be a second stage to the Inquiry.  We will keep you informed.

If you are a parent or carer of a child with additional needs and would like advice about exclusion from school, please contact the Parent Partnership Service and speak to our Exclusions Caseworker or visit: http://www.wolvesparentpartnership.org/Exclusion_from_school/Introduction.php

A big thank you to everyone who came along to support our event ‘A Parental Journey’ that took place at The Molineux on Monday.  It was a great success.

Over 50 parents and carers joined us for the day and overall feedback has been extremely positive.  The audience heard presentations about local and national developments around special educational needs and disability, how parents have been involved in developments in Wolverhampton and updates about Voice4Parents, our local Parent Forum.  Some of the members of Voice4Parents shared their very personal and moving parental journeys and Jill Wellings (Head of the Special Needs Early Years Service) spoke about the impact parental involvement has made.  Parents and carers watched a play by a group of young adults with learning disabilities and a highlight of the event was a truly wonderful and inspiring talk by Greg Silvester our very own Special Olympic gold medal winner.   Parents and carers were able to take part in a choice of six workshops and some even had relaxation treatments.  After a delicious lunch, there were numerous information stands to peruse from various services and organisations.  A more detailed account of the event will be included in the Summer edition of the newsletter but thank you to all of you who came along and helped to make the day such a great success.   Thank you to Voice4Parents for giving their time to help us plan and deliver such a successful day.  Special thanks must also go to our workshop providers and colleagues from various services who provided information stands over the lunchtime period. 

“On behalf of Voice4Parents I wanted to say a few words about Monday’s parent and carer event.  I am sure other steering group members will agree with me in saying that it was a very enjoyable, informative, emotional and heart-warming day that shows true parental involvement in Wolverhampton.  It was a great opportunity to meet other parents and carers and the feedback I was getting from those I managed to talk to was really positive.  The venue and lunch provided I thought was excellent too!”  Alison Baggs, Chair of Voice4Parents Wolverhampton

Parents can now evaluate the performance of their child’s school on a new website produced by the Government’s education watchdog, Ofsted.  Click here for further details.

Based at Brickkiln Community Centre and designed with the help of our local parent forum Voice4Parents, provides relaxation, fun and play for children and young people with additional needs and their families. Click here for more details.

• Do you have a child with additional needs?
• Are you going through or have you been through the transition process with your son/daughter?
• Would you like to get involved with developing transition arrangements for other Wolverhampton families?

Then we would really like to hear from you!  The Parent Partnership Service is looking for parents and carers  to volunter to join Wolverhampton’s Transition Working Group.  Transition is the term used to describe the move from childhood to adulthood and the planning that takes place to enable this. 

We have made some great strides in transition over recent months and we would like a parent to come on board to help us move things further forward.  We would also expect you to join our parent forum Voice4Parents Wolverhampton so that your involvement is joined up with all of the work taking place on parent participation.  If you are keen to make a difference and work in partnership with other agencies then please  contact us for further information.

The Parent Partnership Service consulted with parents and carers on the Government’s  Green Paper ‘Support and aspiration: A new approach to special educational needs and disability’.  We were overwhelmed with responses from parents via post, e-mail and giving their views in person.  We collated all responses and sent them to the Government.  View the response here.  We await further news on the recently announced ‘Pathfinders’ to test out the new proposals.  To find out more click here.

Join us at our coffee morning to meet others and gain support – click here to find out more