West Berkshire PCF Newsletter

HI all, Welcome to our Autumn newsletter. Half Term is just around the corner, and at the Forum we are looking forward to our Preparing For Meetings event and Christmas Party. We do hope you can come along to both of these. You can book onto the events further down the newsletter.

We hope you have a fabulous half-term, and please do scroll down as there are some events happening in West Berkshire that might be fun for all the family.

As a Forum we support and train parent carers to enable you to have your voices and opinions count, and to 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 to be at the heart of decisions about development and delivery of services in West Berkshire.

The forum represents the views of the collective community and not an individual voice, we are unable to advocate for individual families, but can signpost to specialist services.

Your opinions are always wanted and valued, and by being a part of the West Berks Parent Carer Forum your voice can be heard. New members are always warmly welcomed, so if you would like to know more come and join us.

- Fiona Worby

What have we been up to?

Hi all,

Wow, we have had a very busy time here in the West Berks Parent Carer Forum attending meetings and holding interesting events, such as the Cerebra Workshop and Confidence Training for our Steering Group members, and so far we have attended the following meetings with local services.

Autism Partnership Board Meeting
Berkshire West Mental Health School Team Meeting
CCG Equipment Task & Finish Group
Multi Agency Review of Annual Reviews
Review of Multi-Agency Representation in the SEND Decision making process

We understand how busy life can be and want to make it easy for as many of you as possible to be involved. Some of the ways you can participate are:

Choose to read our newsletter and feed in to our surveys when you can
Become a parent representative and attend strategic meetings to discuss services within Education, Health and Social Care. We remunerate all our parent representatives with out of pocket expenses and a token payment for your time
Join our steering group and help shape how WBPCF move forward

The Forum is pan disability, and your child doesn’t have to have an ECHP for you to be part of the group, so if you feel any this is of interest to you.

Please email fionaworby@roseroad.org.uk, and I will get back to you.

We thought it would be nice to introduce you to a member of our Steering Group, and this newsletter are very pleased to start with Dawn Baxendale who has taken on the role of Chair.

Hi, I'm Dawn,
I am a busy Mum to 4 children.
Before becoming a mum, I worked as a Quality Assurance Engineer in the aerospace and computer sectors and also delivered Quality Improvement training to the workforce. I hold a Contemporary Studies degree from Hull University and continues to study alongside my children, who I home educate.
In my spare time I enjoy going to the theatre, photography, cooking and travelling.
All 4 of the children are on the spectrum and this creates for a very noisy and busy household.. I became part of the Forum to help bring a voice for home educators , and to have the ability to help influence local and government policy, and shape our local services. I wanted to leave a legacy for my children to see that the voice of the parent/carers can and does make a difference

Upcoming PCF Events

https://wbpcfxmasparty.eventbrite.co.ukWhoo, we are very excited about our Xmas party! Santa will be in his grotto waiting to meet the children, and there will be a craft table, a wine and chocolate tombola, a raffle, and a disco. Do come along, it will be great fun. £5.00 per child which will include food, drink, a visit to Santa and a gift.

https://wbpcfxmasparty.eventbrite.co.uk

What's on in West Berks?

Did you know we are part of West Berkshire Lottery? Please support us by clicking on the image and you could win the Entertainment Bundle!
!https://www.westberkshirelottery.co.uk/support/west-berks-parent-carer-forum

Is your child struggling at school? Parenting Special Children may be able to support you. They are running a mini-project in West Berkshire whereby they can support children living with adopters and kinship carers get the right support at school. This could be around their attachment needs or any other special need.

If you are a family (or you know of a family) who would benefit from this support, please see the flier below for more information or email them on zobia@parentingspecialchildren.co.uk or telephone them on 07557 102623.

DISCLAIMER: West Berkshire Parent Carer Forum (PCF) publishes this newsletter to allow information supplied from a range of organisations to be freely available. Please note that information included in this publication is supplied by the organisations themselves. Whilst West Berkshire PCF uses reasonable effort to ensure accurate and up-to-date information is provided, information and organisers of local societies do change frequently. Therefore West Berkshire PCF cannot guarantee the accuracy of the information provided nor does it assume any liability or give any warranty of any kind for the information contained or omitted from this publication. West Berkshire PCF takes every reasonable step to ensure the validity of the publication but cannot guarantee the quality of services or activities offered. The inclusion of a provider does not imply a recommendation or endorsement by West Berkshire PCF. Parents should make their own enquiries. We understand not all of our information will be relevant to you but do our best to include a wide range of information covering all disabilities, ages and areas.

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West Berkshire Parent Carer Forum · 6 Albury Gardens · Reading, West Berkshire RG31 7ZY · United Kingdom