Kingston Parent Carer Informer

Co-production Update

One of the main roles of the Kingston Parent Carer Forum is to work closely with the Local Authority and service providers on projects that affect our children and young people. The aim is to use a co-production model to ensure your voice is always part of services.

• Thank you so much to 120 local families who joined us for the SEN Fun Day at Chessington Resort. It looked like the children all had a lot of fun and thank you to the parents who provided us some great feedback about what the PCF should priortise. (See below for what we are working on)

• Following on from our SEND Review Special issue newsletter, we are asking parent/carers to reflect on their experience of mediation services. The Review is proposing that everyone will have to access mediation if they appeal a decision: do you think this will work? In addition we want to know how we can work with the decision-makers to make sure our voice is heard. Please do complete our survey so we can send in our response to the consultation on 22nd July.

 You can find the full minutes to our fortnightly meetings published here on our website. https://kingstonpcf.co.uk/news/minutes/ 

Consortium Meeting update

Achieving for Children (AFC) SEND Futures Programme Director, Ashley Whittaker chairs a monthly consortium for parents and carers to discuss ongoing projects and it is a place to raise issues directly with those in a position to make changes and answer questions.

• Matthew Paul, from School Place Planning gave an update about Springfield School which is due to open in September 2023. The modular build design has been agreed and the successful bidder for the curriculum was Ambitious about Autism. The Department for Education (DFE) are project managing the development, Achieving for Children involvement has been around running the bidding process for the new school provider.
  • Based on this information, Beverley Pass, Chair of the forum has impressed on AFC parents need to be involved with the setting up of the school from an early stage. 
  • A specific question was raised about the criteria for the children who would be considered eligible to attend the school. Ambitious about Autism are still finalising the exact profile of admissions. In other areas the students were low to moderate needs students with Autism. However at the outset of this project we had been informed the school would be for moderate and complex needs. At the moment, Ambitious about Autism have confirmed that the criteria will not be the same as other schools they run, but that this is still to be agreed.
  • Members of the forum stated that parents would need these criteria to be very clear and expect to be involved in setting these criteria. We have expressed an interest in setting up relationships and working links with Ambitious About Autism and the project management team from the DFE.

• AFC are embarking on a piece of work to reclassify banding of need for children who receive support via an EHCP. Currently schools have their own system so that there is differences between the schools in the area. This work will aim to create fifteen categories which will be the same for all schools
  • We expressed the view that parent/carer engagement is essential in developing this banding. Particularly as parents may have concerns that it will have an impact on funding available to support their child. Currently they are running a pilot with 400 anonymised EHCPs to reflect on these categories.
  • To get an overview of the project, please see the minutes and presentation on the AFC website.

• Finally, there is a plan in the works to open up Bedelsford School Hydrotherapy Pool for public use: the Short Breaks team are working on the practicalities but this will be a valuable addition to the Local Offer.

What we have learnt: How We Can Help You

Thank you so much to the families who gave us feedback at the SEN Fun Day. One question we asked was that you tell us how to help you, and also what the PCF's priorities sould be. We will be making sure that the issues raised will for our priorities as a PCF at a strategic level. However in the meantime, we hope you will keep this email to have in one place some key contacts. You can also keep an eye on our Facebook in the next few weeks where we will share lots more suggestions.

What we have read

Our most popular links on our Facebook over the last few weeks are here:

Thank you to all the wonderful families that joined us for our Funday! Some photos from the event :

https://www.facebook.com/100057207649688/posts/pfbid0e41sByCxShjP5SKWjHmf71RpRUgc9cvmwcqy2V6dDjfzgERrjteLex2pPgD5zkoal/?d=n

A message from our friends at The Holly Lodge : FREE pop up activities for SEND children on 24th & 25th August :

https://www.facebook.com/100057207649688/posts/pfbid02JikjuC5oHJNsMETpCWuGvEkKJhs1PtYs8KhvgB3MLwaUGJYe5jqEEJFH24286HVel/?d=n

Christine McGuinness to front BBC documentary about autism in women and girls: https://www.facebook.com/100057207649688/posts/pfbid02UiswMmEcnBiRehsjLo8jQ1dNFSbz8fFkUBrcJz5YgtBYnTJEuzWUR1MY5SZ8mMv8l/?d=n

Our friends at TAG Youth Club are hosting a Fun Day on Saturday 27th August:

https://www.facebook.com/100057207649688/posts/pfbid02gkx2oyrw5gHFM1Aj1BCSMBSoKSddiSaj9nA1HEY7N24NwRWwdTcGHbqespQYFQFKl/?d=n

Coming Up

Don't miss the SEND Futures Conference in October

You Can Help! 

We are looking for more members for our Steering Committee and there are always projects that we need more parent and carer voices so get in touch if you can help - help@kingstonpcf.co.uk Learn more about us on our website

Do you find newsletter too jargonny- let us know! We are working to make our update as accessible to everyone!