Our booklet on what's on this May half term can be seen here - full of information on SEND playschemes, leisure activities and days out, in and around the Enfield area.

The Local Authority's booklet on playschemes and activities updated for May 22 is here. 

You can also see a booklet on the ECYPS Teenscheme here.  

A programme of events for the parents/carers of children with communication difficulties who are due to start reception in September 2022. 

The Rising to Reception programme is provided by ECASS (the Enfield Communication Advisory Support Service) and their partners including Our Voice, ENAS and SENDiass. 

Children with communication difficulties can find moving to new schools challenging and this series of events aims to help you prepare for your child to start school. 

You can see more about the programme in this introductory video and the flyer (including booking links) and see here to view the timetable of events and register your interest. 

The next session will be 'Preparing for your child's steps into primary school: A parent perspective' led by ENAS (the Enfield Branch of the National Autistic Society), on Thursday 19th May 9.30 am to 11 am - join via Zoom here.

If you have any questions please email the ECASS team at RisingtoReception@enfield.gov.uk

We recommend you register your interest (using the link above) to receive details of future sessions. 

ECASS (Enfield Communication Advisory Support Service) is running a programme of events for parents and carers of children and young people with communication difficulties. 

For details and the booking links see this flyer. 

The events are: 

Tuesday 10th May - Recognising Behaviour as Communication ages 5-7 - 10 - 11.30 am

Thursday 19th May - Recognising Behaviour as Communication ages 8-11 - 10 - 11.30 am

Tuesday 7th June - Recognising Behaviour as Communication in Secondary school-aged children - 10 - 11.30 am

Monday 4th July - What to do if I am concerned about my child's speech language and communication - 10 - 11.30 am

Thursday 7th July - Independence Skills for children with SLCN 9.30 - 10.30 

Resources to support wellbeing, provide support for children or adults who are anxious, and general support in dealing with the aftermath of two years of pandemic.

The Coronavirus pandemic may be a source of great anxiety both for adults and children, and may be especially difficult for individuals with existing mental health issues or those who find the situation hard to understand. The last two years have been extremely challenging for many of our young people, and for us as parents, and the continuing uncertainties and changes in routine will be difficult for many families to manage. 

If you need someone to talk to you can contact the Samaritans round the clock - telephone 116 123  - and see the flyer here for more information and other ways to contact them. 

Urgent Mental Health Support

Children, young people and their parents can get free help, advice and urgent mental health support from 24/7 telephone lines supported by trained Mental Health practitioners. The Crisis Line for Enfield can be reached on 0800 151 0023. See here for more information, along with details of other sources of support. 

Videos to help you support your child

Our Voice worked with Enfield Educational Psychology service and Mental Health Support teams to produce a set of six videos to help you create a sense of safety, calm, control, connectedness and hope in your child, and to look after your own wellbeing during this pandemic. 

For more information and to view the videos (and links to support materials) see our website here.

General support for children with SEND

The BBC Bitesize SEND Toolkit includes a wide range of resources for supporting children with special needs and disabilities (as well as home learning support and fun activities) with managing emotions, keeping calm, mindfulness and Mental Health support. 

Educational Psychology Service Family Telephone support line

If you would like help and advice with supporting your child's emotional wellbeing and mental health (or your own) or managing behaviour at home you can contact the Enfield Educational Psychology Service's Family Support Helpline. The helpline also provides help with supporting your child's learning at home, concerns about their general learning, development or well-being, access to information and resources and signposting to other services. 

The Good Thinking Guide

The Good Thinking Guide produced by the Health London Partnership contains useful resources for managing your own wellbeing and that of your children, including dealing with anxiety, stress, sleep problems and low mood. It includes information about a variety of resources available including helplines and apps which you may find useful.   

A collection of top resources to do with your kids and help them manage their wellbeing here. 

The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS)

CAMHS have a variety of useful resources which you can download from their website. These include guides, apps and website links for parents, younger and older children and young people. 

They have a wide range of different resources and tools for parents or carers and children. Topics include anxiety, self-esteem issues, self-harm, sleep, building resilience, managing stress, positive parenting, ADHD, controlling anger, Autism, problem-solving managing emotions and melt-downs, depression, adolescence, online safety, OCD, eating disorders,  Tourettes, supporting children when someone close has a terminal illness or dies, Pathological Demand Avoidance and mindful colouring. 

Thrive Enfield

Thrive Enfield have created a variety of different guides to help support parents, children and young people including Wellbeing support - how to look after yourself and your children

Healthy Enfield

Healthy Enfield has a useful Mental Health and wellbeing section which has a variety of tips and resources to support your mental health including Are you OK? - a guide to your mental health during Coronavirus.  

Children's Mental Health week resources

The website for Children's Mental Health week (7th- 12th February 2022) has a section for parents and carers here, which contains a useful selection of resources for supporting your child's mental health and helping them to express themselves, which you may find useful. It includes games and activities to do with your child, like the 'Squiggle game' and 'Draw your feelings' as well as a section on other resources which you may find useful. 

Mental Health Support for young people 

Kooth is a web-based confidential support service available for young people which provides a safe and secure means of accessing mental health and wellbeing support. Kooth offers young people the opportunity to have a text-based conversation with a qualified counsellor, available 12 noon to 10 pm weekdays and 6 pm to 10 pm at weekends, on a drop-in basis. Young people can access regular booked online counselling sessions as needed. Outside hours young people can message the team and get support by the next day. 

Resources from the Mental Health Foundation

The Mental Health Foundation has some useful general resources for supporting your mental health including: 

How to look after your Mental Health

How to overcome fear and anxiety

How to look after your Mental Health Using Mindfulness

How to sleep better 

Look after your Mental Health using exercise 

Other resources 

Play is a great way for children to deal with their emotions and manage stress and worry. This short film on the value of play has been created by the British Psychology Society/Division of Educational and Child Psychology.  

See our guide to activities and playschemes during the Easter holidays here and the Local Authority's booklet on playschemes and activities here. 

The Easter Holiday Activities and Food programme provides free activities and food for children in receipt of benefit related free school meals. See the booklet here. This is not a SEND-Specific programme so please talk to individual providers about your child's specific additional needs. 

The Our Voice 'Meet the SEND Heads' parents conference is the most important event in our calendar. 

On 11th March 2022, we held our sixth annual 'Meet the SEND Heads' event with an online Q&A panel session. 

We were joined by the Heads (or their representatives) of: 

• SEN Services
• Social Care/Short Breaks/Joint Service for Disabled Children
• Education
• Educational Psychology Service (EPS) 
• CAMHS/SCAN
• Health (including Speech and Language, OT, Physio)
• ILDS (Integrated Learning Disability Service)
• Early Years
• Transport and Travel Brokers 
• EASA (Enfield Advisory Service for Autism) 

Before the event, we published updates from the different LA / Health Areas which you can see in this pack here. 

Following the event, we have collated the questions and answers from the session, along with many of those which were asked before or during the session and which we didn't have time to address. You can see the full Q&A here (updated version at 30.3.22) and the additional structure/contact chart from SEN Services here. 

 Enfield's Local Authority have developed a new draft SEND Strategy which you can see here and there is an easy-read version here.

They know that your experiences as parents and wealth of information concerning SEND are very valuable and would like your feedback on the draft strategy. 

Please give your views by completing the short survey here by 5pm on Tuesday 22nd March. 

The Local Authority is setting up participation groups to give children and young people with SEND. living in Enfield, an opportunity to have a say in matters that affect them. 

The LA ran a competition to choose the name of the squads, and the judging panel (made up of Managers and Directors from Enfield Council, parent representatives and young people from the Bell Lane SEND youth club), have voted for 'All about us' to be the name of these participation squads. 

The  'All about us' groups will act as focus groups that the Joint Service for Disabled Children and other Council Officers can work with to get young people's views. 

The Local Authority would now like to give young people the opportunity to design the logo for the 'All about Us' groups. Entries should be sent to Alasdair.Gillies@enfield.gov.uk for the chance to win a £50 Amazon voucher. 

BILD is providing a series of small group support sessions via Zoom for family carers of people with learning disabilities, on Positive Behaviour Support (PBS).

The sessions are co-facilitated by BILD's PBS Consultants, and family carers who have trained to become PBS Peer Educators and will provide targeted coaching and strategies for providing Positive Behaviour Support to improve the quality of life for the individual with learning disabilities and those around them. 

Details of all the sessions during February and March are on the flyer

You can book to attend any of the sessions here. 

For information on events and activities for children and young people with SEND this February half-term, see our booklet here.    (last updated 13.2.22)     

All information is correct to the best of our knowledge but please do check with individual providers first. 

Additional information 

Information about ECYPS teenscheme flyer here and additional information here