Better Leisure, who now run Enfield’s Leisure Centres, are offering a discounted membership for unpaid carers. The membership offer will run from 1st April -14th May and provide anytime access to a Better leisure facility at the discounted rate of £30 per month. This includes access to the gym, swimming, fitness class classes and the health suite.  This promotion is available for anyone in receipt of Carer’s allowance or members of Carers UK. If you are not already a member you can sign up for free membership at Become a free member | Carers UK  Membership join link for the Better Leisure discounted membership: https://www.better.org.uk/join-membership

In addition, they are holding two free welcome days on 27th April

• Southbury Leisure Centre (11.30 am to 3.30 pm) - see the flyer here
• Southgate Leisure Centre (2 - 4.30 pm) - see the flyer here

Throughout April Carers UK will also provide a range of online physical activity sessions and information on staying active.

Our latest 'What's On this Easter' guide has information on a variety of SEND-specific and accessible events, activities and over-the-school Easter holidays. 

Don't forget to also have a look at our general 'What's on- Play and Leisure in and around Enfield' Guide here which is regularly updated with ongoing SEND-specific and inclusive events (please note that some of these are term-time only, so if you are planning to go along to anything, please check first). 

The information in the booklet is correct (to the best of our knowledge) at the time of writing, but please do check with the individual venues and schemes, and please bear in mind that many activities and events must be pre-booked. 

The Local Authority's most recent booklet on playschemes for the school holidays is available here and there is additional information about the playschemes on the Local Offer here. 

We're pleased to announce that we are now signing people up for our next Healthy Parent Carer courses which will be running in -person at the Craig Park Family hub from 10 am to 1 pm for 6 weeks. The options are:

• Every Tuesday morning from 16th April until 21st May: with the option to have translation into Somali
• Every Friday morning from 19th April until 24th May: with the option to have translation into Bengali 
• Every Tuesday morning from 11th June until 16th July: with the option to have translation into Turkish

This is not a parenting course, or about how you can get support for your child/young person - it is about your own well-being and will be run for small groups by trained facilitators who are also parent carers and understand the challenges. 

Please see the flyer here for full details of the course, what it is about and who it is for. 

If you speak Somali please see the flyer here

If you speak Bengali please see the flyer here

Flyer in Turkish to be added after the Easter break. 

If you are interested in attending the course please click on the link here to complete the short form as soon as you can,  so that we can get back to you before the School holidays. 

Places will be allocated once we have had an initial discussion with you to make sure that the course will work for you and you are happy to commit. 

There are only a limited number of places on each course so don't delay! 

Our guide to What's On - Play and Leisure in and around Enfield has lots of information on local SEND-specific and inclusive activities in and around the area (including some days out in Central London and further afield). The guide was last updated on 16th March 24. 

This guide focuses on ongoing term-time activities (although some continue during school holidays), and will be regularly updated with the latest activities and dates, so do check back regularly. We will also let you know about relevant one-off events via our weekly updates to members - please join our mailing list to receive these, if you haven't already done so. 

In addition, we usually publish a short 'What's on?' guide during each school holiday, featuring information about specific activities during the next holiday period.  

If you know about any relevant local, accessible activities that aren't included in our guide, please do let us know - email us at info@ourvoiceenfield.org.uk 

During the school holidays, there will be SEND cycling sessions at Firs Farm Wetlands Park on Tuesday 2^nd April and Tuesday 9^th April – see the flyer here for details.

There is also a community hub café which has fully accessible toilet facilities with a hoist and changing bed.

'Our Voice Presents: Get to know Health and Therapies' - the third in our series of ‘Our Voice presents.... ’ events, took place on Wednesday 13th March 

Following the success of our annual ‘Meet the SEND Heads’ parents’ conference, which has now been running for seven years, we know that parents would like to have more time to focus on specific areas in more depth. In this mini-conference event, we were joined by key professionals from across Health and Therapies.

Our Voice, and the Services involved in the event have produced some related information and resources. Additional items will be added to this page over the next 2 weeks. 

• A list of our panellists for the Q&A session
• Updates from the services here
• Transition from CAMHS to Adult Mental Health Booklet here
• Invitation for young people aged 17 -25 to be involved in developing a Young Adult Mental Health Pathway here
• Presentation from the workshop 'What you need to know about the GP Learning Disability Register and Annual Health Checks'. 
• Presentation from the workshop 'Making a connection with your child'
• Contact points for all the services at the conference - to be added shortly.
• Q&A from the panel session to be added shortly. 

The event will be from 10 am to 12.30 pm on Wednesday 13th March, at Park Avenue Disability Centre in Bush Hill Park. 

Further details of the event are in our flyer here, our detailed information brochure here and the flyer for the 'Building a Connection with your Child' workshop here. 

At our regular drop-in session at the Ponders End Youth and Family Hub on 20th February, we were delighted to be joined by Tim Webb of Enfield's SENDIASS (Special Educational Needs and Disability Information Advice and Support Service. 

Tim gave us a useful overview of the services that SENDIAS provide. You can see his presentation here. 

We've put together a short round-up of some of the social activities, coffee mornings and support groups for parents and carers of children and young people with additional needs. You can see the guide here (last updated 3rd March 24). 

We know that being the parent/carer of a child or young person with a Disability or Special Educational Need can be isolating, and hope that some of these activities will be useful in giving you opportunities to talk to other parents facing similar issues. 

Our latest newsletter for Spring 2024 is out now - see a copy here. 

All the latest information on what Our Voice have been doing and our plans for the next year, plus updates from many of the Local Authority and Health Services. 

We're delighted to announce that booking is now open for our first-ever event for young people with additional needs aged 14 – 25.

You have been telling us for some time that whilst you love our family parties for younger children, some of your teenagers/young adults, would really welcome an event just for them.

We are planning our event on Saturday 17th February 6 -8 pm at the Ponders End Youth Club.

See the poster here. 

Numbers are very strictly limited and all places must be pre-booked via Eventbrite.

Parents/carers will be expected to remain in the building but will be in a separate area to the young people so everyone can relax!

We have lots of fun activities planned for the young people including a disco, photobooth, popcorn and candyfloss machines, slushies and pizza.

Coffee, tea and biscuits for parents and carers, and a chance to chat with other parents and some of the Our Voice team.

Book here.