Our Voice

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07-02-2025 Have your Say on Early Years - survey and events

Enfield Council have asked Families First to help them review Early Years Inclusion Services in Enfield. You can have your say by joining one of the two Zoom sessions on Monday 3rd March at 10 - 11.30 am or 7 - 8.30 pm.

More details (and links to join the sessions) on the flyer here. 

You can also give your view through the survey at: Enfield Parents/Carers Feedback Form 

For the Morning Zoom session join here 

For the evening Evening Zoom session here 

 

04-02-2025 What's On - play and leisure

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 5th January 2025. 

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. 

Some new and/or one-off activities coming up include: 

  • Inclusive table tennis - information here. 
  • Inclusive cricket - information here. 

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.  

Please note that these activities are provided by external providers, not Our Voice, and inclusion in this guide should not be taken as our endorsement of any particular provider. 

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 

30-01-2025 Have your say - important survey seeking views re national consultations

Please give us your views!

As you may know, Our Voice is part of the National Network of Parent Carer forums (NNPCF) London Region, and we feed in parents views regionally and nationally to ensure that the voices of Enfield families are heard in all these national conversations. 

 

In the last few weeks there has been a huge focus on SEND on a national level including a number of reports, research papers and consultations that NNPCF have been responding to on behalf of parent carers.  You can find out more about all the different reports and consultations, and why we have chosen the questions in the survey,  in the presentation here and there is further information on the NNPCF, News page.

In order to respond to live consultations on behalf of the London Region and obtain parent carer views on some themes that we see emerging nationally we’ve created a ‘catch all’ survey, and would really appreciate it if you could take some time to tell us about your views and experiences so we can make sure that these are included. 

You can access the survey here https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/LondonPCF2025

 

We’re asking for responses by the 5th February 2025 so that we can submit a regional response to the Solving the SEND Crisis Inquiry Call for Evidence and create a supplementary regional report for the Law Commission Review of Disabled Children’s Social Care.  We have included questions that correlate to the Local Area SEND Inspection process.   This will help us to support individual Forums when preparing for an inspection and provide some helpful context to the inspection judgements across the region.

30-01-2025 Independent Travel Training

The First Route Scheme supports access to public transport for young adults and adults with learning disabilities. It is aimed at those who travel independently, could travel independently or those who use, or could use, public transport with support. 

The scheme was set up by Enfield Council in partnership with the Metropolitan Police, Transport for London and Arriva buses, to help support individuals who were not confident with using public transport, including young adults before they transition to adult services and adults with a learning disability.

Their sessions take place on the first Thursday of each month and give an opportunity for individuals to gain confidence to travel independently and safely, including looking at the kinds of scenarios that they could encounter on public transport. There are morning sessions from 10.30 am to 12 noon and afternoon sessions from 1 pm to 2.30 pm. 

The current dates are Thursday 6th February, 6th March, 3rd April and 1st May. 

More details are on: 

Poster for First Route Independent Travel training 

Bus Day factsheet

More details about the development and aims of the scheme here

The meeting point is Edmonton Green Bus Station – Sessions start at 10:30am or 1pm and last for 1 and a half hours

To book or for further information please contact Claire Fenwick, Team Leader, Community Link Edmonton Tel: 020 8132 1476 email: Claire.Fenwick@enfield.gov.uk

24-01-2025 Preparing for adulthood

If your child has an EHCP and is now in year 9 or above, it is important to start thinking about what will happen when they get to the age of 16 and become legally responsible for making their own decisions, and perhaps start to think about their future in terms of getting a job or living more independently. We know that this can be a worrying time for parents and carers, and it is important to start thinking about the transition as early as possible so that you will be well-informed and ready to support your young person through the changes.

The Local Authority's Preparing for Adulthood booklet is a key document to help you understand the process and support. You can see this booklet on the Local Offer here and there is an easy-read booklet here and additional information about the process here

We recommend that you should attend as many of the Preparing for Adulthood online events as you can. It is worth starting as soon as possible and you may wish to repeat some of the sessions over the next few years.

Preparing for Adulthood events

Full details of the Preparing for Adulthood sessions are available here.

The next session will be:

Getting a Home

Date: Friday 7th February 2025
Time: 10:30am to 12:30pm

At this event you will find out about: 

  • what care and support is available to help a young person live more independently
  • what the accommodation options are for supported or independent living
  • how new technology can help people to live more independently in their own properties
  • how Vincent House, our transition flats, give young people the opportunity to experience living independently and to learn new skills and grow in confidence
  • how we make sure that young people’s emotional well-being is considered and that they have social networks and friends
  • how we support young people to stay safe

Wills and trusts

Date: Friday 28 February 2025
Time: 10:30am to 12:30pm

Parents often worry about what will happen when they are no longer here to care for their loved ones. This event provides you with general information on the topic of Wills, Trusts and Lasting Power of Attorney. Also, you will be given information about the following:

  • What are the different types of Wills and which is best for you
  • Probate and choosing your Executors wisely
  • Ensuring Lasting Power of Attorney documents are in place and fully understood
  • Dealing with vulnerable beneficiaries

These events are part of a series about different aspects of the Preparing for Adulthood process. If you have been unable to attend a session, the presentations will be added to the Local Offer Preparing for Adulthood page here shortly after each session. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to see links to each presentation. 

Sessions are held online or at the Integrated Learning Disability Service, Carnegie Building, 258a Hertford Road, Enfield, EN3 5BN. 

Drop in sessions

On the first Friday of every month, parents and carers of young people aged 16 and over can join the monthly drop-in sessions 10 am - 12 pm at the Integrated Learning Disability Service in Hertford Road, where you can talk to a member of the ILDS team, and Jane Richards from Families in Transition to Adulthood. More information on the flyer here. The next session will be Friday 7th February (please note there is NO session on 3rd January). If you would like to attend please book an appointment by noon on the previous day. If this day does not work for you, please contact Jane to discuss an alternative timing.

You are welcome to bring your young person along with you. 

23-01-2025 Free audiobooks for children and young people with SEND

Calibre Audio is a national charity which provides free audiobooks to children and young people under 25 years with SEND. The service makes books and stories accessible to children who find reading print difficult. 

Audiobooks can be accessed via digital streaming or a USB postal service. 

For information please see the two flyers: 

Free audiobooks for children 

Free audiobooks for under-25s

 

13-01-2025 Positive Behaviour Support

Our Voice are currently running a series of Positive Behaviour Support sessions, held jointly with the Joint Service for Disabled Children (the Cheviots team): 

  • The next in our series of Introduction to Positive Behaviour Support workshop sessions will be on Wednesday 12th February 10 am to 12 pm at Cheviots Children's Centre. Please book your place via Eventbrite here. See our events page and our flyer for more details. 
  • You can see the presentation from our previous sessions here. 
  • Positive Behaviour support drop-in sessions where you can discuss individual questions relating to your child/young person's behaviour.  The next sessions take place on 7th February and 7th March. See our events page and the flyer for more details. 

Please note - it will normally be possible for Cheviots to provide creche facilities and/or a translator for any of these sessions. Please give as much notice as possible if you need either of these. 

17-12-2024 What's On this Christmas 24

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

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 hereThere is additional information about the playschemes on the Local Offer here.

We know that Christmas can often be a very challenging time for the families of children with additional needs and we thought some of you might find this Christmas Sensory Survival Kit and these Christmas Tips for Autistic People and their families (from the National Autistic Society) useful. 

28-11-2024 Wills and Trusts

We recently held two 'Wills and Trusts' events with Estate Planning Solutions. 

You can see the presentation from both sessions here

If you would like to book a 1:1 appointment with Estate Planning Solutions please email us at info@ourvoiceenfield.org.uk confirming that you give your consent for us to share your details with them. 

You might also be interested in the Wills and Trusts session which will be run by the Local Authority as part of their 'Preparing for Adulthood' series of events on 28th February 2025 - see details here. 

27-11-2024 Emotional Wellbeing and your child

Our latest parents' conference 'Emotional Wellbeing and Your Child' took place on Tuesday 19th November. 

We produced an information pack to accompany this event which you can see here. The pack includes: 

  • An overview of the agenda
  • Introduction to Our Voice 
  • Introduction to the Educational Psychology Service
  • Introduction to My Young Minds Enfield (MYME) 
  • Who's Who at the Conference 

Resources from the event

As promised we have added resources from the event: 

Q&A from the panel session. 

Useful resources and links 

The presentation from MYME - Top Tips for supporting your child with their worries and fears

You can see more information about the event here 

Other useful information

The Enfield Psychology Service (EPS) offers a telephone support line which gives parents and carers an opportunity to talk to a member of the EPS team about any concerns they might have in relation to their child. See the flyer at https://www.enfield.gov.uk/educationalpsychologyservice/telephone-support-line-for-parents-and-carers

You can either request a call using the link on the flyer, or by phoning 0208 379 2000.