Our Voice

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 15th July 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. 

The Annual Health Check is important for anyone aged 14 and over who is on their doctor’s Learning Disability Register. It is intended to help individuals to stay well by talking to a doctor or nurse about their health to find any problems early, so that they can be sorted out. 

The NHS has a useful page here setting out the key facts about annual health checks including what should happen at the appointment, and there is also a helpful video here.

There is a useful easy-to-read leaflet from Mencap setting out this information which you can use to help your young person to understand what will happen.  

Key points to note:

o   Adults and young people aged 14 and over with a learning disability and who are on the doctor’s practice learning disability register should be invited by their doctor to come for an annual health check.

o   The Learning Disability Register is for individuals of all aged who have a learning disability. It lets staff at the GP practice know that a person has a learning disability and may need reasonable adjustments.

o   If you have not been offered an annual health check you can ask for one. If the doctors practice say no, you can ask your local community learning disability team to help you get one

o   The NHS has to make reasonable adjustments to help disabled people use health services. This could include things like providing information in easy read format, booking longer appointments, allowing a carer to be with you in your appointment, booking you an appointment at a less busy time (if you find it hard to be in a busy waiting room). There is a useful video here.

For more information see the presentation from our recent health conference here.

NDTI have produced a useful toolkit for London GPs showing how they should carry out Annual Health Checks and what should be included - you may find this useful as a tool to ensure that your young person's check is carried out correctly. You can see a copy here. 

Family Fund offers free support to families raising a disabled or seriously ill child(ren).

Discover Digital workshops are free and are here to support parents and carers to use technology and to encourage children and young people to be creative with their devices.

The support that Family Fund provides covers everything from:

• skills workshops on how to use your iPad, from learning about accessibility features, to how to use parental controls.
• creative workshops for the whole family using fun, free apps you can get on your iPad.
• social stories workshops to help parent/carers create quick and personalised social stories from their own home.
• money support workshops to help families maximise their benefit entitlement.

You can see more information in their booklet here. 

You can also find additional information on the Family Fund website.

If you have any questions about the Discover Digital programme or need support signing up for a workshop, the Family Fund team will be happy to chat through this with you. You can also call them on 01904 550066 for more information.

Contacts: 

Rachael and Heather
Email digitalskills@familyfund.org.uk 

Call 01904 550066

The cut off date for applications for travel assistance, or changes to travel assistance, from this September, will be 1st July. Please make sure that you apply by this deadline to ensure that arrangements can be put in place in time for the start of the new academic year. 

Eligibility 

School: You may be eligible for assistance for your child to travel to and from school if it is not reasonable for them to walk to school because of their Special Educational Needs or mobility difficulties and if the Local Authority has not offered a closer school. You can see more details on eligibility on the Local Offer ‘Getting to School Policy’ here.

College and further education: If your young person attends college or further education, applications for travel assistance are considered on an individual basis if the young person has Special Educational Needs, and a disability or mobility problem which affects their ability to walk and needs to travel more than 3 miles from your home to college. See here for more information (please note – you do not need to apply on an annual basis – the Travel Brokers Team have confirmed that the information on the Local Offer is incorrect in this respect and we have asked for it to be changed asap).

Applying for travel assistance or changes to travel assistance

If you need to apply for travel assistance or for a change to existing travel assistance (e.g. if your child is moving to a different school or college, or changing campus, the cut-off date for applications will be on Monday 1^st July. Please make sure that you make your application before this date, to ensure that transport can be put in place ready for the new term.

New applications: Information and the application form for new applications can be found on this page (apply for travel assistance pdf).

Changes to travel arrangements: If you need to make a change to your existing travel arrangements (for example because your child is moving to a different school or college or changing campus) please use the form here. 

No change to arrangements: If your child/young person is already in receipt of travel assistance and they are staying at the same school and campus you do NOT need to make a new application.  

The First Route Travel Training scheme supports access to public transport for young adults and adults with learning disabilities.

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.

The next sessions will be on 6th June, 4th July, 1st August, 5th September, 3rd October, 7th November and 5th December 2024. Sessions are for those who wish to travel independently using public transport. There are morning sessions from 10.30 am to 12 noon and afternoon sessions 1 pm to 2.30 pm. 

More details are on: 

Poster for First Route Independent Travel training 

Bus Day factsheet

More detail about the development and aims of the scheme here

For further information or to book please contact Claire Fenwick on 0208 132 1476 or claire.fenwick@enfield.gov.uk

Our Voice are currently running a series of Positive Behaviour sessions: 

• Introduction to Positive Behaviour Support workshop on 22nd May, 12th June and 26th June. You can see the presentation from this session here. More details are on our events page and the flyer here. 
• Positive Behaviour support drop-in sessions where you can discuss individual questions relating to your child/young person's behaviour. Sessions take place on 7th June, 5th July, 6th September, 4th October, 1st or 8th November (to be confirmed) 6th December, 10th January, 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.  

Enfield's Educational Psychology Service is running a two-part workshop (with either online or face-to-face options) for parents and carers of children and young people who find it hard to attend school for emotional reasons.

The sessions are:

Online on Tuesday 4^th June and Tuesday 18^th June

Face-to-face Monday 10^th June and Thursday 4^th July.

See the flyer here for more details and the link to sign up. 

For any queries please Email eps@enfield.gov.uk

'Positive Co-Parenting of Neurodiverse Children' is an 8-week online facilitated group designed for parents living together or apart who are facing conflicts and struggling to find common ground in raising their neurodiverse child. 

The two courses will run via MS Teams on Tuesdays from 14th May to 9th July from 7 pm to 9 pm or on Wednesdays from 15th May to 10th July from 9.30 am to 11.30 am

Details and QR code to sign up are on the flyer here or call 0204 522 8700 or 0204 522 8699. 

Do you need help for YOU to be healthier and happier in caring for your family?

Our Voice are delighted to be offering our Healthy Parent Carer course to anyone who is the parent-carer of a child or young person with Special Educational Needs or Disabilities who lives or attends school in the London Borough of Enfield. This course has been designed specifically for parent-carers and is about your own well-being – it is not a parenting course or about how to get support for your child.

We are running this course every Tuesday morning from 11^th June until 16^th July, in person at the Craig Park family hub, over 6 weeks, 10 am to 1 pm. The course is run by facilitators who are parent carers themselves.

We will be providing a Turkish-speaking translator for this course, and we particularly welcome Turkish speaking participants, and will give priority to this group.

Please see the attached flyer for more information, or call us on 07516 662315 or Email ourvoice.hpc@outlook.com. You can sign up here. 

For Turkish speaking parents

Flyer in Turkish