News
13-02-2026 Transforming Children's Social Care
Overview
Children's Social Care is changing.
What is happening:
- The Government wants to make children's social care better: Supporting families earlier, before problems get worse
- Creating stronger multi-agency teams that work together to keep children safe.
Why is this changing?
- To give every child a safe and secure start in life
- Better chances to achieve and thrive.
What will change in Enfield?
- A new Family Help Service will be created using existing universal and community-based early help offer.
- Early help professionals and social workers will work together in one team.
- One single family assessment and one plan instead of multiple referrals.
New Multi-Agency Child Protection Teams (MACPTs)
- These teams will include: social workers, police, health professionals, education professionals.
- Work together to investigate statutory child protection and interventions
- Make joint decisions quickly and fairly
- Provide local expert support.
Support for Parents and Families
- Families will have meetings early on to help plan what changes are needed
- Parents will be offered an independent advocate to explain things and support them at the point of an investigation being initiated.
Benefits for Children and Families
- Help will come earlier and feel less stressful.
- Professionals like social workers, mental health workers, and domestic abuse experts will work together to support and address the diverse needs of families
- One lead worker will support each family
- Fewer handovers between different services.
- Families will understand the process better with the help of an advocate.
- Families will help create and agree their own support plan.
- Stronger relationships between lead workers and families.
This information is explained in an Easy-Read format in 'Children's Services are Changing: Easy-Read'
Update from the Our Voice Parents' Conference - Children's Social Care: How does it help our Children: Mon 15th Dec
On Monday 15th December, Our Voice ran an event for parents in conjunction with the Local Authority and Health, exploring the issues around Social Care for children and young people with additional needs.
You can see resources from the conference below, including our Q&A from the event.
- Social Care Families First Reforms presentation
- Audio recording of parents' experiences of the child protection system
- Transition to adult services: What parents have learned presentation
- Preparing for Adulthood booklet
- Information about Preparing for Adulthood, including events available to support you through the transition.
- Q&A from our panel session and 'Social Care Families First Reforms' presentation
Further information and Background
The Government is proposing to transform children’s social care to rebalance the system towards early intervention through family help and strengthened multi-agency child protection.
The aim is to offer every child the best start in life with safety, security, and opportunities to achieve and thrive. This means over the next 12 to 18 months, Enfield’s Children's Social Care will change how they operate and deliver services to local children and families. Key components of this reform include building on the strengths of the existing universal and community-based early help offer, to create an integrated family help service, with early help practitioners and social workers in the same team working to a single assessment and plan. In addition, child protection reform will be introduced by establishing local Multi-Agency Child Protection Teams (MACPTs). These multi-disciplinary teams will include a minimum of social care, police, health, and education professionals making decisions about statutory child protection investigations and interventions, offering a local and accessible centre of expertise. A focus on supporting families through family group decision-making will also be embedded and parents who are undergoing child protection investigations will be offered advocacy.
The Local Authority says that the benefits for children, parents and carers will be:
- Interventions will be more timely and non-stigmatising without the need for multiple referrals or assessments, with one family assessment and plan.
- Professionals from various disciplines, including social workers, alternatively qualified practitioners, mental health specialists, and domestic abuse experts, will collaborate more to address the diverse needs of families.
- One lead practitioner will work with the family, and transfer points between teams and services will reduce.
- Families will understand more fully the child protection process through the independent advocacy service offered at the point of an investigation being initiated.
- Families will be integral to creating and owning the plan for change through early family decision-making meetings at the point of referral.
- Improved parental engagement and positive relationships with lead practitioners.
Further information can be found by reading the government statement Keeping Children Safe, Helping Families Thrive, DfE, November 2024. Your experience and insights are essential in helping shape the future of family services in Enfield. You can share your views and ideas by emailing the Local Authority at: StrategicSocialCare@enfield.gov.uk
The Local Authority and the Department for Education have produced some Easy-Read materials to explain what is happening:
- 'Children's Services are Changing: Easy-Read'
- Children's Social Care National Framework: Easy-Read
- An Illustrated Guide to the Children's Social Care National Framework
- Families First Reforms - Transforming Practice: What will change and what will stay the same
Additional useful information:
The Children's Society has a useful explanation of what Children's Social Care means
09-02-2026 Activities for February Half term 2026
During February 2026 half-term holidays there are a number of inclusive schemes for children and young people, and we will add details to this page as soon as we can. Events we are already aware of include:
- EYPS will be running their Teenscheme for ages 11 - 17 on Monday 16th and Tuesday 17th February - information on their Teenscheme flyer. (Please note that there is an error on the flyer and the dates shown above are correct).
- Slightly outside our area, but open to Enfield Residents 'Community Focus' are running a 'Magazine of Me' two-day creative workshop for ages 10 - 18 with additional needs, on 17th and 18th February from 10:30-15:00 each day at Community Focus, N20 0NR. Each day costs £46.50. Details on their 'Magazine of Me' Flyer.
02-02-2026 One Plan Assessment
Following our conference in December about Social Work Reforms, the Local Authority would like to seek your views about the proposed ‘one assessment and one plan’.
This is a new set of documentation that has been developed for use across all areas of Early Help and Social Care, including things like assessments for short breaks, as part of the transformation of Social Care Services. The vision is that you will only need to tell your family story to Social Care and Early Help once.
There are two documents:
- The 'Single Assessment' will be completed by a Local Authority professional (for example, a social worker or Early Help practitioner) jointly with you and with input from your child/young person as appropriate.
Please email your feedback to Mirjan Dhamo, Head of Service for Disabled Children at mirjan.dhamo@enfield.gov.uk by Friday 13th February.
30-01-2026 Supporting your Neurodivergent Child - a New Resource for parents
NHS North Central London Integrated Care Board (NCL ICB) is launching Supporting Your Neurodivergent Child, a practical guide created by parents and carers, for parents and carers. Originally developed by the Essex Family Forum and Parent Carer Forum in Essex, this resource combines real-life experiences, practical tips, and trusted information from the NHS and national charities. The booklet has been developed as part of the National Partnership for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in schools (PINS) programme funded by the Department for Education (DfE) and supported by NHSE England and the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC).
The guide covers key topics including understanding neurodiversity, early help, the diagnostic process, education and school support, daily life with a neurodivergent child, sensory needs, and social and emotional development. It also provides links to further reading, videos, and blogs, making it easy for families to access the support they need.
The booklet has been adapted to reflect local services across Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey, and Islington and will be available on borough SEND Local Offer websites, parent forum sites as well as hosted on the dedicated Autism and ADHD support pages on the Waiting Room website.
This valuable resource has been created with input from parent carer forum members (including Our Voice) and other partners.
More information about the NHS waiting room is available at News Page: NHS Waiting Room
More information about the PINS project is available here
31-12-2025 Pan-disability football
From Monday, 5th January, PAN Disability Children’s Football sessions for ages 5 to 11 will restart in the new indoor venue at Orchardside School.
Sessions are from 5-6 pm, at Orchardside School, 230 Bullsmoor Lane, Enfield EN1 4RL.
Spaces are limited, so please book ahead at https://book.englandfootball.com/Book/5eb0c61f-76e4-4678-9aa8-123acb1598f9?venue=enfieldtownfccommunitysportsdevelopmentltd
29-12-2025 Could you become a Trustee for Our Voice?
Applications for our current recruitment round for trustees have now officially closed.
However, if you were interested but missed the deadline, please email us to discuss.
Are you a passionate advocate for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and their families?
Do you want to play a pivotal role in helping our organisation to move forward as we become a registered charity?
Then we’d love to hear from you!
Our Voice are currently starting the process of applying to become a Registered Charity (Charitable Incorporated Organisation or CIO).
We are seeking our first three trustees ready for our registration, and to help us ensure the good governance of our organisation once the registration has been completed.
Interested?
1) Please read our attached documents:
- Trustee Information Pack
- Trustee Role Description
- Our Voice constitution (draft version)
- Who are Our Voice and what do we do?
2) Please complete the attached application form (including a personal statement setting
out why you are interested in the role, what skills and experience you bring, and any other
relevant information) and email it to us with your CV (or alternatively a brief summary of
your key relevant experience, including paid or voluntary roles and lived experience)
at info@ourvoiceenfield.org.uk
3) The deadline for applications is Friday, 9th January 26.
4) If you are successful, we will invite you to attend an online interview between 20th and 30th January 2026.
See our recruitment timeline.
18-12-2025 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 19th December 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.
In addition, we usually publish a short 'What's on?' guide during each of the main school holidays, 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 guides, please do let us know - email us at info@ourvoiceenfield.org.uk
Welcome to the PINS Project 2025-2026.
Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools (PINS) is a national programme which brings together health and education workforces and expert parent carers into mainstream primary schools to:
• Help shape whole school SEND provision.
• Provide early interventions at a school level.
• Upskill school staff.
• Support strengthening of partnerships between schools and parent carers.
In the overall aim to improve positive outcomes for neurodivergent children, supporting them to achieve and thrive.
Neurodiversity describes the population as a whole and recognises the diversity of different brains.
Neurotypical describes most of the population, the majority group that experiences and processes the world in the same way.
Neurodivergent describes the minority group that experiences and processes the world in a different way. This may include Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, and Dyspraxia to name a few.
The PINS Project in Enfield will run until March 2026. It will be delivered in 10 Primary Schools in Enfield, as well as continuing with support in the 5 Primary Schools that took part in the 2024-2025 PINS programme.
Our Voice is supporting the delivery of PINS at a strategic level in the local area, through involvement in the local partnership and support to the project delivery team. We are also responsible for delivery of the parent carer engagement activity in all the participating schools.
During the project, we will be:
- Running coffee mornings at all participating schools;
- Offering training and webinars on topics that parent carers have highlighted they need to know about;
- Newsletters, letting parent carers know about what is happening in the project, events and opportunities that they and their families can get involved in;
- Running Peer Disability Training for schools.
Resources from our Parents Networking Day 27th Jan 26
Our most recent large PINS event took place on Tuesday, 27th January at Suffolk's School EN1 3PU and was also live-streamed. There were workshops from CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service, talking about diagnosis and waiting times), SWERRL (who provide wellbeing support within schools) and North Central London Waiting Room (talking about resources for parents), plus exhibitions from ENAS, EASA and other support groups.
Slides for each of the presentations:
London Waiting Room PINS 27.01.2026.pptx
SWERRL presentation Our Voice 27.1.26.pptx
Resources links:
Enfield Early Help For All Strategy
London Waiting Room - Autism and ADHD resources
Enfield National Autistic Society
CAMHS
Georgia Macken: Operational Manager CYP Single Point Of Access
Email: Georgia.macken@nhs.net
SPoA team number: 0208 702 3111
What support should my child receive in school webinar
O On 12th November 25 we ran a webinar on what support children with additional needs should receive in school, as part of what is known as 'Ordinarily Available Provision'. You can see the information from this session on this news page.
Our Parent Carers Survey.
For the 6 participating schools, we really want to hear from all the parents about their experience with their school. There will be two surveys in the project. One which we are conducting at the beginning of the project and one at the end.
If you know your school is participating in PINS, please feel free to take part in our survey at https://forms.gle/g9vPyhATGoxzEEDS9
Get Involved
If you want to get involved in the PINS project, please check out our PINS Get Involved Flyer.
We are hard at work planning events, training and webinars for you, so please come back to check in.
If you would like to receive updates straight to your inbox or phone, you can sign up for the Our Voice mailing list, PINS mailing list (specifically an update about the project and events) and our PINS WhatsApp group. Please email us at PINS.OV.Enfield@outlook.com
2024-2025 PINS Project
30-11-2025 NHS Waiting Room and Autism and ADHD sites
NHS Waiting Room is a comprehensive digital platform that connects you to safe and trusted resources to support your mental health and wellbeing. The website includes clear and detailed information about local mental health support, self-help tools, community services, and more. Waiting Room supports anyone living in North Central London, from young people to adults to parents. Making a free account allows you to create a personalised wellbeing plan, which you can use to journal, track your goals, and support your wellbeing journey.
https://londonwaitingroom.nhs.uk/
NHS Waiting Room – Autism and ADHD site
The new Autism and ADHD site is for children and young people, their families, and professionals in North Central London. This site was co-produced with young people, parent/carers, and professionals across the five North London boroughs, and is a dedicated platform that offers tailored resources, guidance, and support around autism and ADHD. Young people can search for organisations suitable to their needs, and parent/carers can access our live online calendar to look for local events and training sessions.
30-11-2025 National news - what does last week's budget mean for parent carers?
Last week’s budget statement included a number of announcements involving changes in the rules for working age benefits. We have included a short summary of some key points (provided by Contact, the Charity for the families of disabled children) and you can read more on Contact’s website here.
Two-child limit scrapped
The biggest change is the scrapping of the two-child limit for Universal Credit claimants from April 26.
If you claim Universal Credit, you get an additional amount – a “child element” – for each dependent child. However, families haven’t received the element for a third or subsequent child who was born after 6 April 2017. This is the two-child limit. From next April, families will start to receive the child element for their third and subsequent children.
This is a very welcome announcement, which should have a major impact on reducing child poverty within larger families. The government predicts that it could help raise as many as 450,000 children out of poverty.
However, there are concerns that families on Universal Credit with a transitional element may not see any gains in the short term. This is because the extra child payments they get may be deducted from the transitional protection they currently receive.
Universal Credit childcare help
If you get Universal Credit and you work and pay for registered childcare costs, you could receive an extra allowance – a “childcare element” – covering some of your childcare costs.
The government is increasing the maximum amount of childcare costs that can be reimbursed when more than two children are in childcare. The current maximum amount payable for two or more children (£1768.94 per month) will increase by £736.06 per month for each additional child.
Motability tax relief reform
From July 2026, vehicles leased through the Motability Scheme, or equivalent qualifying schemes, will be subject to VAT on any top-up “advance payment” for a more expensive vehicle. Insurance Premium Tax will also apply to vehicles leased through the scheme for the first time.
These changes are likely to make it more expensive for some to lease a Motability vehicle. However, they won’t apply to vehicles designed for, or substantially and permanently adapted for, wheelchair or stretcher users.
Some “premium” car brands are also being removed from the scheme.
Benefits uprating and National Minimum Wage increase
Most working-age benefits will be uprated in line with the September CPI inflation of 3.8% from April 26. The standard element of Universal Credit will be increased by 6%.
The Chancellor also announced that the National Minimum Wage will increase to £12.71 per hour from April. This should also lead to a rise in the Carer’s Allowance earnings limit at the same time.
Health and disability assessments
The Chancellor announced a package of measures to start in April 2026.
These include increasing the DWP’s capacity to carry out Work Capability Assessment (WCA) re-assessments. More Personal Independence Payments (PIP) and work capability assessments will take place face-to-face, but there will be fewer people called for PIP reassessments where there has been no change in their function.
Supported or Temporary Accommodation
The earnings rules will be changed for Housing Benefit and Universal Credit claimants in either supported or temporary accommodation from Autumn 2026. Tenants in these types of tenancy will have more of their earnings disregarded for benefits purposes.
