Newsletter November 10th
Most recent newsletter with news of events, and opportunities for you to have your say and share your experiences.
Get involved...
Your Voice Matters.
See our newsletter for opportunities to have your say, meet with professionals and meet with others going through similar journeys.
Newsletter published October 5th
Including Autism and ADHD diagnosis process
We hold termly listening events for parent carers with CAMHS. The feedback parents have given has helped CAMHS to evidence the need for a new role in their service. Head to the Events page to sign up for our next CAMHS Listening Event.
We meet regularly with CAMHS to contribute parent carer voice ‘working together to make things better’.
We are engaging with an expanding Wellbeing in Mind team in York. This team will bring mental health professionals and expertise into schools to support young people’s mental health at an earlier stage.
We have worked together with CYC and schools to create a document outlining the type of support that can be expected from all schools and colleges in York for children who struggle at school. This document can be used by parents and schools to open conversations about support for a child.
A new document gives guidelines to schools and parents on how schools can meet the needs of students who are struggling to attend school. This document has been informed by parent voice. Comments on drafts were made by parents at a Listening Event and in meetings, and lived experiences were shared with professionals.
Link to this document coming soon.
We represented parents and carers at York Attendance Summit. There are a few key projects about to start looking at creating a supportive and neurodivergent friendly culture to enable our young people to attend school. The PCF will be involved in these projects to represent your views.
We have been working with City of York Council (CYC) on their new Local Offer website – a user friendly way to find out what support is available.
We have been involved in the creation of Raise York - the new family hub approach for any support you might need bringing up children - health, education, social care, financial, wellbeing. They have a website coming soon but in the meantime click here for more information.
The PCF attended a training day on EHCPs alongside CYC and health professionals. We will be organising training for parent carers on how they can best portray their child’s voice and wishes to help result in a meaningful EHCP. CYC and health have committed to training for professionals on the same.
We recently held a listening event Q&A on SEND Law with specialist SEND solicitor Thomas Emmett from Birkett Long Solicitors.
You can get advice on EHCPs and Annual Reviews from York's Local Offer, York SENDIASS and IPSEA.
We held a wellbeing conference together with Parent Carer Voice North Yorkshire. Specialists came in to talk to parents on sleep and different wellbeing practices. We provided books on 'The Emotional Wellbeing in Parents of Disabled Children' by Joanna Griffin (psychologist and parent carer) and hope to arrange an online session for parents who were unable to attend the conference. Parents fed back that this conference had really helped their wellbeing and requested more...so watch this space!
We held a listening event for information on benefits and financial support.
Good news! We have held our first two coffee mornings where the first drink was on us! We will be offering this going forwards to reduce financial barriers to peer support.
We held a listening event for parent carers to express their views and needs to CYC.
We have represented parent carer views in consultations for CYC’s new Preparation for Adulthood Policy (link available soon). We look forward to gathering parent carer feedback on this policy once it is published.
We spoke at the Inclusive Employers Network conference. We asked employers to be ambitious about opportunities for young people with additional needs and consider their individual strengths and interests as well as reasonable adjustments required. We learnt a lot about routes into employment in York for those with and without an EHCP. Employers present included the hospitality, food and construction sectors and the police. Look out for more information through listening events and our conference.
We have worked with York Carers Centre and NHS England to produce a pack to be in every GP surgery, indicating the need to recognise carers needs and signpost as appropriate to support services.
We have an upcoming listening event about what support there is for parent carers and children who are young carers, including accessing carers needs assessments.
We have a dedicated steering committee member who has started engaging with the transport team at City of York Council (CYC) to help think about what is working well and what is not working so well. CYC transport team have welcomed our involvement and we look forward to working with them.