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More May News...

​Carers Centre Celebrating Carers Week

Carers Centre are celebrating Carers Week for Carers of Adults aged 18+, please see the poster below for details.

Telford Patients First - Open Meeting on the Future of your Hospitals

An Open Meeting is being held on Thursday 7th June at 1pm in Dawley Town Hall. This is a chance for you to learn more about the proposed plans for your hospitals: PRH Telford and RSH Shrewsbury. The Guest Speakers will be, Telford & Wrekin NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) Commisioners and Engagement Staff.

A Direct Response from Contact - Counting the Cost Survey

'More than 1,500 parents have already responded to our Counting the Cost survey and we are looking for more respondents from the West Midlands. Our annual survey helps give us the evidence we need to lobby for changes to support families with disabled and special needs children. The survey is anonymous and should not take longer than 10 minutes to complete. If you have time please do help.

The following survey only takes about 10 minutes to complete. Your answers will be treated as confidential. Take the survey here https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/CountingCosts'

The National Trust Access Passes

The National Trust access passes allow up to 2 carers, ideal for the upcoming half term, for more information click on the following link: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features/access-for-everyone​

The Albrighton Trust - May Holiday Activities 

Wednesday 30th May - Wild about Nature

Explore and discover nature through a series of fun activities, outdoor clothing essential. Sessions are at 10am & 1pm. £5 per person (Prior Booking Essential)

Wednesday 30th May - Woodcraft

Make a handmade Bird Box for domesticated birds to nest, sessions are at 10am & 1pm. £5 per person (Prior Booking Essential)

Thursday 31st May - Coached Angling

Coaches available to help novice and inexperienced anglers, they will learn how to put bait on a hook, cast a line, land a fish, unhook a fish safely and return the fish safely in the water. Equipment supplied, sessions are at 10am & 1pm. £5 per person (Prior Booking Essential)

To book, please contact The Albrighton Trust on 01902 372441 or email moat@albrightontrust.org.uk

School Exclusions Survey – Has your child ever been sent home from school?

We are keen to hear from any families where your child has been ‘excluded’ from school.  This is official or unofficial exclusions which may include been sent home for part days, collecting from school because they are not coping, working at home because of important visitors or a busy school day, not allowed to go on trips or to after school activities, reduced timetables – whether this be mainstream or specialised settings, we’d like to hear from you. 

It’s important that your views are heard (we are collecting these anonymously) so we can share your experiences  with Local Authority and they see the wider context of what is happening locally.

We look forward to hearing from you.

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/3TXQVNL

Weekly Update from Jayne Stevens (Participation Co-ordinator)...​

Good Morning everyone :) Doesn't the sunshine make us feel a little bit better and brighter? What have I been up to for these last coupe of weeks... We've had our Parent Reps Strategic meeting and we've held a confidence workshop for them all, to support them when attending any meetings on behalf of PODS. Really pleased that we were able to commission one of our very own parent reps to run this - using their own evidence and experience is really important. We've had another events meeting and putting in plans for the August Picnic in the Park and some inclusive trips in the holidays. We ran the Cerebra accessing public services workshop at a new venue in Donnington Hub (with the most fantastic buffet, I may add!). We have some copies of the toolkit at Stepping Stones hub if you'd like to pop in and see us. Last week saw 2 family groups in the same week (Admaston and Hollinswood) and a catch up meeting with social care commissioner and operations lead - we're still discussing the social care access criteria but assured that this is under review to ensure that families right from the need for early support through to more complex families who access the Disabled Children Team receive the right support at the right time.

We've also had a meeting with carers commissioner and chair of the Carers Board to discuss the position of parent carers and we've raised the confusion around Children and Families Act versus Care Act and where assessments sit in this, alongside the crossover between the SEND agenda (0-25yrs) and adult services. Talking of transition we have highlighted an opportunity to bid for a project to work with Prep for Adulthood team on a 19-25yrs project and a meeting has been arranged that the LA will lead on this. We attended a Transition Event last Thursday and all the information we gathered there will be at the Stepping Stones Hub for you and we'll get some links put up on website in due course.

We're still gathering feedback from families regarding school exclusions - please see link in ebulletin.

On a final note, members of our team have worked extremely hard behind the scenes to ensure that we are compliant with GDPR and you will have received an email by now, or you will be receiving a letter in the post - we'd really like to keep in touch with you and your co-operation is much appreciated.

This week sees us running a pilot for Positive Behaviour Support (for families with challenging and complex needs) - one for parents and another for professionals (joint one in June) and we hope that learning and experience from this can expand a much-needed service. We have another family group on Friday at Dawley and hope to see you there.

Come and join us at our Family Groups...

Friday 25th May: Your Voice + Family Resources from 9.30am-11.30am at Dawley Town Hall (opposite Langley School/CAMHS) New Street, Dawley, Telford, TF4 3JR

Monday 4th June: Your Voice + Family Resources from 10am–12pm at Admaston House, Admaston,Telford, TF5 0BN
Free car parking on site

Thursday 14th June: Your Voice + Family Resources from 7pm-9pm at The Elephant and Castle Pub, Dawley, Telford, TF4 2ET
Free car parking: Station Road Car Park (Entrance just after Royal British Legion. Postcode TF4 2NW)

Wednesday 20th June: Your Voice + Family Resources from 9.30am-11.30am at Hollinswood Community Centre, 7 Downemead, Telford, TF3 2EW
Free car parking available at front of shops.

Thank you for reading our latest bulletin.

Kerrie Seagrave

Project Administrator on behalf of PODS Parent Carer Forum.

We hope you enjoyed reading our latest e-bulletin - we hope you continue to find it useful. If you have any suggestions to make it better feel free to let me know.