We are busy planning our next for 5th and 6th February 2019 - make sure you save the date for this important event. For more information see our flyer: parents conference 

More details to follow soon 

The Autumn 2018 edition of the Our Voice newsletter has now been published: 

/downloads/Our_Voice_Autumn_2018.pdf

The transfer to Secondary school can be a worrying time for parents and children. 

The Local Authority has produced a guidance pack on the transfer process for families of children with SEND which is attached here along with a timeline of the process and information about open evenings.  

We are busy preparing for our Summer birthday party taking place on 15th July - please make sure that you pre-book to secure your place. 

Please join us for the Our Voice Summer birthday party to celebrate all our wonderful children! 

Sunday 15th July

2.30 to 4.30 pm

Russet House School, Autumn Close, Enfield, EN1 4JA

Featuring: a fabulous magic show by Mr Marvel, a bouncy castle with slide, soft play, sensory room, playground, party food and cake, and party bags for the children. 

The event is free but places are limited so please pre-book your place - tel 07516 662315 or email on info@ourvoiceenfield.org.uk

For more details see the attached flyer. 

A special thank you to our generous sponsors, A and R Design. 

The Law on how we hold and use your personal data will be changing on 25th May 2018.

We are asking all current members to let us know if they would still like to hear from us. If you no longer wish to receive ANY email communications from us regarding services, activities, information, marketing and fundraising please let us know by emailing us info@ourvoiceenfield.org.uk or calling on. 07516  66215. Alternatively, if you would like to change your communication preferences please complete the attached form here and email back to us. 

You can see our Privacy Policy here. 

We are pleased to attach the presentations and hand-outs from the Our Voice Parents' Conference 2018. The information within these presentations is correct at the time of publication but may be subject to change. 

Welcome from Our Voice Chair, Fazilla Amide 

Short Breaks and Moving on

School Expansions 

Health 

Educational Psychology and Information for Parents re Autism and Understanding Autism All About Me and Autism Education Trust Schools' Programme 

Transport 

Community Paediatric Nutrition and Dietetics

CAHMS and SCAN

Community Nursing, Bereavement and Play service 

Early Years and transition to Nursery or School

Dyslexia

Booking is now open for the second Our Voice Parents’ Conference, on Friday 16^th March 2018 at the Dugdale Centre, Enfield. 

Following the success of the Our Voice ‘Meet the SEND Heads’ conference last year, we had overwhelming feedback asking us to repeat this event on an annual basis.

Acting on feedback received at last year’s conference, we have an exciting new format this year featuring:

· Updates from the Heads of SEND Services on progress since our conference last March.

·  Workshops tailored to different age groups and interests:

o   post 16,

o   Pre-schoolers and transition to nursery or primary school,

o   transition to secondary school

o   community nursing, dietetics and SCAN – who they are, what they do and how to access

o   Dyslexia

o   Mini- sleep-training workshop.

·  An opportunity to book one to one sessions with professionals.

·  A panel Q&A session with the Heads of Service areas.  

A provisional timetable is attached here, along with a booking form, our flyer and more detailed information. 

If you are interested in attending, please either phone us on 07516 662315 or email us at info@ourvoiceenfield.org.uk, or complete the attached booking form by 5th March.  Please note that spaces are limited and will be allocated on a first come first served basis. We will email you to confirm your place and bookings for specific workshops and one-to-one sessions.

Attached is our leaflet setting out the key terminology that you are likely to come across regarding Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.

/downloads/Terms_Glossary_leaflet_2017_Eng_WEB.pdf

We also have versions of the glossary in Turkish and Somalian.

We know that many of our members whose children use Transport Services to get to school have had concerns with aspects of the service, and are keen to see changes. As you know, Our Voice has been working with local Transport Services to try to improve the service, and many of you kindly participated in our large-scale survey last year. Our findings and recommendations were published in a report available on our website here.

Our umbrella organisation, Contact, the charity for families with disabled children (previously Contact a Family) have carried out their own investigations on a national basis as part of their School Transport Inquiry, (including input from our local report).

Their School Transport Campaign, the #SchoolRunCrisis campaign was launched on Sunday 10 September with an exclusive feature on BBC Radio5LiveInvestigates which you can download on this page (for the next 28 days): BBC Radio 5Live Investigates. Families with disabled children affected by poor school transport were interviewed for the programme.

Contact are pleased to announce that they have secured a major campaign win on school transport. The Secretary of State for Education has announced plans to review school transport statutory guidance. The decision has been made as a result of findings from Contact's School Transport for Disabled Children Inquiry. This is a major achievement for all the families and local parent carer forums that contributed evidence to Contact’s Inquiry.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: "We are investing £222million over four years to help local authorities improve special educational needs and disability (SEND) services and local authorities must provide school transport for all eligible children with SEND.  
"In light of the findings by Contact, the department will review the statutory guidance for local authorities to ensure it is clear."

Amanda Batten, Chief Executive of Contact, says: "This is a huge win for all of us, and we want to say a massive thank you to everyone who submitted evidence to the inquiry. We will work with you when the statutory guidance is reviewed to make sure disabled children get the school transport they need."

Key Findings of the Contact Inquiry report

The Inquiry report was published on Sunday on Radio 5 Live Investigates, and brings together evidence gathered from more than 2.500 parent carers. The key campaign findings were, that:

o   Nearly half (48%) of parents with disabled children can’t work or had to reduce hours because of school travel arrangements

o   1 in 5 (23%) of parents say their disabled child struggles to learn because of a stressful journey to school

o   More than half (51%) of local school transport policies include unlawful statements

For more information and to support the campaign:

Contact have produced new information for parents with disabled children about school transport and your rights and entitlements.

If you have been refused school transport or want to find out about your rights to school transport, please call the helpline for advice on 0808 808 3555 (Open Monday-Fri 9.30am-5pm)

You can follow and support the campaign by:

Reading the Inquiry report here.

Following the campaign on social media and spreading the word about the campaign on social media: follow the @contactfamilies twitter account and like the Contact Facebook page. Look out for posts with the #SchoolRunCrisis hashtag and please share as much as possible.

If your child uses transport services to get to school, you may well be interested in a new report on school transport, which will be launched on Sunday 10^th in an exclusive feature on BBC Radio 5Live Investigates to be broadcast at 11am. The programme will feature families with disabled children who are affected by poor school transport.

The report has been developed by Contact, the charity for disabled children, as a result of their School Transport Inquiry, and which forms part of their Our #SchoolRunCrisis campaign.

We will be publishing more information about the campaign and the report early next week, as part of our usual ‘What’s New?’ update for our members, as well as our website and facebook page. In the meantime, you can see more information about the campaign on the Contact website here

 If you are not already on our mailing list, and would like to receive our updates, please email us on info@ourvoice.org.uk