The Constructive Campaigning Parent Support Project: Report 2 - Emerging issues, 2007

The Constructive Campaigning Parent Support Project

Emerging issues… emerging solutions Report 2 – 2007 Emerging issues… emerging solutions Report 2 – 2007 Page 1

The Constructive Campaigning Parent Support Project

Introduction Working with parents and carers in Birmingham Ealing Havering Lambeth Lincolnshire Medway Oldham Poole Redcar and Cleveland Staffordshire

The ten parent groups across England taking part in the TreeHouse Constructive Campaigning Parent Support Project all have a shared aim – to improve the quality and quantity of autism education in their local area. There are significant differences in the make-up of the groups, including children’s age, group size, campaigning experience and geographical location. Key issues common to all groups have emerged, despite these differences. The purpose of this report is to highlight these issues and their impact, but most importantly to explore the approaches that parents are adopting to address them and solutions that are starting to emerge.

Parents participating in the project believe that the right education for children with autism is essential to ensure that they reach their full potential. This report looks at three issues that compromise the quality and quantity of education provision that they receive.

Exclusions This is a key issue for parent campaigners. A large number of parents believe that children with autism are excluded because the school does not differentiate between disobedience and disability. Many parents fear that children with autism frequently experience ‘informal’ or ‘internal’ exclusions, masking the true extent of the education they are missing.

Bullying The impact of bullying on children with autism can be devastating. It can have serious repercussions, affecting their emotional and social wellbeing as well as their academic performance. Some children are severely traumatised by this experience and many may never recover. Parents often feel that schools do not take appropriate measures to prevent children with autism from being bullied, which can have serious consequences.

Lack of appropriate education provision Fundamental to both of the above issues is lack of appropriate educational provision. Accessing and securing the right education is a battle for many families. This can frequently result in parents feeling helpless and disempowered.

Inappropriate provision can be a result of inadequate staff training and therefore an inability to meet the child’s needs. It may also be due to a lack of resources and specialist provision, leaving the child with inadequate support. This is cited as the underlying problem that gives rise to the pressing emerging issues such as bullying and exclusion that parent campaigners have identified.

These problems are by no means new. For decades parent campaigners have been battling to get their voices heard and their children’s needs met. Working constructively is central to this project’s ethos. It is the approach that the project promotes that is new and innovative, and acts as a catalyst to bring about positive and sustainable change. The project supports parents to channel their knowledge and expertise into a collaborative relationship with the local authority, rather than a confrontational one. It is through the development of these mutually respectful partnerships that parents are starting to identify emerging solutions and the possibility of positive long term change for children with autism and their families.

The role of the Parent Support Project is to support and promote parents’ drive to identify solutions and equip them with the tools to address the issues constructively.

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Exclusion “My child’s school uses exclusion as its autism strategy.”

Many parents state that schools exclude children with autism as an alternative to providing support required to meet their needs. Two years ago the Office of National Statistics found that 27% of children with autism are excluded from school at some point in their school life, a quarter of these children are excluded more than once.[1] Parents believe that this high rate of exclusion strongly indicates that, in many cases, local educational provision does not meet the needs of children with autism in their area. A further and growing concern that has been voiced anecdotally by project parents is the rising incidence of ‘informal’ exclusion, where parents are contacted and asked to come and collect their child before the end of the school day. One parent interpreted this as an indication that the school did not have the resources to meet the child’s needs.

“The school was not equipped to cope and very quickly I would get telephone calls from the school during the day saying ‘Can you come and pick him up?”’

Another parent identified lack of understanding by school staff as central to the approach the school adopted on exclusion. She was told by the class teacher that she had to come and pick her son up half an hour before school ended. The teacher had been told that her son had Asperger’s Syndrome and assumed he would not be able to sit through story time without being disruptive.

Parents also recount examples of ‘internal’ exclusion, when, for example, children are taken on ‘nature walks’ rather than being included in classroom activities and are not included in school productions such as the end of year school play because they would be ‘too disruptive’. Many parents suspect that these ‘internal’ exclusions are widespread, but due to a lack of communication between parent and school they are often not aware of when or how often they occur. This is particularly distressing when children are unable to tell their parents about the event. This can lead to a breakdown in trust between parents and school. Parents frequently describe acrimonious relationships that develop between parent and school, subsequent to or as a result of these exclusions. One parent reported overhearing a member of staff saying “Can’t we ban him [the parent] from the premises?” The exclusions appear to act as a catalyst for the breakdown of the relationship between parent and school, where the child is the one who suffers and parents feel powerless to remedy the situation.

Lack of understanding within the school is perceived as a major contributing factor.

Parents state that exclusions are regularly enforced even when there appears to be limited evidence of what actually happened. There may be little evidence that the child is being ‘naughty’ or disruptive. This problem is particularly cited by parents of children with Asperger’s Syndrome. Parents report that teachers often misinterpret behaviour, resulting in the mishandling of a situation that rapidly escalates and leads to exclusion. One parent who attempted to discuss this with the school was told:

“He KNOWS what he is doing… I told him three times and he STILL did not listen or do as he was told… He will learn to cope with assembly like every other child in the school…

Oh we can’t let him do that or the other children will want

[1]

Office of National Statistics (2005) Mental Health of Children and Young People’s Survey, 2004

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The Constructive Campaigning Parent Support Project Working with parents and carers in Birmingham Ealing Havering Lambeth Lincolnshire Medway Oldham Poole Redcar and Cleveland Staffordshire

to do it… He got detention for constantly flapping and disrupting the class.”

This can cause a significant amount of distress for children with autism. Parents report reduced self-esteem, frequent nightmares and extreme anxiety at having to return to school. This is especially acute when children are punished for behaviour that is part of their autism and makes it extremely difficult for them to understand what they have done wrong.

“Adam’s self esteem was extremely affected. He had been doing really well for a long period of time and then he had one outburst for which he was severely punished. He could not understand why this happened!”

Parents also report the tremendous negative impact that their child’s exclusion has had on their own lives, causing an enormous amount of stress. This was particularly so for parents in employment, frequently being required to leave work during the day at a moment’s notice. One parent stated there was a point when he was going into his son’s school twice a day for over a month. Another parent was asked to come in to sit with her child at dinner time in a separate place, another was asked to come in and help his child with writing. This made it clear to the parents that the school was not coping or meeting their child’s needs without their support and they were unable to stay in full time employment while these demands were placed upon them.

These informal exclusions are clearly distressing and disruptive for children and confusing and disempowering for parents. This is further exacerbated as not all schools appear to have a clear process for recording these incidents.

Without these systems in place many parents feel unable to challenge the informal requests to pick up their children, at the risk of appearing ‘difficult’ or ‘a troublemaker’ or fear there may be negative consequences for their child by confronting the school.

Amendments to the Disability Discrimination Act in 2002 by the SEN & Disability Act (2001) require schools and local authorities to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to ensure that disabled pupils are not placed at a disadvantage. Informal exclusions not only puts children with autism at substantial disadvantage, but as many parents state, these exclusions are also often without justification as parents are not given a proper reason for the exclusion.

“[There was] no mention of these occasions being anything other than ‘it would be best if he went home’.”

The time that children with autism lose through exclusion cannot be retrieved and significantly impacts on their ability to fulfil their potential and their right to equal access to education. Parents passionately believe that this is an injustice that urgently needs to be addressed and are working constructively to identify solutions.

EMERGING SOLUTIONS…

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Exclusion record form To address this issue of informal exclusion in a constructive way the project, in conjunction with parents, has developed the ‘Constructive Campaigning Parents’ and Carers’ Exclusion Record Form’. This form is a tool for parents to record their child’s exclusion from the classroom and from school. This exclusion record contains the list of the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) categories or

reasons for exclusions and parents can ask the school which category applies to their child’s exclusion. The form also allows parents to record exclusions cumulatively by date which can be effectively used by parents at their child’s annual review to identify patterns and ways of addressing underlying issues.

The exclusion record form enables parents to open up a constructive dialogue on exclusion with their child’s school. When using the form many parents report feeling empowered and more able to constructively discuss the exclusions without appearing confrontational or challenging.

“The good thing it does is it detaches you from it – normally you’re too busy saying sorry.”

“This is great… I will only have to use it once with the school and they will get the message.”

Recording the exclusion according to DfES categories acts as a reminder to schools of the possible reasons for exclusion, highlighting that children cannot be excluded because of school inspections, the approach of school holidays or other special events. In the long term, schools may be encouraged not only to address informal exclusions but to reduce all types of exclusion and look closely at the support provided for all children with autism to ensure they receive an appropriate education.

Constructive dialogue with the local authority In addition to using to exclusion form within the school, parent groups have opened a dialogue with the local authority to highlight this issue. Some of the parents groups have received great support from their local authority and are now working constructively together to identify informal exclusions as in many cases their occurrence is masking the school’s need for support/ resources/staff training.

One parent partnership service has been working closely with parent campaigners and has agreed to distribute the exclusion questionnaire to all the parents on their database. Another local authority has welcomed the use of this record form and has written to parents to encourage them to record all informal exclusions and share the findings with the education department. One local authority, who initially denied informal exclusion was happening, has now asked for a copy of the form and has contacted all schools to inform them about this initiative. Many parents have been encouraged by the response from the local authority, especially in one area where the local authority has written to the schools to emphasise them that they want accurate data, even if this means that the local exclusion rates go up.

Increased understanding in school Lack of understanding of autism underpins many instances of exclusions that could otherwise be avoided. Some parents have worked with schools to identify the patterns of their child’s exclusion. These tend to be at times when there is a change in structure to the school day; for example school inspections, sports days and lunch or break-times. Parents have reported that following open and positive dialogues with the school to identify the triggers, simple and effective strategies have been implemented which have had a significant positive impact on the school experience, diffusing the situation without resorting to exclusion.

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The Constructive Campaigning Parent Support Project Working with parents and carers in Birmingham Ealing Havering Lambeth Lincolnshire Medway Oldham Poole Redcar and Cleveland Staffordshire

Case study Fred would frequently become anxious at lunch and refuse to eat his meal in the lunch hall. Rather than taking punitive measures the headteacher took Fred to a quiet space to discover the root of his anxiety. Fred told her he was worried about germs and being infected with them and that was why he didn’t want to eat his lunch. Being around other children and being watched would heighten his anxiety and affect his behaviour. The headteacher took Fred on a tour of the kitchen, explaining how it was kept clean and what health and safety precautions were taken. She then told him that if he ever felt anxious at lunchtime he could come to her office and eat his sandwich in there as it was quiet.

Fred still finds unstructured lunchtime difficult but is much less anxious as through simple and reasonable adjustments the triggers for behaviour that precipitated exclusion have been removed.

Bullying Parents’ assertion that bullying in educational settings is commonplace is reflected in a recent study undertaken by the National Autistic Society, reporting that 40% of children with autism are bullied at school[2]. The bullying that children with autism are subjected to is just one indicator of inappropriate provision but with serious ramifications. Not only does it affect their progress at school but it impacts severely on their self-confidence and mental health. One project parent’s eight year old child is on anti-anxiety medication as a direct result of bullying. Another parent reported discovering her 10 year old son was taking a knife to school, stating he needed it to protect himself from the bullies. Parents across the country describe how their children’s school experiences are overshadowed by bullying.

“I ask him how his day has been at school and he gives me a run down of who’s bullied him that day and what they said or did to him. It would be nice to hear of a friendship he’s made, or feeling proud of some work he has done instead.”

Many parents report that the onus is repeatedly placed on the children with autism to tackle or take responsibility for the bullying, the focus being on the victim rather than the aggressor. For example, one parent reported that their child, who was repeatedly targeted in the school toilets, was told to avoid going to the toilet at the same time as the bullies. Many other parents share this finding – stating that their children are instructed to ‘ignore it’ or ‘keep out of their way’. One of the greatest obstacles that parents report having to face, therefore, is lack of understanding from the school. Parents express grave concerns that teachers often single out the child with autism to reprimand them for behaviour that is an expression of their autism.

[2]

Batten, A. & Reid, B. (2006) B is for Bullied: the experiences of children with autism and their families. London: The National Autistic Society

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“He did that on purpose – exhibiting silly behaviour.” [teacher] By not differentiating between disobedience and disability, teachers can inadvertently draw attention to the behaviour that makes children with autism vulnerable to being a target for bullies. This causes the problem to escalate and can increase the isolation felt by the child. Parents can feel even more desperate and powerless to rectify the situation when they try to address the issue but the school turns a blind eye.

“Bullying was a huge issue for a year, when one child constantly picked on him. This involved name calling, hiding his things and worst of all, trying to turn his few friends against him… Incidents were logged either when I came in or if Robert had the courage to talk to someone, which he seldom did. On one of the last occasions he was so distressed that I could not calm him and phoned the school after closing time… But I regret to say, that even after one year, the school refused to call in the parents of the bully, who were oblivious to what had been going on.”

A lot of parents report finding the school’s dismissive reaction to bullying especially distressing, considering that autism is a communication disorder. Many children are often therefore unable to articulate what has happened to them and how it has affected them.

“I had a phone call from the school; she was sat on the floor sobbing uncontrollably. [The] teacher asked me if my dog had died, this is what she told the teacher, my dog had not died. I spoke to my girl who had trouble verbalising what was wrong. She told me a lad was teasing her but she did not want to disturb the teacher because she is not allowed to call out. She sat and cried instead. So when the teacher asked her what was wrong, she said her dog died because that was what popped in her head.”

Another parent supported this view, stating that the school’s response did not take account of their child’s communication difficulties when suggesting strategies to deal with bullying.

“Currently I am told to record incidents which is impossible as the more stress they experience the more it impacts on their language and memory.”

Parents also identify the unstructured periods of the school day as the time when children with autism are most vulnerable to bullying. A senior teacher in a mainstream school who is also a parent of a child with Asperger’s confirms this perception.

“Difficulties do not vanish outside the classroom… the playground is worse.”

One child found break-time and lunchtime so difficult it would regularly trigger anxiety attacks and cause his behaviour to escalate. He would wait anxiously for the bell, whose sudden loud noise would provoke a ‘fight or flight’ reaction. The social difficulties children experience also appear to become more pronounced with age as differences between children with autism and their peers become more and more apparent. One parent reported that her child was fine in primary school but was incessantly bullied from the age of thirteen onwards.

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The Constructive Campaigning Parent Support Project Working with parents and carers in Birmingham Ealing Havering Lambeth Lincolnshire Medway Oldham Poole Redcar and Cleveland Staffordshire

“All her peers were talking about clothes and makeup but she just wanted to talk about Teletubbies.”

Bullying can happen to siblings too. One parent told how her daughter broke down and revealed that she had been suffering from long term bullying, tormented for having a brother with autism. When asked why she hadn’t told anyone she said that she knew her parents had so much to deal with that she didn’t want to be a ‘burden’. Again many parents report that there is a lack of understanding from the school. One parent reported that the bullies in her daughter’s class had identified that teasing her about her brother’s autism was the one thing that would always get a reaction so they exploited this. Rather than receiving support from the school she was repeatedly put in detention for ‘lashing out’.

EMERGING SOLUTIONS… Case Study Template The tool that the project provides for the parents to support their campaign is the Project Case Study Template. The project encourages parents to record and report their personal experiences and stories of bullying as well as other issues in a clear, simple and systematic way to build up evidence to support their local campaign.

This enables them to systematically record their own experiences and build up their evidence base to holistically illustrate the devastating impact that bullying has on the child with autism and their family. These case studies are collated by the project team to inform TreeHouse’s policy work both on a local and a national level.

Support during unstructured time One group of parents feel that extra support during unstructured times in the school day is central to combating bullying and enhancing children’s school experience. As a result they have placed this issue at the heart of their campaign.

One parent who worked constructively with her child’s school to highlight this need, has now got lunchtime support included in her child’s statement. The positive change that she has seen in her child is overwhelming. His self-esteem has increased, he feels safe from bullying and his confidence has been restored. This has enabled him to start to engage in play with his peers without fear of bullying, as he is secure in the knowledge that the support is there for him.

Having one-to-one support may not be appropriate for all children with autism.

However through collaboration between parent and school the right solution for each child can be found. In one school a child who found unstructured time particularly difficult had a teacher who was made aware of the problem following discussions with the family. As a result his break-time was staggered so that he was not outside at the same time as the majority of the children – he had his break later with a group of children of his choice. At lunchtime he joins in a lunch-club (of his choice) which reduces his anxiety and avoids the triggers of unstructured time.

Peer awareness Bullying is couched in lack of understanding and awareness. One parent found the approach taken by her son’s teacher represented a turning point as she felt that providing an explanation for his behaviour was a positive step towards understanding and acceptance.

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“Harry was playing in a football match and scored a goal…

All the children ran running and screaming towards him, which made Harry very confused and scared so he climbed up a tree to get away. Harry’s teacher explained to the

children how that situation might have made Harry feel by comparing it to a crowded disco with people bumping into you in the dark with lots of loud noise and sweaty bodies.”

Better relationships between parents and school Tensions between parents and school are commonplace. It is frequently stated that teachers appear dismissive of parents’ concerns or unwilling to adopt any of their suggestions or strategies for the classroom. Many parents report a breakthrough when the barriers, or perceived barriers, between parents and school staff are broken down. Parents and school staff alike believe that lack of communication leads to a breakdown in the relationship between home and school. A lot of parents who have managed to avoid these obstacles through working in a positive and transparent way with the school state that it has reaped significant benefits for their child. One parent managed to convince the head teacher to let her deliver training to school staff on autism. The training was so successful that she regularly runs sessions for teachers, SENCOs and learning support assistants. Through building a mutual respectful partnership with the school they now work closely together, sharing respective expertise and knowledge of what works best for the child.

Parents widely agree that having the support of the school staff can make all the difference. Not only because they adopt strategies that work, but also because parents feel that their input is respected and valued by the school.

“A shining example of good practice happened last year when his teacher agreed to facilitate Robert telling a group of his friends about his Asperger’s one lunchtime. The teacher also willingly took the book I offered him about Asperger’s and read it in his own time to get a better understanding.”

Lack of suitable provision “It’s not dealing with the autism that is the problem… It’s dealing with the inadequate systems.”

It is widely acknowledged that in order to meet the needs of all children with autism there needs to be a wide range of provision to cater for a spectrum of need. The right educational support and access to a range of provision are both at the heart of transforming autism education. However, they are heavily influenced by two factors – resources and training. Children who require a high level of support are often placed in a school that does not have adequate resources to meet their needs. This can result in children with autism struggling to cope, let alone flourish, within a school environment. Although many parents cite the lack of suitable educational provision as their greatest concern, most are able to identify examples of excellent practice within their local authority. This is often within autism specific provision, where support is targeted to the needs of the individual with autism. However, there are not enough autism specific school places and this frequently results in many children with autism being placed in inappropriate educational settings. This is often in a mainstream school with inadequate support.

This can be extremely distressing not only the child with autism but also for parents, who may feel that this could jeopardise their child’s learning potential, as well as their social and emotional wellbeing.

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The Constructive Campaigning Parent Support Project Working with parents and carers in Birmingham Ealing Havering Lambeth Lincolnshire Medway Oldham Poole Redcar and Cleveland Staffordshire

Absolutely fundamental to all school staff working with children with autism is training. When staff do not have sufficient knowledge of autism the provision is rendered inappropriate. They are unable to implement appropriate strategies to give the child the education they need. This is especially important for learning support assistants in mainstream schools who spend the most time with the child but often have no training or qualifications. Many parents feel that this is an underlying issue that exacerbates bullying and exclusions and that it is through systematic high quality training that all three issues raised in this report can be addressed.

In many mainstream schools some sort of support for children with autism is widely available. However, many parents question whether the type of support is in the best interest of the child. A lot of parents have described the mainstream experience for their children as ‘trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.’ They question whether it is actually in the best interest of the child for the school to be geared towards ‘normalising’ them for a mainstream setting, rather than accepting and celebrating their differences.

“[We want her to be] somewhere her quirks are accepted, and somewhere all of her achievements, no matter how small, will be recognised and rewarded. Somewhere she can go and feel a part of… it is heartbreaking when she tells us “no one understands me’.”

Parents frequently report that their children with autism are placed within schools for children with emotional and behavioural difficulties. They say they are afraid to challenge this inappropriate provision as they fear there is nothing else available for children with extremely complex needs. One parent reports finding this an extremely difficult situation as she recognises the commitment of the staff but is acutely aware that her son’s needs are not being met.

“He is not learning but at least he is being kept safe… but is that enough?”

Case study Jessica (8) has high functioning autism. Her first experiences of school were defined by ritual bullying and exclusion. The support she needed to fulfil her potential and make her education an enjoyable experience was not available within a mainstream setting. Jessica’s mother, Hilary, located a local school with an autism unit, which she felt would be perfect for Jessica.

“The school has a warm feel to it, you can see the children are happy, the staff are happy, we knew that was where we would love her to go… It was a different world and opened our eyes even more so to what we should be expecting for her.”

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However, with fierce competition for every place, Jessica was not accepted at the school and therefore continues to struggle. Hilary states that in her local authority schools are not equipped to support higher functioning children with complex needs - they are made to fit into mainstream ‘until they burst’. Hilary is not alone in this assertion. Across England, parents report

experiencing acute anxiety and helplessness at the unsuitable provision for children with autism, and desperation at the consequences.

“I feel children with ASDs are sent into an environment they cannot cope with and an environment that cannot cope with them. The main point for me is being able to choose what we want for our children; choice is something we do not have. I don’t want any of my children to be reprogrammed to fit, they are not robots they are people. I am proud of my children’s diversity and I don’t want them to change. I want them to feel proud of who they are and what they achieve. They do have to learn about life and people, but people have to learn to accept them as well.”

EMERGING SOLUTIONS… Child with Autism Information Sheet Parents frequently express frustration that the data held by the local authority on children with autism is not correct. If this is the case, it will clearly have a significant impact on the planning and commissioning of services. Parents repeatedly ask how provision can be planned effectively when the local authority has not got accurate figures on the number of children who require services. This is especially poignant considering that some local authorities are reviewing their specialist provision as part of their inclusion plan. It is therefore critical that local authorities and parents work together to ensure that there is appropriate and sufficient provision which matches the needs of children with autism in the local area. The project has produced a form to enable parents to provide the local authority with up to date and accurate information on their child. This form contains basic information as well as an outline of what the parent may believe their child might require, in terms of educational provision, in the future, including secondary transfer, post-16 provision and beyond.

This form enables parents to work constructively with the local authority to ensure that data on children with autism is as accurate as possible. Without information on the number of children with autism it is not possible to plan provision to meet their needs.

Working with Parents

“It’s not about the money.”

A great frustration expressed by many parents is that changes and strategies that could transform the school experience for many children with autism are simple and do not cost anything. However parents often find that teachers are reluctant to adopt strategies that they suggest and know to be effective for their children.

Forward thinking teachers and schools are now realising that parents are experts in their own children, and welcome the opportunity to learn from parents. For example, one parent introduced the idea of a ‘passport’ to his son’s teacher. The passport is unique and specific to the child’s needs and difficulties that relate to his autism, including strategies that are effective in helping him calm down when he becomes anxious. The teacher has welcomed the use of the passport in the classroom. The difference that this tool has made to his son’s classroom

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The Constructive Campaigning Parent Support Project Working with parents and carers in Birmingham Ealing Havering Lambeth Lincolnshire Medway Oldham Poole Redcar and Cleveland Staffordshire

experience has been incalculable. He now feels that his teacher understands his behaviour and his autism. The passport has been so successful that other parents involved in the project have adopted an individualised passport for their childen, in conjunction with teaching staff. Parents find that very often the simple strategies and ideas to make the classroom a better place are the most effective ones. By working with parents, teachers are able to gain access to a wealth of resources and ideas inspired by direct experience of children with autism.

“We would like to be able to go into schools and talk about small changes that could be made to benefit the children.

We would like to share with them all the useful strategies our children have taught us about how to understand them.

Some mainstream schools are fantastic, but provision is patchy and is too often down to the attitude of the head.”

Training for staff Autism training and autism awareness for school staff is the key to improving autism education. Parents regularly describe how the provision for their child can oscillate from excellent to abysmal from one school year to the next, dependent on the level of autism understanding and awareness of the class teacher or learning support assistant. It is crucial that the quality of education that children with autism receive is not a lottery, especially as the consequence of lack of training is inconsistent quality of provision and possibly an increased risk of bullying and exclusion. As training in autism is optional, commitment from the headteacher is fundamental to ensuring that all staff are autism aware and committed to ensuring that children with autism receive the high quality level of education they are entitled to.

We would like to thank all the parents participating in the project who have contributed to this report. The dynamic nature of this project means that issues and solutions are constantly developing and evolving. There is much more to come and we look forward to sharing the findings.

We wish to thank the Department for Children, Schools and Families, the Sylvia Adams Charitable Trust, the Harold Hyam Wingate Foundation, CHK Charities Ltd and one donor who wishes to remain anonymous, for supporting the project.

For further information on the TreeHouse Constructive Campaigning Parent Support Project please email psp@treehouse.org.uk or call 020 8815 5443. You can also visit www.treehouse.org.uk and click on Parent Support Project for latest developments in each of the areas covered by the project.

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Woodside Avenue London N10 3JA T: 020 8815 5444 E: info@treehouse.org.uk www.treehouse.org.uk Registered charity number 1063184

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