The Wiltshire Parent Carer Council
Early Years and Primary Information Event
The Civic Centre, Trowbridge
Tuesday 7th November 2023
ATTENDEE PRE-EVENT INFORMATION PACK
Anticipated Agenda
Overview of Event
Information about Stands
£50 Vouchers
The Key Note Speech
Information about the Workshop
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Page 5-7
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Page 9
Page 10
Why this Event is in Trowbridge
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Why this Event is not in the Evening/Weekend
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If Your Plans or Availability Change
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How to Book
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CONTENTS
Event Agenda
Arrival, registration and refreshments Foyer / Lansdown Hall 09.30 -10.00 Welcome/Housekeeping Stuart Hall, WPCC Key Note Speech Lucy-Anne Bryant, Wiltshire Council Council Chamber 10.00 -10.30 Refreshments Area Lansdown Hall 10.30 -13.45 Explore Marketplace Lansdown Hall / Foyer / Usher Suite 10.30 -14.00 Information Workshop Council Chamber 10.45 -11.45 Or 12.30 - 13.30 14.00 Event Close
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EARLY YEARS & PRIMARY INFORMATION EVENT
OVERVIEW OF INFORMATION EVENT
Where and When!
The event is being held on Tuesday 7th November 2023, at The Civic Centre, Trowbridge from 10.00am - 2.00pm
Here is what you can look forward to on the day...
Information Stands from over 30 different services!
We are expecting over 30 services and providers to attend and promote information about the services and support they offer. This will be in our popular Market Place, where you will be able to walk amongst the information stands, talk to providers and find out more about what may be on offer to support your child or young person.
FREE Tea, Coffee & Cakes for attendees!
There will be a refreshment area open throughout the event, so that all attendees can take a rare opportunity to sit with a free cup of tea or coffee and cake while chatting with other parent carers, helping you to realise that you are not alone and enabling you to meet other people who understand what it is like to be a parent carer.
Information Workshop Session!
Spurgeons’ Children Centre in Melksham has kindly offered to run a workshop for us at this event. The workshop will run twice during the event to give as many people who want to attend, the opportunity to be able to do so. Each workshop session will last an hour and will include time for questions and answers.
(Limited spaces available - first come first served)
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MARKET PLACE STANDS
Wiltshire Council: SEND Service
Hydrotherapy pools in Trowbridge and Chippenham offering accessible swimming and hydrotherapy for the whole community.
Library service for the county with a range of books and services to support families with children of all ages and abilities.
Carry out EHC Needs Assessment and monitor & review EHCPs. They aim to improve outcomes and make a positive difference to the lives of children and young people with SEND, and their families.
ages No
- 25 No
5 Organisation Information Age range EHCP required Wiltshire Parent Carer Council (WPCC) Signposting and support for parent carers of young people aged 0 - 25. 0 - 25 No Spurgeons Run Children's Centres in East, West and South Wiltshire, for Families with 0-5 years. 0 - 5 No Home-Start North Wiltshire A charity that
under five who are
0 - 5 No Stepping Stones Stepping Stones is
supporting children
birth and four who have special needs. They cover the West Wiltshire Area. 0 - 4 No The RISE Trust Children's Centre Services, Youth service, Mentoring, Family Visiting Service. 0 - 19 No Springboard Chippenham Provides support for
school children (aged 0-5) with special needs and their families. Covers the whole of North Wiltshire. 0 - 5 No Baloo's Softplay and Bumpers Nursery Nursery and childcare for 2 to 5 years. 2 - 5 No Julia's House Children's Hospice Caring for critically ill children and their families across Wiltshire and Dorset 0 - 18 No Starfish Hydrotherapy
& Seahorse Hydrotherapy
All
supports families with children
experiencing difficult times.
an independent charity
aged between
pre-
Pool
Pool
ages No Wiltshire Council Library Service
All
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MARKET PLACE STANDS
Wiltshire Wildlife Trust Care Farms
Wiltshire Local Offer
Wiltshire Adopters Networking, Development and Support (WANDS)
Their Care Farms provide nature-based therapeutic activities for children, young people, and adults with additional needs, social and communication difficulties, mental ill health, and those needing emotional support.
The first place to look for SEND information for 0 - 25 year olds.
Family and Community Learning provide free online and face-to-face courses for parents and carers to help them to support their child's learning and wellbeing.
Created and run by volunteer adoptive parents, W.A.N.D.S offers adoptive families living in Wiltshire suggestions for positive solutions, empathic, practical advice and support, information sharing and networking.
Have you considered fostering? They would like to encourage you to put your life experience to good use and make a difference to the life of a young person in care. Fostering can be challenging but it's always rewarding.
West
for recruiting and assessing adopters, finding families for the children in this area awaiting permanent adoptive homes, and supporting adoptive families.
6 Organisation
EHCP required Age Range
Information
No 5 -
25
No 0 - 25 Family and Community Learning
No 19+
No All ages Wiltshire
Kinship
Fostering
Council
&
Service
No 21+ Adoption
No All ages Wiltshire Citizens Advice Debt and Benefit service for carers No All ages FearFree Charity working with victim/survivors and perpetrators of domestic abuse across Wiltshire. No 5+ Wiltshire Council Early Years Team Team that supports nurseries, pre-schools and childminders. 0-5 No
Responsible
MARKET PLACE STANDS
- 18 No Healthwatch
and
Better Value in SEND
Working with the government to identify changes that we can make to better support children with SEND. Want to hear views of parent carers and children in Wiltshire so that work is informed by your expertise as those most affected.
0
Wiltshire
SENDIASS
Provides a free, confidential and impartial support service to children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), and their parents and carers. Offering information, guidance, support, and signposting through a number of different ways.
0 - 25 No
HCRG Care Group
Representatives from HCRG Care Group will be available to answer any questions you may have regarding Wiltshire Community Children’s Services, including the Wiltshire Autism Assessment Service.
0 - 25 No
0 - 25 No
0 -18 No
7 Organisation Information Age range EHCP required Parental Relationships & Parenting Programmes
They offer a range of parental relationship and parenting programmes. Self help group programmes for parents who have children or teens of all ages. Wiltshire
Your local health and social care champion. They make sure NHS leaders and other decision makers hear your voice and use your feedback to improve care. They can also help you to find reliable and trustworthy information and advice.
Southwest
All ages No Ups
Downs
Wiltshire Council SEND Transport Provide transport for eligible students with EHCPs 4 - 25
Families and Children Commissioning Support
services including Children
Centres,
and SENDIASS
families, children and
0 - 25
Support families who have a child with Down Syndrome. They provide assistance with benefit and education forms, as well as offering a listening year and family events.
Yes
in the development, contract management and review of commissioned
’s Centres, District Specialist
Portage
to support
young people.
No
Delivering
PRIZES
Free Prize Draw
We will be holding a free prize draw after the event. Every parent carer1 who attends this event will be placed in our draw with a chance of winning one of three £50 prize gift vouchers!
Tell your friends, book your places and be sure to attend to be in our draw and ensure your chance of winning!
1The WPCC uses the term parent carer to mean any adult over the age of 18 with significant parental responsibility for a child or young person with SEND, e.g. birth parent, foster parent, adoptive parent, aunt/uncle, special guardian, grandparent etc.
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KEY NOTE SPEECH
Family Hubs
Lucy-Anne Bryant, Commissioning Manager (Wiltshire Council) will be giving an update on the new Family Hub model coming Spring 2024.
From April 2024, a new family hub model will be in place in Wiltshire with an accessible digital platform offering information, advice, support and self-help courses alongside 21 family hubs located in community buildings in Wiltshire. The model will provide support and advice for families with children or young people aged from 0 - 19, or up to 25 for those with Special Educational Needs and or Disabilities.
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INFORMATION ABOUT THE WORKSHOP...
Workshop
Spurgeons West Wiltshire Children’s Centres has kindly offered to run a workshop for us at this event. The centres offer a range of activities and support services to help you with all aspects of parenting, helping you make sure your child gets the best start in life. Spurgeons provides Children’s Centres in east, west and south Wiltshire and are places where parents of children aged 0-5 years can share the challenges and joys of parenthood.
The workshop will run twice during the event to give as many people who want to attend, the opportunity to be able to do so. Each workshop session will last an hour and will include time for questions and answers.
In the hope that parents will be able to take away some practical tips and strategies, the workshop will include some parenting strategies taken from their popular Being a Parent course and some content about how trauma informed practice can help to develop the positive connection between you and your child through the five to thrive approach. The workshops will be fun, interactive, and designed to give you practical tips and ideas to take away.
Spaces will be limited and booked on a first come, first served basis.
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WHY DON’T YOU HOLD THIS EVENT IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF WILTSHIRE?
We are sometimes asked by parent carers why we hold our big information events in just one location. In the past, this has typically been Devizes or Trowbridge.
We recognise that holding our large information events in one location may mean some parent carers having to travel to attend and we apologise for any inconvenience. We take the decision to hold large information events in one location, as centrally located in Wiltshire as possible, for a number of reasons:-
• it costs on average at least £2,500 to host one of these events and we simply don't have the financial resources to repeat these events across the county; even events on a smaller scale, as the cost would not be sufficiently less.
• these events require the commitment from a large number of professionals and we would be unable to secure their time for several events.
• we sometimes have to pay for external keynote speakers and facilitators who typically charge in the region of £350 to £450 per day; repeating these events would significantly increase these costs.
We realise the Civic Centre isn’t as centrally located in Wiltshire as The Corn Exchange, but we are guided by the responses of parent carers; the majority of people have told us that they prefer the Civic Centre for these types of events.
People who have attended previous WPCC events at the Civic Centre have told us in their evaluations that parking was better, the venue was brighter and more modern, and the layout of the venue meant it felt more accessible. The Civic Centre is a 10 minute walk from Trowbridge train station which has regular trains from towns including, Salisbury, Warminster, Westbury and Chippenham. There is a large multi-storey car park adjacent to The Civic Centre, offering some free parking places. There is also a large long-stay pay and display car park which is two minutes from the venue.
We thank you for your understanding, and as always, we will pay parent carers' travel, car parking and childcare expenses.
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WHY IS THE EVENT NOT IN THE EVENING OR AT THE WEEKEND?
One or two parent carers have asked in the past why WPCC information events take place during the day and do not take place or are repeated in the evening or at the weekend; the WPCC Steering Group has considered and discussed this, and it has also been discussed with WPCC staff.
The WPCC Steering Group has made the decision not to hold or repeat its information events in the evening or at weekends. This is to respect the demands on WPCC staff and volunteers, most of whom are parent carers and would not be able to commit additional time due to their caring responsibilities. Additionally, it is unlikely that many professional colleagues would be able to commit additional time on top of their normal working day, and many are also carers. Venues often cost more in the evening and at weekends and this would have a significant impact on what the WPCC could offer. Repeating events of this scale would not be financially feasible for the WPCC.
We are sorry if this is inconvenient to some parent carers. We would encourage parent carers who wish to attend our information events to speak to their employer as many are open to considering the needs of carers. Carers’ UK explains on its website that people have the right to request flexible working if you are an employee with 26 weeks (six months) continuous employment at the time you make an application.
Your employer might also be agreeable to you attending one of the WPCC information events for just an hour.
Some parent carers attend our events in a professional capacity in representation of their work place. This creates an opportunity of benefiting the place where the parent carer works as they not only represent their place of work by attending and networking with others, but also take information back to their work place to share with colleagues.
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IF YOUR PLANS OR AVAILABILITY CHANGE
We often have a number of people book to attend our events who don’t attend on the day. Some attendees kindly let us know if they are going to be unable to make it; we are very grateful to them and we appreciate the unexpected can happen.
Catering for large numbers of people who don’t make it on the day and don’t let us know they are unable to attend, is both wasteful and expensive and we want to do all we can to avoid this.
We appreciate that sometimes things happen that make it impossible to let us know, but we politely ask that if you have booked and you know you are not going to be able to attend, please let us know as soon as possible so that we can amend our catering numbers.
If after booking your place you later find that you can’t attend, please email
reception@wiltspcc.co.uk. Thank you
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We hope you have found this Pre-Event Information Pack helpful and informative.
Please remember to book early, as places are limited.
Booking closes at 5pm on Tuesday 31st October
To book your place to attend the event, simply click:
www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/EYinfo23
We very much look forward to you joining us on Tuesday 7th November 2023 at The Civic Centre, Trowbridge.
If you find nearer the time that you are unable to attend, please let us know so that your place can be offered to someone else.
This also helps us not to over-cater and thereby not waste food or spend more of our funding on this event than necessary.
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