WPCC SEND Information Event - February 2024

The Wiltshire Parent Carer Council WPCC SEND Information Event

The Civic Centre, Trowbridge Friday 2nd February 2024 ONLINE ATTENDEE PRE-EVENT INFORMATION PACK

CONTENTS

Overview of Event

Page 1

Anticipated Agenda

Page 2

Information about the Workshop

Page 3

Information about some of the Stands

Page 4-8

Why this Event is in Trowbridge

Page 9

Why this Event is not in the Evening

Page 10

If Your Plans or Availability Change

Page 11

How to Book

Page 12

OVERVIEW OF FEBRUARY INFORMATION EVENT Where and When!

The event is being held on Friday 2nd February 2024, at The Civic Centre, Trowbridge from 10.00am - 2.00pm. Sign in and tea/coffee from 9.30am 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!

There will be an Information Workshop that will be repeated twice in the day. This will cover tips and strategies to help parent carers supporting children and young people experiencing anxiety and worry, including helping with transitions, emotionally based school avoidance (EBSA).

(Limited spaces available - first come first served)

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SEND INFORMATION EVENT FEBRUARY 2024 Event Agenda Arrival, registration and refreshments

Foyer / Lansdown Hall

Welcome / Housekeeping Stuart Hall, WPCC

Council Chamber

Update on Parent Carer Engagement and what it is Informing Kai Muxlow, Wiltshire Council

(Upstairs)

Refreshments Area

Foyer

09.30 -10.00

10.00 -10.30

10.30 -13.45

Lansdown Hall

Explore Marketplace

and

10.30 -14.00

Usher Suite 10.45 -11.45 Council Chamber

Workshop

(Upstairs)

Or 12.30 - 13.30

Event Close

14.00

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OVERVIEW OF THE INFORMATION WORKSHOP...

Workshop Colleagues from Family & Community Learning (FaCL) have kindly offered to run a workshop for us at this event.

They will have a range of tips and strategies to share to help parent carers supporting children and young people experiencing anxiety and worry, helping with transitions and EBSA. They will also share information about how parent carers can learn more by joining one of their courses.

The workshop session will last an hour and will be repeated to enable as many people to participate as possible. We have asked the facilitators to build time into the sessions for questions and answers. Spaces will be limited and booked on a first come, first served basis.

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MARKET PLACE STANDS Organisation

Warm & Safe Wiltshire

Information A service provided by Wiltshire Council in partnership with the Centre for Sustainable Energy to help residents live in safer and healthier homes.

Wiltshire Portage

SEND Early years, Educational home visiting Service.

Home-Start North Wiltshire

We are a charity which provides emotional and practical support to families with children under five who are experiencing difficult times.

Silverwood School

Recruitment across all areas of the school, SEND Support & Training, Plus Programme - Alternative Provision.

Marlborough and District Dyslexia Association and Wiltshire Dyslexia Association

Two voluntary organisations to support Parents, Carers and Professionals with all matters related to Dyslexia.

Elizabeth House Social Centre

Day Service for people with Special Needs.

Barnardo's

Short breaks activities and youth clubs for children and young people with SEND.

Spurgeons Children Centres

Supporting children and families.

Wiltshire SENDIASS

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. We offer information, guidance, support, and signposting, either by phone, Teams calls, on an individual or targeted basis where needed, or through events and workshops. We aim to provide easy-to-understand information to raise awareness of options available to those using our service, and support you in making informed decisions about these options.

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MARKET PLACE STANDS Organisation

Wiltshire Wildlife Trust Care Farms

Local Offer

Information The Care Farms provide nature-based therapeutic activities for children, young people, and adults with additional needs, social and communication difficulties, mental ill- health, and needing emotional support. We provide meaningful nature- and work-based experiences in nature conservation, farming, horticulture, animal care, and Forest School activities. Each student is provided with a bespoke programme that meets their individual needs and that has been designed based on conversations with them, as well as their referrers, professionals, and their parents or carers.

The first place to look for SEND information 0 to 25 in Wiltshire.

WHC Continence Service

Wiltshire Continence Service provide help and support to those people who have a bladder and bowel concern We also provide help and support to those children who are transitioning from children's to adult continence services.

Wiltshire Centre For Independent Living (CIL)

Young Pioneers. Service for young people to share their views and voice in services across Wiltshire.

Carer Support Wiltshire

Help carers to access services, information, respite, and breaks from their caring role. They ensure carers have a voice and work with health and social care professionals to raise carer awareness and develop best practice.

Wiltshire Parent Carer Council (WPCC)

Signposting and support for parent carers of young people aged 0 - 25.

Carer Support Wiltshire

Provide support to all unpaid carers, including parent carers and young carers.

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MARKET PLACE STANDS Organisation

Information

HCRG Care Group

Representatives from HCRG Care Group will be available to answer any questions you may have regarding Wiltshire Children’s Community Services.

Fairfield Trust

Fairfield Trust is a centre of learning excellence for young people and adults with with additional needs to realise their potential. Our mission statement is 'To enable young people to live and work without barriers'.

Kay-OSS events

Events with SEN at the heart of the planning. From creating creative or messy stay and play opportunities to full steam ahead soft play sessions. During the school holidays and occasional weekends throughout the year, we have a variety of sessions to come along to. Currently held at Westwood and Trowbridge (Warminster for Soft Play) however always looking at new locations. A judgement free area for children and parents/carers. Kay-OSS enjoys the little moments that mean a lot as much as you.

Wiltshire Council: 0 - 25 SEND Service

Carry out the statutory functions associated with EHCPs.

Employment and Community Skills Community Connecting and WEST

Service that supports young people on their pathway to employment, including travel training and community access .

Wiltshire Council: Early Years Team

Team of specialist early years advisers passionate about raising outcomes for children to ensure they get the best start in life. The team includes Early Years Advisory Teachers, Quality Assurance Officers and Early Years Inclusion Officers meaning we can support on all aspects of early years provision. We work closely with Schools, Early Years Settings, Childminders and Children’s Centres to offer a wealth of support and advice and raise outcomes for the children attending.

Employ My Ability

Post 16 onwards SEND provision

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MARKET PLACE STANDS Organisation

Information

Employ My Ability

Post 16 onwards SEND provision

Wiltshire Council Parenting

Being a parent can be amazing, but we all need some help, advice, and practical tips at times. Parenting courses can provide support and guidance to parents and carers if you're struggling with the behaviour of a child, would like support to address issues around parenting teenagers, or are simply seeking some hints and tips on parenting in the company of other parents and carers.

All our programmes are free of charge.

Wiltshire Council: Kinship & Fostering Service

We are actively recruiting foster carers to look after our vulnerable children in care. If you can provide a stable, safe home and support our children/young people, we'll be interested to hear from you. Depending on your skills and experience foster carers receive generous payments from £380 to £710 per week, per child. Contact 0800 169 6321 to find out more.

Shaw Trust Palmer Gardens

A garden centre and cafe in Trowbridge offering day opportunities in the areas of horticulture, customer care and hospitality.

Creative Minds Arts & Crafts Ltd

We are a SEND friendly art studio in Trowbridge, Wiltshire offering children and adults a range of therapeutic arts and crafts activities.

Bath MENCAP & Gateway Sports Club

Badminton, fun team games & Swimming every Thursday evening.

See Me Be

A Wiltshire based Charity which supports people with Learning Disabilities into paid employment where possible.

Wiltshire Council Families and Children Commissioning

Support in the development, contract management and review of commissioned services including District Specialist Centres, Portage and SENDIASS to support families, children and young people.

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MARKET PLACE STANDS Organisation

Information

Wiltshire Council Area Boards

Area Boards are a way of working to bring local decision making into the heart of the community. There are 18 Area Boards across Wiltshire, with each one holding delegated powers and devolved budgets to facilitate community action at a local level. An important role of the Area Boards is to provide grants to community groups. There are three main funding streams which include community capital grants, youth grants and older and vulnerable adults grants.

OpenStoryTellers

Creative day service in Frome

Wiltshire Council Library Service

Library services across Wiltshire for all ages, including: free book borrowing, SEND resources, activities and signposting to services.

Launch2Learning Ltd.

We are an Alternative Provision based in small, local centres in Wiltshire. Our students work 1:1 with a qualified teacher to achieve both academic outcomes and receive social and emotional support in preparation for their next step in education.

Wiltshire Council Sports Development

Wiltshire Councils Ability Sports programme provides a variety of inclusive activities to children, young people and adults of all ages.

Brandon Trust

Support people to live independently in their own homes..

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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 to the survey we sent out about planning for this event; the majority of people who responded said they preferred the Civic Centre for this event.

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 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.

Thank you

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We hope you have found this Pre-Event Information Pack helpful and informative.

You are kindly asked to book places to attend.

To book your place to attend the event, simply click: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SENDIS2024

We very much look forward to you joining us on Friday 2nd February 2024 at The Civic Centre, Trowbridge.

Please remember to book early, as places are limited.

Booking closes at 5pm on Monday 29th January 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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