Young people's learning disability event - 8 September 2022

(3pm - 6pm in City Park, Bradford)

The healthy living charity is holding an event for young people with learning disabilities and their parents/carers on Thursday 8 September. You will be able to access lots of information about services, support available, social prescribing, activities and hobbies and learn more about routine health checks.

There will be lots of organisations from across the district there you can meet, and there will be some activities including the smoothie-making bike, glitter face paints and giant connect four. Come along and say hello!

SEN assessment support on GCSE results day for EHCP students

The SEN Integrated Assessment team would like to take a moment to thank you for your continued support this past year. Our service is growing and evolving, looking at ways in which we can improve our systems and level of communication with children, young people and their families.  

With GCSE results day approaching, we would like to offer our support for those with an EHC plan who were in year 11 (academic year Sept 21 to July 22). Our service acknowledges that GCSE results day can create some brand new directions. Our young people may have also changed their minds or their interests may have evolved and they wish to study a different course, at a different college.  

By the 31 March 2022, the SEN Integrated Assessment Team named a post 16 setting in your young person’s EHC plan. If, following GCSE results day, you will be unable to attend this setting due to grade boundaries or changes in interest, then our service will need to place fresh consultations to providers.

On Friday 26 August (9am until 4pm), the service will be available for drop in sessions at Margret McMillian Tower to place consultations to different providers.

Enter through the main entrance of Margret McMillian Tower where you will need to sign in. We will be based on the ground floor in The View Room. This room is accessible for wheelchairs. Although we can't make recommendations, we will have a list of different colleges and registered training providers. You may wish to conduct your own research about these places then request us to consult.

SENDIASS will also be available on the day also for independent advice and support.

Sharing our SEN support work at the headteachers forum

The PFBA were invited to a Bradford headteachers forum to present the work we have been doing around SEN support in school. We did a 10 minute presentation and were able to share our experience of how our children managed, or didn’t manage in school. We also discussed some of the things that parents had talked to us about such as anxiety, self-harm, masking, sensory issues, lack of inclusivity in school and EHCP struggles, among many others.

It was a real eye opener for them to hear about what some of our families go through, and how the work we are doing has helped to pave the way for peer support and improved communication between parents and school. It has provided information at the earliest possible opportunity in the SEN journey and empower parents to help themselves and support each other too.

The best part of the meeting was when one of the headteachers said that following the PFBA coffee morning we held in their school, they had seen parents talking to each other in the playground as a result of this and said how effective it had been for parents supporting each other. 

We are happy to present at other headteacher or academy meetings. If you would like to arrange this, contact adele@pfba.org.uk to arrange it with us.