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Welcome to the Autumn term's In Partnership bulletin. Hopefully it's been a relatively stress free return into the new academic year, particularly for those starting something new - a new nursery, school, college, or work placement. The importance of a successful transition for children and young people with SEND cannot be stressed enough and is something that all those connected to the individual need to consider as early as possible.
Whilst next year may feel a long way away, now is the time to start thinking whether things are in place for those moving on to something new. Do they have a My Support Plan which needs to focus on the sort of support that a young person needs in their next educational setting? Is their EHCP updated to reflect their current needs, and are the right people involved in providing this information?
Preparing for Adulthood is a key message of the Children and Families Act around SEND, and that starts from the earliest possible stage. And whether a young person is in a nursery, school, college or work placement, the preparing has already started.
Chris Firth, Manager SENDIASS
 The Coventry Youth Partnership has launched a database of activities and events taking place in the city on its new website.
Partners from across the city have joined together to provide a calendar of activities for the platform, which has been supported by the Council as key strategic partner.
It's designed as a place for young people, parents and young people’s professionals to go to find out where they can take part in activities in their local communities. Most of the provision listed is either free of charge or low price and targets people aged eight to 19.
Young people helped to design the website, giving feedback and advice on how it can be made accessible for people their age.
Further details can be accessed through the Coventry Youth Partnership
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 Have you used "Dimensions" yet?
"Dimensions", developed by Coventry and Warwickshire's Partnership Trust's neurodevelopmental team, can help identify the areas which most impact on a child or young person's emotional well-being and mental health. It can also help young people, parents, carers, referrers and professionals to find out what could be offered to help with their particular difficulties, using a shared database of local interventions.
The database includes interventions across the services for young people, inside and outside the NHS, including those available through charities, support groups and the local authority.
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 The Family Health and Lifestyle service is commissioned by Coventry's Public Health and delivered by South Warwickshire Foundation Trust and consists of the following services:
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Health Visiting – leading the Healthy Child Programme from pregnancy to age five.
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Infant Feeding – a specialist team to encourage mothers to breastfeed and provide expert guidance on infant nutrition.
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Family Nurse Partnership (FNP) – a specially trained team who provide intensive home-visiting to vulnerable mums (e.g. mums under the age of 19).
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School Nursing - leading the Healthy Child Programme from 5 to 19 years.
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One body, one life – maternal and family weight management programme.
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Stop Smoking in Pregnancy – supporting pregnant women to stop smoking and maintain smoke free homes.
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Mamta – providing information and advice to women who are new to this country or are from a black and minority ethnic groups around health pregnancies and how to look after the health of a baby.
As part of the new model a single point of access has been established and the service can be contacted on the following number: 02475 189190.
Further information can also be found on the South Warwickshire Foundation Trust website.
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 Following the 2017
review of disagreement resolution arrangements the Department for Education commissioned Mott MacDonald, as part of the
Delivering Better Outcomes Together (DBOT) consortium, to develop and publish a
guide for young people aged 16-25 on how to resolve special educational needs
and disability (SEND) disagreements. Mott MacDonald worked with a range of
organisations and groups, including the young people's group FLARE, to produce
the guide.
The guide provides advice and information about how young people who are
unhappy with the support they are getting for their special educational needs
or disability can find the right help and advice to resolve their issues. The
guide explains who young people can go to for support and the steps to take.
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 Do you know a child or young person who is having difficulty with anxiety? Recent reports suggest that referrals nationally for mental health related issues have risen by 26% in the last 5 years.
Anxiety in an individual can show itself in a number of ways - or sometimes not at all - and employing some basic strategies, either as a parent, support worker or teacher can help children and young people understand and manage some of their worries.
"Hey Sigmund" has published a couple of interesting articles on the subject - one around "When anxiety in children looks like anger, tantrums or meltdowns" and "What kids and teens with anxiety need teachers to know".
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 In the summer, the Education Committee (a committee of members of Parliament) published a report expressing concerns about the level of exclusions from school.
The Committee recommends a series of measures which can act as a 'Bill of Rights' for pupils and their parents to help combat the existing lack of information and rights which currently act as “an obstacle to social justice and the educational ladder of opportunity”.
Read the full report or the summary.
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 The CHYP Shop has been specially designed for children and young people with SEN which includes:
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Monthly Blogs - from young people across the city commenting on their different
experiences.
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Young Investigators - Reviewing different services across the City
(ie Cinemas/Scouts)
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Peer Support - an Agony Aunt style area
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Cov AmbasSENDors - Young Peoples Forum
Please have a look at the website - any feedback, gratefully received!
Some Coventry schools are really interested in supporting children and young people in becoming contributors, so watch this space to see how they get on.
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 Do you know about Browsealoud?
Browsealoud enables hundreds of web pages (and downloadable documents held within them) on the Coventry City Council website to be more accessible for all in a range of different ways.
These include; translating into over 100 languages; speakaloud (which enables you to listen to pages/documents in either English or a range of languages); a range of viewing options; you can even make an MP3 to listen to!
For more information, go to www.coventry.gov.uk/translate.
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Below is a selection of upcoming events around SEND. If you know of any additional parents groups, child/young person's activities, and/or training around SEND that you think would be useful for others to attend, why not add them to the Local Offer?
SENDIASS have recently set up a regular Coffee Morning being held in a central location where possible for parents/carers of children and young people with Special Educational Needs. The next Coffee Morning will be on 18th October 2018 between 10 am - 12 noon at the Central Library in the City Centre.
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After a series of successful sessions in 2017 Contact for families with disabled children are returning to offer parents/carers of children who have SEN and Disabilities a series of 6 FREE informative workshops from Wednesday 7th November - 12th December 2018 (10 am - 12 noon). You can attend as many as you want.
If you would like to find out more about the sessions please contact SEND Information, Advice and Support Service on 024 7669 4307 or email iass@coventry.gov.uk
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The "Curly Hair Project" is an award-winning social enterprise founded by autistic author and
entrepreneur Alis Rowe. Their aim is to help those with autism learn to
understand themselves and their needs and ultimately be able to self-manage
with our work being largely about acceptance, understanding and empathy for
different world experiences.
In these past few years
Alis' work has diversified to include a UK wide network of training on all
aspects of autism. This training is written by Alis and delivered by parents of
autistic children thereby providing real lived experience. They have launched a new series of Autism Learning Days and Mental Health
Days and they will be bringing this new work to Coventry for the
first time. They have put together several days where parents and professionals
can learn more about autism together, from those who know what it is like to
live with this condition.
The first Autism Learning Day which incorporates relationships, understanding each other, communications and executive function starts on Thursday 18 October 2018 in Coventry. The link below takes you to the event with information and the ability to book tickets (there is a charge attached).
Are you involved with a parents group? If so, why not tell us about it so more parents can join in?
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Coventry's One Voice Parent Group is part of the National Network of Parent Carer Forums and helps support the views of parents/carers on issues involving SEND.
To register an interest, please contact onevoicegroup@btinternet.com or call/text 07874 242733.
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 The Coventry Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Local Offer brings together information for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities and their families.
The SEND Local Offer will cover services available to the public across education, health and social care:
Education: such as nurseries, playgroups, schools and colleges as well as support services like Educational Psychology and SEN services.
Health: children's and adult services including GPs, therapists and hospital services
Social care: such as short break services and children's and adult disability services.
A Parent Engagement Meeting has been arranged to Review the planned Local Offer updates with a focus on the content- making sure that the most important topics are accessible to people in a way that makes common sense.
Date: 18 October 2018 Time: 11:30-14:00
Location: Council House Diamond Room 5
Contact: Meredith Moore
Project Support Officer - Coventry City Council
meredith.moore@coventry.gov.uk
Tel: 0247 683 1085
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If you have any comments or wish to contribute something to the next bulletin, please let us know by contacting us sendnews@coventry.gov.uk
Alternatively, you can keep up to date through SEND IASS's;
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