Child development centres provide multi-disciplinary assessments of children with additional needs who are under five years old. Children attend for assessment, diagnosis, intervention and advice for the following impairments and disabilities:
- Behavioural problems
- Communication and interaction problems
- Delay in their development
- Impaired vision or hearing
- Physical disability
- Severe co-ordination problems
Read an update on changes to the assessment pathway offered by the child development centres where there are concerns about a young child’s developmental needs. This article also includes information about autism diagnosis
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Occupational therapists know that sensory needs can affect children’s participation in the activities they need, want or are expected to do but there are different ways to address these.
The Children’s Occupational Therapy Service offer advice and support to parents and education settings for supporting children with sensory difficulties through an advice line and opt -in parent education workshops.
They have also written this fantastic article which includes some ‘Top Tips’ and have included links for the resources they find most useful when working with parents and educators. This article is a must read for families with children who have sensory needs.
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We need Shropshire Parent Carers to tell us what makes you Mad, Sad and Glad about your lives caring for children and young people with disabilities and additional needs. Your snap-shots of family life and family issues are valuable as they give an appraisal of what may have been disappointing or frustrating about services and service delivery - as well as the positive experiences you’ve had. PACC will collate this information, publish and present it to their partners and stakeholders across the system to help inform strategies and plans to improve the services which our children and young people receive.
There is a small thank you gift to those who complete the survey, all you need to do is answer three questions.
Complete the Mad, Sad, Glad Survey!
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Since October 2019 there has been a new approach to how Shropshire Council develops direct payments. All development work is now co-produced; carried out jointly between the Council and experts by experience. Work groups meet to tackle key issues and include experts by experience whose equal participation has directed many improvements. You can read more about the changes to the approach here.
Annual health checks are for adults and young people aged 14 or over with a learning disability.
An annual health check gives people time to talk about anything that is worrying them and means they can get used to going to visit the doctor.
To help explain what is involved in an annual health check, a group of inspiring young people from Derwen College have created the following video to raise awareness of the importance of annual health checks.
The video is aimed to help young people with learning disabilities to understand the process of an annual health check in a simple, easy to understand format.
For more information and to watch the video please visit this website
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WISH is an intervention programme for children and young people in Key Stages 2-4, which has been developed by our Shropshire Educational Psychologists. The programme is built on psychological theories and research into the best support to develop and enhance the well-being, self-efficacy and resilience of children and young people, both generally and following traumatic events. It has been appreciated that everyone will have had very different experiences of Covid-19 and lockdown, and the design of WISH has taken this into consideration. WISH is a universal intervention which provides opportunities for children and young people to reflect, learn and develop their skills now and to move them towards positive futures.
A 30 minute online training video has been developed for School Staff to enhance understanding of the psychology underpinning the WISH programme. School Staff will be provided with prepared PowerPoint slides for each of the 10 WISH sessions and a WISH manual to support the delivery of each slide, all of which have been differentiated to be appropriate for the three Key Stages. A short feedback questionnaire should be completed to ensure that School Staff are ready to facilitate the sessions prior to starting the WISH programme. Furthermore, children and young people will be encouraged to reflect on their well-being before and after the 10 WISH sessions in a short survey, which will provide schools with valuable feedback on how their children and young people are feeling. The 10 WISH sessions may be run in 15-20 minutes, although more time can be taken to run them and there are additionally opportunities for extension activities for each session. The WISH programme is Shropshire’s bespoke intervention to support children and young people during the Covid-19 pandemic. It is the lead intervention for Shropshire schools and endorsed as part of the DfE Government well-being intervention that is currently being delivered nationally. WISH is also the well-being intervention for the University of Leeds project, which is evaluating children’s access to nutrition during this difficult time.
The WISH programme has been created by Dr Kathryn Morgan, Dr Chantal Goss and Trainee Educational Psychologist Emily Williamson.
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£650 million catch up funding has been provided to schools during 2020-21. This is funded at £80 per pupil in mainstream schools and £240 per pupil in special schools and alternative provision. Schools have flexibility on how this is spent but must report spending on the school website. An additional £350 million has been made available for the National Tutoring Programme and a programme to support primary schools with language intervention for reception children (Nuffield Early Language Intervention – NELI). The £350 million funding also covers a 16-19 tuition fund for 2020-21.
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The Actio summer fun offer is now available and includes All In Short Breaks and their Pears Foundation funded Summer Program. There are a range of activities available for children and young people aged 0-25 with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. Children and Young People need to be a member of Shropshire Councils All In Short Breaks or registered with Actio to access these activities. To find out what’s on offer visit the Actio website
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HAF (Holiday Activities and Food) programme, funded by the Department of Education, is intended to support families who are eligible to benefits related free school meals, to access activities and food through the school Easter, Summer and Christmas holidays in 2021.
The summer programme offers a fun packed summer of activities which can be booked directly by families across Shropshire.
Each family eligible for free school meals, will be receiving the HAF Voucher and Activity Programme from their schools after the 9th July. The HAF Voucher Code can be quoted when booking with the provider of their choice and will entitle them to access the activity sessions which will include a meal for the child attending.
All children eligible for benefits related free school meals will also be receiving a further food voucher to cover the summer holidays. This is from the COVID Local Support Grant Extension and is being distributed separately to the HAF programme.
The Activity Programme is available on the Shropshire HAF website
Family Events throughout the Summer
Come and join us for some family sessions over the summer. Enjoy some quality family time whilst meeting other families. We are hoping to visit Attingham Park, Ellesmere Lake and Chirk Castle. All events will be listed on our events page soon, for more information please visit the events page
Young People registered with ‘All in’ Short Breaks:
Part of Shropshire Council's All In Short Breaks Service. Young people must be living in the Shropshire Council Area and be registered with the council’s “All In” Short Breaks Service.
AWM and All In short breaks will be offering sessions for 12-17 year olds every Wednesday during the summer holidays. Come and join us for some fun, sessions can be booked via our online shop Please note young people must be registered with All In to take part in the events. To register with All In click here.
Advice and support
We continue to offer advice and support over the phone and via email. Parents and carers can contact our small team directly to arrange an appointment please call:
Mon, Tue, Thurs, Fri Wendy Cowton 07900784186
Weds, Thu, Fri Emma Hegenbarth 07881109480
Email shropshire@autismwestmidlands.org.uk
Helpline 0121 450 7575
Zoom Advice slots
For those who would like some face-to-face contact we are offering this virtually via video appointments. Zoom works well on mobile phones. To book a 45 min advice appointment with a specialist autism advisor please book via our shop
Virtual Support Group for Parents - Wednesday Mornings 10am-11am & Wednesday Evenings 8pm-9pm
We are running our weekly online support groups via the Zoom platform. This is an opportunity to talk with other parents, share ideas, and offer support.
If you would like to join either of the support groups, please email Gemma at gemmae@autismwestmidlands.org.uk
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