E- Bulletin - April 2019

City of Wolverhampton Council sent this bulletin at 01-04-2019 09:38 AM BST

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Wolverhampton Information, Advice, and Support

www.wolvesiass.org

E-Bulletin - April 2019

Happy Easter

To All Our Readers

National Autism Strategy

Review of National Autism Strategy

The Department of Health and Social Care, with the Department for Education, has launched a national call for evidence to inform it's review of the Autism Strategy. The call for evidence is inviting views from autistic people, their families and carers as well as those of professionals. It is aimed at finding out what is working, where progress has been made and, importantly, where we need to push harder to transform the lives of autistic people, their families and carers.

The call for evidence can be accessed online at the following link https://consultations.dh.gov.uk/autism/2e4ae18d and is open for responses until 16 May 2019.

World Autism Week

World Autism Week runs until Sunday 7^th April. On World Autism Awareness Day Tuesday 2 April the City of Wolverhampton Council and its partners will be holding a #SmallChangesBigDifference drop-in session at the Civic Centre between 10am and 3pm for people to find out more about autism and the help and support which is available to people with autism and their families.

There will also be the opportunity for people to share the small changes that people and businesses can make which can have a big difference to people with autism.

Last year, Wolverhampton announced its intention to become an Autism Friendly City by 2021 and Wolverhampton's Joint Autism Strategy has been refreshed to focus on three key themes – increasing awareness and understanding of autism, improving services for people with autism, and helping people with autism to become more independent.

Work is taking place to ensure there is the capacity and resources needed within both mainstream and special schools to meet the needs of all pupils with autism. Wolverhampton’s Special School Outreach Service is training teachers from mainstream schools to become Autism Leaders, and also provides training for parents of children with autism. A new specialist centre for autism at the City of Wolverhampton College is supporting a dozen students between the ages of 16 and 25, and additional places for children with autism have been created at Tettenhall Wood School.

As well as education, people with autism are being supported into the world of work, with employment service Enable providing individual support, including help with CVs, interviews and job coaching. Other programmes such as Thrive, Black Country Impact, Wolves Workbox and Wolves at Work are supporting people with autism into employment, while a number of local businesses are committed to becoming "disability confident employers".

In the months ahead, the focus will be on increasing awareness, understanding and support, with the City of Wolverhampton Council, the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust and the University of Wolverhampton all working to become autism friendly organisations, and a network of autism champions being established to promote awareness and understanding within organisations across the city. Further work will also take place to improve service pathways and ensure more people with autism are able to access services that promote employability and independent living, and make the transition between childhood and adulthood as smooth as possible.

For more details about World Autism Awareness Week, please visit National Autistic Society National Autistic Society. For details of local help and support services, visit Wolverhampton Information Network.

Sensory Inclusion Service Event

The Sensory Inclusion Service are holding a Family Information and Activity Event on Wednesday 10th April

There will be fun activities and information available.

For full details download the Leaflet

Kath Apperley from our service will be there along with our Parent Champions and they look forward to meeting you.

Tettenhall Wood Coffee Mornings

Coffee Mornings are held from 9.30am until 11.30am.

This is an opportunity for the parents/carers of children and young people with autism to meet and share similar experiences and also gain information from experienced professionals. Drop in for a chat any time during the session.

The next coffee morning is on Friday 24th May 2019.

To find out about future dates please follow the link here

Tettenhall Wood Parent/Carer Workshops

Tettenhall Wood will be running a variety of interesting and relevant workshops to provide parents and carers with valuable support and information.

The next workshop is on Friday 12th April 2019

Stress and How to Manage

Led by Venetia Williams –Inspire Assistant Psychologist

To find out more and future dates see the flyer

Headstart

Join Headstart for a fortnight of Easter activities for young people and parents. Find out more about the HeadStart programme & emotional wellbeing support available for young people and parents in Wolverhampton.

For further information visit the Easter Eggstravaganza page