Home / HPCI Member Update 17 May 2023
This week, I’d especially like highlight our new survey on Alternative Provision. Here’s what else is included in this week’s update…
Alternative Provision survey
HPCI wants to make sure that we understand the views and experiences of families whose children are using or have accessed Alternative Provision (AP). If your child or young person (age 5-18) is currently accessing AP, or has done in the last six months, please do give your views via this survey (which is open until Sunday 4 June).
If you aren’t sure what Alternative Provision is, or whether your child’s provision is included, there is further information about this on our website.
Please do share this survey with other families. There has been an increased focus on AP recently from Government and Hertfordshire County Council. It’s important that we can share how these services are experienced by children and young people with SEND, and their families.
New SEND Improvement Plan for Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire County Council has recently published its new SEND Improvement Plan, which you can find on the Local Offer website. The information that families provided via the HPCI survey really helped to drive the focus of this plan, and HPCI is pleased to see an action plan put in place to start addressing families’ concerns and deliver against the Herts SEND Strategy.
HPCI has parent carer representatives across the 9 areas of improvement set out in the plan, in order to keep the views and lived experiences of families at the heart of discussions. If you are interested in being a parent carer representative and making sure that the views of Hertfordshire families with SEND are heard, you can find out more here.
Direct Payment Holder Peer Support Groups and training by Purple
A new Direct Payment Support Service launched in January this year, aiming to help anyone who receives a Direct Payment (DP) from Hertfordshire County Council. As part of this service, there is an online support group as well as a range of training sessions – you can find out more about these here: DP PEER SUPPORT. More general information about the service is available here: Hertfordshire Direct Payment Support Service
Surveys
Hertfordshire Autism Strategy Development – Hertfordshire are seeking views from autistic people and their family members in order to update their All-Age Autism Strategy. If you haven’t been able to give your views via one of the recent workshops, you can complete this survey, which is open until 11 June.
University College London are inviting parents/carers of students with learning disability aged 5-25 to take part in an online survey, covering what should be assessed when schools teach Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) to students with a learning disability. More details are available here and the deadline to complete the survey is 4 June.
Events
DSPL8 are holding their Dacorum Families SEND Information Day Fayre on 22 June – for further information and to book your free place by 14 June, please see their Facebook page.
DSPL4 are planning their SEND Community Fayre for 20 June – no need to book, but you can find all the details on their Facebook page.
Webinar: Spotlight on supported internships. This is a free webinar for parents and carers of young people preparing for adult life taking place on Thursday 18 May, 10.30am-12noon – booking details here.
Contact are running free online Speech and Language Support workshops in June for parent carers of children with communication difficulties. More details: Early Years (ages 0-5) on 6 June, Primary (ages 6-11) on 26 June, Secondary (ages 11-16) on 6 June and 8 June.
Healthwatch Hertfordshire are running two events in June about how to improve inclusivity in NHS and social care research. There will be an update on what they have learnt so far and the opportunity to comment on how to further increase inclusion. You can find out more on their website.
That’s all for this update. Thanks for reading and do let us know if you have any feedback…