Coffee mornings/evenings
COFFEE AFTERNOON 25th May 2022 via Zoom
Nina Crispin, Information & Engagement Officer, and Amanda Nyeke, Public Health and Wellbeing Manager, from Reading Borough Council, joined us.
Two parent carers and Autism Berkshire attended to discuss the draft Reading all age Autism Strategy priorities and suggested actions. 4 other parent carers emailed their views and a 7th had to leave due to internet connection issues.
To read in full download the pdf |
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COFFEE MORNING 11th May 2022 VIA Zoom
Fiona Hostler, the Safeguarding and Children Missing Education officer from Brighter Futures for Children, joined 10 parent carers at our coffee morning to talk to families about children missing education, giving generic advice.
To read in full download the pdf |
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COFFEE MORNING 3rd March 2022 VIA ZOOM
Nina Crispin, Information & Engagement Officer, and Katie Badger, Trainee Public Health Programme Officer, from Reading Borough Council, joined 7 parent carers at our coffee morning to gather families’ views about what the new Reading all age Autism Strategy should include.
To read in full download the pdf |
Download Pdf |
COFFEE MORNING 20th January 2022 VIA ZOOM
Nikki Stevens, SEND team manager, joined 5 parent carers at our coffee morning to answer parent carers’ questions.
The SEND team assess, issue and review Education, Health and Care Plans. They also support schools to use the graduated response document for those children who are on SEND support and don’t have an Education, Health and Care Plan.
To read in full download the pdf |
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COFFEE MORNING 4th November 2021 VIA ZOOM
Deb Hunter, Principal Child & Educational Psychologist and Mental Health Lead, joined 8 parent carers, Reading Mencap.
Deb and a Reading Families’ Forum representative, Claire Harrison, attend the Mental Health Transformation Board for Reading, West Berkshire and Wokingham. The Transformation Plan lists three groups of children and young people who are not accessing mental health support as much as other groups of children: LGBTQi (which includes many autistic children), BAME communities (Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities) and children with a learning disability (with or without autism) in special schools.
To read in full download the pdf |
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COFFEE MORNING 13th MAY 2021 VIA ZOOM
Berkshire Healthcare Foundation Trust, Children, Young People and Families’ Services (CYFS) joined 5 parent carers, a Primary Mental Health worker and Children’s Centre and school staff.
From CYFS, we had Mairi Evans - Clinical Director, Mary-Jane Stroud - Neurodiversity Lead (Autism and ADHD), Andrew Royle – mental health practitioner, CAMHS Rapid Response Team and Daryl Nicholas, Participation Lead.
The neurodiversity services are now a separate team to CAMHS but they will work closely together. All services across Berkshire Healthcare Foundation Trust work with people with neurodiversity.
To read in full download the pdf |
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COFFEE MORNING 16th MARCH 2021 VIA ZOOM
Paul Gresty joined four parent carers. Paul works in Brighter Futures for Children looking at building capacity in special schools and mainstream schools. This involves looking at capital funding for building work, where needed. It can take some time to set up.
Brighter Futures are currently looking at building resource units in mainstream nurseries and a social and communication difficulty resource in Southcote to open in Sept 21. Resource units are places within mainstream school that a child/young person can go to if they need extra support, or spend all their time in, depending on their need.
There is also a possibility of setting up satellite classes in mainstream schools that are run by special schools.
To read in full download the pdf |
Download Pdf |
COFFEE MORNING 24th FEBRUARY 2021 VIA ZOOM
Nikki Stevens, SEN Team Manager joined eight parent carers, and Dingley’s Promise, to discuss what is working and what families would like to improve regarding SEND in Reading.
Nikki is new to the Reading SEN team and is keen that the team listen to families and communicate clearly and in a timely way with families. Sometimes there will be difficult decisions to make but the team want to co-produce with families. Nikki also wants annual reviews to be timely and productive.
New coproduction meetings during EHCP needs assessments going well.
To read in full download the pdf |
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COFFEE MORNING 16th DECEMBER 2020 VIA ZOOM
Susanna Diegel, Regional SEND Mediation Manager at KIDS joined seven parent carers, including Reading Mencap, to discuss mediation in Reading.
KIDS is a national charity who provide independent mediation in Reading for families of children and young people aged 0 – 25. They have wide experience of Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) as they also provide short breaks and adventure playgrounds for disabled children.
To read in full download the pdf |
Download Pdf |
COFFEE MORNING 11th NOVEMBER 2020 VIA ZOOM
Karen O’Leary, Patient Experience Team at the Royal Berkshire Hospital joined the coffee morning to get parent carer feedback on visiting the hospital. Five parent carers attended with Autism Berkshire and Dingley’s Promise.
To read in full download the pdf |
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COFFEE MORNING 23rd OCTOBER 2020 VIA ZOOM
Deb Hunter, new Mental Health Lead for Brighter Futures (and former Service Manager for Special Educational Needs and/or Disability joined the coffee afternoon.
Nine parent carers attended with TuVida (formally Berkshire Carers Hub), Autism Berkshire and Fifi’s Vision.
To read in full download the pdf |
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COFFEE AFTERNOON 21st AUGUST 2020 VIA ZOOM
Claire Lewis, Service Manager for Children’s Disability Service and Gabi Dawkins, Team Manager, Child and Young People’s Disability Team (CYPDT) joined 5 parent carers and Mencap for the Forum’s coffee afternoon.
To read in full download the pdf |
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COFFEE MORNING 22nd JUNE 2020 VIA ZOOM
Deb Hunter, Service Manager for Special Educational Needs and/or Disability (SEND), and Maryam Makki, Family Information Service Manager joined 12 parent carers, Mencap, Alafia, Autism Berkshire and Parenting Special Children staff SENCo for the Forum’s coffee morning.
To read in full download the pdf |
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COFFEE MORNING 4th JUNE 2020 VIA ZOOM
Deb Hunter, Service Manager for SEND, and Steve Devlin, SEN Team Manager joined 7 parent carers, Mencap staff and a SENCo for the Forum’s first coffee morning via Zoom. Acknowledged that this was a very stressful time for families of children with additional needs.
To read in full download the pdf |
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COFFEE EVENING 17th DECEMBER 2019
Claire Lewis (Service Manager for the Children and Young People’s
Disability Team plus 2 Family Intervention Teams in Brighter Futures for Children) joined 16 parent carers to discuss children’s social care in
Reading.
From 2nd Jan, Claire will manage a new Children and Young People
with Disability Service (0- 18 yrs) in BFFC. This will include CYPDT,
Cressingham and Pinecroft and short breaks commissioners. This will
mean that all the services that support children with SEND are in one
place and there can be more co-production with families. Claire also sits on the Transition to Adult Social Care panel and the SEND panel which decides whether to approve Education, Health and Care Plans.
To read in full download the pdf |
Download Pdf |
COFFEE EVENING 3rd APRIL 2019
Deb Hunter, Principal Educational Psychologist and newly appointed
Service Manager for Special Educational Needs and/or Disability (SEND)
spoke with 18 parent and family carers to discuss support for our
children’s emotional and mental health and the new Mental Health
Support Teams that are going to be set up in Reading and West
Berkshire.
To read in full download the pdf |
Download Pdf |
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