22.2.2022
Short breaks and respite care consultation
We should be very grateful if you would take 5 minutes to complete the short breaks and respite care survey; we have worked with the Council to set up a short survey to make sure they understand how our children and young people's needs have been impacted by the pandemic and to help them commission the best services to meet our families's needs moving forwards.
Carers Week 2022
We have put together a video for Carers Week 2022 to reflect the theme ' being Visible, Valued and Supported' . The photos were taken by Tabitha Turner at recent Play and Stay sessions and the slideshow was compiled by our Play and Stay Manager, Bethany F Knowles; both girls are sibling carers and enjoy working at Play and Stay in the holidays - we hope you enjoy the video
27.1.22
Advocacy for All have asked us to share their survey for children and young people asking them what activities they would like to do. The closing date is now 4th February. This will feed in to the commissioning of short breaks along with your parent carer feedback at our next event on February 22nd; further details to follow
5.11.21
PfA and Learning Disability Strategy Update
Following the Learning Disability meeting with parent carers this morning, we will put together a document with all the feedback and post here; thank you to eveyone who contributed.
A lot of the issues raised this morning echoed those that we reported back to Sutton Council, on 6.9.2021, after we met with families in July 2021 to find out how you feel services for young people aged 14plus are supporting transition and preparation for adulthood. The document which brings together your feedback was shared with Sutton Council and we asked them to use this to inform their planning for PfA.
The initial meeting with families in February 2020 was based on this presentation
We are, as yet, unclear as to how your and our experiences will be fed in to the PfA workplan.
8.7.21
Learning Disability Strategy Update and Survey
Advocacy 4 All have asked us to share the questionnaire with anyone with learning difficulties age 14 or over who would like to take part and return completed questionnaires by the end of July either by email to Rachel.Coates@advocacyforall.org.uk or you can leave or post a paper copy to us c/o Sutton Mencap at 8 Stanley Park Road, Wallington, SM6 0EU. Please let us know if you would like us to print a copy and post to you to complete.
Carers Week 2021 - posted 7.6.21 - the report below shows that only 7% of families accessed short breaks or respite care and services are still not back to capacity, will the Council commit to investigating the impact on Carers including that identified in the report below
Results of the Lockdown SEND Provision Survey January 2021 - thank you to all the parents and carers who completed the London wide survey of families caring for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities to highlight the impact of Covid19 on our families. We are very grateful to all the Sutton parents and carers who shared their experiences which evidenced that our children, young people and families, who are among the most vulnerable, continue to be the most disadvantaged. We have shared the anonymised Sutton data and the London wide report with Sutton Council, the Clinical Commissioning Group and Sutton Councillors.
HELP US TO SHAPE THE NEW INDEPENDENT TRAVEL TRAINING SERVICE IN SUTTON posted 8.4.2021
Developing independence is a subject that most of us focus on as our young person moves towards Adulthood. Part of that independence may be about Independent Travel and would involve some Independence Travel Training (ITT), so that they can learn to use public transport safely through 1:1 training. Our Steering Group are working with Sutton Council, who are currently reviewing the ITT service in Sutton, to provide parent carer engagement and feedback to help design the updated service.
We would like to hear from you to understand how you would want the new Independent Travel Training service to provide support to learn to travel independently. Are you interested in your young person taking part in travel training in the future and what age should this start?
We are also keen to hear from parent carers and young people who have already used the current ITT service. It would be really interesting to understand if it enabled them/you to be successful independent travellers. If not, why not and what could help?
Has Covid impacted on their ability to travel independently? Would you like some support to help rebuild their confidence? We are setting up a small focus group and would love to hear from parent carers who would like to join us to be part of shaping the new service in Sutton. Please email us at suttonparentforum@outlook.com if you would be interested in helping.
SEND Charter Consultation February 21
We have been asked by the Local Authority to share the draft SEND Charter for parent carer and stakeholder group feedback.
We have copied the introduction papragraphs of the draft Charter below, you can download the complete draft charter and email any suggestions to education.sendfeedback@sutton.gov.uk
The charter intends a high level set of values and attitudes agreed by all stakeholders with regard to how we approach SEND. Getting these right gives a tool by which to influence and pick up where we fall short, and more positively, a framework to celebrate when we are all working well together.
Alongside the charter, the intention is that this would be underpinned by various processes that support its values and provide a frame work for interaction between the LA, Cognus, Schools, Parents/Carers, young people and other professionals with regard to SEND matters.
DRAFT SUTTON CHARTER – many thanks to SPCF (Sutton Parent Carer Forum) for their time and thought in drafting this initial starting point. Feedback has already been gained from some stakeholder groups and we are now asking parent/carers groups for any feedback before consulting on a final version