SENDMatters January/February 2023

Bromley Early Intervention & Family Support (EIFS) health engagement event in February 2023

This one hour overview of the Bromley Children Project will give you a focussed tour of the activities and sessions that are currently offered to parents, including one-to-one support and Children & Family Centre services.

Social Communication Needs (incl Autism) Family Support Service

If you feel your child may have social communication needs including Autism (with or without a diagnosis) then initial signposting for families is to the Social Communication needs (SCN) family support service, providing signposting and information support to families with children and young people (Aged 0-25). Through its co-ordinator the service offers:

• A range of information which seeks to improve and develop parental knowledge around Social Communication Needs and Autism. These include signposting to Bromley Children Project’s range of ASC specific courses.
• Referral route into Bromley Mencap for specialist support services.
• A telephone helpline which offers local signposting and guidance for next steps.
• Regular coffee mornings with identified topic areas.

Make contact via email here (autisticspectrumcondition@bromley.gov.uk) or Telephone: 020 8461 7697

(Service runs Monday to Thursday 9.30am-14.00 pm)

Specialist Family Support

The co-ordinator can refer families into Bromley Mencap’s Specialist Autism Family Support service.

Bromley Mencap’s Specialist Autism Family support service offers more intensive support, referrals are triaged and can receive up to 12 weeks support on specific issues and needs they may face.

The aim of both services is to ensure that children with social communication needs (including Autism) and their families feel supported at home, in education and in their community.

Make contact with co-ordinator via email (autisticspectrumcondition@bromley.gov.uk) or Telephone: 020 8461 7697

An update from Bromley Mencap

Happy New Year and good health for 2023!!

Our services provide support for disabled children, young people, and young carers through to their transition into adulthood. Whether it is advice and information, signposting, opportunities for peer support, support with short breaks, or leisure activities, our services work with disabled children and young people and their families to make lives better

Christmas 2022!!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are ready to tackle 2023!! To celebrate the festive season the Children’s team held a Christmas Event for the families that we have supported over the past year, it was a bit different to the usual Christmas party, with activities and a scavenger hunt but everyone enjoyed the event held at The Lodge, and of course we had a visit from Father Christmas!!

We were also delighted to receive donations of Christmas presents from The Salvation Army and hampers from Bromley Brighter Beginnings which we were able to distribute to some of the most vulnerable families that we work with. The support of these organisations helped to relieve some of the extra pressures felt by these families at Christmas

We are looking forward to working with more families in 2023, so please contact us if you feel that we could support you and your family with any of your services.

• Short Breaks: shortbreaks@bromleymencap.org
• ASD Family Support – autisticspectrumcondition@bromley.gov.uk

Take a moment tent

Take A Moment Tents provide safe environments for people who need space away from main activities for a short period of time to help prevent overwhelm or discomfort. This may involve a change of seating position for wheelchair users or sensory activities to help rebalance or self-regulate.

Children used both the Sensory Dark Den and the Sit, Chill and Explore Zone. The main aim of both zones is to enable time alone and independent exploration. Parents could offer support as needed. On this occasion the Sit, Chill and Exploration Zone included choosing felt decorations and independently sticking them on the felt Christmas Tree wherever they wanted to put them.

Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Programme

Bromley’s Holiday, Activities, and Food (HAF) programme provides free holiday club places, including activities and healthy meals outside of term time, for families with children and young people from 5-16 years old who are in receipt of benefit related Free School Meals.

This Winter the Holiday, Activities and Food programme worked closely with our providers to support as many children as possible with SEND, by ensuring the appropriate procedures were in place to fully assess each child’s needs and from these assessments make reasonable adjustments to support the child. The team worked with Bromley’s Short Breaks Provider, the Children and Families Voluntary Sector Forum, via the organisation Lay Witness to run a 4 day SEND specific HAF provision at St Philomena’s Primary School. The school had fantastic sensory equipment which the HAF children were able to access as part of the planned activities. We also worked with another of Bromley’s Short Breaks Providers, Sport Works, who were able to support children and young people with less complex needs this Winter.

All our programmes were a great success, with fantastic feedback from parents and carers who were extremely grateful for the support, with most noting that many other holiday clubs were unable to support their child.

Looking forward to future HAF programmes, Bromley’s objective remains to be as inclusive as possible whilst remaining in line with the programme requirements, allowing as many eligible children and young people as possible to experience HAF. To achieve this, we aim to work more closely with our Short Breaks Team to bolster our future SEND specific provision.

You can contact the team through HolidayActivitiesandFood@bromley.gov.uk

Families facing financial pressure

As the cost of living continues to increase, we are aware that many people are concerned about the cost of essential items such as food, energy and rent. This can be particularly worrying for families who have a child or children with special educational needs or disabilities.

There are services and advice that can help, some of which depend on your circumstances.

Turn to talk podcasts

Our Turn to Talk is NCB’s youth-led podcast programme! All episodes are developed and directed by young people and focus on issues that are important to them.

Lotte is a member of the National Children’s Bureau’s Young Research Advisors, a group of children and young people from across England that help drive the quality, relevance and impact of our research.

For Our Turn to Talk’s sixth episode, Navigating the Maze: Understanding Education Health Care Plans, Lotte discusses:

• Her own experiences of having an EHCP
• How she thinks young people can be better supported throughout the process
• Some tips for young people to help them understand and manage their EHCP.

This episode looks at EHCPs through the eyes of a young person and raises some important issues from someone with first-hand experience. Lotte’s podcast can be helpful for children and young people with an EHCP, parent/carers, and professionals.

You can listen to Lotte’s podcast here and find other Our Turn to Talk episodes here. A transcript of the podcast is available via the link in the episode description.

Maypole Project

Maypole Active is an inclusive sports and activities club, designed for children (aged 5 – 12yrs) with a complex medical need, SEN or disability, to gain access to sport. Maypole Active is also a great way for children to socialise with teammates, make friendships and create peer support in an informal and fun setting. The sessions are held in Bromley every Wednesday between 5pm and 6pm and cost £7.50 per session

Please email our Support Team on helpline@themaypoleproject.co.uk or call 01689 851596 to find out more