Parents Forum Newssheet

Issue 6 - June 2007

Parents Forum Future

Good News, the continuation of the Parents Forum is secure. The two Parent Representatives, Phil and Siobhan, met with the new Director of Childrens Services, Murray Rose, and discussed a number of topics including the Parents Forum. From this meeting Childrens Services have agreed to provide some funding for the running of the Parents Forum.

The next meeting of the forum will be taking place on Tuesday 10 July 2007, 1.00 - 3.00pm and will be taking place in the Boardroom at the CVS building in the Market Place (next door to the Boot and Shoe pub)

Murray Rose, Director of Childrens Services for Darlington Borough Council has agreed to come along to this meeting for the first hour to share his thoughts on the future in Darlington for disabled children.

If you would like to come along to this event then can you please contact Chris to book your place on 01325 489999 or email: chris@darlingtondisability.org . Also if you know of any other parents with a disabled child who you think may like to come along to this event then please feel free to pass on this information to them and ask them to contact Chris.

Summer Family Event

Following the results from the recent consultation on the future of the forum, which identified that parents would like some social events, we are considering organising a family get together somewhere in the Darlington area.

Ideas suggested are BBQ, family picnic etc. The event will hopefully be run during the middle of the summer holidays on a weekend. If any parents have any suggestions on the venue or type of event then please contact Chris on 01325 489999.

The John T Shuttleworth Ropner Memorial Trust

This fund provides grants of up to £1,000 to ill, elderly or disabled individuals and their Carers in the Tees Valley area (which includes Darlington) who are in need of respite care, or who need temporary support following hospitalization, a bereavement or because of dependency treatment.

The fund is managed by County Durham Foundation. For further information contact Brenda Dye, Grants Officer for County Durham Foundation. Tel: 0191 383 0055 ore-mail: brenda@countydurhamfoundation.co.uk.

The website address is www.countydurhamfoundation.co.uk

Individual Education Plan (IEP)

Following the recent Speech and Language Therapy meeting one of the actions was to provide information to parents regarding Individual Education Plans (IEP's).

Sue Hall from Darlington's Parent Partnership has supplied me with with some detailed information sheets regarding IEP's.

If you require any further information or have any questions regarding IEP's then please contact Sue Hall whose contact details are on the information sheet.

Speech and Language Therapy Update

Following a number of concerns raised by parent's regarding the difficulties with the provision of Speech and Language therapy for their children, DAD's Access Interest Group organised a meeting to gather further information from parents.

The meeting was very useful and the information gathered from parents backed up some previous information received with the main point being that a lot of children were not receiving the input that was recommended they receive.

Another meeting was then organised with representatives from DAD, the SEN team from the Town Hall, Parent Partnership, the Education Village and County Durham PCT to discuss the issues in detail and how it can progress so that the children and young people receive the necessary input.

The meeting identified that some work needed to be done to map the correct amount of provision required and another meeting has been organised for later in July.

Chris will provide further information to parents in the next news sheet scheduled for August.

Produced by Darlington Association on Disability

Registered Charity No. 518265

Tel: 01325 489999