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helenl53

Children & Young Peoples Plan

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Hello All,

 

Under the 'Every Child Matters' initiative, all local authorities must have a strategic overarching plan for ALL services for children and young people in the area and provided by all relevant partners in co-operation (health, education, SS etc) and that this plan must be functional by April 2006.

 

The Plan will cover

 

Early years and child care

Education

Lifelong Learning

Youth and PLay Services

Childrens Social Services

Health Services Including CAMHS

Advice and Guidance for 14-19

Tackling misuse of Drug and Alcohol

Youth Justice

Voluntary and Community Srrvices

 

My local authority is at the 'consultation' stage and amongst other things are making an assessment of Needs and Service, priorities and Key Actions.

 

To ensure that my child has a voice in this consultation process, I have registered my wish to be invited to meetings regarding the process and to also to be given the mechanism to make my childs voice heard. :rolleyes:

 

I found out about this consultation by being copied in to an email by accident. :blink:

 

You may wish to contact your own local authority to enquire how they intend to gather information on the needs of your child so that it can be incorporated in the Children and Young Peoples Plan ;)

 

Best wishes

 

HelenL

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I think that we should all start knocking at doors right now and find out just what our own Authorities are doing with this plan. I would bet that most are very quietly going about 'our' business hoping that we never find out that we were allowed an input :(

 

If we do not find the time or make the effort then services will be mapped out for the next decade or so and we will have no hope of seeing anything change.

 

Come guys let's all play 'knock knock' and then report our findings back here ;)

 

At the very least it would be interesting to find out how many of the plans look the same.

 

Carole

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Hi Guys,

 

Certainly in my own authority, they are consulting with the managers of the services first, voluntary and community organisations next - and then - you guessed it - children, young people and their parents and then my guess is that they will wheel out the 'token' child, young person and parent in order to say that they followed the consultation process.

 

Carole is right, if we do not ensure that we are involved in the planning stages, then we will have the 'plan for children and young people' arranged for us and it may not be what our children need. We will then be told, that we had the opportunity to make recommendations at the planning stage!

 

The plan is built around the 'Outcomes Framework' from the 'Every Child Matters' manifesto. What this says is that every child and young person should be:-

 

Healthy

Stay Safe

Enjoy and Achieve

Make a Positive Contribution

Achieve Economic Well being

 

This is the broad outline and there are five aims within each of these that are the targets for every child and young person - as an example, under 'enjoy and achieve', there is the aim for every child and young person to attend and enjoy school.

 

Unless there is input into how our children can attend and enjoy school, then it is going to be meaningless to our kids.

 

Sorry about being on a soapbox guys, but this is an important plan and you have to be in it to win it.

 

Bestr wishes

 

HelenL

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Well, I've been on our local council's website and after going from link to link finally found what looks like it

 

Under Children and Young People's Plan - all it says is - due 2006.

 

But, under another heading I found 'Children's Service - project initiation document'.

 

The document just seems to outline each phase of the project, but found these.....

 

Under Tier 2, it says that there are 1,400 children with statements of special needs. I don't know how that compares with other councils, but would be interesting to find out.

 

also,

 

Longer term savings in cost to the council by reducing the number of children needing expensive out of borough placements :angry:

 

Good to see nothing's going to change then.

 

Annie

XX

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Hi Annie,

 

There should be an indication of how they propose to reduce the number of out of Borough placements - might be worth asking how they can meet this target - presumably, the provision that is available out of borough will become available in your borough.:rolleyes:

 

I would contact the Director of Childrens Services or the Lead Member of Childrens Services to ask how you can contribute to the assessing and planning stage because under the National Framework for Change is the following statement:-

 

"listening to children, young people and their families when assessing and planning service provision, as well as in face to face delivery"

 

How can they listen if we don't know that we have a voice.

 

This thing has to be in place by April 2006 which is not too far away.

 

Best wishes

 

HelenL

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Hi HelenL,

 

Judging by the amount of time it took to find anything regarding then plan, I get the impression that it's something that my council don't want people to know about, which doesn't surprise me.

 

There was no mention anywhere of asking for input or contact details.

 

There's no mention of how they propose to reduce the number of out of Borough placements, just that statement under the heading of 'Business Benefits'.

 

mmm I think I need to do some enquiries.

 

Annie

;)

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Hmmmm - I think you do - why is something as important as a plan for our children and young people not being given more prominence.

 

Perhaps the newspapers may like to ask the questions we are all afraid to ask!!!

 

Know any friendly journos ;)

 

Best wishes

 

HelenL

 

Just out of curiosity, is there anyone on this forum who has been asked to contribute to the Plan in their Borough?

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Helen there are a couple of journos who may be interested? I have so far found nothing about our plan - but I will continue to dig :devil:

 

Carole

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According to the Dfes, all Children and Young Peoples Plans are to be inplace by 1st April 2006.

 

Reading the 'Every Child Matters' - Change for Children has shown that the Government is pumping money into this initiative.

 

Being a complete and utter cynic - because that is how I feel today :lol: could it be that all this money could be better spent on more people with clipboards to do surveys and write about good practice and changing things for kids, than to actually spend the money on our kids and actually make a change for them!

 

Our kids need to be part of this plan and I have a horrible feeling that they are being sidelined and forgotten - isn't it much easier than actually trying to help them.

 

Best wishes

 

HelenL

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HelenL,

 

I finally got hold of my friend in Parent Partnership.

 

She is aware of the plan and said that she is of the understanding that there will be a chance for us to input our views via our council website and other means some time soon. She is going to get back to me with more info.

 

She has asked me to be a part of a parent forum that she wants to set up to to meet with the LEA/Council to highlight the difficulties and hopefully make changes :thumbs:

 

No time like the present to start.......she is emailing me this morning a copy of a parent application form for SEN transport to get my views as a parent. She is on the SEN Transport Forum and is not happy about the policies that our council have in place.

 

I'll let you know when I hear anymore.

 

Annie

XX

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Way to go Annie

 

I still find it incredible that we will be the last ones to be consulted.

 

The meetings going on locally are about assessing needs and I am arguing that you need to know what the needs are before you can have and educated discussion.

 

My LEA are sending me out the draft leaflet that they intend sending out to parents.

 

Although this Children and Young Peoples Plan is for all, it is important that our children and young people are considered in the process.

 

Annie, if I can find the link again, there is a visual guide to the 5 Outcomes and the targets and indicators that the Outcomes will be reached.

 

If we know what the outcome should be, then we can work backwards to what is needed to reach the outcome - if that makes sense!

 

Best wishes

 

HelenL

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Hi Annie,

 

Sorry, forgot to mention the forum that you have been asked to attend.

 

A good starting point for what is going wrong is to find the Good Practice Guidance issued by the Dfes which has pointers to Good Practice in such things as Training and other such important issues.

 

For our community, I have used this as the starting point to requesting services that at least meet some of the examples of good practice.

 

Annie, PM me your email addy if you want me to send you the examples that I have used.

 

Best wishes

 

HelenL

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There should be an indication of how they propose to reduce the number of out of Borough placements -

I may be very cinical here, but could it be done by completely refusing to acknowledge that there are children with those needs in the first place, and/or just simply saying that those services are not available? :oops:

I am not just saying this, I know for a fact that in my county there are double the number of statemented children than the national average, and the schools have been told to cut these numbers down by simply refusing to statement those that ask for them (by reefusing the parents and not supporting them etc).... this has obviously nothing to do with the real needs of the children, only with politics and finance........ Social services is saying a very similar thing, 'respite is a myth, there is no such thing as respite in this county'.... I know it does exist, but only for those with very specific disabilities (guess what... autism is not catered for)...so they pay lip service and do nothing.... :(

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Under Tier 2, it says that there are 1,400 children with statements of special needs.

:shame: Don't forget that only those children who actually managed to get a statement are counted. There must be at least a similar amount (or more) of children who have needs but are not statemented :shame:

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Hi Mother in Need

 

You are right to be cynical

 

Respite is a legal entitlement and when I have finished doing dinner, I will try and find the Act - I have posted elsewhere about getting the money from social services and buying in the respite from a provider such as a local autistic organisation, as one of our parents have done.

 

This statementing (or lack of it) is a national scandal and what is required is more people to join the voluntary organisations such as NAS and IPSEA and learn and spread the word to other parents.

 

In my area, parents are told by schools that their child will not get statemented and I think we all know the reasons that they wheel out, they are also knocked by by the LEA when they apply (I have yet to come acrosss anyone in our group who got past first base) and then because of a lack of information and direction to NAS and IPSEA, they give up because they don't know that they can go further.

 

Yes the letter says you can go to SENDIST - but lets be honest - when you are as knackered as we are - do we really say - Right, off I go to Tribunal! No - we are so depressed because we feel that we have failed our kids.

 

What about joining NAS or IPSEA as a volunteer. I have decided that this is the way that I am going to go. The more we all know - the less we can be fooled.

 

Best wishes

 

HelenL

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Hi Mother in Need,

 

I have just taken these figures from my council's website.

 

There are 42,777 pupils.

 

1 in 5 has an identified form of Special Educational Need (SEN).........but only 1400 have statements.

 

Annie

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Annie, that means that 8,555 children have special educational needs in your county, but only 1,400 have got a statement... 20% have needs but only 3% are statemented.

 

Helen, I too was told that my son would not be statemented and I have now involved a solicitor to try and obtain one. The whole thing is so stupid; it'll cost the state more in legal aid than if they just statemented him straight away.

 

The whole system is complete re-active and not pro-active. Don't help parents cope but will take children in care once they can't anymore. Don't help kids with problems but will take care of them in jails. Don't prevent accidents but hospitalise the vicitims. I'm sure anyone reading this could think of at least 3 different and relevant comparisons here. Frustrating for those of us caught in the middle!

 

Good for you Helen to become so active. I simply can't cope. As a single parent of three one of which with mutiple disabilites, and a business to run, I simply am not coping as it is, and can certianly not do anything else. Also, my biggest problem always is that I cannot go anywhere without my disabled son and hence am pretty stuck...

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Hi Mother In Need

 

Hang on in there!

 

From my own continuing experience, it is one of the hardest and most distressing voyages, trying to get a statement and then provision - I am not there yet.

 

The system is geared to making us give up. I don't think that any one of us would pursue statements if we didn't have to.

 

Don't give up - take support from everywhere and keep going. I will find the Respite info - it is apparently somewhere on the NAS site.

 

Best wishes

 

Helen L

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Thanks Helen.

Yes the NAS site has some clear info re respite and assessments by social services, and I have requested to get assessments since May, via GP, psychiatrist, CAB, social care worker, and finally via a solicitor. And they are still ignoring me!!! :wallbash: They're supposed to react within ONE WORKING DAY and have a basic assessment done within one week....yeah right.... at least the solicitor knows all the legalities and should finally get a reaction, but as you say, I don't have the energy and time to deal with anything else, and it is only because I am desperate for some help that I've taken these steps (I've had to put my business on hold already as I can't care and work at the same time). It is like with the LEA assessments (the same solicitor is trying to get both the LEA assessment and the carer's/disabled person's assessments done) we are fully within our legal rights but the State doesn't want to know.... :crying:

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