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In the news...
The Government's strategy for adults with autism - get involved!
The Government wants your views on what should be included in the first ever national strategy for adults with autism.
The strategy, which will be published at the end of the year and will be for the whole of England, could prove to be really important for adults with autism and their families, but only if everyone takes this unique opportunity to tell the Government what needs to happen.
Tell the government your experiences of the SEN system
An Inquiry set up by the government is asking for your views to help improve the SEN system in England. Brian Lamb, Chair of the Special Educational Consortium, has been asked to look at how to improve parents’ confidence in the SEN assessment process.
Members of some NAS branches have already contributed to initial findings through three focus groups at the end of last year. As a result of the Inquiry’s interim report, Secretary of State Ed Balls has accepted recommendations to improve information for parents about SEN, and committed £38 million to give a stronger focus on outcomes for children with SEN. He also asked the Inquiry to look at what more Ofsted should do, following pressure from John Bercow MP’s private members’ bill.
Now the Inquiry wants to consult more widely with parents, young people and professionals. The deadline is 10pm on Tuesday 30 June 2009.
Autism Bill passes crucial milestone in Parliament
On 13 May, the government pledged its full support for the Autism Bill, which was unanimously voted through the committee stage. The Bill now awaits its third reading, scheduled for 19 June, and with the support of the government is likely to pass to the House of Lords.
The text of the Bill has changed, to become adult-focused and include the adult autism strategy for England. This would add legal force to the strategy, and legal obligations for councils and health agencies. It is now all the more important that the adult strategy itself is fit for purpose, so if you haven't already done so please take part in the consultation process for the strategy (see above).
The commitments we have secured from the government on information and planning for children remain, and are a great achievement, but will be pursued outside the scope of the Bill via new regulations for Children and Young People’s Plans.
Feedback from CAMHS consultation
Those of you who attended our February parent support meeting will be interested to see the feedback from Hilary Hickmore and Karen Clark from CAMHS. You will be pleased to know that this feedback will be discussed at the CAMHS strategy group - where key senior managers sit who can influence service delivery. They have also made amendments to their planned publications to accommodate the points raised.
We are now the South Hampshire Branch
Our membership has increased considerably to well over 100 families and, as it now covers a much wider area than just Eastleigh and Winchester, we have decided to change our name to reflect this.
At a special re-launch event on Thursday 23 October 2008, over 100 parents/carers, individuals with autism, councillors, health and social care professionals met to help raise the profile of the needs of people with autism. Speakers at the event were:
- Dr Sarah Nicholson, Child Psychiatrist, Southampton Autism Assessment Service
- Dr Tony Brown, Autism Diagnostic Research Centre, Southampton
- Robert Pritchett, The National Autistic Society's Regional Director, London & South East Region
- Councillor Roy Perry, Deputy Leader, Hampshire County Council
- Mark Houston, an adult with Asperger syndrome who gave a particularly inspiring talk.
We were also delighted to be able to announce that the Asperger Support & Social Group based in Sholing, Southampton, are joining forces with us to become part of the South Hampshire Branch. This now gives us the opportunity to extend our support to children, young people and adults with autism.
Click here for pictures.
Eastleigh College Adult Enrichment Programme
A range of daytime courses for adults (age 19 upwards) with learning disabilities. They have some availability from January 2009 and from September 2009. Click here for details.
London Marathon
One of our members, Helen Bannister, ran the 2008 London Marathon, raising over £1000 for The National Autistic Society - well done Helen!
Family days out
The National Autistic Society offers advice on choosing activities and planning ahead in its fact sheet ‘Families: ideas for days out’. See it online by visiting the NAS website or call the NAS helpline on 0845 070 4004 to request a hard copy.
Autism Diagnostic Research Centre
This new centre is a Southampton based service for adults suspected of having high-functioning autism or Asperger Syndrome. It is now up and running. For more information please click here.
Resource library
Thanks to a grant from the Local Network Fund, our resource library is well and truly up and running. Members are able to borrow books, videos and DVDs on ASD topics. For full details of the library and how you can join, please click here.
Social skills groups
During 2006 and early 2007, thanks to funding from Awards for All, we were able to run four social skills groups (for 5 to 16 year olds) All four 6-session courses were a great success and the 26 young people also enjoyed their Activity Days at Calshot or Fairthorne Manor.
Thanks to new funding from the Local Network Fund, we are able to extend the programme into 2008. In August 2007 six young people from our previous courses took part in a self-esteem group. In the Autumn we ran a new social skills course for 7 to 11 year-olds and another was held during February and March 2008 for 11 to 14 year-olds. Additional 'Good Experience' groups in August 2008 concentrated on self-esteem. Funding also enabled some social skills sessions at our teenage youth club at Fair Oak in recent months. This programme has now come to an end but we hope we may be able to gain additional funding sometime in the future to restart it - watch this space!
Teenage youth club
On 2 October 2007 were were very pleased to see the launch of a teenage youth club for children with social communication difficulties. This is a joint project between ourselves, the Eastleigh in touch project and Fair Oak Youth Centre. A 'pilot group' of over 13s drawn from our previous social skills groups and from the in touch project got the club underway.The weekly running of the club is in the capable hands of the in touch project with assistance from leaders from the Youth Centre. The National Autistic Society have assisted with staff training. The club continues to be a success and a few new members have joined from our most recent social skills course. If anyone is interested, we can put you in touch with the club.
Join the NAS campaign NOW!
The National Autistic Society's highly successful make school make sense education campaign continues. It aims to improve educational provision for children with autism, so that every child can get the education they deserve.
Click here to find out more and see how you can make a difference
The Transporters DVD
Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, Director of the Autism Research Centre ARC) at Cambridge University and David Lammy, Culture Minister, have launched a novel animation DVD to help young children with autism. The Transporters DVD aims to help children with autism to look at the human face and to learn about emotions. The DVD is aimed at children from two to eight years. Click here for full details. We have some copies available at out Parent Support Group meetings and Family Youth Club.
Newsletter available
Our 2007 newsletter is available, click here to view – a new version will be available soon.
Help with research requested
We have had a number of enquiries from research students for help in their studies into various aspects of ASD.
Please click here for details of this research and to find out ways in which you can help |
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Family Youth Club
Our Saturday afternoon club continues to be a success with between 20 and 30 young people attending with their families each month.
Click here for the dates.
The cost per child is £1.50 per session.
Chandlers Ford Methodist Church Youth Club kindly continue to allow us use of their facilities around once a month on Saturday afternoons. Our thanks to Jane and Tim for organising these events, to our professional play worker, Karen and to Viv, John and Pat for looking after the refreshments. |
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News from the committee
Branch information is now regularly being circulated to more than 200 families and professionals, and to over 80 local schools. Although we are based in the Eastleigh/Winchester/Southamtpon area, we welcome anyone for whom our group may be a helpful resource.
We have received an increase in enquiries in recent months. Information about our branch is being circulated by health professionals on a regular basis.
A number of events have taken place locally during the last year or so, in addition to our monthly parent support group meetings and family youth club. This will give you an idea of the activities we get involved in:
- In March 2006 and 2007, we hosted NAS help! programmes in Eastleigh, run by the NAS help! team - excellent days with over 60 people attending each one.
- For the past four years we had a stand at the Hampshire Special Needs Information Days.
- In May 2006 the Branch Officer attended the launch of the Make school make sense education campaign at the Houses of Parliament. We are fully supporting this campaign (see left).
- In July 2006, our new Resource Library was launched at our support group meeting.
- In October 2006, June 2007 and November 2007, we hosted NAS help!2 programmes in Eastleigh, run by the NAS help! team.
- In May 2008 we joined forces with the other three NAS branches in the county to launch the NAS I Exist campaign (see above) in Hampshire.
Our monthly parent support meetings continue to be well attended and we have had some interesting guests.
From The National Autistic Society, we have welcomed Robert Pritchett, Regional Director for London and the South East, Chris Barson, the NAS External Training Manager, Jane Vaughan, Regional Coordinator for London and the South East, Tracey Sellers, our Regional Officer, Liesel Batterham from the NAS Education Advice Line and Jonathan Dibb, NAS Welfare Rights Adviser. Other visitors have included representatives from The Aviary and Lantern's Children's Centres, Hampshire Families, Eastleigh Child and Family Guidance, the Eastleigh in touch project, Hampshire Parent Partnership, Connexions, Contact a Family, Portsmouth Autism Support Network, Not Just Talking Ltd, Southampton Autism Assessment Team, Hampshire Police, Hampshire Children's Services, a dramatherapist and other professionals in the field of autism.
Our Family Youth Club continues to be a success. We are delighted to have Karen Allen coming along as our professional play worker.
On the social front, we have enjoyed parents' skittles evenings and our Family Fun Day at Fairthorne Manor in June 2008 attracted over 90 members. Our Sholing social groups run a variety of social events, including a recent Quiz Night.
We have also drawn up and approved a Branch Child Protection Policy and Equal Opportunities Policy.
Members are asked to complete a branch membership form if they have not already done so. We also encourage members to become full members of the National Autistic Society. There are a great many advantages. A leaflet and membership form is available from the Branch Officer or visit the NAS web site for full details. (Additionally the Branch gains £5 from each NAS member who nominates us on joining).
As always, we are pleased to hear from anyone interested in coming along to our meetings and from existing members with ideas for events, fund raising, etc.
At present the committee are David, Rachel, Daniel, Jane, Claire, Gillian, Sally and Sue. We would welcome any other volunteers to join us. Please do get in touch if you are able to help. |
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