Providing Real Opportunities for Young People in the Transition to

Adulthood

Regional SEN Transition to Employment Project Newsletter

August 2013In this issueIntroductionWelcome to our August newsletter.

Outstanding Personal Achievement Award for GerraintA young person from Caerphilly gets recognised for his hard work.

Let’s Talk About...The Pembrokeshire Hub Team recognises the value of support for parents around difficult subjects along with parent peer support.

Carers’ RightsBeth Evans from Carers Wales gives a snapshot of the organisation and the impact they’ve had on current legislation.

Training & EventsA list of upcoming project training and events.

Hi Readers,

We hope your summer has been as fun-packed and busy as ours here at the training and information office. It has been great to get out and visit some of you. As we draw closer to starting back to school make sure you send us your stories and pictures from your summer trips. It was great to hear from young people who were celebrating getting exam and course results over the summer and we wish you every sucess as you continue on your journeys. For us in the office we return to issuing the next training courses and trying to keep up with our Twttier and facebook pages until we employ some one to cover Laura’s role. Laura gave birth to Callie Nicole Griffiths on the 29th July. They are all doing really well and Callie is a delight Zoe and HannahTraining and information team

Holly’s Ball was founded by Holly Salmon and her mum Jo to raise awareness and proceeds for key Autism charities. The ball was launched in 2010 by Assembly Member Jeff Cuthbert, and has since gone from strength to strength, growing bigger each year. The Autism Heroes Awards were devised as part of this year’s ball, with the intention of showcasing some of the excellence taking place in the world of Autism in Wales.

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As psychology support worker for the Caerphilly hub, I have been working with Gerraint Jones-Griffiths on his understanding of Autism. I was aware of Gerraint’s many achievements in the last couple of years, and the Outstanding Personal Achievement Award seemed like the perfect way to recognize his successes. My nomination described how Gerraint had become an active member of the Caerphilly Youth Forum, standing for election as the Environment representative, and when successfully voted in, had become the lead on the Priority Issue for the year - council parks. Through Gerraint’s tireless campaigning, Caerphilly Council have enforced a smoking ban in all children’s play areas in the county. Gerraint has also trained as a Young Inspector, inspecting youth provisions to ensure standards for young people are met. His successes were recognised when he chaired the Learning Disability Wales Annual Conference in November 2012. Gerraint has now also trained to mentor new Real Opportunities participants, and continues to have a positive role in lots of our activities.

The award finalists were announced on 2nd April - World Autism Awareness Day and we were delighted to hear that Gerraint had been shortlisted to the final three in his category! On Saturday 15th June, Gerraint and his family attended Holly’s Ball at the Holland

House hotel in Cardiff. The evening was a huge success, with entertainment, speeches, a four-course dinner and the awards c e r e m o n y . Gerraint was thrilled to learn that he had been awarded second place, and took to the stage to receive his award from Betsan Powys, BBC Wales Political Editor. Betsan commented on how Gerraint was a political star of the future! It was an incredible evening and Gerraint and his parents left feeling very proud of his huge achievement. The organisers of the Ball were so impressed with Gerraint that they are keen for him to be a speaker at next year’s event. Well done Gerraint!

outstanding Personal achievement award For gerraint

The Pembrokeshire Hub Team has run two courses over the last few months, the sessions were informal and intended to get parents to begin to discuss worries and concerns that they might have around dealing with this often difficult subject.

Organised in direct response to parent requests the eight week course also offered parents the opportunity to gain not only advice, information, and support but also a qualification (NOCN level 2). The qualification was a bonus but not a necessity to attending the

course. Some parents were happy to just attend and some share their experiences with other people in similar circumstances – the support the group received from each other was equally as valuable as the opportunity to gain advice and information. Being able to come together with other parents and carers and share experiences was often quoted by parents as the thing they valued most about the course (reflected in quotes below).

“I found the course very interesting and I think it will

let’s talk about...Parents in Pembrokeshire have been participating in parent courses run by the project to gain information and advice about how to support their children in understanding and talking about sex, sexuality and relationships.

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help as my son matures. It will also help in my professional career as I work in a secondary school. It will definitely give me confidence to talk to my son about these issues when the time comes”

“It was nice to get together with other parents who are in the same boat and the leaders were brilliant. It was very informal and very helpful”

“The course was very informal and I found it very easy to talk to the course leaders and other parents and carers. It has given me the confidence to talk to my son about growing up and tackle any issues as they arise”

Mrs Tessa Goddard and Mrs Dawn Russell – two of the parents who have participated in the understanding sex and relationships course at

Pembroke.

We are here to help improve the lives of carers by providing information, advice and support. We also campaign on your behalf about issues that affect you with policy and decision makers in local and national governments, as well as decision makers on local levels.

Over the last 21 years Carers Wales have:Supported carers by providing information and • advice about caringInfluenced policy through regular research • based on carers’ real life experiences andCampaigned to make a life better for carers. •

Through our lobbying and research we have also had a major impact on legislation.

Carers (Recognition and Services) Act 1995Gives carers the right to an assessment of their needs. This is dependent upon the service user being assessed.

Carers and Disabled Children’s Act 2000Gives carers a free standing right to an assessment of their needs regardless of whether the disabled person is assessed or not.

Carers Equal Opportunities Act 2005This Act came about by Dr Hywel Francis, MP for Aberavon, introducing a private members bill. It places a duty and makes it mandatory for social services to inform carers of their right to be assessed under the above two Acts. It also places

a duty on social services to consider whether a carer works or wishes to work or is undertaking or wishes to undertake education, training or leisure activity. The earlier Acts focussed on a carer being able to sustain the caring role whereas this Act ensured that carers are not denied life chances.

Carers Strategies (Wales) Measure 2010Carers Wales campaigned for carers to be given information and following our work with the Wales Carers Alliance, a new law was introduced by the Wales Government in 2010 which for the first time ever places a duty on the NHS to ensure that carers are identified and provided with information.

We want to make life better for you and want society to recognise and value the huge contribution you make to society. In Wales alone, unpaid family carers provide 96.8% of all community care in Wales which represents a saving of £7.7 billion pounds per year if this care had to be replaced by health or social services.

We are a membership organisation and carers voices are at the heart of everything we do.

You can join us to keep up to date with our campaigns by visiting www.carerswales.org. We also have a Facebook page www.facebook.com/carerswales. For further information please contact Beth at beth.evans@carerswales.org

carers’ rightsProvided by beth evans, Carers Wales

Carers Wales is part of Carers UK. We are a national charity set up to support the 370,000 carers who look after an ill, frail or disabled family member.

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To get your story in the newsletter, or for more information contact Hannah Cox or Zoe Richards on 01639 635650 or at realopportunities@learningdisabilitywales.org.uk. Submissions may be edited. Opinions expressed in the Real Opportunities newsletter are not necessarily supported by the project. Printed by 4 Colour Digital Print.

training & events

To book onto any of the following training events or seminars or for more information contact the training and information team at realopportunities@learningdisabilitywales.org.uk or on 01639 635650.

Planning for the Future NetworkThursday 12th September10:00 – 1:00Forge Fach, ClydachPCP Workers, Family Liaison Workers, Independent Living Skills Workers

Introduction to PCPTuesday 17th September10:00 – 4:00Forge Fach, Clydach

Inclusion NetworkWednesday 25th September10:00 – 1:00Forge Fach, ClydachYouth Inclusion Workers, Peer Mentor Trainers, Psychology Support Workers

Introduction to PCPThursday 3rd Oct10:00 – 4:00Central South Consortium, NantgarwCourse FULL!

Eating Disorders MasterclassWednesday 9th October10:00 – 12:30Bethlehem Church Life Centre, Cefn Cribwr2 x Places per hub team

Introduction to PCPTuesday 22nd October10:00 – 4:00Bethlehem Church Life Centre, Cefn Cribwr

Planning for the Future NetworkWednesday 30th October10:00 – 1:00Forge Fach, ClydachPCP Workers, Family Liaison Workers, Independent Living Skills Workers

Employment and Opportunities NetworkMonday 18th November10:00 – 1:00Forge Fach, ClydachTransition Key Workers, Social Enterprise Coordinators, Supported Employment teams