Working Together for Change Dudley Parent Carer Forum

Transition Task & Finish group

(Eleventh session)

BMET Stourbridge26 January 2017

Attendees

Sue PowellDonna RobertsGill ColdicottHelen EllisJohn Cunningham

Liz ConnorMelanie GriffithsLinda CrocketJessica Tinsley

Carrie BythewayRebecca DingleyAnne DaviesJane WalkerAlex CrocketPat BullenAlex BurnsLorraine KhanGeorgina Homer

Welcome and IntroductionsThere were a few new faces and visitors to this session so Helen started the meeting with introductions and welcomed Pat Bullen from the National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTI) and Lorraine Khan from the Centre of Mental Health.

Pat explained that Dudley has been chosen as a NDTI demonstration sight to work with parent carers and professionals around the Local Offer, preparing for adulthood and strategic engagement. Pat explained that this was a competitive process and Dudley’s success was partly due to the high regard that the parent carer forum is held in. Pat wanted to observe how the meeting worked as it has been highlighted in Dudley as an example of good practice.

Loraine explained that the Centre for Mental Health is a national charity focused on supporting improvements to the experiences of children and adult facing or experiencing poor mental health. They have been working with Dudley Children’s Alliance Board and health commissioners to complete an independent assessment of the mental health and emotional wellbeing needs of children and young people in Dudley.

Minutes of the last meeting Minutes of the last meeting were ratified and it was agreed that they were a true reflection of the conversation.

ACTION: Donna and Nicki will look at developing terms of reference for the group and circulate for comments. This action has carried over to this meeting

Donna thanked the group for feeding back the outcomes from the transition meeting. A report has now been collated and shared with KIDs who asked for examples of best practice. Donna has also designed an inspiration card for the community forums that shows how the forum collaborates with the Local Authority.

ACTION: Donna will circulate the report & inspiration card

Gill explained that parent carers concerns raised at the last meeting around lectures being cancelled was fed back to college staff.

ACTION: extend SENCO forum to include colleges and to explore training opportunities around the one page profile. As Sharon Hearn was unable to attend this meeting we need to go back and ask what has happened around 1 page profile & SENCO forum

The Colleges have met to talk about administrative capacity and they are using ‘my passport’ to work together.

Alex: We look closely at transition from school to college, but are we looking at the transition out of college? Is this something we can discuss here?

BMET: As a college I feel we have to do more to support our young people and parents at this stage.

Georgina: my young person is just finishing his first year at college and he is talking about looking for a job so this is really important. It would be nice to be ahead of the game and help him move forward and develop. There is lots of preparation around transition into college but not around out of college. Can colleges bring results of destinations from last year to the next meeting?

ACTION: Make this an agenda item for next meeting ‘transition at 18-25’ Sue will prepare colleges and ask them to bring results of destinations from last year. Donna will formally invite Pens Meadow to attend.

Helen Ellis formally declared to the group that she is a Governor at Pens Meadow School.

Mental Health measure of wellbeing

In the spring and summer of 2016 the Centre for Mental Health talked to parent/carers, children and young people, teachers and workers in the borough and commissioners. They also analysed local data and findings from the most recent Health-Related Behaviour in school survey. The main findings were as follows:

Compared to other areas in England, children and young people do slightly better than average in terms of general markers concerning wellbeing. 8 out of 10 15 year olds feel good about themselves, 9 out of 10 15 year olds are satisfied with their life and three quarters are optimistic about their futures.

However, Dudley’s children also encounter a few additional risks which can increase the chances of them experiencing poor mental health. For example, there are higher than English average rates for learning disabilities and for Looked After Children in the borough – and we know that these children can face higher risk of experiencing poor mental health.

The Centre analysed the reach of local services and compared this with the likely number of children experiencing mental health difficulties. Findings revealed that:

o For 0 to 16 year olds, around two thirds of young people with a diagnosable mental health need were not being reached by CAMHS, school-based counselling, parenting support and voluntary sector therapeutic services.

o For 16 to 25 year olds, 80% of those with common diagnosable mental health difficulties such as anxiety and depression were not being reached by local services (NHS ‘Improving Access to Psychological Therapy services’ and the WhatCentre).

Feedback had suggested that the issues attached in the ‘current challenges and moving forward’ document were important when seeking to transform the current system. The Centre wanted to build the things that people said they wanted in Dudley in any new system into the new emotional and mental health strategy which was being developed so that the voices of local children, young people, parents/carers and practitioners could drive changes. For this to work, there needs to be a robust way of parents/carers and children and young people reviewing how change is progressing and holding the system to account for change. LK asked the group how the Transition Group might be able to contribute towards this.

The Centre had also tried to set out what local parents/carers, children, young people and other stakeholders wanted - creating a plan on a page. LK asked if parents/carers could consider this ‘plan on a page’ and make sure it has the main principles and points and that nothing is missing. See the second attached document.

Follow-up action: LK agreed to share details of how young people could access out of hours online counselling (see below). It is worth noting that the WhatCentre also operate in the evenings.

o Details of the online counselling available in Dudley. It is called kooth.com.

o Kooth is an online counselling and emotional well-being support service for children and young people aged 11 – 18.If you live in one of the listed areas then you have access to all of Kooth’s features for free, through any computer, smart phone or tablet. – Online, text based counselling until 10pm every night, 365 days a year – Live and static moderated forums on a range of topics. Give advice and get support from the Kooth community – A range of self-help articles, co-written by other young people No matter what the problem is, Kooth counsellors are there to listen, provide support and advice. Kooth is completely confidential and anonymous.

o Free, safe and anonymous online support for young peopleo Monday – Friday 12pm – 10pm o Saturday – Sunday 6pm – 10pm

Here’s the link o https://kooth.com/o LK contacted the local lead and she said that young people have to refer themselves

by logging in, inputting their details (age etc) and then there will be a drop-down list with their local area. Dudley will be one of those options. They should then be able to get access to the support.

ACTION: LK asked if parents/carers could consider this ‘plan on a page’ and make sure it has the main principles and points and that nothing is missing.

Gill shared that BMET have counsellors & mentors on site but what happens during the 6 week holidays?

This led to a conversation around Carer assessments and the confusion around what this is and how it fits with other assessments and the fact that they are not necessarily looking after the person who is doing the caring. One parent commented that she had recently filled in an assessment but she had no idea what the assessment was for.

ACTION: Invite Donna Patel to the next meeting and make this and whole life disability an agenda Item

Donna shared information about the Care & Share pilot which is a person centred web space to capture the voice of the child. Part of this will have a shared community space where information, advice and resources can be shared. Helen asked if this would connect with the Local Offer. The forum is inviting parents to join them for a visioning session around the Local Offer on Friday 3 rd March where this can be raised.

Pat shared that Hampshire have mom / dad net that links to the Local Offer

Helen also explained how the five family centres in each cluster are working in a very inclusive way and will be working around early help, prevention and helping people become more resilient. They are trying to put resource and support in at this level. Everyone felt that there is lots of support when children are young but as they get older the support and activity decreases. Helen explained that the role of the family centre manager is to bring the clusters together to build the offer to local people and to know what’s going on in the local area.

People felt that provision and activity at 0-5 is hit and miss, but there are gaps from 14+ not a lot of support. This needs to connect with the local offer.

Georgina felt that things revolve around age and this needs to stop and focusing less on age focus and more on need!

Changes to Connexions Services - Confidential

Helen was very open and honest about sharing changes to the connexions services. Helen explained she felt able to do this because of how the relationship has matured amongst the group.

Connexions are a value service especially around 16+ transition. In these times of austerity changes need to be made to the service and it needs to be reshaped. Parents commended connexions workers and the provision they received through the moving forward plan. Connexions SEND services will be protected.

Helen asked parents to help her understand how to communicate messages to a wider audience, what questions would be raised, and their initial thoughts about the proposed changes.

ACTION: parents will reflect on this information and email Helen by Monday with their suggestions.

This information is currently confidential and the conversation is not to be shared outside the room.

Feedback from Pat Bullen

Pat said “I loved the group - funny, feisty and formidable!! It’s the only group of its kind that I am aware of, parents/carers and FE.”

Pat has offered to support the group to develop a Preparing for adulthood strategy

Date of next meeting

13 March 2017 11:00 – 1:00pm at the Pens Meadow Post 16 site in Pensnett.