Stockport based charity Seashell Trust is helping the government to shape the future of care for disabled children and young people having secured £13,000 funding from the Council for Disabled Children for a ten-week project.
From this month, the Children and Families Act 2014 is expected to revolutionise support for children and young people with special educational needs and their families and Seashell Trust is the only national organisation in Greater Manchester to be awarded a tender to advise in the creation of a team of Independent Supporters who will help families navigate the seismic changes.
The Department for Education, through the Council for Disabled Children, has invested £30m until March 2016 to develop a service providing trained, independent individuals who will help families, children and young people understand the new system.
Pictured Left:
Seashell Trust student Elliot Smith who has CHARGE syndrome signing with his father Trevor.
The way families access specialist support is changing.
Seashell Trust is one of only twenty six organisations nationwide to be awarded a tender to collect the evidence to build the Independent Support programme.
Bev Mars, who headed up the bid for Seashell Trust, said:
“The Council for Disabled Children (CDC) received a high number of bids from across the country for this project. In awarding the bid to Seashell Trust, the CDC is recognising both the experience and the specialist expertise we have in supporting families and carers of children and young people with very complex needs.
“The project will allow us to develop further our relationship with Manchester City Council. Through the project we will be able to ensure specialist support reaches a greater number of families from across the area.”
For the first time, all the education, health and care plans for supporting a family will receive from birth will be set out in one document. The upper age limit has been extended from 19 to 25.
Bev added:
“Joint planning and delivery should make life easier and for the first time young people with special educational needs up to the age of 25 will be included in the Code of Practice. Currently education, health and social care submit separate reports which the local authority have to combine. The new EHC plans must be produced jointly with the family and child or young person at the centre of the planning.
“Personal budgets allow families the flexibility to purchase services they want rather than being told ‘this is what you can have’. It gives them better control and the freedom for example to find their own speech and language therapist, pay for a personal assistant to take the young person away for the week-end, or pay for gym membership and support for them.”
The trust has secured £13,000 funding from the Council for Disabled Children for the ten-week project. Together with Manchester City Council, it will consult families, carers and young people to identify what current practice works well for making choices in accessing services and support. This information will then be used in the development of an Independent Support .
Bev added:
“I am anticipating that September 2014 will see the introduction of the service. The idea is that this is a truly independent role and it is designed to support the families through a process which exists but which is changing.”