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Who we are We are Contact, the charity for families with disabled children. We understand that life with a disabled child brings unique challenges, and we exist to help families feel valued, supported, confident and informed.

Why Contact are part of the Early years SEND programme We have 35 years’ experience/expertise in facilitating training workshops and co-production, our national presence, experience and connections with families of disabled children, means we are uniquely placed to carry out this work We have recently delivered a DFE funded Birth to Five project (2017 – 2018) reached 24,380 parents to increase confidence, knowledge and access to the free entitlement of childcare for families of children with SEND. We have significant expertise in Early Years, contributing to policy and research e.g. through the “Levelling the Playing Field” campaign. We have a track record of delivering training and development sessions to Early years professionals including Children’s Centre staff , SENCOs Early Years Hubs practitioners As an organisation we offer support to and work with parent carer forums across England As part of the Information, Advice and Support Programme led by Council for disabled children Contact provides a national information advice and support service for families of children and young people with SEND

Contacts offer as part of the Early Years SEND project Contact’s offer will provide 4 areas of support Parent programme Train the trainer parent programme Training offer to Practitioners Support to Local Action Learning Sets

Parent programme Brighter Beginnings The 4 workshops aim to increase parental confidence and knowledge helping parents support their child, and to identify what other support is on offer and how to access it .Therefore empowering parents to get the best from their child’s early years service. Information and Support – Increase parental knowledge and understanding of what support is on offer and how to access it Building Parental Confidence – Increase parents confidence in accessing the right support for their child. Working with Professionals – Provide skills to empower parents to have conversations with professionals about their child’s needs and their rights as consumers Planning positive outcomes for your child – Increase parental knowledge and skills of how to plan for positive outcomes for children. Develop understanding of how creative and flexible strategies can meet children’s needs more effectively than 1:1 support.

Train the trainer parent programme Train the trainer parent programme Contact will co-produce, design and run a training offer which enables parent carers to increase their confidence and skills in order to deliver the parent programme By training parents to deliver the parent programme (Brighter Beginnings) will support the ongoing sustainability of the programme

Training offer to Practitioners As part of the core project to early years practitioners, Contact will co deliver with parents of disabled children a one off training session which aims to ensure the workforce empowers parents to enable them to get the best from their child’s early year’s entitlement. The session will cover How to engage and work with parents How to empower parents to enable them to get the best from their child’s Early years entitlement Improved practitioner confidence and knowledge on how to communicate and working with parents so developing a relationship with parents based on mutual trust and respect

Support to Local Action Learning Sets Contact with the support of parents, will support and act as critical friend with Local Action learning Sets in developing the self review tool in relation to Parental engagement We aim to support local areas in your role so that by working together parents and practitioners can enhance children's learning and development. Contact can offer support in the following areas Ensuring parents know where to go for information, advice and support Ways of encouraging parents’ views so as to inform the range and nature of early years provision at a strategic level Ways to ensure parents are involved in identifying their children’s needs and agreeing the provision to meet those needs How to ensure parents are confident that staff in settings have the skills and expertise to work with young children with SEND

Sources of support for parents Contact’s helpline provides free one to one advice, information and support Telephone: 0808 808 3555 available 9.30am-5pm, Monday-Friday free from UK landlines and UK mobile phones with access to telephone interpreters Email : helpline@contact.org.uk Social media: www.facebook.com/contactfamilies twitter.com/contactfamilies Additional information and resources can be found on contact website Website : www.contact.org.uk

Helpful guide for families with disabled children Our helpful guide is our all-in-one book with all the information and help you need to enjoy family life. With our guide, we'll talk you through what can be a confusing system of support. We'll support you to find the best way to help your child. We can help you make sense of any jargon and job titles you'll come across