New Trustee

We are very happy to announce that we have appointed a new parent trustee, Angela Watt, whose daughter Olivia has the rare genetic condition Rubinstein-Tabi Syndrome. Angela is an active member of the RTS UK Support Group. She is also a trained counsellor and Administrator for the West Sussex Parents Forum. We’re delighted to have her on board.

An Evening Talk by Charlotte Moore

Acclaimed writer Charlotte Moore will be giving a talk on her experience of parenting children with Autism on Wednesday, 22nd June 2011 at Oak Grove College in Worthing. Charlotte is well known for her writing for the BBC and the Guardian newspaper but may be better known to parents of children with special needs as the author of George & Sam, her account of parenting her two oldest boys both of whom have Autism.

Parent Training Day: Bognor

Thanks to funding from the Joint Western Arun Area Committee (WSCC) we will be holding a parent training day on the 18th June at Bognor Youth Centre. As with previous events we will be holding training workshops on a variety of subjects including understanding challenging behaviour, an introduction to Makaton and an introduction to Direct Payments. Any parents interested in attending the day should contact our project manager, Brian O’Hagan, on 01903 502649 or 07939192388. Alternatively, you can email him at info@brianohagan.co.uk.

A Parent & Family Guide to Special Needs

As you will see from our resources page we have begun publishing in PDF format chapters from our Parent & Family Guide to Special Needs in West Sussex. Based on the highly respected guide, Through the Maze, published by Amaze in Brighton, the guide provides parents with a wealth of information on a wide range of subjects including coping with diagnosis, accessing benefits and other financial support, statementing and special educational needs, health & social care, social & leisure activities and transition to adulthood.

The chapters we have uploaded to our resource page should currently be treated as final drafts. We say this because we would like both parents and professionals to give us their feedback on the content before we proceed to the next stage, which is making the book available in print format. Any feedback should be passed to our Project Manager, Brian O’Hagan, who is managing the overall editing of the guide. You can email your feedback to him at info@brianohagan.co.uk