December 2023

1st December 2023

 We have been asked to share the following: 

 

South Tyneside Parent Carer Forum need your help gathering thoughts and experiences on Transitions!

 

Has your child or young person experienced a transition in the last 12 months? If so, we would love to hear from you!

 

Effective and successful transitions, from one setting to another and/or from one class to another are crucial to a child/young person’s learning and their wellbeing.

We often hear from parents about poorly handled transitions when information about prior learning or support is not shared at the right time to provide a smooth transition. We know this can have a significant impact on the child and their family.

 

STPCF are keen to find out about families’ experiences of transition arrangements in South Tyneside and identify what a good transition should look like.

Whilst your response will anonymous, we will share the findings from this survey with the Local Authority and other agencies, to help inform service improvement in this area.

 

As a special thank you for your valued time and input, please provide your email address at the end of the survey if you wish to be entered into a draw to win a £20, £30 or £50 voucher!

 

Link to survey:

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=LJu71pRPuEy-i_rv0v3vSEmmd3u5zPpMtCchRPw70zFUQVVIUzZHQVNHTEMzMkQxTjRUVlZBMlJGMS4u

 

We have been asked to share the following:
 

South Tyneside Family Hubs have partnered with the Solihull Approach to offer free access to expertly designed online courses for parents, carers, grandparents and teens living in the region, with courses going live on 4th December 2023.

 

Supporting emotional health and wellbeing from 0-19+, parents can sign up to understand their child’s feelings, as well as their own, as they go through life as a family. Parents will learn to understand the changes in their child’s development and how best to support them, whilst also strengthening their relationships.

 

Courses include:

 

  • Antenatal and postnatal baby bonding
  • Understanding your child or young person
  • Your child or young person with additional needs
  • Teenager’s feelings and brain development
  • And lots more specialist courses

 

Families can be signposted to the Solihull Approach series here where they can find out more about the courses on offer. To access the courses, South Tyneside families need to follow the simple registration process inputting the access code ‘ForEveryFamily’

 

 

Watch a short video below and learn all about the Solihull Approach and our online courses for parents

 

https://youtu.be/nyUGe090q7k

 

Through this collaboration, South Tyneside Family Hubs are funding a multi-user license, which will also enable practitioners within the council and across our partnerships to access a specialist training at no cost.

 

Solihull Approach online CPD courses for practitioners include:

 

  •          Understanding brain development: insights into the science behind children's brain development and emotional health, helping families make informed decisions that support healthy cognitive growth.
  •          Understanding trauma: specialist education on trauma recognition, processing and recovery
  •          Understanding attachment: strategies for open and effective communication that will strengthen the parent-child bond and promote emotional well-being.

 

To access the courses, South Tyneside practitioners will soon be provided with a simple registration process. Online courses are designed to be accessed anytime, anywhere and are completely private and personal to you.

 

The Solihull Approach is a not-for-profit, NHS organisation for practitioners and parents to support emotional health and well-being in children, families, and adults.

 

Watch. This. Space

 
 

We have been asked to share the following from Katie Reynold from Key Community Bus

 

I work for Key 2 life,  a charity based in South Shields working across South Tyneside.  We were awarded funding for a new community bus project recently and this enabled us to be able to convert a double decker bus which will be driving to different locations within South Tyneside on a daily basis and parking up for a few hours in the hope of helping those people within the local communities.  Downstairs there will be a shop selling good quality fresh fruit and vegetables, packet, tinned, and non perishable food and non-food and hygiene items for very low prices in the hope of helping individuals/families money to go further, reduce waste and lower the need for the number of people attending food banks which is at an all time high. All money made from this project feeds back into the charity and food bank we run in South Shields.

 

Upstairs there is seating areas where we can offer advice and direct/refer individuals to relevant interventive services.  We hope to have some of these services available on board to offer advice and are hoping to have the likes of welfare rights, Drug and alcohol services among others. The bus has an awning and out door seating and offers tea and coffee for those who would just like to come along and have a chat.  The bus is for absolutely anyone to use and is not restricted to those on benefits it is for the whole community.

  

We currently stop at 6 different areas per week Monday’s, Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s with 2 stops per day.  I have attached our current 3 week rota that will run continuously until the stops are reviewed at which time I will send an updated list.  I am trying to get the word out to as many people as possible as we are aware with the current cost of living crisis this service is a valuable asset to all.

 

We would love your support in promoting this project and would really appreciate it if you could pass the details of our bus to your parents, carers and staff as we do have a stop in your area once every 3 weeks on a Thursday morning outside of the Simonside Club at 10am – 11.15am, we are there tomorrow 7\12/23 and then every 3 weeks after that.  

 

Kind Regards

  

Katie