Courses Partners In Policymaking

Kindred Spirits was developed and designed by the North West Training and Development Team (NWTDT) for Sefton in 2002. ‘Kindred' meaning people who are related to each other in some way, and who have a common bond or goal. A Course for people who are working towards desirable futures for disabled children.

The ‘Kindred Spirits' Programme was designed by Lynne Elwell of the NWTDT and was based on learning from the successful Partners in Policymaking and Sharing the Challenge Courses.

The Course consists of five sessions which will run over ten days. We will then come back together for a day of planning future work. The sessions will be about one m onth apart. There will be approximately 35 participants, these wil be people who work in education, health and social servies, and parents of disabled children. When we use the term disabled, we are including people with learning difficulties, people, with sensory impairments and people with physical impairments.

During this session we will explore the history of services both locally and nationally. Sharing some stories we will examine the impact of the way services and support are planned at present has on people's lives.

During this session we will begin to spend time mapping out how the services are co-ordinated in ‘sefton' at present, sharing examples and stories. We will e building up a picture of the way the system is organised now, who does what, what works well, what would make things work better.

During this session we will learn about the latest legislation for disabled children in education, explore practical ways of adapting curriculum's how we can give appropriate support to the children and those teaching and supporting them in order for them to get the best education possible. We will hear about the ways other communities and societies have made inclusive education a reality.

We will learn about and explore alternative communication, the latest aids and equipment.

This session will concentrate on keeping children healthy. We will learn about changes the health service, and the challenges this brings for health professionals who work with disabled children and their families.

Many people are trying to improve the way that social services, health and education authorities can work together for the good of the child. This session will look at the issues raised in developing this.

We all think about and plan our lives in different ways. Some people have very clear ideas about what they want and how to achieve it, others take opportunities as they arise. We will spend the two days learning about person centred planning.

At the end of the course we will spend a day evaluating what we have learned and planning how we can take this forward together.

Website Created and Hosted by www.affordable-web-solutions.com