Message from Chair of the Adult Communication Coalition England

5 February 2010  ( taken from RCSLT website)

Take Action now to support Adult communication

This morning you may have seen on pages 24-25 of the Daily Mail the story of Martin Pistorius, his account of why communication is so important to his life and how he was denied a voice for 14 years. From our research we know that worryingly he is not alone and many adults in the UK have not been given the equipment they need to communicate and they support they need to use it.

The Government is taking action to support children and young people’s communication, but this commitment stops at 19 years of age.

Martin spoke at Adults Communication Coalition England parliamentary launch in the summer of 2009 and together we called on the Government to make a similar commitment to adults over 19 years of age.

So far 92 MPs have come out to support our call for a national audit of services for adult with speech, language and communication needs.
 
Now we need your help!

We are still waiting for the Government to reply to us and tell us what they will be doing to ensure that every adult has the equipment and support they need to communicate.

If you have had a story similar to that of Martin’s or know of someone who has please write to the Daily Mail and tell them about your experiences and the need for better services and support by sending an email to letter@dailymail.co.uk

Or comment on the piece online at: Daily Mail

Please see briefing paper by the Adult Communication Coalition England

Free AbilityNet support packages for AAC / AT services supporting children with Speech, Language and Communication Needs

"In response to the Bercow report the DCSF / Becta have funded a range of projects to help children with Speech, Language and Communication Needs and the people who support them to develop their knowledge and use of a range of communication aid technologies.

AbilityNet are offering Local Authorities and PCT’s in England a number of free funded one year “Local Capacity” Service Level Agreements (SLA) to support their students and staff in their use of  assistive technology to overcome communication difficulties.

AbilityNet, a national charity, has a track record in researching, publicising and using low cost technology solutions where appropriate. The need for affordable and suitable communication aids is paramount, as well as the need for training in using them as noted in the Bercow report:

“Children and young people who require alternative or augmentative communication aids (AAC) face a particular struggle to have their needs met under the current commissioning arrangements. In 2007, the average cost of a high tech communication aid was £5,800. This cost remains prohibitively expensive for many families with disabled children who are unable to obtain statutory funding for communication equipment.”

To sign up or find out more about Local Capacity SLAs, contact the:

Education Team Tel: 0800 269545 Education@abilitynet.org.uk

Parents of children with special educational needs feel let down by system

"Parents of children with special educational needs feel let down and unsupported in the English education system, a review will say today.

Government, local authorities and schools must do more to help children who have specific learning difficulties, such as dyslexia and autism, according to Brian Lamb, who has been conducting an inquiry into special educational needs (SEN) services for the schools secretary, Ed Balls.

More must be done to help parents of children with special needs and disabilities, Lamb's review, to be published later today, is expected to conclude. It will call for:

• A new national helpline for parents to obtain information and advice.

• Ofsted will focus more on SEN provision in its inspections.

• Parents should be able to have clear expectations of what they can expect, and this must be uniform across the country to end the postcode lottery in provision.

• New funding for the Local Government Ombudsman to take on parental complaints on SEN.

• More pressure on schools to take SEN into consideration in school admissions.

Ed Balls has previously acknowledged that parents currently have to "fight the system" to get the help they need for their child.

Ministers are expected to accept the bulk of the report's recommendations when it is presented in central London..."

Update on Launch of Student Finance England 2010/11 Service - Nov 2009

"The Review of processing of applications for student support for academic year 2009/10,  jointly commissioned by David Lammy MP (Minister for Higher Education) and John Goodfellow (Chairman of the Student Loans Company) will be published shortly. So the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Student Loans Company (SLC) have agreed it is appropriate to delay the launch of the Student Finance England service for academic year 2010/11 in order to consider the findings of Review. The service will however be launched at the earliest opportunity.

Student Finance Wales and Student Finance Northern Ireland will launch for 2010/11 new applicants on 7th December as scheduled."

Consultation on the Right to Control - have your say

Find out more on the Right to Control on our frequently asked questions page.

Local authorities can apply to be a Right to Control trailblazer on our Right to Control information for local authorities page.

The government has launched a consultation on new right to give disabled people more choice and control. This is your chance to influence how the new right will work in practice.

Disabled people can tell us what they think by filling in this short questionnaire. Organisations should respond to the questions in the main consulation document below.

• Have your say on Right to Control (MS Word, 2 pages, 39 KB)

Please send your answers to right.control@dwp.gsi.gov.uk by 30 September 2009.

After the consultation, the Right to Control will be tested in eight local authority areas, from 2010 for two years.     Read more about the Right to Control.

Taken from DCSF "Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN) Action"

Funding programme for the alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) sector

Better Communication, the SLCN action plan, included a commitment that Becta would provide grants totalling £1.5 million over three years to organisations in the alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) sector.

The deadline for applications for grants in 2009-10 has now passed and the successful organisations are described on the DCSF AAC grants webpage. An application process for grants in 2010-11 will be launched later in 2009-10.

A total £500,000 is available for each of the following three financial years 2009-10, 2010-11, 2011-12. This fund is divided into two streams.

1. The first stream, building sustainable services, is designed to support the AAC voluntary and community services sector in developing strong, sustainable services that meet the needs both of commissioners and of children and young people with AAC needs. The grant will be available to established organisations in the voluntary sector that provide assessment services and support delivery through advice and guidance to local authorities, primary care trusts, learners and their carers.

2. The second stream, innovative projects, is designed to support specific projects to improve the knowledge base for high-quality AAC provision.

Further information is available on the DCSF AAC grants webpage.

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The LSC Goes and in come the Local Authorities

• Lords Hansard: Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

Committee stage continues on 12 October when further amendments will be discussed.

Summary of the Bill

The Bill introduces a wide range of measures covering apprenticeships, learning and skills and educational provision.

Key areas

• Provides for a statutory framework for apprenticeships and creates a right to an apprenticeship for suitably qualified 16-18 year olds
• Introduces a right for employees to request time away from their duties to undertake training, and places a corresponding duty on employers to consider such requests seriously and to be able to refuse them only for specified business reasons
• Dissolves the Learning and Skills Council
• Transfers the responsibility for funding education and training for 16-18-year-olds to local authorities
• Makes provisions with respect to the education of offenders
• Creates the Young Person’s Learning Agency, the Skills Funding Agency, a new regulatory body for qualifications (Ofqual), and a new agency to carry out the  non-regulatory functions currently performed by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority
• Strengthens the accountability of children’s services
• Amends intervention powers in respect of schools which are causing concern
• Establishes a new parental complaints service
• Changes the school inspection arrangements
• Creates a new negotiating body for pay and conditions for school support staff
• Makes provisions in respect of pupil and student behaviour.

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The JISC TechDis Service aims to be the leading educational advisory service, working across the UK, in the fields of accessibility and inclusion. Our mission is to support the education sector in achieving greater accessibility and inclusion by stimulating innovation and providing expert advice and guidance on disability and technology. TechDis is a JISC-funded Advisory Service (Joint Information Systems Committee).