Magic Medway 2008

Medway Autistic Group Information Centre

MAGIC is expanding rapidly and now has over 100 members and has run several successful holiday schemes. They are looking forward to working with Medway, their local authority in different ways to improve education for children with autism in the area.

At a recent meeting with the TreeHouse Constructive Campaigning Parent Support Project team, several members of MAGIC agreed to form a steering committee for the project.

One of their initial ideas was to look at the information for parents and carers on the admissions process and see if this could be improved in any way.

In the longer term they would like to produce a video to raise awareness of autism, which they hope teachers, classroom and other school staff may find useful. It will include practical strategies for working with children that may be applicable to the classroom.

Another suggestion - equally ambitious! - was put forward following discussions on the ways schools work with children with SEN. Group members thought that as SENCOs play such a crucial role in this, they would like to run a workshop for SENCOs in schools in Medway, to enable them to share good practice with each other and for parents and carers to highlight what works well from their perspective.

MAGIC meet with Jonathan Shaw MP to discuss school workforce autism awareness training

Jonathan Shaw MP spent an interesting morning with MAGIC (Medway Autistic Group Information Centre) on 12 Sept 2008.

Gayna Simmonds (MAGIC group leader) welcomed Jonathan Shaw to the meeting, and he listened intently to parent experiences of special educational needs in Medway which included difficulties parents have with:

transport to and from school
ensuring their child has adequate support for their autism in mainstream settings

It was generally agreed that providing autism awareness training for the whole school workforce would be largely beneficial fo Jonathan Shaw MP with MAGIC group members and Liz Osman form TreeHouse r both children and staff. One of the parents present worked part time as a dinner lady, and stated she would welcome training which would make children with autism more comfortable when in the school environment.

Gayna Simmonds and TreeHouse are now meeting with Medway school workforce development co-ordinator to discuss ways of providing autism awareness training for the whole school workforce in the Medway area. For further information please contact MAGIC.

MAGIC group leader presents a parent's perspective of partnership working

On Wednesday 12^th March 2008 the MAGIC group leader, Gayna Simmonds addressed the Every Disabled Child Matters/Local Government Association conference on a parent’s perspective of partnership working. This event was attended by over 80 senior delegates from local authorities across England. View the full presentation here.

EDCM Local Authority Charter

Every Disabled Child Matters Logo English Local Authorities can get involved in the Every Disabled Child Matters campaign by signing up to the EDCM Local Authority Charter. The Charter, produced with the support of Children Now magazine, encourages local authorities to commit to providing a range of services for disabled children and their families by January 2008, and also to addressing the needs of disabled children in their strategic planning and local area agreements.

63 English Local Authorities are currently signed up to the charter. These include six of the areas covered by the Parent Support Project - Ealing, Lambeth, Lincolnshire, Oldham, Poole and Stafforshire. We are delighted that these Local Authorities are committed to the charter, which highlights their positive attitude to children with disabilities. We encourage parents in the remaining four areas covered by the PSP project to contact their local authority to sign the charter, and push for its successful implementation within their area.

For information on how to contact your Councillor to support the EDCM campaign please visit the EDCM website.

Thank you for all your ongoing efforts, and good luck with your constructive campaigning!