📬 This week’s Halton SEND Parent Carers Forum newsletter is now out
This week’s newsletter includes:
⭐ The newly published Ofsted / CQC Area SEND monitoring visit report for Halton
📍 Details of the upcoming “You Said, We Did” event
☕ Information about our next Parent Carer Coffee Morning
💻 Details for the upcoming Zoom session 🩺 health updates, Easter HAF information, and other useful reminders for families
Thank you, as always, to everyone who continues to attend sessions, share feedback and help us raise the things that matter to parent carers across Halton.
Please take a look and feel free to share with other parent carers who may find it helpful 💜 … See MoreSee Less
We use cookies to collect information about how you use this website. We use this information to make the website work as well as possible and improve Ofsted services.
Today Ben Holmes (Director of Education, Inclusion and Provision) and Kelly Carey (Head of SEND and Inclusion) joined us to speak with parents in Halton. Ben provided us with his monthly update. He discussed:
*The outcomes of the monitoring update. Which will be shared with forum members once we have a hard copy. (If you wish to become a member to receive our newsletters go to www.haltonsendcarersforum.org.uk and sign up)
*EHCPs- there was a discussion around the EHCP process, timeliness, expectations and how Halton continue to work on improving this process
*Send White Paper reforms- Ben discussed the boroughs plan and timeline of what they know and what has been currently advised from the DfE. Discussion and anxieties from parents around the changes were shared.
*1:1s- each month Ben and his team set aside time to support parents 1:1 on specific issues they are facing.
The zoom follow up session on the Send White Paper reforms will be held with Michaela Bridge next Thursday 19th March 8-9pm. Please see the poster pinned to the page for this info and make sure you join to hear the updates 🌟 … See MoreSee Less
On Thursday 26th March we will be hosting our second You Said, We Did, We're Doing.
This event is an opportunity for us to share with you an update on the progress being made across SEND services in Halton, as well as what’s coming next.
We’ve listened carefully to feedback from our last session and have refreshed the format to make sure the event is focused, interactive and makes good use of your time.
We really hope you’re able to join us and be part of the conversation.
🌟TOMORROW- WIDNES- BEN HOLMES🌟🌟This weeks Check-in is with Ben Holmes at Halton Stadium🌟 🌟 Ben is the Director of Education, Inclusion and Provision and he joins us once a month to give us the latest updates around SEND, it a great opportunity to join in the discussions and ensure your voice is heard in the borough 🌟 … See MoreSee Less
5th March we had Julie Hutchinson from the Neurodevelopmental nursing team (Bridgewater) come in to discuss their service. She gave us an update on service and offered advice around post-diasgnosis. She then did some parental 1:1 sessions for a more personal consultation.
We hold weekly Drop-in sessions (Thurdays) Monthly Service provider sessions Monthly HBC session Monthly HBC Zoom update
Please come along for support, speak to services directly and have an opportunity to speak to people and have your voice heard 🫂
Last week Rachel & Nikki from HSPCF attended a training session on Child and Adolescent to Parent Violence and Abuse. This is where a young person engages in repeated abusive behaviour towards a parent or carer.
Abusive behaviour can include physical Violence, emotional, economic or sexual abusive; it also includes coercive control. It may also include damage to property ans abuse towards other d Family members including siblings.
*65% of parents and 85% of professionals agree that CAPVA is a problem in Merseyside, with a significant proportion of practitioners (65%) believing the issue has increased in the past year
*CAPVA is rarely confined to a single form of abuse, with most parents and caregivers experiencing multiple types.
*Behaviour peaks when a young person is in their early to mid-teens and abuse often escalates in severity over time
*Only 3% of professionals believed there is currently enough support for young people or their parents or carers
Whilst we appreciate there is not enough support in this area, please feel free to have a conversation at a coffee/support session with one of our Forum members if you find yourself struggling 🫂
Bi-monthly I attend the Health Co-production meeting. This meeting has representatives from Cheshire and Merseyside ICB, Bridgewater (woodview), Merseycare (Camhs/MHST) and the Forum are provided updates from Health.
March updates: *Mental health schools team have been awarded additional funding meaning that they will be in 100% of Halton schools during 2026/27.
*From 1 April 2026, Bridgewater Community Healthcare under the Warrington and Halton Hospital trust, will take over the Speech and Language Therapy contract in Halton replacing Communicate. We know many families have experienced long waits for Speech and Language support, and while the move to a new provider will not resolve waiting times overnight, it is an important step in rebuilding local provision. The Forum will continue to work with partners and share updates with parent carers as more information becomes available about how services will develop under the new contract.
*Neurodevelopmental Pathway (Autism / ADHD). Bridgewater uses a Red / Amber / Green system to prioritise children waiting for assessment. If your child has been waiting a long time, parents can ask the professional who made the referral (school senco or another professional) to request that Wood view review and re-stratify the referral. This may move a child from Amber to Red, which means they may be prioritised for assessment. Currently Bridgewater are only seeing children who are Red status or those who are movingfrom Amber to Red. If you are unsure of your child’s status you may wish to speak to the professional who made the referral as they are the only people who can ask Bridgewater to review.
*In Halton there is a large number of Did Not Attend (DNA) across NHS services. This is impacting wait times further and impacting the diagnoses and support for children on lists. Across Bridgewater service (Paeds, MDT, NDT, OT, PT, audiology etc) January data showed 77 appointments people did not attend/ did not bring their children to. Merseycare (camhs/mhst) have a 9% target for DNA and Halton is currently at 13.7%. Please if you need to cancel an appointment can you inform the service directly. These appointments are precious and if you cannot attend there is a huge wait list in borough for somebody else to have that appointment and get the support or diagnosis they need. Over a quarter of time/appointments set aside for ND Pathway were not attended, there is still over 1500 children in borough on a waiting list- these appointments are vital for the children and young people.
*Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (BCH) and Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (WHH) are joining forces and integrating our community and hospital services. They are working towards becoming one single organisation in April 2026. Until they become one organisation they have a temporary partnership name, North Cheshire and Mersey Healthcare Partnership, which is used in limited circumstances.
*ICB are having a staffing restructure and will be losing a significant amount of staff by the end of march.
*Waitlists locally and nationally continue to be a challenge.
*Bridgewater meet and greet/advice sessions continue to be working well and are fully booked. Once we have new dates available we will share on our newsletter.
*If you have taken a private ADHD/ASD Assessment or gone down the right to choose; can you please contact Bridgewater and inform them you do not need to be on the wait list anymore, you have a diagnosis and speak to them directly about updating records. This again will help availability for appointments for other children and young people in borough.
The next Health Co-production meeting will be in May. If you wish for any other updates to be provided please send me (FAO Rachel) an Email using [email protected] or speak with me at one of our coffee mornings.
📬 This week’s Halton SEND Parent Carers Forum newsletter is now out
This week’s newsletter includes:
⭐ The newly published Ofsted / CQC Area SEND monitoring visit report for Halton
📍 Details of the upcoming “You Said, We Did” event
☕ Information about our next Parent Carer Coffee Morning
💻 Details for the upcoming Zoom session
🩺 health updates, Easter HAF information, and other useful reminders for families
Thank you, as always, to everyone who continues to attend sessions, share feedback and help us raise the things that matter to parent carers across Halton.
Please take a look and feel free to share with other parent carers who may find it helpful 💜 … See MoreSee Less
0 CommentsComment on Facebook
Halton SEND monitoring report from Ofsted visit last month – it worth a read
… See MoreSee Less
Halton Borough Council – Open – Find an Inspection Report – Ofsted
reports.ofsted.gov.uk
We use cookies to collect information about how you use this website. We use this information to make the website work as well as possible and improve Ofsted services.1 CommentsComment on Facebook
🌟HBC coffee morning🌟
Today Ben Holmes (Director of Education, Inclusion and Provision) and Kelly Carey (Head of SEND and Inclusion) joined us to speak with parents in Halton. Ben provided us with his monthly update. He discussed:
*The outcomes of the monitoring update. Which will be shared with forum members once we have a hard copy. (If you wish to become a member to receive our newsletters go to www.haltonsendcarersforum.org.uk and sign up)
*EHCPs- there was a discussion around the EHCP process, timeliness, expectations and how Halton continue to work on improving this process
*Send White Paper reforms- Ben discussed the boroughs plan and timeline of what they know and what has been currently advised from the DfE. Discussion and anxieties from parents around the changes were shared.
*1:1s- each month Ben and his team set aside time to support parents 1:1 on specific issues they are facing.
The zoom follow up session on the Send White Paper reforms will be held with Michaela Bridge next Thursday 19th March 8-9pm. Please see the poster pinned to the page for this info and make sure you join to hear the updates 🌟 … See MoreSee Less
1 CommentsComment on Facebook
🌟You Said, We Did, We're Doing🌟
On Thursday 26th March we will be hosting our second You Said, We Did, We're Doing.
This event is an opportunity for us to share with you an update on the progress being made across SEND services in Halton, as well as what’s coming next.
We’ve listened carefully to feedback from our last session and have refreshed the format to make sure the event is focused, interactive and makes good use of your time.
We really hope you’re able to join us and be part of the conversation.
⏲️ 10am-12noon
📍 Bridge Suite, DCBL Stadium, Widnes
To register for the event please use this link: ow.ly/349350YpJJM … See MoreSee Less
1 CommentsComment on Facebook
🌟TOMORROW- WIDNES- BEN HOLMES🌟🌟This weeks Check-in is with Ben Holmes at Halton Stadium🌟
🌟 Ben is the Director of Education, Inclusion and Provision and he joins us once a month to give us the latest updates around SEND, it a great opportunity to join in the discussions and ensure your voice is heard in the borough 🌟 … See MoreSee Less
0 CommentsComment on Facebook
Photos from Halton SEND Parent Carers Forum's post … See MoreSee Less
0 CommentsComment on Facebook
🌟Support Drop-in session🌟
5th March we had Julie Hutchinson from the Neurodevelopmental nursing team (Bridgewater) come in to discuss their service. She gave us an update on service and offered advice around post-diasgnosis. She then did some parental 1:1 sessions for a more personal consultation.
We hold weekly Drop-in sessions (Thurdays)
Monthly Service provider sessions
Monthly HBC session
Monthly HBC Zoom update
Please come along for support, speak to services directly and have an opportunity to speak to people and have your voice heard 🫂
Rach xx … See MoreSee Less
0 CommentsComment on Facebook
🌟CAPVA Training🌟
Last week Rachel & Nikki from HSPCF attended a training session on Child and Adolescent to Parent Violence and Abuse. This is where a young person engages in repeated abusive behaviour towards a parent or carer.
Abusive behaviour can include physical Violence, emotional, economic or sexual abusive; it also includes coercive control. It may also include damage to property ans abuse towards other d
Family members including siblings.
*65% of parents and 85% of professionals agree that CAPVA is a problem in Merseyside, with a significant proportion of practitioners (65%) believing the issue has increased in the past year
*CAPVA is rarely confined to a single form of abuse, with most parents and caregivers experiencing multiple types.
*Behaviour peaks when a young person is in their early to mid-teens and abuse often escalates in severity over time
*Only 3% of professionals believed there is currently enough support for young people or their parents or carers
Whilst we appreciate there is not enough support in this area, please feel free to have a conversation at a coffee/support session with one of our Forum members if you find yourself struggling 🫂
Rach xx
More information around the 2023 Merseyside project finding can be found here:
www.respect.org.uk/pages/merseyside-capva-project … See MoreSee Less
2 CommentsComment on Facebook
🌟Health Co-production Update🌟
Bi-monthly I attend the Health Co-production meeting. This meeting has representatives from Cheshire and Merseyside ICB, Bridgewater (woodview), Merseycare (Camhs/MHST) and the Forum are provided updates from Health.
March updates:
*Mental health schools team have been awarded additional funding meaning that they will be in 100% of Halton schools during 2026/27.
*From 1 April 2026, Bridgewater Community Healthcare under the Warrington and Halton
Hospital trust, will take over the Speech and Language Therapy contract in Halton replacing
Communicate. We know many families have experienced long waits for Speech and Language support, and while the move to a new provider will not resolve waiting times overnight, it is an
important step in rebuilding local provision.
The Forum will continue to work with partners and share updates with parent carers as more information becomes available about how services will develop under the new contract.
*Neurodevelopmental Pathway (Autism / ADHD). Bridgewater uses a Red / Amber / Green system to prioritise children waiting for assessment. If your child has been waiting a long time, parents can ask the professional who made the referral (school senco or another professional) to request that Wood view review and re-stratify the referral. This may move a child from Amber to Red, which means they may be prioritised for assessment. Currently Bridgewater are only seeing children who are Red status or those who are movingfrom Amber to Red. If you are unsure of your child’s status you may wish to speak to the professional who made the referral as they are the only people who can ask Bridgewater to review.
*In Halton there is a large number of Did Not Attend (DNA) across NHS services. This is impacting wait times further and impacting the diagnoses and support for children on lists. Across Bridgewater service (Paeds, MDT, NDT, OT, PT, audiology etc) January data showed 77 appointments people did not attend/ did not bring their children to. Merseycare (camhs/mhst) have a 9% target for DNA and Halton is currently at 13.7%. Please if you need to cancel an appointment can you inform the service directly. These appointments are precious and if you cannot attend there is a huge wait list in borough for somebody else to have that appointment and get the support or diagnosis they need. Over a quarter of time/appointments set aside for ND Pathway were not attended, there is still over 1500 children in borough on a waiting list- these appointments are vital for the children and young people.
*Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (BCH) and Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (WHH) are joining forces and integrating our community and hospital services. They are working towards becoming one single organisation in April 2026. Until they become one organisation they have a temporary partnership name, North Cheshire and Mersey Healthcare Partnership, which is used in limited circumstances.
*ICB are having a staffing restructure and will be losing a significant amount of staff by the end of march.
*Waitlists locally and nationally continue to be a challenge.
*Bridgewater meet and greet/advice sessions continue to be working well and are fully booked. Once we have new dates available we will share on our newsletter.
*If you have taken a private ADHD/ASD Assessment or gone down the right to choose; can you please contact Bridgewater and inform them you do not need to be on the wait list anymore, you have a diagnosis and speak to them directly about updating records. This again will help availability for appointments for other children and young people in borough.
The next Health Co-production meeting will be in May. If you wish for any other updates to be provided please send me (FAO Rachel) an Email using [email protected] or speak with me at one of our coffee mornings.
Thanks
Rachel xx … See MoreSee Less
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