INDEPENDENT OPTIONS CHILDREN AND FAMILY CENTRE NEWSLETTER – April 2013Hello everyone, As always a warm welcome to our new families who have recently started coming to our centre. We hope you are enjoying the group you are coming to. Please let us know if there is anything we can help you with. Our staff office is adjacent to the kitchen if you need to speak to any of us. Introducing SamWe are absolutely delighted to announce that we have received funding for 3 years from BBC Children In Need for a new worker to join our team. Sam Jarvis was appointed to become our Outreach and Inclusion worker and began working with us on the 1st April. Her role will help us to develop our groups and offer some more structured support to our children who have additional needs, as well as being our contact with the local community by letting other people know about us. Here is Sam’s introduction to you allHello, my name is Sam. I am the newly appointed Outreach and Inclusion worker for The Children and Family Centre. I first came to Independent Options as a student social worker as I was completing my Masters degree. Once I had achieved this I became a support worker for the Children’s community team. I worked with children and young adults aged between 6 and 25 years old who have learning disabilities, complex health needs, behavioural or mental health needs. I worked 1:1 with many young people providing fun support and also developing their own interests and skills. Within small groups and weekends away I was able to encourage and nurture friendships whilst increasing life skills and independence by visiting new places. I am very excited to be taking on this new opportunity in The Children and Family Centre. My role will have two main areas to focus upon ‘Outreach and Inclusion’. I will endeavour to promote the service to increase our presence and encourage new families to come along. I will also be working more closely with those children who would benefit from additional support whilst visiting the centre, to ensure that we fully understand their individual needs and interests and so they enjoy their time at The Children and Family Centre. I will attempt to introduce myself to everyone over the next few weeks, however, please come and find me to say hello and have a chat at any time. New shed…You may have noticed that we have a new shed in the garden. It is on the soft flooring area and holds the small cars and scooters. All of our groups are welcome to use these outdoor toys. Please ask at admin if there are no staff members at your group and they will pass you the key. Our old shed (on the garden) now holds our gardening equipment and other resources which would be dangerous for the children to get hold of. It is important that the staff at the centre only use the old shed now. Thank you. Fire safety…There is a sign on the window near the fire extinguishers to tell you where to go and what to do in the event of a fire alarm going off. Please aquaint yourself with this if you have not read it. For fire safety we now have to ask all our parents/carers to sign IN and OUT of the register each time you visit. We have to know who is in the building at any time. The registers have all been altered with a signing out column so please could everyone use it from now on. Should there ever be a fire and we would need to evacuate the building, the register would be handed to the fire brigade. Thank you …To all of you who supported us at our Bake Sale in February. We managed to raise just over £80 for some Sensory Play resources which we are now using for our ‘Sensory Play’ sessions on a Friday afternoon with our pre – school children and on a Saturday once a month for all our visiting children and families. Annual feedback questionnaire – we know how many questionnaires and assessment documents you have to complete when you have a small child/ren especially with additional needs… and so we are extremely grateful to those of you who completed our annual feedback forms. We really do analyse the things that people say to us so that we can improve our centre and the groups we are running. The information is just being put into a presentable form so that we can share this with you. This will be available in the centre very soon. Please call and ask if you would like me to send you a personal copy – my number is 0161 482 7933 Please let your friends and anyone who may be looking for a friendly place to go know about us. We do have spaces at some of our groups, especially for children who have learning difficulties/ additional needs at our Sensory Play groups. Activities run each morning and most afternoons, After school time (3.30 onwards) and on some Saturdays. We also run school holiday club for children with additional needs and their siblings. If you know anyone who may wish to join us please pass on my details Nicky Jones 0161 482 7933 njones@independentoptions.org.uk We are hoping for some nice weather this summer so please bring your hats and sun cream. Also, please observe the garden safety sign whilst your children are playing. Thank you. Your feedback is always very important to us. We are continually striving to improve everything we do and it always really good to hear about your experiences here. If you have a concern, a suggestion a compliment or complaint we really need to hear from you. We all have ideas about different things and we are keen to hear yours. Please ask your children to leave us a note on the heart and the bin too!If you have any queries or would like to know more about The Children and Family Centre, please do not hesitate to contact me on 0161 482 7933 or email njones@independentoptions.org.ukNicky Jones, Centre Manager.
