The latest news
Step2Skills - Preparing for Success in Hertfordshire
HAFLS has gone through many changes over the recent years. The service has grown to include the Supported Employment Team (formally known as Work Solutions) as well as various projects funded from different sources. Most notably this includes the Building Better Opportunities (BBO) projects which offer employment support.
The economic and education landscapes have changed dramatically following the recent COVID 19 pandemic, resulting in higher unemployment levels, changes in working patterns and the balance of employment sectors offering jobs and transformation in how learning is delivered and undertaken. It has also meant that people who had barriers to learning and employment before the pandemic often face an even more uphill struggle to reach their goals.
To embrace these changes and to enable us to support Hertfordshire residents in this ‘new world’ we have changed our focus from being almost purely education and community learning to becoming a mix of learning, skills and employment.
As a result of all these changes we felt that Hertfordshire Adult and Family Learning Service no longer represented the breadth of service that we are now able to offer people in Hertfordshire.
From the 2nd August our new service name will be Step2Skills and will have the tagline Prepare for success in Herts.
You can view details of our wellbeing courses this September here. These may be of interest for family members who have struggled through the last year and are in need of some time out to improve their wellbeing.
Also please visit full timetable for our community learning courses this September; all of these courses can be booked via our website at www.step2skills.org.uk.
Beezee Bodies - Family Healthy Lifestyle Courses
Beezee Bodies are very excited to be returning to face to face delivery of its Family Healthy Lifestyle course, Beezee Families from September. Beezee Families is a free 12-week course run in the local community for families to learn about healthy eating, exercise and wellbeing. This will be running across several locations in Hertfordshire including Welwyn Garden City, Borehamwood, Hemel Hempstead, South Oxhey and Stevenage.
They will also continue to run their Beezee Live Online course for those who don’t live near these locations or find this more convenient to access.
Please also see the timetable of the programmes they will be offering from September and flyers for each of the face-to-face Beezee Families courses, giving further details of locations/times and how to make a referral.
Download the flyers here:-
Welwyn
Stevenage
South Oxhey
Hemel Hempstead
Borehamwood
More information can be found at : Award Winning Weight Loss Programmes | Behaviour change for good (beezeebodies.com)
The Henry Programme
In addition you can view HENRY’s new programme schedule for September 2021 who will be returning to face to face programmes while keeping an online programme option too.
Parenting Courses at East Quadrant Family Centres
Please find below a useful link which gives details of the following parenting courses being run in the East Quadrant Family Centres along with the referral process.
- Parenting Puzzle
- Families Feeling Safe
- Family Toolkit
- In My Shoes
Parenting Courses – East Quadrant
Please note this link is for professionals only.
Tackling violence against women and girls strategy launched
Home Secretary Priti Patel has published the government’s new strategy to ensure women and girls are safe everywhere – at home, online and on the streets.
The strategy sets out a clear ambition to increase support for victims and survivors, increase the number of perpetrators brought to justice and reduce the prevalence of violence against women and girls in the long term. Find out more at the Government website Tackling violence against women and girls strategy launched
Spot the Signs and Emotional Wellbeing project
Hertfordshire Mind Network’s Spot the Signs and Emotional Wellbeing project offers a range of FREE mental health and emotional wellbeing workshops and training to children and young people, parents/carers and families and youth professionals. The aim of the project is to facilitate positive early experiences with mental health services and create a safe space to explore feelings.
Our bitesize mental health and emotional wellbeing training videos have been created especially for parents/carers and families to help them improve understanding and gain confidence in talking about mental health and emotions with children and young people. The topics covered include an Introduction to Mental Health, Five Ways to Wellbeing and Emotional Wellbeing and Coping Strategies. If you’re a parent/carer or other family member of a child or young person looking to learn more about how you can support them with their mental health (including your own), you can watch these videos at anytime here.
As well as this, we also run information stalls and in-person or online workshops for parents/carers and families via schools and other organisations. For further support or for more information about the project and how to book, please email Jess Whittaker – jessica.whittaker@hertsmindnetwork.org
View the Spot the Signs and Emotional Wellbeing bitesize videos for parents/carers and families
It wouldn't be the same without a survey!
Or two...
Can you find time to help with a couple of important surveys:-
Can you help Just Talk to improve their website for young people? We’d like to hear young people’s views about how we can improve the Just Talk website. We want to help more young people to use it as their go-to website for information about things they can do to help improve their emotional wellbeing themselves, as well as providing signposting to other services in Hertfordshire for help. We’re running online focus groups of six-eight young people this August, so if you know any young people who have an hour to spare and would like to help, please ask them to email: lisa.gazeley@hertfordshire.gov.uk.
Or if they only have a couple of minutes, please ask them to complete this quick online questionnaire: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/WMDHPXG If you have a question about any CAMHS related topic, then you’re probably not the only person with that question!
Supporting adults and children with learning disabilities? Please take a moment to complete this survey:-
Download here
Help us engage with CYP with SEND
SEND Drawing Competition
To help us promote the new SEND Strategy and raise awareness that 'SEND is Everybody's Business' we would like to invite you to join in our drawing competition.
We have 5 Amazon vouchers of £50 up for grabs for the top 5 entries across 3 categories!
Find out more SEND Drawing Competition (hertfordshire.gov.uk) and please promote to families in your networks.
SEND Strategy Launch Events
Throughout the months of September and October, we will be hosting several events throughout the county to mark the launch of our new Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Strategy for Hertfordshire.
The 'SEND is Everybody’s Business' events are an opportunity to come and find out about services and organisations in your area that offer support and services to families with SEND.
There will be a wide range of organisations and people to speak to from across education, health and social care. We would also like to share with you the ambitions of the new SEND Strategy 2022 – 2025 and hear from you on how we can further support SEND families across Hertfordshire.
Find out more here: SEND Strategy Launch Events (hertfordshire.gov.uk) and please promote to families in your networks.
