Introducing the Focus Fortnight

A Focused Fortnight is a dedicated two-week period during which the Intensive Family Support Team (IFST) ensures that every family receiving support gets targeted intervention in a specific area of need. The goal is to provide comprehensive and effective assistance by:

• Upskilling staff: Collaborating with partners to enhance staff knowledge and skills on the identified topics.

• Providing resources: Offering relevant materials to support the interventions.

• Prioritising discussions: Ensuring that workers focus on the area of need during their interactions with families.

Area of Need for this term :- Is on families experiencing neglect, with particular attention to:

• Management of head lice

• Dental hygiene

Find out more here:- Download the leaflet

October Half Term Activities

There’s lots to do across Hertfordshire this month and with the October half term just around the corner. Below are some good links to share with parents:-

Firstly, we’ve updated our fifty thrifty list to give it an autumnal twist. Visit Fifty Thrifty Autumn Adventures 2024 | Hertfordshire County Council 

APEX

The October HIGH FIVE Camps which are now live and available to book! Eligible parents will need to get a booking code from their schools and then head to https://apex360.co.uk/highfive to secure their place(s). These camps were previously part of the Fit, Fed and Read Holiday Programme. Apex have since taken over the running of these camps now known as High Five – same great venues, staff and activities!

During our High Five Camps, children and young people experience the perfect blend of activities to keep them active and entertained during the holidays. Our camps provide high-quality sport, entertaining enrichment activities, as well as a nutritious hot meal.

Funded by the Opening School Facilities programme, our camps run every school holiday period.

Dacorum  – Lime Walk Primary School
St Albans  – Mandeville Primary School
Three Rivers  – Greenfields Primary School
Watford – Ascot Road Primary School

Fit and Fed Half Term

The Fit and Fed project will be running in Waltham Cross on 31 October and 1 November. Download the leaflet here

FREE Face your Fears Workshop at the Herts Haven Cafe - Stevenage (Herts Mind Network)

Finding productive and fun ways to support your wellbeing can be difficult, particularly for the young people we may support or work with -  here at the Herts Haven Cafe, we want to help!

Throughout the HALF TERM WEEK in OCTOBER, we will be holding 'FACE YOUR FEARS' workshops at our Hemel, Stevenage and Watford locations, to provide a safe and nurturing space for young people to talk about their fears and gain some invaluable tools to manage those fears, all in the spirit of Halloween. Attendees will also be able to make their own scary creation! 

Open to young people aged between 10-18 years old, please can you share this with your students, young people you may support or know and any other pathway you feel would create the greatest reach - please see the visual attached to this email which can be used. For further information on our Herts Haven Cafe's (run by Herts Mind Network) please visit our website: Herts Haven Cafés - WithYouth

Anyone interested can sign up by emailing cyp@hertsmindnetwork.org.

 

Half Term Multi-Sports

download a poster for half-term youth multi-sports in Cheshunt Park and Wormley

Park Play

Free weekly project: 10am -12pm on Saturdays
Any weather | Every Week•
For Families –Parents and Children
People of all ages and abilities
Structured and unstructured games
At your local park:-

• Broxbourne –Waltham Cross –Cedars Park –Time For Change Kids
• North Herts –Letchworth –Jackmans Creamery
• Hertsmere –Borehamwood –Aycliffe Park –Inspire All
• Three Rivers –South Oxhey –Warren Dell Primary School
• Dacorum –Hemel Hempstead –Yewtree Primary School
• Welwyn / Hatfield –Welwyn Garden City –King George V Playing Fields

Half Term Activities in East Herts

October Half Term Sport and Fitness 2024 | East Herts District Council

Boost the Hertfordshire Directory with new Children & Families’ listings

Help us turn the Hertfordshire Directory into the go-to place to find groups, services and providers that can support families to live life to the full.

The Council’s Hertfordshire Directory website brings together services across the county that offer support and advice in a range of areas, including Children’s Services.

We need your help to make sure that it’s up to date and is packed full of listings relevant to children and families and their physical and mental wellbeing. Please:

• check that your services are listed on the Hertfordshire Directory and that the information is up to date.
• ask providers, partners and voluntary sector organisations that you work with to add their details to the directory and to check their information is up to date.

Who can use the Hertfordshire Directory

We want families to be able to use the Directory to find services, group and providers independently.

We also want social work practitioners and health professionals to be able to search the Directory to find suitable services for people they support so they can make a direct referral or create a short-list which can be printed off or emailed out.

How to add a FREE listing

There are already a wide range of services and providers listed in the Directory, from day centres and dance groups to counselling and community activities, but we’d like many more.

If you know of a provider that could improve residents’ lives and is not listed on the Hertfordshire Directory, then contact Anne Ardley, Directory Project Officer.

Anne is part of the Hertfordshire Directory Project, set up a year ago with colleagues from Adult Care Services, Children’s Services, Public Health and Resources; and she is leading on work to review the current Directory with a view to making short- and long-term improvements to get the most out of this valuable resource.

A key element of this work is to get more service providers to add their listings.

Providers, services and groups can request a login to create a service listing, including key information such as who they support, when and where they work and costs, if applicable.

We have produced a few short videos that can be shared with providers and services to help them do this:

Using the Hertfordshire Directory - YouTube

If you have any questions, queries or feedback about the Directory, or need support accessing it, please email anne.ardley@hertfordshire.gov.uk or web.team@hertfordshire.gov.uk.

 

 

Neurodiversity Support Offer

Please find attached a flyer advertising the Neurodiversity Support offer for parents/carers, professionals, and young people in Hertfordshire. The HCC and ICB offer consists of various resources including group courses, webinars, and a live web chat for young people, as well as the support hub and digital webinars for parents/carers and professionals.

We would welcome the opportunity to attend your next SENCO any relevant professional meetings to provide more detailed information about the Neurodiversity offer. Kindly let us know your available dates and times.

We have also produced a Neurodiversity Handbook providing a wealth of resources, support, and signposting for parents and carers.

Additionally, you can explore the Neurodiversity Service Directory (hertfordshire.gov.uk) for more support options.

Details of all these offers can also be found on the  Neurodiversity Support (hertfordshire.gov.uk).

Parenting Support Groups - FREE for parents

Supporting Links are pleased to bring you details of our Parenting Support Groups which will be running countywide both face-to-face and ONLINE for the SPRING TERM of 2025. 

Starting in January and February, we have 11 online courses as well as 1 face to face group in Dacorum. 

Each course runs over 6 weekly sessions and is offered FREE of charge to parents thanks to funding from Herts County Council:

Talking Additional Needs (2 online)

Talking Families (3 online courses)

Talking Teens (1 online course/ 1 Dacorum district course)

Talking Dads (3 online courses) 

Talking Anxiety in Teens (1 online course)

Talking Anger in Families (1 online course)

BOOKINGS FOR THESE COURSES ARE NOW OPEN

Further information on course content and suitability, along with details on dates and times, and how to refer a family to us, can be found in the links above. We appreciate your help in ensuring that parents in need of targeted support are prioritised. 

These are County commissioned courses, and we are a not-for-profit organisation.

• We would appreciate the sharing of these course details on any school/organisational social media and supply JPG images for this purpose.
• We publish these course details via our social media channels (Facebook & Instagram) and would appreciate your organisations liking and sharing these with your families via your feeds too. Direct links are below my signature. 
•  PDF posters are supplied for display in your settings. 

Please distribute these details far and wide within your organisations along with the attached referral form. Referrals can be made via email or phone to bookings@supportinglinks.co.uk 07512 709556.

A full list of parenting groups can be viewed here: Parenting courses | Hertfordshire Directory

Learn about the support for parents available at Young Minds

YoungMinds is the UK’s leading charity fighting for young people’s mental health. Any advice worker or volunteer who is being asked about children and young people’s wellbeing and mental health, can signpost parent’s and carers to the YoungMinds Parents Helpline.

The Parents Helpline is a free national service for any parent or carer concerned about a young person aged 0-25 yrs. We give customised advice and provide translation services in over 200 languages. We also have comprehensive resources on the Parent and Carer section of our website, which was visited 1.7 million times last year.  You can visit our website here

Sleeping out to make a difference!

A roof over our heads, the support of a loving family and somewhere safe to come home to are all things most of us take for granted. But, right now, thousands of young people in Hertfordshire are unable to rely on any of these as they are either homeless or at risk of being homeless.

Every day, young people are homeless in our community. Some of them are street homeless; the vast majority are ‘hidden homeless. They might be sofa-surfing, moving around from place to place, living in temporary accommodation such as a hostel or bed and breakfast or unsafe places such as cars or squats. Our mission is to support them into a secure situation and ensure that they do not return to the desperation of an uncertain future.

The purpose of the event is to raise valuable funds to help support and raise awareness to the challenges we face as a community. Team IFST work closely with HYH as we support young people and their families and waned to give something back and help raise valuable funds.   

Every single donation no matter how large or small made through fundraising makes a huge difference to a young person’s life;

£5 could pay for a travel warrant for a young person

£10 could answer an urgent call to our advice line

£30 could pay for food and essentials for a young person for a week

£46 could pay for a mediation session for a young person and their family

£100 could pay for one home truths session for up to 30 young people

DONATE HERE

We also welcome anyone who would still like to sign up and join us (you can do this from home also if you like! ) please follow the link and sign up. https://www.hyh.org.uk/st-albans-sleepout-2024

Team mates are –

• Lisa Lester - East Herts and Broxbourne
• Laura Waite Roberts - East Herts and Broxbourne
• Eve Righelato – East Herts and Broxbourne
• Elaine Sarikaya – Welwyn Hatfield and Hertsmere

The Great Big Walk for MIND

In Watford & Three Rivers IFST, we use Hertfordshire MIND Network to support our families, especially Herts Haven Café.  The work they do is invaluable to a lot of our young people, that’s why Lucie, Fiona and Michelle were happy to take part in the The Great Big Walk for Herts.  It was a lovely sunny day and we met other people who have benefitted from some of the other services provided by MIND.  We walked across farmers fields, past grazing horses, and waterlogged patches of land.  After a pitstop at a lovely country pub, refuelled we continued on our last push and all arrived back together at the start, a circle of 17 miles which included detours around the flooded areas.  We were thoroughly entertained the whole walk by Bear, a playful cockerpoo.

Its not too late to make a donation if you would like to add to the total.

The Great Big Walk for Herts | Hertfordshire Mind Network (hertsmindnetwork.org)

A poem by Michelle capturing the spirit of the day:

 

One morning in September we arrived for the start,

Of a great big, long and winding walk with effort from the heart.

The sun was shining, the sky was blue we were feeling fit

We were ready, keen and eager to get on with it.

 

Off we set, across a field and through the sheltered woods

Then stumbled upon a fallen tree over which we stood.

Across the farmers field we sped, herded by Bear

He kept us well in line and saved us from the mare

 

Flooded fields could not deter us walkers from our goal

We went around, up and down and past the great big hole

A lovely pub a snack and drink to keep us going on

To the end from where we had begun.

 

 

 

What is the B-CARE Project?

We would like to let you know about an exciting new project aiming to evaluate Domestic Abuse interventions and their effectiveness. As part of this project, being run by Foundations and RAND Europe, For Baby’s Sake is one of the services being evaluated. We are open to accepting referrals to the trial now and I wondered if you could cascade to colleagues/services on our behalf, otherwise we would appreciate if you have any contacts/services you feel it would be relevant for us to contact. The project is briefly outlined below.

The B-CARE Project: Baby and Co-Parent Attachment, Resilience and Empowerment.

Could you identify a family who might benefit from participation in a research project on a whole-family support programme for parents and their babies?

What is the B-CARE Project?

RAND Europe is evaluating For Baby’s Sake – a therapeutic whole-family support programme designed for expectant parents who are seeking help to end hurtful and harmful behaviours related to domestic abuse in their co-parent relationship. In this pilot project, we are comparing how well the usual domestic abuse and perinatal support services complemented by For Baby’s Sake work, when compared to the usual services alone. 

Why are we doing this project?

This project will help us to understand which type of support available to parents works the best in improving outcomes for them and their babies. The project is funded by Foundations – the What Works Centre for Children and Families – and supported by Hertfordshire Council.

Who can take part?

Co-parents will be eligible to take part in the project when they meet the following criteria:

• They are seeking help to end hurtful and harmful behaviours related to domestic abuse in their co-parent relationship.
• The mother is 12 – 34 weeks pregnant at the time of recruitment.
• Both parents intend to be involved in raising and caring for their baby, whether or not they are together as a couple.
• The expectant mother lives in Hertfordshire, Bedford Borough or Essex

Please feel free to call me on 07484 052960, or contact myself or my colleague Freya via email, we are happy to come and talk at any team meetings and explain details of the project.

 

I have attached the project flyer and the parent/participant info sheet. Below is a direct link to the referral portal:

 The B-CARE Project: Baby and Co-Parent Attachment, Resilience and Empowerment (office.com)

 

Thank you in advance for your support,

 

HFL Education Autumn Term Online Safety Newsletters

HFL Education are pleased to release two new summer term 2024 Online Safety Newsletters. Both newsletters feature a range of guidance, news, links and updates about online safety for all phases, with particular reference to the current situation, recent developments and concerns.

Both editions can also be downloaded from the HFL website and the Grid and feature a range of guidance, news, links and updates about online safety for all phases, with particular reference to the current situation, recent developments and concerns.

Our newsletter for staff includes reviews and details about:

• Critical thinking and misinformation
• Artificial intelligence
• Extremism
• Save the date!

Our newsletter for parents and carers includes reviews and details about:

• Smartphones v feature phones
• The ABC online safety checklist
• Gaming tips for parents of neurodivergent children
• Dischord chatroom

If you’d like any more information please let me know or contact the Wellbeing team at wellbeing@hfleducation.org or visit Online safety in schools | HFL Education.

 

News from Services for Young People (SfYP), October 2024

New SfYP Recruitment Hub

Services for Young People (SfYP) has launched a new SfYP Recruitment Hub, offering young people a seamless gateway to education, employment, and training opportunities.

SfYP offers a diverse range of services and employment programmes for young people aged 16-25 who are not in education, employment, or training. Our new SfYP Recruitment Hub brings all these services together in one place, making them more accessible and understandable to young people, their parents/carers and professionals who work with young people.

• Read the full story about the new SfYP Recruitment Hub

Young People’s Race Inclusion Forum

SfYP is working in partnership with Hertfordshire Constabulary to establish a Young People’s Race Inclusion Forum. It will give young Black people in Hertfordshire the opportunity to scrutinise and inform Hertfordshire Constabulary’s processes and to be involved in the governance and oversight of policing in Hertfordshire.

We are looking for young Black people aged 14 to 18 to take part. It involves attending meetings at one of our young people’s centres (meetings can be joined online if attending in person is not possible). Each meeting will explore different areas of policing and will seek insights and feedback from the forum members.

• Read the full story with details of how to register

National Inclusion Week 2024: taking action to create inclusive workplaces

To celebrate National Inclusion Week, SfYP shared the inspiring story of a young person with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) who has benefitted from the support of the SfYP Supported Employment Advisers, showing the impact it had on her life and future. Supported Employment Advisers train and coach young people to prepare them for the world of work and support them to find a job that’s right for them. They also support the employer and the young person in the workplace.

• Read Mia’s success story with quotes from her parent and employer

Inspiring young people to explore media careers at Sky Up Academy Studios

During the SfYP summer holiday activity programme, young people from Dacorum and St Albans had the fantastic opportunity to visit Sky Up Academy Studios in Elstree. This exciting trip offered a unique glimpse into the world of television and film production. The trip had a significant impact on the young people who took part, inspiring them to pursue careers in the industry with confidence.

• Read the full story with more images and quotes from the young people and their parents

 

Information for families that support older people

Please help promote this via the families you support that may also support older people and grandparents:-

Download the leaflet