resources.

Page under construction..... all the links works but is a little busy so please navigate as best you can! 

'ASK THE EXPERT':

• Notes from our parents Q & A with Dr Cassie Jackson Clinical Psychologist Director of the Centre for FASD

 

HEALTH: ​​

• UK HEALTH NEEDS ASSESSMENT for FASD 

• UK NICE QUALITY STANDARDS for FASD 

• Scotland SIGN Guidance FASD;

• FASD INFORMATION OVERVIEW

• FASD OVERLAPPING CHARACTERISTICS

• EYE CONDITIONS 

• EYES & FASD SUMMARY

• EYES: NYSTAGMUS (common in FASD)

• EYES : GENERAL FASD DIAGNOSTICS

• DENTISTRY : Some good references here to how to support fasd need

• MOUTHBREATHING, TEETH, SWALLOWING, SUCKING: research helpful to understand complexities of FASD

• EPILEPSY: recognising the signs, epilepsy is more common in those with FASD

• SENSORY INTEGRATION; a great presentation from Family Futures 

• Helpful checklist for sensory needs; remember FASD is a spectrum,  what we see in one child is not necessarily the same in others

• SENSORY NEEDS OUTLINED; a useful guide that identifies sensory needs, you can tick off what you see which is useful if you are gathering information for an EHCP, School or a referral. 

• SLEEP Some great resources and ideas for supporting sleep

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SUPPORTING OLDER CHILDREN & ADULTS: 

• Focussing on the 30 years experience of supporting FASD ; excellent resource.... very good section on daily routine! HERE

• Learning from other countries who are ahead of support for adults, a great resource shared   HERE

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PREMATURE BABIES: 

• Supporting neurotypical and neurodiverse premature babies

• Immune response in babies and children with FASD

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TOLIETING: 

• SMEARING; a common problem for children with sensory needs and those who have experienced developmental trauma

• TOILETING & SCHOOL; Providing school with a Toileting Health Plan (template found link)

• TOILETING & SENSORY NEEDS Some great support here from The Childrens Bowel & Bladder Charity ERIC

• TOILETING; training support for staff in School, toilet access, planning and reviews

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RESPITE & SUPPORT: 

• What does the law say about getting support to care for disabled children & young people?  

• Secondary Trauma: outlining the six key principles of good practice as – safety, trust, choice, collaboration, empowerment and cultural consideration

• A helpful document to give Disability Social Worker assessing need; provides an overview of the complexity of need of FASD

• Trauma response: Compliance & masking... "I have learnt to blend in to survive", "he is fine at school"

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TEACHING & LEARNING: Vital EHCP content (for more info on EHCP see 'EHCP & SEN' section further below) .....

• PRIMARY FRAMEWORK TEACHING AND LEARNING STRATEGIES TO SUPPORT FASD

• SECONDARY FRAMEWORK: TEACHING AND LEARNING STRATEGIES TO SUPPORT FASD 

• EDUCATIONAL SUPPORT FOR FASD

• CHOOSING A SCHOOL CHECKLIST

• WHAT EDUCATORS NEED TO KNOW

• FASD STRATEGIES as recommended by Dr Cassie Jackson ASW conference 2021

• TEACHING & LEARNING TIPS & MORE ABOUT BRAIN DAMAGE

• EXECUTIVE & COGNITIVE  some excellent detailed teaching techniques for scaffolding teaching & learning (excellent for an EHCP)

• FASD Health Needs Assessment: the background to why strong scaffolding is needed to support FASD

• STRENGTHS OF FASD Summary

• Sensory Overload: What does this really feel like?

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SCHOOL: Note EHCP & SEN information is under a separate heading further below

• FASD EDUCATION SUPPORT

• Primary Framework for FASD

• Secondary Framework for FASD

• Some great FASD SCHOOL support here from New Zealand, they lead the way on FASD; why re-invent the wheel, lets learn from them!

• COMPARING FASD/ADHD/ODD Dan Dubovsky 

• Disabled Children and the Equality Act 2010: What teachers need to know and what schools need to do

• Sexual Health

• School Anxiety

• NICE quality standards: Social, Emotional and Mental Wellbeing in Primary and Secondary Education

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TRANSPORT

• SENTAS; provide support and legal reasons to have support for SEND that can be written into section F for funding

• Transport; your legal rights 

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EXCLUSION

• Useful support in your rights to temporary exclusion

• Page 32 point 68 "Local authorities and schools must have regard to the Department’s statutory guidance 'Exclusions from maintained schools, academies and pupil referral units in England'. In line with that guidance, head teachers should, as far as possible, avoid excluding any looked-after child. VSH should build relationships with Governing bodies, head teachers and designated teachers to support this. VSHs should ensure that carers and social workers know where to seek advice about their role and responsibilities regarding exclusions.

• Exclusion, Temporary or Alternative Education ; your legal rights

• Government Guidance on Exclusion including special needs

• NEW Ofsted Framework & Handbook for SEND (November 2022)

• Disability Legislation; helpful to review rights of families with disabled children and young people

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PUPIL PREMIUM PLUS

• https://www.adoptionuk.org/blog/pupil-premium-plus-the-lowdown

• This guidance from PAC below is very helpful but is slightly out of date as the monetary value has gone up to £2,345 per child per school or via EOTAS: https://www.pac-uk.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/PAC-UK-Education-Service-Pupil-Premium-Plus-Flyer.pdf

• https://afaeducation.org/free-dt-resources/explore-our-resources/ppplus-and-support-from-virtual-schools/

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EPPLAC meetings & paperwork: 

'Education Plan for Previously Looked After Children' (we are currently challenging the title of the form!), an EPPLAC or EPAC is a document that is used to identify key strengths and areas to support for your child in school.

Education Plans for Previously Looked After Children are a continuation of the good practice seen within the regular (PEP) Personal Education Plan reviews for 'Looked After Children'.

The purposes of these meetings are to:

• Encourage positive collaboration and communication between home and education provision

• Raise awareness of the needs and issues faced by children and their parents

• Review the support, interventions and progress of the child

• Identify unmet needs of the child

• Discuss PP+ allocation, in relation to the child’s needs and the benefit of the school’s cohort of Previously Looked After Children.

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So what all this means to us is this document can be a vital tool to support and EHCP and can inform the School about your childs needs through regular meetings which should be held through a SEND review. If your School don't do this with you currently they need to so contact the School SENCO to arrange. 

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EHCP & SEN: (Also please see 'FASD Teaching & Learning' above)

• EHCP Getting Started! Really useful guide to help you prepare everything you need to consider (Special Needs Jungle)

• The Teaching and Language guides  above should be given to the Educational Psychologist visiting your child as part of the EHCP process however do not assume they have them, ask the School for the contact email address of the Educational Psychologist visiting your child and send them all the Teaching and Language guides asking for a 'parent feedback' session where you can chat to them about the things you see, how your child might mask in school or where your child might come out of School with their lid ready to blow etc. It is very important to have this time with them and is not a standard request the school will be used to but it is your right to do so and vital because often a  child with FASD or developmental trauma will mask when observed as part of a masking 'trauma response' to protect themselves.

• EHCP What to Write Where? A really helpful breakdown of every section of the EHCP and support in what kind of things to write (IPSEA)

• EHCP Good Practice with more examples of what to write (Council for Disabled Children)

• EHCP Checklist! Really helpful to help you navigate all the sections & to understand what should be in them

• SEN Code of Practice

• Useful guide on EHCP criteria from the PDA Society

• Annual Review

• Writing your EHCP: this is not an EHCP document but from page 6 onwards it help give you sensory needs words that you might overlook

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• EHCP Support & Template Letters:

  • https://sossen.org.uk/information_sheets.php

  • Useful EHCP Facebook support groups:

  • EHCP Experiences & SEND support, Dorset LA EHCP, SEND& EOTAS Support group, Somerset EHCP Support, EHCP Experiences Devon, EHCP Experiences Hampshire, Bristol & surrounding areas EHCP support

• EHCP Supporting documents: 

I have added this FASD scaffolding in education support link again here as I don't want you to miss it! it is a very powerful document that should be included in any EHCP application as well as any review as Maria Catterick summarises beautifully everything a school needs to know in a nutshell

The law and SEND:

• NODDY  ‘no-nonsense’ Guide to SEN law February 2022 (important document if you are appealing decisions)

• Disabled children legal handbook (free downloadable book) 

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HOME EDUCATING: 

• Getting started?  Helpful support here with answering some of your questions

• Template de-registering letters

• Government Guidance Home Education

• SEND legal advice on Home Education

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Find here our FASD Resources pages for ideas and activities to support FASD

Find here our dedicated FASD Friends Home Educating community set up to specifically support home education

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• Flexi Learning: Everything you might need to know!

• Education Other Than School (EOTAS)

• Useful information re EOTAS case law; good for providing examples of supporting need

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• If your child cannot attend School for medical reasons

• Important guidance if due to physical or mental health needs your child needs to attend education part time

• Other Provision: Ombudsman Report citing failings in system; useful if in an appeal situation to demonstrate LA need to support child

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VIRTUAL SCHOOL HEAD: On the 1st September 2018, virtual school head teachers became responsible for promoting
the educational achievement of previously looked-after children living within their local area. Statutory guidance from the Department for Education (DfE) requires virtual school heads to provide information and advice to adoptive parents, special guardians and carers and also to
providers of funded early years education and designated teachers. Virtual school heads must also ensure that their local authority fulfils their duty to provide suitable advice and information for the purpose of promoting the educational achievement of previously looked-
after children. If you don't know who your Virtual Head is Google Virtual Head in your area, they should have a website with details of what is happening in your area. 

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• Statutory rights of children looked after & post looked after

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DESIGNATED TEACHERS: Every School is required by law to have a Designated Teacher who represents children in care and those who have left it. It is their role to liase with the Virtual School, SENCO and other school staff. Please ask your school who your designated teacher is as they should participate in every meeting you have at School and support your family. They will take part in specialist training that is available through the Virtual School.  For the official guidance on the role read more here.

 

FUNDING FOR EQUIPMENT:​

• Sensory Needs

• Search for grants by postcode!

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BENEFITS:

• Short webinar on claiming Higher Level Disability Living Allowance (DLA)

• Great support here from 'Contact' on lots of types of support 

• Personal Independence Payments (PIP) 

• Disability living Allowance

• Step by step guide on claiming DLA Cerebra brain injury

• https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1006745/dla1-child-interactive.pdf​

• Adoption Support Funding 

  • Adoption Support Funding (ASF): Adoption Support Funding for Adopted & Special Guardianship Families up to and including the age of 21, or 25 with an education, health and care plan, who: are living (placed).

  • Until the end of March 2025 the ASF will have 2 fair access limits:

  • £2,500 per child/young person per year for specialist assessment

  • £5,000 per child/young person per year for therapy

  • Helpful guidance on ASF here including eligibility & suggestions for therapy

• Adoption Support Allowance & other benefits for Adoptors

• Adopting with or with knowing of additional need

• Universal Credit application for Children post 16 ​

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TIPS ON HOW TO SUPPORT CHILDREN & TEENS: 

Sensory Activities, Occupational Therapy; a wealth of 'top tips' provide some really simple things that can be used in the Home and School 

Many parents recommend Nate Sheets YouTube videos  where his way of explaining how children and young people respond well to simple instructions works! 

One parent describes the challenges she faces.... "if a child is struggling in school then he/she is likely to blow at home, mine did exactly this.... masked all day and then literally as soon as they came out were bouncing all over the place. We found the OT from the NHS didn't have enough experience so we were funded through Adoption support Funding to see a specialist called a 'Sensory Integration Trauma Occupational Therapist' where we put in lots and I do mean lots... of sensory breaks in School and the School learnt to pace their language where we then started to see noticeable differences. Also we did a lot around keeping our children safe in school as my son is impulsive and very easily influenced by others..... this was written into risk assessments & with the report we received from the OT we applied for an EHCP." 

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RISK ASSESSMENTS: To make sure your School has considered 'risk', ask for their risk assessment of your child or young person. Every child or young person with SEND should have one; the actions from this should inform SEND reviews or/and EHCP reviews..... e.g. a child should be risk assessed if additional staff need to support on a school trip this should be included in the 'risk assessment' and the EHCP as additional funding will be required from school budgets. Examples of risk assessments can be found here

EQUALITY

• Equality Act Guide 

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THE SYSTEM FAILS a very powerful video by Sarah Naish focussing on the role of the social worker; signposting to useful tools to assist professionals in assessment of need

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JUSTICE SYSTEM: 

FASD Guidebook for Police Officers; a very useful guide for professional in how to support children, young people and adults

'Nobody made the connection'; powerful research discussing why early intervention is everything, should be included in every EHCP application!

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EXTENDED LEAVE FROM WORK: 

Taking unpaid leave from work

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Other great reading & sources of support: 

TOP TIPS HANDBOOK

FASD NETWORK RESOURCES

NATIONAL ORGANISATION FOR FASD (NOFAS) RESOURCES

ME & MY FASD

TUNING INTO TEENS

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MINDFULNESS: Remembering how to breathe; a lovely relaxing track and clip to support mindfulness

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