HAV UPDATE BRIEF TO HAPB

TUESDAY 11th Sept 2012

1Proposal for an Education workstream

  • HAV are keen to establish an Education workstream, as this covers transition and further/higher education. Many more young people with autism will be going into further education due to the change in school leaving age, where they will be expected to stay in some form of education or training to the age of 18 (from 2015). An Education workstream could then link in with the Employment workstream

2Autism Conference

  • Members of HAV attended the Autism Conference, hosted by PortsmouthUniversity on the 13th July. Gill O’Leary and Linda Burgess gave a presentation about Hampshire’s Autism Strategy and Denise Long gave one re HAV. The conference was very successful with quite a bit of networking going on.

3CAMHS

  • HAV havebeen discussing the problems with CAMHS and diagnosis, particularly based at Ashurst. Peter Crowley has been investigating the issues and preparing a report. The HAV members would appreciate an update as the waiting list had grown quite considerably and there was a suggestion that there was no-one to diagnose ASD at Ashurst! A number of members of HAV are involved in, or run local support groups and the situation with diagnosis is of great concern at present to parents, as it is not acceptable to have to wait years, with little or no information as to why it is taking so long.

4Youth Group update

  • Hedge End: A new youth group, The Friday Night Project’ started atThe Box youth centre (based at WildernAcademy, Hedge End), in June. The group caters for young people aged 11 to 18 years with mild/moderate learning/physical difficulties, autistic spectrum conditions or confidence issues.
  • Hype (Hamble) youth centre, including the ‘Next Generation Socialisation’ (NGS) group: There are now concerns about future funding. There is currently a 3 tier funding arrangement with funds provided by HCC, (Eastleigh) borough and (Bursledon, Hamble and Hound) parish councils for a youth service which includes the Thursday night NGS group.They are entering negotiations with HCC about the sort of youth services they will agree to commission and encouraging them to include NGS young people. At this stage they have indicated that NGS provision falls outside their priorities for this funding and the NGS group should look to Short Break funds or Children's Services Integrated grant for services from April 2013. The current services will be extended for six months so will expire at the end of September 2013.
  • Fair OakYzone NGS: David & Rachel Carter (HAV)and Chris Parsons (In Touch Project leader) met with Min Partner (LCP Area Coordinator for Eastleigh) in mid May. As a result Min has nominated all three to join the LCP, as currently there is very little input from the voluntary sector/special needs groups – the majority of members are from local schools. In addition, Eastleigh LCP have now included ‘Youth Services across Eastleigh’ as a priority group.

Funding options are also being investigated as there have been some issues with organisations being awarded contracts to run youth services but having no autism-related experience. It is felt that this is a risk for the future and it may be more appropriate to use Fair Oak NGS as a model and try to obtain funding separately. The Rotary Club have been approached and Chris & David will attend an event in October which will look at the possibility of supporting this type of project.

  • Petersfield Group: known as the ‘Supersonic Saturday Club’ have changed venue to the MethodistChurch as The Petersfield School (TPS) is too expensive. The group have had onsite and offsite activities. There was a very successful end of term trip to Marwell Activity Centre. The club returned last Saturday with Karate. The future funding of this group is in doubt from next March. The parents and organisers (formerly Youth Service) now based at the “Kings Arms” (an ecumenical church-led group for the youth of the Petersfield area)are meeting this evening (Tuesday 11th September) to discuss the future and survival of the group.

5Adult group questions template

  • A set of questions have been developed for use with existing adult support groups. These questions have been really good at getting a comprehensive overview of why and how the groups were set up, and how they are run. A copy of the questions is attached to this paper (Appendix 1).

6Adult Support Groups

  • As part of the investigations into Adult Support Groups,two members of HAV attended a meeting of the Basingstoke Speakeasy AS group ‘Virtual Friends’ in July. They were made very welcome by the members present and found it very interesting and informative. The adult group template was provided in advance to allow the group members time to compile their answers before the meeting.

7Foreward and title for Autism Strategy

  • Members of HAV were asked to contribute to the foreword to be included in the forthcoming Autism Strategy for Adults publication. They were also asked to choose the title for the strategy which is to remain as the ‘Hampshire Autism Strategy for Adults’, as this was felt to better reflect the aim of the strategy, which is about adults with autism, and for them and their families/carers.

APPENDIX 1

Questions for Autism Support Groups for Adults

Thank you for agreeing to answer our questions to help us understand how your group works. We are asking the same below questions to quite a few adult support groups, so we can better understand how to set up more adult support groups around Hampshire.

1.What triggered the group to be set up?

2.How did thevenue and time of meeting of the group get decided?

3.How is the group advertised / how did members hear about it?

4.How long did it take the group to get established?

5.What are the current member numbers?

6.What is the age range of the group?

7.Does the group have ‘taster sessions’ for potential members?

8.What staff / members are required to run the group? paid or voluntary?

9.How is the group funded? is there a contribution made by members attending?

10.Does the group have charitable status or will it be applying for charitable status?

11.Howare the sessions structured ie social time, activities, speakers?

12.Are the groups activities and events all on site or does the group visit other places?

13.What are the benefits of the group to the members? How is this feedback from members obtained?

14.What personal details are requested of members of the group on joiningie home address, telephone number?

15.If the group was to set up from scratch again, what would you do differently?

16. If the group was set up from scratch again, what would you definitely do the same?

HAV Update Brief to HAPB - Sept 2012Page 1 of 3