Well I started off the week with a review meeting at college for Mr T's Education Health Care Plan (EHCP). Do you ever get to the night before and completely forget to have filled in a form? How many times have I said to my kids not to leave homework till the last minute and there I was not taking my own advice and frantically plucking my views out, here there and everywhere.

Any form filling tends to blow one's mind slightly, but they have to be done. I was thinking of saying that my homework was eaten by the dog but we don't have a dog and that's just not right at all. Anyway paperwork  was finally in order and we had a good chat including Mr T and together we discussed the support he would need to progress. We also talked about his future plans for moving to a different venture in September. I think we all felt that there are a few options that we, as a family could explore and support Mr T with what he wants to do in the future.

I finished the week with two lovely support groups. We had a change of venue with one group but it was well supported by the school and there we had a few good discussions. Today's meeting was another well attended meeting with quite a few good topics to chat about. The EHCP came up quite a bit this week, it must be review time for a lot of families and we also had people who were new to this information too so together we helped each other and it just felt like a great positive morning.

If you need any information about the EHCP then you can find more information here at www.ambitiousaboutautism.org.uk/understanding-autism/education/statements-and-education-health-and-care-plans

So I feel a lot better now than I did at the start of the week mainly because I have talked to different people and not only got the support I felt we needed but also have been able to chat to others and help them too. You see as a parent I can feel stressed because I am so desperate to get the best support for my son, he can't make a lot of these decisions by himself so we have to help him to make them and I feel so lucky that I have lovely people around to help.

If your head feels a bit like scrambled egg then don't worry, it's all quite normal to feel a bit anxious as it shows you care but please chat to someone and to help iron out those lumps and bumps. Eggs are fabulous scrambled but sometimes we just need life running like a nice smooth omelette. 

I have never referred to support using eggs so that's a new one on me, hope that made sense, if not then it's just my brain thats 'fried' (ha ha see what I did there?) I'll go now because the egg jokes are getting silly now.

Thank you for being here and reading today.......please do come back tomorrow for Pass the Remote Saturday but for now......

Take care.

Last week I mentioned that I was going to be attending an event run by a charity called Sunshine Support regarding legal help with EHCP - the Education Health Care Plan. The EHCP is a legal document which takes over from the Statement of Special Needs and is put in place within an education setting to help a child or young person receive support and enable their needs to be met. 

Nathan Davies from HCB Solicitors was on hand last week at The Roundhouse in Derby to give advice to parents who are having a really difficult time with certain issues regarding this process. There were alot parents, too many in fact that are just not getting the EHCP in the allotted time given, it may lack detail in it's presentation and some people even come up against a brick wall when applying for one. 

Apparently although Derby City Council feel they are on target to get all the EHCP's transferred over by the deadline in April there are a lot of people who would disagree. We had to wait a long time for ours to be completed but then it was rushed through for when my son transitioned to college post 16. It then took a while to bring the plan up to date as a lot of information was years out of date regarding his situation. It did get done eventually but there are families who are going through a terrible ordeal. This has not only led to stress within the family unit but can create massive mental health issues for the young person themselves as they may not be supported in the correct way within their education setting.

It was an eye opener really and the advice Nathan gave was very good. I too got some advice and another contact to get in touch with regarding my  situation with post 18 legal help. I am going to seek this advice and hopefully put something in place for adulthood. If you get a chance to go to any talks given by HCB Solicitors or forthcoming events provided by Sunshine Support then do go as they are all very friendly and will help you.

You can find Sunshine Support on their Facebook Page at:
www.facebook.com/SunshineSupportCIC/

and if you need to contact HCB Solicitors you can get more information on their website at:
​www.hcbgroup.com

Don't forget that Autism Awareness Week starts next week from 26th March to the 2nd April - if you would like more information about this and how you can get involved go to The National Autistic Society website here at :
www.autism.org.uk

Have a great week of raising awareness!!

Take care and I will catch you tomorrow for Pass the Remote.

I came across this new charity organisation as they contacted us at the Derby Branch of the National Autistic Society to pass on their details. They have an event coming up next week so I thought I would share their details in case it was of interest to you.

Sunshine Support are seeking to provide parental support and advice regarding Additional Education Needs for children and young people. They can access help from a group of professionals allowing you to get the help you need for your child or young person.

This has come at a great time for me as I am wanting to seek advice regarding certain legal topics for when my son turns eighteen this year. It is quite funny how the world works sometimes. I can be doing my overthinking thing around 3am in the morning and this was one subject I was tending to worry about. Someone will then pop up with a recommendation or a bit of advice and make everything a little easier. I can now see a bit of light at the end of a tunnel and hopefully now be able to go back to sleep at 3am again. There can be so many tunnels though eh? 

There is an event taking place on Wednesday 21st March in Derby regarding law and education. Nathan Davies who is an education solicitor  from HCB Solicitors will be speaking about EHCP's and how you can get help for your child within the education system. I am going along to one of these sessions to gather some information for our support groups and also to hopefully pick Nathan's brains regarding the legalities of disability and adult hood. There are two sessions on this day and I will pop the links to these and the Facebook page for Sunshine Support in case you would like to get in touch.

I love to share this information because we all come across times where we need a little more support sometimes or need answers as a lot of issues regarding disabilities and many topics regarding Autism can become a bit confusing to say the least. I always think, well if I want to know something then there must be more people around that may need to know too.

So if you would like more information about Sunshine Support and their events you will find all the information on their Facebook page at:
www.facebook.com/SunshineSupportCIC/

The afternoon event details are here at: 
www.facebook.com/events/214258515796086/

and the evening details for this event are here:
www.facebook.com/events/203509127070921/

The venue is near to Derby Railway Station so it is easy to travel there but I will review this event next Saturday on Autism Support Saturday so watch this space. I do know they plan to do more sessions and events through this year so if you can't make this one there will be other opportunities. 

I hope this helps. I appreciate your time reading this post today. please pop back every day if you feel like it as I chat about a different subject every day. Tomorrow is Pass the Remote, my TV feature so join me for that.....for now though......

Take care.