 Team Around The Child
I just wanted to start a thread to explain how we go about getting an effective Team to work around our children with disabilities.
I've struggled, still am.
Especially with my little'uns traumatic transition into Junior School having 3 different ESA'a introduced to her in 1 week.
( I'm on their case and heavy dialogue is ongoing ! )
The Government is intructing all Children's Service Teams in LA's to work in a Team Around The Child way. Using Person Centred Plans and Person Centred Reviews.
You and your child can initiate this and set a team up. Choosing a Key Worker who's role will be to ensure that any action required by professionals attending the TAC meeting, is carried out.
The Team will jointly make sure that our children's needs are met and professionals who are in out child's team will be accountable.
You firstly need to talk with which ever professional you are in contact with, who has a good attitude and feel comfortable with. Then discuss with them, the setting up of a Team Around Your Child.
I do everything by email now to keep as evidence of dates, actions, requests, replies etc. ( My LA hate me ! )but I don't give a stuff as after years and years of battling, like yourselves, enough is enough now.
They totally let my 23 yr old son down, and I'll be dammed if they're going to let my littl'un down too.
When the Team kicks in it should ease some of the constant battling we have with every service, Ed, Health and Social. We will still have an input and nothing is done without ours or our childrens consultation and approval. But the theory is that everything will be done with our child in the centre of their own plan and / or review.
We can set the agenda, select the venue for the meeting and invite who we and our children would like to be on the Team.
I'm in the process of doing all this. A professional has volunteered to be our Key Worker and we have chosen a team so we are now organising our first TAC meeting for my little'un. Owing to her high needs, Down Syndrome, ASD/ADHD, as with her past few statement reviews, I will just ask her to attend the last 5 minutes of this next meeting so that she will be included. As she gets older, hopefully she may stay longer and have some input !
We struggle so much on our own, banging at doors and being labelled as the difficult parent and very often having partners or spouses who don't offer much support or are in denial of our children's needs.
For our children who are in mainstream, inclusion isn't a cheap option and as they are closing down so many special schools and are forcing Parents to choose mainstream, they have to put in the resources and training to make it work.
With Team Around The Child they will have various professionals working with a common goal to have our child's needs met and as a Team they will have more 'clout' to GET THINGS DONE.
Get on board all the professionals who your child needs a service from, here's an example of the Team I have set up.
Me,
Key Worker..( Ex clynical psycologist from the Autistic Pathways )
School SENCO
ESA ( when we finally get one !)
Comm Ped
Occupational Therapist
Ed Psyc
Speech Therapist
Parent Partnership, Parent Forum Co-Ordinator
Social Worker
This can be adapted to fit your own requirements and you invite who you think would be appropriate. If your child is very young an Early Years Practitioner would be good.
Enquire as soon as you can because the sooner we get these Teams set up the sooner we can de-stress a bit and not feel that we are alone in our plight to have our children's needs met.
If school's an issue, phone Parent Partnership in your area, as they will know all about Team Around The Child and how you can initiate it for your child. A Good Health Visitor should know too.
Thanks for reading this long post, I just wanted to share the TAC idea with you all.
Freebirdx | 
