Pentre Farm CIC

Talk Community was excited to welcome Pentre Farm CIC as one of the providers for the Christmas Here for Herefordshire Holidays programme.  Pentre Farm CIC hosted a session specifically tailored for eligible children with SEND and their families. The children enjoyed various activities including, grooming the donkeys, feeding the goats and petting the guinea pigs in the barn.  This fun continued with the creation of bird feeders using cereal and pipe-cleaners. 

Despite the poor weather, the children were still keen to cook on the outside campfire, and whilst it was too wet to cook the whole of lunch outside, they still managed to toast some delicious marshmallows.  To finish off the session, the children enjoyed some lovely warm soup and cheese toasties.

Funded by the Department for Education, as part of the Holidays and Food programme, this initiative offers free activities and meals during the Christmas, Easter and summer holidays. for children eligible for benefit related free school meals. 

Looking ahead to the Easter holidays, Pentre Farm CIC and Hereford Community Farm CIC will be running sessions, for SEND children and their families. FlipOut will host dedicated SEND sessions and we have a new provider, SportsWork, which will offer energetic sports and activity sessions, exclusively for SEND children, utilising the excellent facilities at the Royal College for the Blind. 

Find out more about Pentre Farm CIC on their Facebook page

Bookings for the Easter holidays are now open

The walk starts at Hereford Cathedral at 10am on Saturday April 6, and will be finished by 2 pm.

You can walk just under 4k or there is a 1k option – "walk a mile for Autism". 

Collect your teddy and Easter egg and help raise funds through collecting sponsors. The money raised will mean that the National Autistic society (NAS) can re-start the peer support group for autistic children and young people in Herefordshire.

If you would like to know more or get your sponsorship there is more information on the National Autistic Society website.

See you at the Cathedral on April 6!

Access to the lending Library

Have you used the Parent Carer Voice lending library yet? 

It creates opportunities for children with additional needs to access a variety of Sensory focused toys and specialist equipment to help encourage families to interact and play together.

It provides you with an opportunity to trial a toy or piece of equipment before committing to an expensive purchase for your home. 

You can  access to a range of sensory, play and therapy equipment, to support and encourage all areas of development. 

To borrow an item from the Lending Library please use our subscription portal.

“Our parent-carer forum are essential to making things better for our children and families, not just because our representatives bring partnership, wisdom, a shared parent view, solutions and insights, but because the forum add to the richness of what we can do- our SEND Summit, annual survey, the equipment library are just a few examples”.

Roz Pither Head of Additional Needs, Herefordshire Council

• Add your skills to the team
• Attend meetings on behalf of PCV with health, care and education
• Listening and supporting other parents to get their voice heard
• Supporting events for parent-carers in Herefordshire
• Guidance and advice about what parents and children with SEND need
• Be part of the solution- developing information resources and other practical ways of helping
• Attend local, regional and national events and find out what’s happening and how PCV can shape and improve what’s being planned

Training and expenses are part of the package!

We are proud that many of our representatives go on to take up employment in a range of related services after volunteering as part of the PCV.

We need more parent carers as representatives because we are growing. We need more parent carers to be a stronger forum and more able to get to more places and people.

For more information on how to join please email admin@pcvherefordshire.com

Echo radio is a live stream broadcast devised and delivered on Zoom currently by a group of six participants, all with complex special educational needs and disability. The group work under guidance from a  producer and with the help of one volunteer. It is an ECHO project that provides the opportunity for participants to learn all the skills needed to take them from production meeting ideas through live stream broadcasting. The original idea came through delivering online services during lockdown and was initially explored as a concept through a Social and Leisure online session, which explored news and current affairs.

After an initial six month trial, the project was proposed to Herefordshire Council to be considered for their Activities Framework, which it was from September 2022.

A Radio Echo day is quite intense, going from a discussion about content, through to researching and producing articles and features which are incorporated into a script, a technical set up and sound check and then broadcasting live for an hour and a half!

If you like to keep up with news, sport, ECHO updates, great music and fun features devised and presented by our participant team, this is the show for you.

Here's how to listen (and watch if you like!)

Join Zoom Meeting . You will also need the meeting ID: 840 2334 1121 and passcode: 085155.

You can also catch up on last weeks show and other past editions, you will also find a delicious Malva Pudding recipe!

Vaccination Clinics

Clinic dates for MMR vaccination and any missed DTP/ACWY and HPV vaccinations:

• Saturday March 16 9am to 12 noon
• Most days 3.45pm, 4pm and 4.15pm

All  clinics are held in our office in Rotherwas by appointment only  please call between 8am-4pm Monday to Friday in  term time to make an appointment.

Call 01432 663085

Address: Thorn Office Centre, Straight Mile Road, Rotherwas, Hereford,HR2 6NR.

Have you tried the new free Zipper bus service in Hereford yet?

Hereford City Council has purchased three electric buses that run daily across Hereford city centre, providing free journeys for residents and visitors courtesy of Stronger Towns Funding

Led by Hereford City Council, this fantastic electric, zero emissions bus service will make it easy to travel around the city centre. Local company Yeomans Travel are operating the service.

The aim is to offer a convenient bus service from the main transport hubs into the centre of town, giving residents and visitors an alternative to using their cars.

Bus Stops

1. Railway Station
2. County hospital
3. Country Bus station
4. Commercial Road - Yates
5. Shirehall-Townhall
6. Maylords Orchards
7. Newmarket Street
8. Broad Street - Cathedral
9. Bridge Street - Left Bank
10. St Martins Street - Leisure pool
11. Asda - Kindle Centre
12. Friars Street - Library
13. Newmarket Street - Old Market
14. Edgar Street - Courtyard
15. Station Approach- Medical Centre

Committed to sustainability and convenience, the Hereford City Zipper Electric Buses operate

• Monday: Friday 8am to 5.30pm up to every 15 minutes
• Saturdays: 9.30 am to 5.30pm up to every 15 minutes
• Sunday: 10am to 4pm up to every 30 minutes

You can find the latest information on the Zipper bus Facebook page

We are currently working on a more Accessible version of the timetable as this needs to be in different formats so that all individuals are able to understand the language such as an Easy Read Document.

Do you want to travel more independently?

If you're a young person with special educational needs, additional needs or disabilities, you may like some support to develop skills, which will enable you to travel more independently.

Herefordshire Council's Independent Travel Trainers are available to help you do just that!  They'll carry out assessments with you and your family, your school, college or employer to help you...

• Be more aware of your environment and other people
• Recognise potential dangers
• Use pavements and road crossings correctly and safely
• Use public transport to get to and from school, college or work

In 2022 to 2023, 28 young people successfully passed their travel training which enabled them to become more confident in the community and using public transport. 

You can find out more about the service online.

You can also e-mail traveltraining@herefordshire.gov.uk or call Linda on 07792 880542 or James on 07792 881144 for more information.

Join the Families for Change group

Herefordshire Children’s Services are listening to parents to change current services and have brought together a group of parents to support them in this. The group has adapted and changed the information that we give out to parents and changed how Herefordshire Council share assessments – do you want to be part of the change?

If you would be interested in being part of this group which will entail a monthly 2 hour meeting, or have any questions please email Diane Kennett - diane.kennett@herefordshire.gov.uk, thank you.

Contact SENDIASS

For free, impartial information, advice and support on matters relating to children and young people that have or may have Special Educational Needs/Disabilities (SEND), contact SENDIASS:

Available Monday-Wednesday 8.30am-4pm

Call 01432 260955 or email sendiass@herefordshire.co.uk

For regular Special Educational Needs/Disabilities (SEND) updates, sign up to the SENDIASS mailing list

You can also follow them on social media:

Facebook-HWSENDIASS

Twitter-HWSENDIASS

Instagram-HWSENDIASS