Coronavirus support from Amaze
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Coronavirus - support from Amaze
At Amaze we are doing all we can to keep services and support going in some form during coronavirus/COVID-19. Your local parent carer forums PaCC in Brighton & Hove and ESPCF in East Sussex are still active too, particularly via their social media. But things may be a bit slower than usual. This is because Amaze (and PaCC and ESPCF) employ a large number of parents and carers who may still be supporting their children at home, or because of sickness and self-isolation. Some of our face to face services are now back but we’ll also be continuing with the online ways of working that we developed during the lockdown.
Check below for how each of our services is currently operating.
For a more informal way to ask questions, find out the latest information and hear from other parents we are running some SENDIASS Zoom Drop ins on different topics. If there isn’t one about the topic you need you could suggest we run one. Check our events page for details of any coming up soon
How to access/contact us:
You can contact us by email sendiass@amazesussex.org.uk or phone 01273 772289. All calls go straight to voicemail at the moment, so please leave your contact details. Expect to hear back from us in two or three working days.
We support young people with SEND to plan for the future by looking at their options in education, employment and training. By identifying a career aim, we can support young people to plan the steps they need to achieve their goals. Parent carers are welcome to join in our meetings as they can be so important to finding, and keeping, the right placement.
Looking Forward is open to all young people with SEND age 14-25 with or without an Education, Health and Care Plan.
How to contact us:
Please email or phone Liam Ryan: liam@amazesussex.org.uk / 07483 111659
Brighton and Hove
We are actively offering support and connecting parents even though we can’t offer face-to-face visits from our befrienders in the usual way. We continue to work to support families who have been referred to our service by telephone, text and emails and are conducting some outdoor meetings. We are continuing to match new families to befrienders if they have had an initial home visit. If the home visit had not taken place before the lockdown then we have contacted these families to reassure them and look at other ways to keep in touch.
During the lockdown, our Brighton & Hove Face2Face groups have moved to meeting virtually. The Breakfast Club, Autism group Dads group are all now meeting online as well as keeping in touch through social media. If you would like to join one of these groups, please contact Louise at the address below for further details.
How to access/contact us:
Please email Louise Howe, Face2Face project worker, on louise@amazesussex.org.uk
East Sussex
We are actively offering support and connecting parents even though we can’t offer face-to-face visits from our befrienders in the usual way. We continue to work to support families who have been referred to our service by telephone, text and emails. We are carefully starting some outdoor meetings.
We are continuing to match new families to befrienders if they have had an initial home visit. If the home visit had not taken place before the lockdown then we have contacted these families to reassure them and look at other ways to keep in touch. We hope to start Face2Face groups in East Sussex soon similar to those in Brighton and Hove so let us know if you are interested.
How to contact us:
Please email Kathy Johnson, Face2Face project worker on kathy@amazesussex.org.uk
Brighton & Hove
We are now running small peer support activity groups in person again for young people aged 14 to 25 with SEND. We are also continuing to run zoom sessions for those young people who can’t make it to a group or would prefer to meet over Zoom.
If you’re not already involved, but you or your young person is interested in being part of Brighton and Hove Amazing Futures, please contact Sue (contact details below).
How to access/contact us:
Please contact Sue Winter on sue@amazesussex.org.uk or call 07483 111648 (Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays).
East Sussex
Amazing Futures East Sussex groups for young people with SEND will now be running again every Tuesday and Thursday from 5-7pm in Eastbourne. These will be covid safe sessions with up to 10 young people attending. Amazing Futures will take referrals for these groups so please contact Claire at the email below. We are no longer running the groups by Zoom but our WhatsApp groups are still running.
We will be launching a new young people’s group in Bexhill next month – venue to be confirmed.
Were also launching Amazingly active – our peer support coach training – where you can have fun learning how to safely support young people to exercise and be more active. These peer support training sessions will be running in Eastbourne
Amazine magazine group – we are setting up monthly groups in Eastbourne for young people to help create Amazine – our magazine created for and by young people in Sussex with SEND. Join the group in Eastbourne and have fun working on content, taking photos and creating artwork. We’ll be linking with Brighton groups via Zoom.
How to access/contact us:
Email claire@amazesussex.org.uk or call/text 07484915038
We are working hard to maintain our offer of direct support to families to claim DLA and PIP.
Although we cannot meet families and young people face to face, we are able to contact you by phone or email. Conversations with you are likely to be shorter but more frequent as we gather all the information we need to make a strong claim. Let us know if English is not your first language, so we can think about who can best help us get started.
Wherever possible, we will offer you as much help as you need to draft typed notes that get tagged into the claim pack. Where this is not practical and you are not able to hand write the claim, we will try to do this for you.
We understand how hard it is to get extra copies of important information about your child or young person right now. If you live in Brighton & Hove, we have a protocol for safely picking up your supporting evidence and signed claim pack. We can also photocopy original documents, collate everything and post your claim by special delivery. Unfortunately, we do not currently have sufficient funding to offer this copy and send service in East Sussex.
Your child’s DLA or PIP award may have been extended for 6 months. That time will fly, so please get in touch with us as soon as possible, if a lot has changed since you last claimed and you need help with a review.
If a young person, aged at least 16 and getting DLA, has been invited to claim PIP and you have a PIP claim pack, do ask for extra time, if you need it. Remember the bar is set higher for PIP than DLA, so it’s worth making sure you have all your evidence available before making the claim. DWP has suspended face to face assessments and is making decisions on papers or using a phone assessment.
How to access/contact us:
You can contact us by email sendiass@amazesussex.org.uk or phone (01273 772289). All calls go straight to voicemail at the moment, so please leave your contact details. We are currently replying to calls within a day or two.
More and more Compass Card Partner venues are re-opening now. Check the Offers page of our website for details or use our App.
We’re also inspiring Compass Card families, parent carers and young people with a series of three ‘Leisure, Learning and Lock-down‘ guides. And we’re posting ideas and information on leisure on the Amaze Compass Card Facebook page and Twitter feed.
How to contact/access:
email compass@amazesussex.org.uk
website www.compasscard.org.uk
Facebook www.facebook.com/AmazeCompassCard/
Twitter twitter.com/AmazeCompass
We contacted all the families who are in the different coffee morning lists. Parent carers were asked which method of keeping in touch they prefer. It could be that a parent is happy to be contacted by email and text once a month, other maybe prefer a chat on the phone or even happy to participate in a small online group. Coffee mornings on Zoom have started. They paused in August, but are starting up again in September.
We will continue to be with you, listen to your worries and your daily stories. We will be able to refer you to Amaze SENDIASS or other services, if you need some specific advice and/or support.
We are also keen on recording any recurrent issue or problem so that the Parent Carers’ Council (PaCC) can represent you when attending meeting with Local Authority or other service providers.
How to contact/access:
Email Paolo at Paolo@paccbrighton.org.uk or call 07484051753