Children Don’t Grow in Boxes… They Thrive in Communities!

Childrens’ Quarter Members and guests meet at SENTRE Childcare, Erdington, Birmingham B23 7EY on Thursday 23 March. Members will be sharing news and information about new, inclusive services that work on the basis of what children and young people can do – rather than what they can’t.  Hosts SENTRE will be talking about their approach. …Read moreRead more

Members’ Meeting – Neighbourhood Network Schemes

Children’s Quarter Members and guests at the Chinese Community Centre in Birmingham Disabled young people can reach the age of 19 to face not only issues around employment, training, welfare, housing, relationships, health, care and adult life but also a lack of any services funded to support them. CQ Members and other groups working with…Read moreRead more

School-Community Partnerships Could Coproduce Better Outcomes for SEND Children

Children’s Quarter is promoting the case for formalising and supporting the school-community partnerships that some of our members – both schools and community groups – have been coproducing for years.  What we mean by a school-community partnership is an arrangement between one or more schools and one or more community groups to collaborate to support…Read moreRead more

People Power – sharing skills for inclusion

Children’s Quarter is a cooperative alliance that brings people together… as staff, volunteers, parents and carers, trustees, funders, researchers and policy-makers, children and young people. We all have skills, ideas, experience and passion that translate – through the groups and organisations that make up the CQ Co-op and the services we run – into social…Read moreRead more

Bridge to Better Local Offer

CQ Members and Supporters follow up on their Campaign for a Better Local Offer on December 3 with representatives of local councils and John Coughlan, the newly appointed Government Commissioner for SEND Services in Birmingham invited. Ofsted’s SEND Local Area Inspection Reports found: in Birmingham, that the City Council was: still without a strategy; still not…Read moreRead more

growing UP!

1 in 4 children is disabled or made vulnerable to exclusion by the way we manage the process of growing up.  Changing that experience depends on families, communities and services working together.   We’re hearing from parents, professionals, employers and young people sharing insights and experience of giving children and young people: more resilience; easier transitions; better…Read moreRead more

Do We Need a Better Local Offer?

We think SEND children, young people and their families in Birmingham should have a better Local Offer. Join us by Zoom on 8th and 22nd July to share your experience… The City Council has been given funds by government to improve the Local Offer. The Council says it wil use most of this money to…Read moreRead more

Do We Need a Better Local Offer?

We think SEND children, young people and their families in Birmingham should have a better Local Offer. Join us by Zoom on 8th and 22nd July to share your experience… The City Council has been given funds by government to improve the Local Offer. The Council says it wil use most of this money to…Read moreRead more

New Local SEND Offer

Tuesday 4 May 10-11am Much-needed additional money for the Local Offer for SEND Children might not be enough to ‘fix’ mainstream schools which off-roll and persistently exclude children who ‘don’t fit the box’.  Instead, CQ says, the SEND Local Offer could be made co-operatively between schools and communities. Join the Zoom chat online to look…Read moreRead more

Develop Local Potential to Serve SEND Children Right

Councils are working out how to spend an increase in the higher needs block funding they get to provide education to SEND children.  In Birmingham, the Council is encouraging mainstream schools to improve the way they serve vulnerable children through partnerships aimed at developing local potential.  In the light of widespread off-rolling of SEND children…Read moreRead more