The Shame of Seeing Money Wasted

G has two children with additional needs.  Her daughter is 21 and has global development delay.   She is still battling to get her the support she needs.  G’s non-verbal autistic son does get extra support – Birmingham City Council pays for him to go to a private school outside the city .  But G feels…Read moreRead more

‘I Couldn’t Believe There Were No Resources…’

  C’s child has autism.  He is now 13 and at a special school in Birmingham, but the move to special school took more than a year.  During the time he was in mainstream school and whilst the family waited for the assessments and reports to be done to get him a place at special…Read moreRead more

A Hellish Journey…

  K told us about a 4 -5 year journey during which her daughter Q had little, or no, access to school.  Laura commented: ‘I have rarely seen such inappropriate assessment and responses to a very bright, capable young girl who just needs a customised approach’. K’s daughter Q is now at a special school…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

Green Light for Inclusive Easter Holiday Clubs

Inclusive play and youth services for disabled and vulnerable children will be running in Birmingham during the Easter school holidays.  The Fit for All programme run by Children’s Quarter members successfully bid for just over £50,000 to run holiday activity and healthy food sessions across the city during the two week school break.  The sessions…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

Learn For Real at Coronation Road

We know that access to suitable spaces and venues limits our Members’ ability to provide inclusive services for children and young people.  At the same time, CQ Members and others have spaces they share.  This informal session over brunch 10-11.30am looks at sharing space and developing shared space for inclusion: making more of what we…Read moreRead more

CQ Members Serve Up Holiday Help

Our Members provided more than 12,000 meals and thousand of hours of inclusive sessions for children and youth people during the Summer Holidays.  In Birmingham, 19 CQ Member groups worked together through our Fit For All project – part of the city’s Bring It On Brum programme of holiday activities and food.  In Solihull, Meriden…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