Welcome to the ninth instalment of our West Glamorgan Joint Working Journal!
Today’s edition includes a rundown of the most recent Steering and Advisory Board 3 (SAB3) meeting, which took place on 16th July and focuses on two regional programmes of work: ‘Neurodiverse’ and ‘Children and Young People’.

We also have an update on our recent transport workshop for people with a Learning Disability…

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‘Neurodiverse’ Programme

The current focus of the Neurodiverse Programme is the development of an all-age Regional Neurodiverse Strategy. The Strategy will take a needs-led, person-centred approach to supporting neurodiverse people and their families (whether they have undergone formal assessments, or not).

A key outcome of this area of work has been the production of a ‘Myth Busting’ initiative, funded via the Welsh Government’s Neurodivergence Improvement Programme. SAB3 members had the opportunity to view an animation created by Swansea Council aimed at parents or carers who think their child/young person may have an Autistic Spectrum Disorder. Please take a look and feel free to share with your contacts:

A new ‘Developing Social Communication Skills in Children and Young People’ booklet has also been produced to assist parents, carers, and school-based staff in nurturing social communication and interaction skills in children and young people. This will be available bilingually very soon and we’ll be sure to promote it as widely as possible.

The plan for the coming months is to engage with a diverse range of stakeholders and people with lived experience to co-design the new regional Strategy. Collaboration is key, and we’ll update you on the progress of this work after the next SAB3 meeting in September.

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‘Children and Young People’ Programme

In terms of the regional ‘Children and Young People’ Programme, SAB3 members received a detailed overview of the progress of the proposed ‘No Wrong Door’ approach for Children’s Emotional Well-being and Mental Health. We want families to get the right help, at the right time, and in a way that is right for them. The goal is to create an integrated and streamlined access route to health, community, and social care services for all children, young people, and their families. A ‘First Contact, Right Response’ approach will be implemented based on what matters to each individual.

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Talking Transport

If you received our latest newsletter, you’ll have seen that preparations were underway for a workshop on the theme of transport for people with a Learning Disability. We’re pleased to report that the workshop was a huge success, attracting over 70 participants and facilitating lively and productive discussions about the experiences of people with a Learning Disability when using transport. Representatives from transport companies and community transport schemes also attended on the day to take questions and gather valuable feedback.

‘Transport’ has been identified as a key priority for the regional Learning Disability Strategy (click here to view a copy), and we’ll bring you a more detailed update on this piece of work in a future journal entry.

We hope you found this summary informative – if you’d like to find out more about what we’ve been up to across the whole Partnership, our Annual Report for 2023-24 is out now – www.westglamorgan.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/West-Glamorgan-RPB-Annual-Report-2023-24.pdf