Introducing the Actio Consortium - 'Positive Inclusion for Everyone'

08/02/2020

In 2019 the Shropshire Parent Carer Council (PACC), Energize and Ignition came together to form the ‘Actio Consortium’, with the intention to deliver a joined-up programme of quality activity and support for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and their families.

Actio’s vision is to provide a wide-ranging, quality, multi activity offer, that is open to any young person with an additional need which may prevent the young person taking part in the mainstream activities, enabling young people with SEND to overcome potential barriers to inclusion.

Actio's activity focus areas will be:

Sports & Leisure

Arts & Culture

Family Participation and Engagement

The Actio Consortium aims to reduce isolation for children and young people with SEND and their families, increasing self-esteem and confidence by developing social and friendship networks that will extend beyond the activity provided.  Parent Carers will also benefit from the Consortiums work through opportunities to come together with other parent carers, to share experiences and to access information and support, and to have a voice in local and national decision making.  Training and professional development will be made available to all activity providers, developing knowledge and skills around working with children and young people with SEND and their families.

To support the development of the Actio activity offer, the Consortium carried out an extensive consultation with current Shropshire All In providers and the families who access this programme.  Families clearly value the opportunities offered via All In but identified areas for improvement such as; the need for a more diverse range of activities, especially in terms of the arts/cultural offer, more opportunities to develop practical life skills for older young people, increased opportunities for progression and achievement and more activities for the under 5’s.  Providers told the Consortium that they would like a central training and development support offer and to be able to reach more families.

Actio will work to attract additional funding to develop and build on the core All In offer.  In partnership with The Culture Consortium Shropshire, Actio has already been successful in securing further funding from Arts Connect, to deliver a strategic three-year research and development programme that will enable children and young people (0-19) with SEND in Shropshire, to take part in more and better-quality arts and cultural activities.  This will include an offer of a series of development days and seminars for the sectors.

If you would like to know more about Actio and register for updates, please contact Actio at: info@actio.org.uk 

You can also follow Actio on social media;

Twitter https://twitter.com/ActioConsortium