1st March 2022
Did you know that yesterday was Rare Disease Day? It’s an opportunity to raise awareness and generate change for the 300 million people living with a rare condition worldwide. To mark the occasion, yesterday also saw the publication of England’s first-ever Rare Diseases Action Plan, setting out specific and measurable targets for the coming year based on the national priorities identified in 2021’s UK Rare Diseases Framework.
You will find plenty of information by exploring our A-Z directory of medical conditions, reading our free online Living with a rare condition parent guide on the support available for families living with a rare condition, speaking to other parent carers in our Facebook community, and following our advice on how to find trustworthy medical information online.
You can also learn more about rare conditions on our website.
Visit our webpages all about diagnosis to find out about the process of getting a diagnosis and how to get support if your child doesn’t have a diagnosis. You can also download our free parent guides about Living without a diagnosis and about Developmental delay.
If you have got any questions about getting Direct Payments for your child from your local authority's social services department in England you can ask our advisers during a special Facebook Q&A on 10 March between 10am and 12pm!
To take part, make sure to join Contact's private Facebook Group for parent carers where the Q&A will take place. Once you're added as a member, confirm your attendance in the Q&A event page here.
Direct payments in England can be made to families whose children are considered eligible for services and support following an assessment of their needs. Parent carers can use direct payments to buy and organise these services themselves. Find out more about them on our website.
Parents who have a child leaving primary school this summer will have made their applications for a secondary school place in England last October. Today, 1 March, is the day families in England find out what school their children have been offered. Find out more about what happens next, including what you can do it you aren’t happy about the school your child has been offered.
Visit our page on applying for a school place, where we go into more detail about your options if you’re not happy with the offer. You can find out what support you can expect for your child on our page Extra support in school.
If you want to talk to other parents about education or any other topic, join our Facebook group.
We are pleased to announce that the Contact Weekly Lottery had its third £1,000 winner – Natalie, a parent carer from Shefford! She matched five numbers in our weekly draw, landing her the windfall. Natalie was so pleased to have won, she almost couldn’t believe her luck.
We’re so pleased Natalie’s chances have turned into a win – and if you join us, you could be next! Play Contact’s Weekly Lottery for as little as £1 a week for a chance to win up to £10,000 – all while helping us make a difference to thousands of families with disabled children in the UK.
Parents of clinically vulnerable children have told us of their concerns over Covid-19 restrictions, which in England were lifted in full last week.
Find out what the rules are in the devolved nations.
We understand that some families who have a clinically extremely vulnerable child might find the changes concerning. If you are worried about how this will affect you and your family, it could help to talk to our Listening Ear team, who provide emotional support and practical advice.
Contact Cymru invite you to join our Home Education Wales webinar on 22 March (10:30-12:00) with guest speakers from legal firm Irwin Mitchell. This webinar is for Parent Carers of children with disabilities and additional needs living in Wales – with and without a diagnosis. Book now to reserve your spot!
Lots of you joined Dr Martin Samuels, a respiratory specialist at children’s hospital Great Ormond Street, at our special Facebook Live interactive session last week to find out more about respiratory viruses in very young children. Don’t worry if you missed it – you can watch the recording on Facebook or on Youtube.
Read our advice on protecting your child from respiratory virus (RSV) and what to do if they develop bronchiolitis.
Watch our short animation about RSV and bronchiolitis.
Join our baby and toddler email group if you have a child aged 5 or under to get our latest advice to help you and your child stay well.
Our all-in-one book has all the information and help you need to enjoy family life. Get your free copy of our Helpful guide for families with disabled children straight to your letterbox.
Thanks for reading What's new!If you haven't already, subscribe to our other email newsletters or get your free copy of our Helpful guide for families with disabled children straight to your letterbox. Visit the Contact website for advice and information, visit our Fledglings online shop full of practical products, or join our closed (private) Facebook group for parent carers. If you're looking for someone to talk to, you can book a Listening Ear appointment or meet other parents at one of our family events or workshops. And don't forget, you can call Contact's free helpline on 0808 808 3555 between 9.30am-5pm Monday to Friday, use the Live Chat on our website, or submit a query online. |
Cookies are small data files that are placed on your computer or mobile device when you visit a website. Cookies are widely used by online service providers in order to (for example) make their websites or services work, or to work more efficiently, as well as to provide reporting information.
Cookies set by the website owner or service provider (in this case, eSchools) are called “first party cookies”. Cookies set by parties other than the website owner are called “third party cookies”. Third party cookies enable third party features or functionality to be provided on or through the website or service you are using (such as advertising, interactive content and analytics). The third parties that set these third party cookies can recognise your computer both when it visits the website or service in question and also when it visits certain other websites or services.
We use first party and third party cookies for several reasons. Some cookies are required for technical reasons in order for our Services to operate, and we refer to these as “essential” cookies. Other cookies enable us and the third parties we work with to track and target the interests of visitors to our Services, and we refer to these as “advertising” or “analytical” cookies. For example, the embedding of YouTube and Vimeo videos, as added by individual schools, will require “advertising” cookies to be enabled in order to successfully play them. Schools that, for example, opt to track visitor data using Google Analytics will require “analytical” cookies to be enabled in order to do so. These third party cookies are used to tailor content and information that we may send or display to you and otherwise personalise your experience while interacting with our Services and to otherwise improve the functionality of the Services we provide. We also enable schools to employ cookies and similar tracking technologies in connection with their use of our Services in order to allow them to track visitors to and interactions with their school website.
eSchools websites may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us and to enrich your user experience. The cookies differ depending on the information. You can adapt your cookie preferences, although please note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer. We will not, without your express consent, supply your personal information to any third party for the purpose of their or any other third party's direct marketing.
Our Services allows schools to embed code which may potentially contain cookies. Please note embedded content, if displayed on one of our websites, has been added by the school and not by eSchools. The embedded content added by the school may require additional cookies or tracking technologies to be enabled in order to function.
You have the right to decide whether to accept or reject cookies. Be aware that cookie preferences are set on a per device basis; therefore you may need to set your preferences on each device you use.
Initial cookie pop-up banner: You can exercise preferences about what cookies are served on our Websites by selecting your preference from this modal which appears upon visiting an eSchools website/login screen and dashboard. You can also change your cookie preferences by clicking on the link on the footer of any page. The banner will reappear annually (August 31st to coincide with the academic year) to confirm your settings.
Browser Controls: You can set or amend your web browser controls to accept or refuse cookies. If you choose to reject cookies, you may still use our Websites though your access to some functionality and areas of our Websites may be restricted. As the means by which you can refuse cookies through your web browser controls vary from browser-to-browser, you should visit your browser’s help menu for more information.
Disabling Most Interest Based Advertising: Most advertising networks offer you a way to opt out of Interest Based Advertising. We will not, without your express consent, supply your personal information to any third party for the purpose of their or any other third party's direct marketing. If you would like to find out more information, please visit aboutads.info/choices or youronlinechoices.com.
Mobile Advertising: You can opt out of having your mobile advertising identifiers used for certain types of Interest Based Advertising, by accessing the settings on your Apple or Android mobile device and following the most recent published instructions. We will not, without your express consent, supply your personal information to any third party for the purpose of their or any other third party's direct marketing.
We may update this Cookie Statement from time to time in order to reflect, for example, changes to the cookies we use or for other operational, legal or regulatory reasons. Please therefore re-visit this Cookie Statement regularly to stay informed about our use of cookies and related technologies. The date at the bottom of this Cookie Statement indicates when it was last updated.
If you have any questions about our use of cookies or other technologies, please email us at support@.eschools.co.uk.