Book Launch: Disabled Children’s Childhood Studies: Critical Approaches in a Global Context

The Birkbeck Centre for Medical Humanities invites you to a book launch with wine reception for Disabled Children’s Childhood Studies: Critical Approaches in a Global Context edited by Tillie Curran and Katherine Runswick-Cole.

6pm-8pm, Friday 31st January

Peltz Gallery, School of Arts, 43 Gordon Square, Birkbeck, University of London, WC1H 0PD

Free and open to all, but registration required. Please email Harriet Cooper to register (h.cooper@bbk.ac.uk). Book Launch on Fri 31 Jan_’Disabled Children’s Childhood Studies’

 

Reminder: Normalcy 2014 Abstract Deadline Approaching

This is just a quick reminder about 5th Annual International Conference ***Theorising Normalcy and the Mundane***: More Questions of the Human to be held in July, 2014 in Sheffield, UK.

Abstracts of no more than 200 words (with a short bio) should be submitted by 1st February 2014 to the normalcy2014@gmail.com

More info (including how to book a place) can be found here.

It is always a great few days of support and discussion – we have amazing keynotes lined up and a fascinating theme. What’s not to love??

CFP: Disability and Society Special Issue 2015 ~ Disability: Who counts? What counts?

Call For Papers: Disability and Society Special Issue 2015

Theme: Disability:  Who counts?  What counts?

The next Special Issue of Disability & Society will bring together cutting-edge discussion on questions of how changing sociopolitical and cultural relations are redefining disability and seeks to shape future directions for Disability Studies. Papers will consider new agendas for disability which are emerging as the 21^st Century moves on, exploring ideas about categories of disability, disturbing categories, narrowing of the disability category, expanding of the disability category and interpretations of disability in cross-cultural and temporal contexts. The transformation of disability research and political action and their role in challenging conceptions of disability will also be of interest.

We welcome ccontributions on a wide range of themes. The list below is not meant to be exhaustive and we encourage creative interpretation of topics which fit with matters of ‘who counts?’ and ‘what counts?’ in contemporary studies of disability and society.

Topics you may wish to address include:

• Mad Studies
• Neoliberalism
• Faith
• Conflict
• Medicine
• Neurodiversity
• Childhood and Identity
• Poverty
• Work
• Disability and Development
• Ageing

This Special Issue will be published in 2015.

Submissions should be made online at the Disability & Society ScholarOne Manuscript site .  New users should first create an account. Once a user is logged onto the site submissions should be made via the Author Centre.  Maximum word length is 7,000 words (including bibliography). 

The final deadline for receipt of papers is 31^st August 2014.  No papers will be considered after this date.

For further advice on the submission procedure go to: Disability and Society at http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/09687599.asp

Event explores SEND reform (May, 2014, UK)

Event: Westminster Education Forum Keynote Seminar on ‘SEND reform: Implementation, Support and Widening Provision’

with Stephen Kingdom, Deputy Director, Special Educational Needs and Disability, Department for Education

Chaired by: Robert Buckland MP, Chair, All-Party Parliamentary Group on Autism

When: Morning on Thursday, 8^th May 2014         Where: Central London        This event is CPD certified

Follow on Twitter @WEdFEvents or at the Website: www.westminstereducationforum.co.uk

N.B.: there is a charge for most delegates, although concessionary and complimentary places are available (subject to terms and conditions – see below).

Description:  This timely seminar will focus on a series of reforms to Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) provision in England set out in the Children and Families Bill, including the announcement of the new SEN reform grant to support local councils ahead of planned implementation in September 2014.  

Delegates will discuss the implications for education, health, and social care providers regarding the decision to replace the ‘statements’ system with new integrated Education, Health and Care Plans.

Further sessions will focus on support for families and the implementation by local authorities of ‘personal budgets’ to buy care and support, and the impact on providers and young people of extending support for SEND to  include 25-year-olds and those with disabilities who do not have special educational needs.

The conference will bring together key policymakers and regulatory officials with local authority representatives, school and college leaders, student support contacts in universities, health and social care professionals, parent groups, children’s charities and academics.

Overall, topics for discussion include:

• Education, Health and Care Plans: challenges for co-ordination around integrating provision;
• Personal budgets: supporting families in using their budgets, and providing for those who opt out;
• The ‘local offer’: increasing choice, awareness, and quality of provision for families with children and young people with SEND; and
• Extending provision for 25-year-olds: its impact on young people and providers of SEND support, as well as further and higher education institutions.

The draft agenda is regularly updated and the latest version is available to download here. The seminar is organised on the basis of strict impartiality by the Westminster Education Forum.

Speakers: We are delighted to be able to include in this seminar a keynote address from: Stephen Kingdom, Deputy Director, Special Educational Needs and Disability, Department for Education.

Further confirmed speakers include: Meera Craston, Director, SQW Consulting; Eirwen Grenfell-Essam, Chair, Network81; Janet Leach, Head of Service, Joint Service for Disabled Children, Enfield Council and Chair, Short Breaks Network; Andy Minnion, Director, The Rix Centre, University of East London; Peter Quinn, Vice-Chair, National Association of Disability Practitioners and Director of Student Support Services, University of York; Douglas Silas, Principal, Douglas Silas Solicitors; Dr Carol Tozer, Executive Director of Services, Scope; Nigel Utton, Headteacher, Bromstone Primary School, Kent and Chair, Heading for Inclusion and a senior speaker confirmed from Ambitious about Autism.

Additional senior participants are being approached.

Networking: This seminar will present an opportunity to engage with key policymakers and other interested parties, and is CPD certified (more details). Places have been reserved by officials from the DfE; MoJ; Office of the Children’s Commissioner and the TSol. Also due to attend are representatives from Ambitious about Autism; Beech Hill Primary School, Bedfordshire; Bromstone Primary School, Kent; Columbus School and College, Essex; Drumbeat School & ASD Service, London; Hertfordshire County Council; Integrated Services Programme; KCIL; London Borough of Camden; London Borough of Ealing; North Ridge School, Yorkshire; Shaw Trust; SQW Consulting; St Nicholas School, Essex; Stoke City Council; The Village School, London; The Walnuts School; Tribal; UK Behaviour Analysis and Research Group; University of Chichester; University of East London; Wandsworth Connexions SEN Team and Worcestershire County Council.

Overall, we expect speakers and attendees to be a senior and informed group numbering around 120, including Members of both Houses of Parliament, senior officials from the DfE, Ofsted, Ofqual and other Government departments and agencies, schools and teaching professionals, representatives of trade unions and local government, groups representing parents and students, specialist academics and charities, together with representatives of the national and trade press.

Output and About Us: A key output of the seminar will be a transcript of the proceedings, sent out around 10 working days after the event to all attendees and a wider group of Ministers and officials at DfE, HM Treasury and other government departments and agencies affected by the issues; and Parliamentarians with a special interest in these areas. It will also be made available more widely. This document will include transcripts of all speeches and questions and answers sessions from the day, along with access to PowerPoint presentations, speakers’ biographies, an attendee list, an agenda, sponsor information, as well as any subsequent press coverage of the day and any articles or comment pieces submitted by delegates. It is made available subject to strict restrictions on public use, similar to those for Select Committee Uncorrected Evidence, and is intended to provide timely information for interested parties who are unable to attend on the day.

All delegates will receive complimentary PDF copies and are invited to contribute to the content.

The Westminster Education Forum is strictly impartial and cross-party, and draws on the considerable support it receives from within Parliament and Government, and amongst the wider stakeholder community. The Forum has no policy agenda of its own. Forum events are frequently the platform for major policy statements from senior Ministers, regulators and other officials, opposition speakers and senior opinion-formers in industry and interest groups. Events regularly receive prominent coverage in the national and trade press.

Booking arrangements: To book places, please use our online booking form.

Once submitted, this will be taken as a confirmed booking and will be subject to our terms and conditions below.

Please pay in advance by credit card on 01344 864796. If advance credit card payment is not possible, please let me know and we may be able to make other arrangements.

Options and charges are as follows:

• Places at SEND reform: implementation, support and widening provision (including refreshments and PDF copy of the transcripts) are £190 plus VAT;
• Concessionary rate places for small charities, unfunded individuals and those in similar circumstances are £80 plus VAT. Please be sure to apply for this at the time of booking.

For those who cannot attend:

• Copies of the briefing document, including full transcripts of all speeches and the questions and comments sessions and further articles from interested parties, will be available approximately 10 days after the event for £95 plus VAT;
• Concessionary rate: £50 plus VAT.

If you find the charge for places a barrier to attending, please let me know as concessionary and complimentary places are made available in certain circumstances (but do be advised that this typically applies to individual service users or carers, full-time students, people between jobs or who are fully retired with no paid work, and representatives of small charities – not businesses, individuals funded by an organisation, or larger charities/not-for-profit companies). Please note terms and conditions below (including cancellation charges).

Event at the Centre for Understanding Social Practices – Public Seminar

Event:  Public Seminar at the Centre for Understanding Social Practices

Theme: Re-thinking social practices and social theory: new knowledge for identity, community and childhood

When: 5pm on Wednesday 15 January 2014

Where: in The Watershed, 1 Canon’s Road, Harbourside, Bristol BS1 5TX

Launching 3 new publications from members of University of the West of England’s Centre for Understanding Social Practices (CUSP) and Manchester Metropolitan University’s Research Institute for Health and Social Change, this seminar will offer introductory comments, a short presentation, and an audience discussion of:

1. Tillie Curran and Katherine Runswick-Cole (eds)’s ‘Disabled children’s childhood studies: Critical approaches in a global context’

2. Liz Frost and Stuart McClean’s ‘Thinking about the life-course: A psychosocial introduction’

3. Billie Oliver and Bob Pitt’s ‘Engaging communities and service users: Context, themes and methods’

Followed by a drinks reception.

Register now.

Cost: Free
Contact: Eleri Heathcote
E-mail: eleri.heathcote@uwe.ac.uk

Event: Learning Disability & Ethnicity Conference

Learning Disability & Ethnicity Conference

When: 28th March 2014

Where: London, UK (at the Osmani Trust, Osmani Centre, 58 Underwood Road, London, E1 5AW)

This one day conference will critically examine the role of Ethnicity and its impact on Learning Disability and consider themes, perspectives and debates surroundings this area, so we can become more inclusive of these factors in practice and service delivery.

This one day conference will bring together clinicians who have experience in providing health and social care interventions across fields.  Learning points and good practice will be shared. The challenges experienced and possible limitations will also discussed via anonymised case vignettes.

Programme of the Day

• 9.00 – 9.20: Registration, Tea and Coffee
• 9.20 – 9.40: Professor Zenobia Nadirshaw (Chair & Introduction) ~ Double Discrimination: A Race Against Time for People with Learning Disabilities from BME Communities.
• 9.40 – 10.30: Professor Eric Emerson ~ Ethnicity & Learning Disability: A Public Health Perspective.
• 10.30 – 11.20: Dr. Sabiha Azmi ~ Developing and Delivering Psychological services for Adults with Learning Disabilities from Minority Ethnic Communities: A Case Study.
• 11.20 – 11.40: Tea & Coffee
• 11.40 – 12.30: Bridget Fisher ~ What Would Make A Difference? Listening and Responding to The Views of People with Learning Disabilities From Ethnic Minorities and Their Family Carers.
• 12.30 – 12.50: Morning Q & A
• 12.50 – 1.50: Lunch & Networking
• 1.50 – 2.40: Professor Raghu Raghavan ~ Ethnicity and Learning Disability: Research and Its Implications For Policy and Practice.
• 2.40 – 3.00: Tea & Coffee 
• 3.00 – 3.50: Professor Sab Bhaumik ~ “Mind the Gap” – Accessing Psychiatric Services for Minority Ethnic Adults with Learning Disability: The Problems and The Solutions.
• 3.50 – 4.10: Afternoon Q&A
• 4.10 – 4.30: Plenary, Closure & Evaluation sheets

Who: This conference will be relevant to all interested in this field as well as all professionals, including those from Local Authorities and NHS trusts across the UK, Psychiatrists, GPs, Psychologists, Psychotherapists, Counsellors, Early Intervention Teams, CPN’s, OT’s, Social Workers, Chaplains, Community Faith Leaders & Healers, Equality Leads, Community Development Workers, Service User Representatives, Charities, Third Sector, Educational Establishments, Academics and Policy makers.

Conference Contact: Ahmed Qureshi (conference co-ordinator). Tel. 07540 356 526. Email us on: info@bmehealth.org or visit us on www.bmehealth.org