JSENSE and JADDS have merged, creating a holistic approach to the support of special educational needs in the Greater Manchester Jewish Community. JSENSE was established in 2013 to develop the skills of staff in Jewish Schools and nurseries and also provides schools with consultancy services to help develop their policies and systems for SEND. JADDS was established in 2012 to providing support for children, and parents of children, who have ADHD, ASD, Dyslexia and other comorbidities. JADDS has successfully run monthly support groups for parents as well as brought in speakers for awareness sessions for parents and carers.
The merger will
give both charities a fresh focus on looking at the whole picture for the child with SEND needs, working with parents, schools, professionals and local authorities and health services, to ensure everyone with SEND aged 0-25 has the best possible help to maximise their individual educational achievements and acquire the life skills with other young people learn naturally. Whilst the newly merged charity will continue to be known as JSENSE, this will build on the previous success of the individual charities.
To mark the merger, JSENSE has been speaking to parents across Salford, Prestwich and Whitefield, to understand their views as service users on what services have worked well, and what they felt the community is missing. These discussions took place across 3 evening events and were attended by 25 people. The outcome of these discussions will be analysed and build into a proposal for the future direction of the newly merged JSENSE.
JSENSE will also be publishing a SEND Directory of services in the near future, which will be made available publicly. This has been planned for a while, but the recent discussions with parents reaffirmed the need for this directory, as parents fed back that they didn’t know where to go, what help was out there, and who the right qualified professionals were in SEND.