​​​​​​​​​​​

Sensory needs: ​

• TRAUMA & FASD; Prof Alan Price talks here in a powerful piece of research

• NEW: DEVELOPMENTAL TRAUMA & ALCOHOL; explaining the links here with Alcohol

• NEW: MAKING SENSE OF SENSORY NEEDS

• SENSORY INTEGRATION; a great presentation from Family Futures 

• Helpful checklist for sensory needs; remember FASD is a spectrum,  what we see in one child is not necessarily the same in others

• SENSORY NEEDS OUTLINED; a useful guide that identifies sensory needs, you can tick off what you see which is useful if you are gathering information for an EHCP, School or a referral. 

• MAKING SENSE OF SENSORY NEEDS; a useful overview of spectrum of needs

• SENSORY PROCESSING DISORDER, CO-ORDINATION & ATTACHMENT: a great overview, providing strategies to support from Beacon House

• SENSORY NEEDS TEMPLATE FOR SCHOOL ; this template is for you to tailor to support your childrens needs, what works for them, whay an OT might suggest or what you would like tried in School. 

• MASKING IN SCHOOL: This is a showstopper resource to demonstrate the significance of trauma & FASD that are frequently misunderstood, those who are not appropriately trained or knowledgeable can often make inaccurate assumptions where a child masks for instance, we have linked here a good reference for Schools where Beacon House identify well how a trauma response can make a child ‘blend in to survive’

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Physio:

• NEW: Strengthening Exercise Cards for Core Strength, Bilateral, Upper Extremity, Lower Extremity 

• NEW: Full Body Exercises for Brain Injury

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Speech & Language: 

• TOURETTES: support through specialist Speech & Language Therapy

• NEW: Speech, Language & Communication (including masking) in FASD

 

​Supporting Older Children & Adults:

• Focussing on the 30 years experience of supporting FASD ; excellent resource.... very good section on daily routine! HERE

• NEW: Transition Planning from childrens to adult services (UK)

• NEW: Learning from other countries who are ahead of support for adults, a great resource shared HERE

• A must watch webinar by a SEND Solicitor if you have children to adult transitions HERE

• NEW: FASD MEDICAL INFORMATION FOR POLICE; a vital resource

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Supporting Babies:

• Supporting neurotypical and neurodiverse premature babies

• Supporting prenatal exposure to alcohol and drugs in babies

• Immune response in babies and children with FASD

• Baby Steps; caring for babies with pre-natal exposure

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Toileting:  

• NEW: Continence: Providing understanding of how the brain and bowel are connected

• BLADDER, BOWELS & BEHAVIOUR; and excellent webinar on the connection between continence & FASD

• CONTINENCE 'Just Cant Wait' Card & Radar keys for disabled toilets

• SMEARING; a common problem for children with sensory needs and those who have experienced developmental trauma

• NEW: TOILETING & SCHOOL; Providing school with a Toileting Health Plan (template found link)

• TOILETING & SENSORY NEEDS Some great support here from The Childrens Bowel & Bladder Charity ERIC

• TOILETING; training support for staff in School, toilet access, planning and reviews

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Respite and Support: 

• What does the law say about getting support to care for disabled children & young people?  

• Secondary Trauma: outlining the six key principles of good practice as – safety, trust, choice, collaboration, empowerment and cultural consideration

• A helpful document to give Disability Social Worker assessing need; provides an overview of the complexity of need of FASD

• Trauma response: Compliance & masking... "I have learnt to blend in to survive", "he is fine at school"

• 'Disabled children and young people up to 25 with severe complex needs: NICE Standards for integrated service delivery and organisation across health, social care and education’ 

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Teaching and Learning: (Exclusion rights and EHCP section further below) .....

• NEW: FASD & LEARNING DISABILITY/DIFFICULTIES

• Disabled children and the Equality Act 2010: What teachers need to know and what schools need to do

• MASKING & COMPLIANCE; a trauma response 

• PRIMARY FRAMEWORK TEACHING AND LEARNING STRATEGIES TO SUPPORT FASD

• SECONDARY FRAMEWORK: TEACHING AND LEARNING STRATEGIES TO SUPPORT FASD 

• Promoting Education of children looked after & post looked after

• NEW FASD & ME: a great editable document to support Home/School scaffolding and understanding

• NEW: Your rights for education; slides hosted by IPSEA Legal Team (great links to legals cases law, rights and templates

• NEW: Recorded webinar hosted by IPSEA Legal Team (great links to new guidance, case law, rights and templates)

• EDUCATIONAL SUPPORT FOR FASD

• CHOOSING A SCHOOL CHECKLIST

• WHAT EDUCATORS NEED TO KNOW

• FASD STRATEGIES as recommended by Dr Cassie Jackson ASW conference 2021

• TEACHING & LEARNING TIPS & MORE ABOUT BRAIN DAMAGE

• EXECUTIVE & COGNITIVE  some excellent detailed teaching techniques for scaffolding teaching & learning (excellent for an EHCP)

• FASD Health Needs Assessment: the background to why strong scaffolding is needed to support FASD

• STRENGTHS OF FASD Summary

• Sensory Overload: What does this really feel like?

• Some great FASD SCHOOL support here from New Zealand, they lead the way on FASD; why re-invent the wheel, lets learn from them!

• COMPARING FASD/ADHD/ODD Dan Dubovsky 

• Disabled Children and the Equality Act 2010: What teachers need to know and what schools need to do

• Sexual Health

• School Anxiety

• NICE quality standards: Social, Emotional and Mental Wellbeing in Primary and Secondary Education

• Important guidance if due to physical or mental health needs your child needs to attend education part time

• New guidance (Feb 2023) on Summary of responsibilities where a mental health issue is affecting attendance (includes part time attendance)

"All schools must have oversubscription criteria for each ‘relevant age in Schools UK: page 10 ADMISSIONS CODE

group’ and the highest priority must be given, unless otherwise provided in this Code, to looked after children and all previously looked after children" ...... if a school meets needs you can request a place through the School asking the Local Authority to pay for an additional space even if oversubscribed.  

• ALTERNATIVE PROVISION  The Timpson Report says "Commissioning alternative provision: The best AP offers some of the greatest expertise of working with children with challenging behaviour and additional needs, and is used not as a last resort but a ‘first resort’ – offering advice, outreach and short-term placements that help children get back on track and help divert them from the pathway to exclusion" pg 74

• Alternative Provision Guidance 

• Tourettes Educators Pack 

• 10 Brain Domains

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Exams:

• Extra support for EXAMS

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Transport:

• Under section 508B and Schedule 35B of the Education Act 1996 local authorities are under a duty to provide free school transport to "eligible children"

• Transport & the Law; what qualifies as "eligible children"

• SENTAS; Understanding your rights on SEN home to school transport and parental preference of school placement

• Transport; your legal rights 

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Exclusion:

• Guidance for School Exclusion and Suspension 

• NEW: Off rolling, gaming, exclusion, part timetable

• NEW: Your rights for education; slides hosted by IPSEA Legal Team (great links to legals cases law, rights and templates)

• NEW: Recorded webinar hosted by IPSEA Legal Team (great links to new guidance, case law, rights and templates) linked here

• Useful support in your rights to temporary exclusion

• Page 32 point 68 "Local authorities and schools must have regard to the Department’s statutory guidance 'Exclusions from maintained schools, academies and pupil referral units in England'. In line with that guidance, head teachers should, as far as possible, avoid excluding any looked-after child. VSH should build relationships with Governing bodies, head teachers and designated teachers to support this. VSHs should ensure that carers and social workers know where to seek advice about their role and responsibilities regarding exclusions.

• Exclusion, Temporary or Alternative Education ; your legal rights

• Challenging discriminatory exclusions: a guide to making written representations (SENDIAS)

• Government Guidance on Exclusion including special needs

• Ofsted Framework & Handbook for SEND (November 2022)

• Disability Legislation; helpful to review rights of families with disabled children and young people

• Alternative Provision

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Pupil Premium Plus:

• NEW: An introduction to Pupil Premium Plus

• This guidance from PAC below is very helpful but is slightly out of date as the monetary value has gone up to £2,530 per child per school in 2023-24 

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EHCP: Education Health & Care Plans: 

• NEW: OMBUDMAN REPORT on Personal Budgets (UK); a must read for anyone with or applying for an EHCP

• 'EHCP Getting Started!' this is a really useful guide to help you prepare everything you need to consider (Special Needs Jungle)​

• Once you or the school has applied for an EHCP an Educational Psychologist will arrange with School to observe your child in class and ideally in the playground at School. Ask the School SENCo for the date of when this will happen (as they will often not tell parents) & for the contact name & email address of the Educational Psychologist visiting your child where you can introduce yourself & send them all the Teaching and Language guides specific to FASD (details below) asking for a 'parent feedback' session where you can then chat to them about the things you see, how your child might 'mask or mimic' in school or where your child might come out of School with their lid ready to blow etc. It is very important to have this time with them and is not a standard request the school will be used to but it is your right to do so and vital because often a  child with FASD or developmental trauma will mask when observed as part of a masking 'trauma response' to protect themselves. The Teaching and Language FASD framework guides  above should be sent or given to the Educational Psychologist visiting your child as part of the EHCP process, do not assume they have FASD knowledge; this might include: 

​

• ​PRIMARY FRAMEWORK TEACHING AND LEARNING STRATEGIES TO SUPPORT FASD

• SECONDARY FRAMEWORK: TEACHING AND LEARNING STRATEGIES TO SUPPORT FASD 

• EDUCATION SUPPORT FOR FASD

• HEALTH NEEDS ASSESSMEMT FOR FASD

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• EHCP What to Write Where? A really helpful breakdown of every section of the EHCP and support in what kind of things to write (IPSEA)

• EHCP Good Practice with more examples of what to write (Council for Disabled Children)

• EHCP Checklist! Really helpful to help you navigate all the sections & to understand what should be in them

• Disabled children and young people up to 25 with severe complex needs: NICE Standards for integrated service delivery and organisation across health, social care and education’ 

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• Checking the draft? Where to start, what does a good EHCP look like?  

• What words should not be seen in the case workers draft, find here a useful table and good support for interpreting the draft and providing a response.

​

• Other helpful information provided by our members on EHCP's: 

• SEN Code of Practice

• Useful guide on EHCP criteria from the PDA Society

• Writing your EHCP: this is not an EHCP document but from page 6 onwards it help give you sensory needs words that you might overlook

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• EHCP Support & Template Letters:

  • https://sossen.org.uk/information_sheets.php

• Useful EHCP Facebook support groups:

• EHCP Experiences & SEND support, Dorset LA EHCP, SEND & EOTAS Support group, Somerset EHCP Support, EHCP Experiences Devon, EHCP Experiences Hampshire, Bristol & surrounding areas EHCP support

• We have added this FASD 'scaffolding in education support' link again here as we don't want you to miss it! ......it is a very powerful document written by Maria Catterick of our FASD Alliance that should be included in any EHCP application as well as any review.

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EHCP Annual Review: 

• Annual Review information

• Annual review checklist

• Include details from the FASD Framework in your review discussion and document (find below link where you will find strategies appropriate for EHCP half way through the document below): 

• Primary Framework for FASD

• Secondary Framework for FASD

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Early Annual Review:

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Has your childs education, health or social care needs changed and are no longer accurately described in the EHC plan; or

that the education, health or social care provision in the EHC plan is no longer meeting the child or young person’s needs?

• When can I call an early review?

• What doe I write in the letter requesting an early review?:  Editable template here​

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SEND Law:

• NODDY  ‘no-nonsense’ Guide to SEN law February 2022 (important document if you are appealing decisions)

• Disabled children legal handbook (free downloadable book) 

• Case law, good example of south west tribunal win for EHCP Review

• Section F in an EHCP; SEND legal case examples

• ‘Disabled children and young people up to 25 with severe complex needs: integrated service delivery and organisation across health, social care and education’

• Adopting with or with knowing of additional need

• NEW: Legal Guidance FASD & YOUR EMPLOYMENT RIGHTS

• NEW: Legal Guidance FASD & EHCP's

• NEW: Legal Guidance FASD & Special Guardianship Orders (SGO)

• NEW: Legal Guidance FASD & Foster Care

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Home Educating:

• Getting started?  Helpful support here with answering some of your questions

• Template de-registering letters

• Government Guidance Home Education

• SEND legal advice on Home Education

• NEW Guidance: Children missing from Education

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• Find here our Facebook FASD Resources pages for ideas and activities to support FASD

• Find here our dedicated Facebook FASD Friends Home Educating community set up to specifically support home education

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Run Away, Missing from Home or Care:

• Children who go missing or run away from home or care are vulnerable to serious dangers and harm outside the home, including sexual and criminal exploitation and abduction, as well as missing education. Multi-agency working is essential for assessing cases of children missing from home or care, and for analysing data for patterns that indicate concerns and risks.

• Statutory guidance on children who run away or go missing from home or care

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Flexi-Learning:

• Flexi Learning :Everything you might need to know!

 

EOTAS: ​

• Education Other Than School (EOTAS)

• Alternative Provision

• NEW: Useful information re EOTAS case law;
  "Time is of the essence when it comes to the provision of EHCP's to vulnerable children who without the implementation of these provisions, are effectively shut out of education with consequent impacts on their education, development, health and future."good for providing examples of supporting need.                                                                 

• In referring to the local authority the judge said they have an ‘absolute duty to secure special educational provision in EHCPs'.

  Details of the case found HERE

  Listed in this case as a requirement under section F:

  i. 3 hours per week of teaching from a dyslexia specialist tutor.

  ii. 1:1 support at all times.

  iii. 10 hours of direct teaching for core subjects per week by a qualified teacher.

  iv. A laptop or iPad for the Claimant's sole use.

  v. A physiotherapy programme to be monitored indirectly by a physiotherapist and delivered by a learning support assistant ('LSA').

  vi. A programme of occupational therapy to be delivered directly by an occupational therapist ('OT') for 36 hours per year.

  vii. 'at least' 5 hours per week of physical exercise.

  viii. A communication programme designed by speech and language therapist, implemented by teaching staff on a weekly basis.

• Other Provision: Ombudsman Report citing failings in system; useful if in an appeal situation to demonstrate LA need to support child

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MEDICAL NEED NOT TO ATTEND SCHOOL: 

• If your child cannot attend School for medical reasons

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Virtual School Head: 

Promoting Health of the previously looked after child

Promoting Education of children looked after & post looked after

On the 1st September 2018, virtual school head teachers became responsible for promoting the educational achievement of previously looked-after children living within their local area. Statutory guidance from the Department for Education (DfE) requires virtual school heads to provide information and advice to adoptive parents, special guardians and carers and also to providers of funded early years education and designated teachers. Virtual school heads must also ensure that their local authority fulfils their duty to provide suitable advice and information for the purpose of promoting the educational achievement of previously looked- after children.

 

If you don't know who your Virtual Head is, Google the Virtual Head in your area where they should have a website with details of what is happening in your area.​

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Designated Teachers:

• Every School is required by law to have a Designated Teacher who represents children in care and those who have left it. It is their role to liase with the Virtual School, SENCO and other school staff. Please ask your school who your designated teacher is as they should participate in every meeting you have at School and support your family. They will take part in specialist training that is available through the Virtual School.  For the official guidance on the role read more here.​

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EPPLAC meetings & paperwork: 

'Education Plan for Previously Looked After Children' (we are currently challenging the title of the form!), an EPPLAC or EPAC is a document that is used to identify key strengths and areas to support for your child in school.

Education Plans for Previously Looked After Children are a continuation of the good practice seen within the regular (PEP) Personal Education Plan reviews for 'Looked After Children'.

The purposes of these meetings are to:

• Encourage positive collaboration and communication between home and education provision

• Raise awareness of the needs and issues faced by children and their parents

• Review the support, interventions and progress of the child

• Identify unmet needs of the child

• Discuss PP+ allocation, in relation to the child’s needs and the benefit of the school’s cohort of Previously Looked After Children.

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So what all this means to us is this document can be a vital tool to support and EHCP and can inform the School about your childs needs through regular meetings which should be held through a SEND review. If your School don't do this with you currently they need to so contact the School SENCO to arrange. 

 

FUNDING FOR EQUIPMENT:​

• Lots of support here, great booklet of many supporting grants

• Sensory Needs

• Play Therapy Pods: The Free Play Therapy Pods are self-contained and are delivered direct to your door. A kit is tailored to developmental age; birth +, 18mths +, 3 yrs +, 5 yrs +

• Equipment hire and to keep through the great supportive charity NewLife

• Search for grants by postcode!

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BENEFITS:

Disability Living Allowance

• DLA Carer & Disability rate 2023/24 UK

• Short webinar on claiming 'Higher Level' Disability Living Allowance (DLA): a must to watch!..... discusses severe disability criteria and good mention of FASD

• What is severe disability : mobility criteria

• What is severe disability : mental health

• Disability living Allowance : very helpful support of what to include

• Great support here from 'Contact' on lots of types of support ​

• Step by step guide on claiming DLA Cerebra brain injury​

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Personal Independence Payments​

• Personal Independence Payments (PIP) : helpful support of what to include

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Universal Credit (UK)​

• Universal Credit application for Children post 16 

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Adoption Allowance (UK)

• Adoption Support Allowance & other benefits for Adoptors

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Adoption & Special Guardianship Support Funding (UK)

• Adoption Support Funding (ASF): Adoption Support Funding for Adopted & Special Guardianship Families up to and including the age of 21, or 25 with an education, health and care plan, who: are living (placed).

  • Until the end of March 2025 the ASF will have 2 fair access limits:

  • £2,500 per child/young person per year for specialist assessment

  • £5,000 per child/young person per year for therapy

  • Helpful guidance on ASF here including eligibility & suggestions for therapy

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SUPPORTING CHILDREN & TEENS: 

• Sensory Activities, Occupational Therapy; a wealth of 'top tips' provide some really simple things that can be used in the Home and School 

• Many parents recommend Nate Sheets YouTube videos  where his way of explaining how children and young people respond well to simple instructions works! 

• One parent describes the challenges she faces.... "if a child is struggling in school then he/she is likely to blow at home, mine did exactly this.... masked all day and then literally as soon as they came out were bouncing all over the place. We found the OT from the NHS didn't have enough experience so we were funded through Adoption support Funding to see a specialist called a 'Sensory Integration Trauma Occupational Therapist' where we put in lots and I do mean lots... of sensory breaks in School and the School learnt to pace their language where we then started to see noticeable differences. Also we did a lot around keeping our children safe in school as my son is impulsive and very easily influenced by others..... this was written into risk assessments & with the report we received from the OT we applied for an EHCP." 

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RISK ASSESSMENTS:

• Consider 'risk', ask for the risk assessment of the child or young person

• Every child or young person with SEND should have a risk assessment; the actions from this should inform SEND reviews or/and EHCP reviews..... e.g. a child should be risk assessed if additional staff need to support on a school trip this should be included in the 'risk assessment' and the EHCP as additional funding will be required from school budgets.

• Examples of Special Needs case studies can be found here

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EQUALITY

• Equality Act Guide 

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• THE SYSTEM FAILS a very powerful video by Sarah Naish focussing on the role of the social worker; signposting to useful tools to assist professionals in assessment of need

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CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM: 

• In order to confirm a child, young person or adult can 'understand or comprehend' what a 'police caution' is they need to be fit to be interviewed.  If there is identified need or hidden disability good practice states that a 'capacity assessment' by an experienced FASD clinician should be carried out, examples of some clinics recommended by parents that carry our these types of services are listed on our services tab above. If you every get into this position where your child/young person/adult needs to be questioned ask for legal advise & for a capacity assessment. A bail request can be made and then a capacity assessment be funded by the Police to support the legal process under the Mental Health Act. ​

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• Decision-Making & Mental Capacity ​

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• NEW FASD MEDICAL INFORMATION FOR POLICE: 'I am a vulnerable person' card (free downloadable), FASD & the law

• Important leaflet for families & Police Officers

• FASD Guidebook for Police Officers; a very useful guide for professional in how to support children, young people and adults

• Section 136 Mental Health Act UK; this is where officers might need to take the individual to a place of safety

• 'Nobody made the connection'; powerful research discussing why early intervention is everything, should be included in every EHCP application!

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• EXTENDED LEAVE FROM WORK: 

• Taking unpaid leave from work

 

​Co-morbid (Co-occuring) Conditions*: *Apologies this section is under construction, but you can still dip in and send us your additions...​

• ADHD & FASD: Guidelines for identification and treatment of individuals with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and associated fetal alcohol spectrum disorders based upon expert consensus

• ADHD: Understanding and Supporting my Child's ADHD

• ADHD Activity Book 

• ADHD Teenagers 

• TOURETTES: support through specialist Speech & Language Therapy

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Support for Co-occurring conditions

• For support and further information on co-occurring conditions such as ASD, ADHD, OCD, and anxiety, please see below details of specific charities; please note this is section is under construction so is not comprehensive. 

 

• ASD - The National Autistic Society – leading UK charity for autistic people and their families www.autism.org.uk - 0808 800 4104

• ADHD Foundation - https://www.adhdfoundation.org.uk/

• ADHD UK - https://adhduk.co.uk/

• OCD-UK – www.ocduk.org - a national charity supporting children and adults who are affected by OCD  - Tel:-0845 120 3778.

• OCD Action – www.ocdaction.org.uk - a national charity supporting children and adults who are affected by OCD -  Tel:- 0845 390 6232

• The Sleep Charity - https://thesleepcharity.org.uk/ - the National Sleep Helpline: 03303 530 541

• Young Minds – www.youngminds.org.uk, a national charity committed to improving the emotional wellbeing and mental health of children and young people - Tel:- 0808 802 554 – Anxiety

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Other great reading & sources of support from our FASD Alliance: 

• TOP TIPS HANDBOOK

• FASD NETWORK RESOURCES

• NATIONAL ORGANISATION FOR FASD (NOFAS) RESOURCES

• ME & MY FASD

• TUNING INTO TEENS​​

• MINDFULNESS: Remembering how to breathe; a lovely relaxing track and clip to support mindfulness​

• SOCIAL WORK & FASD: A very useful overview of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum tailored to social work Dec 2022 publication