Free Horsham conference for professionals working with children with disabilities and special needs

The ‘Join the Dots’ event is being held at County Hall North and will include a keynote speech from Alison Lapper, a noted artist and disability rights campaigner.

Alison was famously the subject of a sculpture ‘Alison Lapper Pregnant’ which was on display in Trafalgar Square until late 2007.

The event has been put together by West Sussex County Council, the voluntary sector, and education, health and social care professionals.

The conference, which runs from 9am to 2pm and will include a range of workshops, is for anyone who works in the sector or who may have a role in staff training.

People will be able to find out more about:

• recent developments and opportunities in quality standards and accreditation

• new ‘models’ of working together to improve training

• meeting the needs of disabled children and their families more effectively

• accessing specialist training for your staff more easily

• pooling and sharing resources/skills/knowledge with other organisations

• better supporting your staff’s training needs

• improving your capacity and reducing costs

Peter Evans, West Sussex County Council cabinet member for children – start of life, (Con, East Preston and Ferring), said: “By helping us to ‘join the dots’ at this important event, you will be making your own unique contribution towards improving the quality and availability of training in West Sussex for staff that support and work with disabled children and young people and their families.”

People can sign up now for a free place by logging onto the West Sussex Learning and Development Gateway - http://www.westsussexcpd.co.uk – and creating a new user account.