NeuroAware CIC

16/07/2026

Calling all Wheatley Hill residents who are parent/carers of SEND children and/or neurodivergent - come along to a FREE event and HELP SHAPE THE FUTURE OF NEUROAWARE 💚

Hi all, you may have seen this post previously, but I have now secured funding from Wheatley Hill Parish Council and I'm ready for bookings. Huge thanks go to both the Parish Council for making this possible and for the support of Greenhills Centre. I really do appreciate it! (Please note that due to funding, this session is open to Wheatley Hill residents only).

I'm launching a small Neurodivergence and SEND Support Pilot Session through NeuroAware at Greenhills Community Centre, Wheatley Hill, Co. Durham and I'd love your help to shape it.

The aim is simple:

🌿 A welcoming, informal space - public speaking, role play or presentations not required.
🤝 Meet other parents, carers and neurodivergent individuals
📚 Ask questions about SEND, EHCPs and neurodiversity
💬 Share experiences and help shape what NeuroAware becomes - what advice, groups, courses, clubs do you want to see NeuroAware CIC offer in Wheatley Hill and beyond for SEND/Neurodivergent children and adults?
☕ Tea, coffee, cake and friendly conversation
🔊Relaxing Soundbath with Hazel Tree Sounds and Holistics included free for all participants (maximum of 10)

I want to make it accessible to people so please do also let me know if you would need any adjustments to help you access.

📍 Venue: Greenhills Community Centre, Wheatley Hill, Co. Durham
📅 August 2026 (date TBC asap)

Whether you're a parent, carer, neurodivergent adult, or simply interested in creating a more inclusive community, I'd love to hear from you.

To register interest, please send a FB message to NeuroAware CIC with your name, full Wheatley Hill address and postcode and any preferred dates/times in August. I can't guarantee I will choose a date that suits all, but I will try to find a date for the majority.

This is just the beginning, and your voice matters.

💚 NeuroAware – Supporting Neurodiverse Minds

09/07/2026

We started a conversation... and it was exactly what we hoped it would be.

This week we hosted our very first North Star Family Conversation as part of The Listening Project.

There were no PowerPoints.
No pressure.
Just tea, cake, honest conversations and a room full of people who genuinely wanted to listen, learn and support one another.

Over a brew (and some very good cake! 🍰), parents and professionals came together to talk about:

🌿 Burnout and why recovery isn't laziness
🧠 Understanding the nervous system and looking beyond behaviour
💛 Emotional regulation and co-regulation
📱 Screen time, transitions and family routines
🏖️ Letting go of the pressure to create the "perfect" summer
❤️ Creating a summer that works for your family

One of the strongest messages from the evening was this...

Families aren't striving for the perfect summer. They're striving for a summer that feels calmer, more connected and more manageable.

Our Listening Wall captured some beautiful hopes for September:

⭐ Rested
⭐ Happy memories
⭐ Quality family time
⭐ Trying something new
⭐ Understanding the value of rest

Families also reminded us of something every professional should remember:

Parents can be experts in their own child.

This is exactly why we created North Star Family Conversations.

Not as workshops or lectures, but as welcoming spaces where lived experience and professional knowledge come together, and where everyone has something valuable to contribute.

We're already planning our next conversations:

🍂 Ready, Set... Breathe (August)
Preparing emotionally for the return to school.

💙 SEND Conversations (September)
A dedicated evening exploring SEND, EHCPs, annual reviews and practical support for families.

A huge thank you to our wonderful partners:
🐾 Pets4People
🧠 NeuroAware CIC
🤝 Future SEND solutions
..and of course, to the families who trusted us with their stories.

This is only the beginning.

💙 Listening. Learning. Belonging.

30/06/2026

Weekly Round Up - with an exhausted NeuroAware CIC

For an AuDHD individual who finds large social situations overwhelming, intimidating and off the scale in terms of sensory overload, I've been extremely sociable within our local County Durham communities recently, from Blackhall and beyond!

1️⃣Started in Consett with Stacey's Barbers SEND Information event where I met the lovely trio of Lily of the Valley Coaching, Conductive Education With Rachel and Wagtail Equine Therapy CIC (their leaflets are below).
2️⃣ Had our final Co-Regulate to Regulate session with Calm Mind Collective in Pennywell (will be very sad to miss it Deborah!)
3️⃣ Working in partnership with North Star Learning Hub CIC and Pets4People, we will be hosting our first Summer Reset event for SEND parent/carers on Wednesday 08 July (more details on my page)
4️⃣ A personal visit to Random's Retreat CIC to their wonderful animal therapy and hosting space (beautiful, gentle horses!)
5️⃣ Dropped into Six8nine in Hartlepool to hear about how we can work with Hartlepool Safeguarding Partnership and other voluntary organisations.
6️⃣ Final networking event today thanks to Leanne at East Durham Business Network and Business Durham. Again managed to make some excellent connections and hear of other's stories in the area.

I love what I do (which is good as I'm currently doing all this for free to build up my business). I genuinely enjoy hearing of community offers, success stories and where we can help.

Once I have recovered and dealt with family life, next on my list is responding to numerous requests for support, developing a drop in service/Home Education group in Wheatley Hill and planning a residential event for November with Calvert Lakes (details will follow for expressions of interest).

30/06/2026

Free SEND Parent Community Event – The Summer Reset (Hartlepool Based)

North Star Learning Hub CIC is launching its new Family Conversations series with a relaxed evening for parents and carers on Wednesday 8th July (6:00–7:30pm).

The event will explore behaviour, nervous system regulation and practical strategies for the summer holidays, alongside NeuroAware CIC and Pets4People.

👥 Adult-only event
☕ Refreshments provided
🎟 Free but booking is essential.

Book here:
https://eequ.org/book/family-conversations-with-north-star-learning-hub-cic-32806

I will be there to offer information and advocacy support relating to neurodiversity as well as legally informed advice on navigating the SEND system. Please do come along!

27/06/2026

Durham County Council Educational, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) and Education, Health and Care Plan Needs Assessment (EHCNA) statistics for 2025 - taken from UK Government website.
I'm a statistics nerd who is passionate about ensuring the legal rights of SEND children are known, accessible and enforceable by parent/carers.

🆙️15% increase in requests for EHCNA from 2024 to 2025
🔻11% decrease in number of times LA decided to proceed with EHCNA from 2024 to 2025 (only in 54.9% of cases out of 1,157 requests, compared to 61.5% of 1009 cases in 2024)
🏫635 EHCNA requests from SCHOOLS approved by LA in 71% of cases, compared to 469 PARENTAL requests approved by the LA in just 35.4% of cases.
✅️But of the 866 EHCNA overall requests, 97.3% resulted in an EHCP being issued. Once you are in, you seem good!

♀️ Female child EHCNA requests 418 (proceeded with assessment 43.8% of cases).
♂️Male child EHCNA requests 739 (proceeded with assessment in 61.2% of cases). This potentially shows the prevelance of high masking in females and the difficulty of portraying this to LA and schools for evidence towards EHCNA.

What this shows to parent/carers

💚It shows the vital importance of NeuroAware CIC input to ensure EHCNA requests are accurate, timely and legally sound with sufficient evidence.
🔻As a parent/carer, you are statistically around 50% LESS LIKELY to be approved for a EHCNA request.
🔻Shows a decrease in approvals of EHCNAs by Durham County Council, meaning it is becoming statistically more difficult to ensure your child receives the legal support they deserve.
💚NeuroAware CIC can help ensure you are within the 35.4% of parent cases approved by LA for EHCNA. I will provide a template which addresses and meets the legal tests for an EHCNA and cross reference evidence to ensure it is sufficiently robust.

If you feel your child has or may have special educational needs and it may be necessary for special educational provision to be made, then you have met the two part legal test under the Children and Families Act 2014 and the LA MUST carry out an EHCNA.

With the proposed changes to new EHCPs within the SEND White Paper currently working it's way through Parliament, I would strongly advise where parents believe their child needs the support of an EHCP and whose child meets the two part legal test and to apply for an EHCNA.

Contact NeuroAware if you have been declined for an EHCNA or don't know where to start and we can help guide you through the process, or suggest potential alternatives.

26/06/2026

Durham County Council - Local Area SEND Reform Plan 2026 (LARP
What does it mean for parent/carers of SEND children and why should you care?

A plan setting out how children with special educational needs and disabilities will be supported in County Durham has been submitted to Government.

❓️ What is the Local Area Reform Plan (LARP)?

The Government has required every local authority in England to produce a three-year SEND Local Area Reform Plan explaining how it intends to implement the national SEND reforms. Approval of the plan is also a condition of receiving the High Needs Stability Grant, which will write off 90% of historic High Needs deficits. For County Durham, this would amount to approximately £32.5 million. Durham will hear in September 2026 if their LARP has been approved.

The plan is not new law. It is a local delivery plan based on the Government's proposed SEND reforms. Existing legal duties remain unchanged unless Parliament passes new legislation.

✅️ What the LA are saying will benefit families (whether we agree with this is up for debate!):

- Earlier intervention (The plan recognises that children should receive support before difficulties escalate rather than waiting until crisis point)
- Better access to specialists (A new "Experts at Hand" model would allow mainstream schools to access specialists more quickly, although detailed information on this is sketchy)
- Better partnership working (plan places considerable emphasis on education, health and social care working together rather than operating separately. Parents have repeatedly highlighted poor communication between services, so improving this would be welcome if delivered consistently)
- More specialist provision within County Durham
(Council plans to expand local specialist provision and reduce reliance on 'expensive out-of-county placements')

🔎Areas that deserve careful scrutiny

- "Mainstream first"(This is probably the most significant theme throughout the document as the plan seeks to increase inclusion within mainstream schools wherever possible. In principle, inclusion is positive.
However, inclusion only succeeds where schools have appropriate staffing, appropriate training, sufficient funding, access to specialist advice and willingness to adapt provision.
Parents should be alert to any situation where "mainstream first" becomes "mainstream regardless".

- Financial sustainability (The report repeatedly refers to financial sustainability alongside service reform; understandable given the size of the High Needs deficit. However, parents should remember an important principle in that financial pressures cannot reduce a child's legal entitlement to support and budget pressures do not remove those duties.

- Measuring success (Many of the measures within the plan focus on increasing mainstream inclusion, reducing reliance on specialist placements etc. Parents may wish to ask whether equal emphasis will be placed on measuring
wellbeing, anxiety levels, exclusions, family satisfaction, educational progress and whether provision in EHCPs is actually delivered.Those outcomes are just as important.

26/06/2026

Come and support a great cause tomorrow (Saturday 27th) and see NeuroAware CIC in action! St Patrick's Church Hall, Consett, 2-5pm. 💚

23/06/2026

Hi all,

A few quick links and you could help NeuroAware CIC be in with a chance of receiving £5,000 💚

I have so many plans for my business but at the moment receive no wage and no funding.

Receiving this would enable me to run the Neurodiversity and SEND Drop in sessions, open a Home Education Group with Greenhills Centre, further develop my 10 week 'Confidence through Adventure' programme for SEND childremuch needed Neurodiversity Awareness training to local businesses and organisations.

Please do nominate us - I really appreciate your time!

We could receive a £5,000 donation with your help through the Movement for Good Draw.

20/06/2026

🥊 Help Us Keep Boxing Free for Local Children 🥊

At Alpha Boxing Gym, we’re committed to providing young people with a safe, positive environment where they can build confidence, discipline, fitness, and life skills — completely free of charge.

To continue offering these opportunities, we’re looking for local businesses and community partners to become sponsors.

By sponsoring our gym, your business will receive:
✅ Brand visibility inside the gym
✅ Promotion across our social media platforms
✅ Recognition in training and event videos
✅ The opportunity to make a real difference in young people’s lives

Your support doesn’t just help a boxing gym — it helps children access mentoring, fitness, friendship, and opportunities they may not otherwise have.

If your business would like to get involved or learn more about our sponsorship packages, please send us a message or contact us directly.

Together, we can continue changing lives, one child at a time.