Membership Scheme
Sparkle Sheffield offer Four Membership Packages.
Bronze: FREE
Silver £20
Gold £30
Platinum £40
To see what each level has to offer, please see below. (Price per year)
Bronze: FREE
Bronze Membership Includes:
Bi-monthly Newsletter:
Keep up to date with everything Sparkle with a bi-monthly newsletter, letting you know what we have been doing, as well as what we are up to in the coming months. Our newsletter also contains exclusive information about upcoming events and experiences.
Access to our very own Sparkle Sheffield App:
Our new App is bursting with information, links and tips for all our Sparkle families. these include:
Out and About – useful information when out, including shop recommendations based on the experiences of autistic people and their families!
Events – details of all our upcoming Sparkle Sheffield events
Useful Contacts – how to contact the Sparkle Sheffield team, and our recommended services.
News – the latest news and updates, including any important information you need to know.
Helpful Strategies – helpful information to support and empower autistic people and their families.
Business Directory – a list of businesses run by Autistic people and/or their parents/carers – support small and local Businesses.
SIGN UP HERE
SILVER: £20 per family, per year
Our Silver Package Includes the above PLUS:
Additional Content via the App:
MEMBERS EXCLUSIVE AREAS! – Exclusive information specially for our Sparkle Sheffield membership holders and their families!
Bookable 1:1 Support / Advice Sessions:
Support sessions are 30 minutes in length and held with a Sparkle Sheffield representative. These will be either a parent/carer of children with additional needs, and/or a professional who is experienced in working with children/young people with additional needs. We will advise, signpost and support on an individual basis.
Parent Training Sessions / Workshops:
Members have access to free parent training sessions throughout the year. Training sessions cover a range of topics including challenging behaviour, sensory issues, communication and puberty. Training sessions are hosted by a Sparkle Sheffield representative. This will be either a parent/carer of children with additional needs, and/or a professional who is experienced in working with children/young people with additional needs.
Access to Sparkle Tots/ Sparkle/ Sparkle On/ Twinkle Events:
Membership of Silver, Gold and Platinum packages will entitle discounted admission for all individuals listed on the membership to Sparkle Tots, Sparkle On and Twinkle sessions. Non-members are welcome to attend Sparkle Sheffield events, which will be at the full admission price for each event.
GOLD: £30 per family, per year
Our GOLD Package Includes all the above PLUS:
Priority Booking for Sparkle Sheffield Events:
Members are able to book places upon Sparkle Sheffield children’s events, and Sparkle Sheffield parent/carer events, 48 hours before tickets go on general release. For events that are strictly limited, members will receive priority booking and if sold out, tickets will not go on general release.
Sensory Equipment and Books Loan Scheme:
Members are able to loan sensory equipment and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities related reading materials from Sparkle Sheffield. Resources include a range of items to stimulate all the senses, and others that may have a calming effect. Books available to loan to members cover a range of topics including supporting emotions, talking to siblings about autism, and the teen years. These resources aim to enable families to try products before having to pay out for costly items.
PLATINUM: £40 per family, per year
Our Platinum Package Includes all the above PLUS:
Sparkle Sheffield Utilita Arena Hospitality Suite:
We are delighted to have been gifted a hospitality suite at Sheffield Utilita Arena. The Sparkle Sheffield Hospitality Suite is one of the boxes that are at the located right at the very top of the Sheffield Arena auditorium (also known by the name of ‘VIP suites’). The suite has its own entrance via the box office, so no queuing in the main queues outside to get in. There is then a lift to the top floor, with private access to our room. In the suite, we have it all kitted out with sensory items, including an interactive floor, sensory toys, ear defenders, PECS symbols and more! It also has its own toilet, and room service for any food/drinks. The aim is for children and families to enjoy experiences as much as possible, without the sensory overload from being in the main arena with its hustle and bustle!
Platinum Exclusive Events:
Members of Sparkle Sheffield can access exclusive events for their family, which are only available to Platinum Members. These events do not go on general release. Events include days out, virtual experiences, physical activities and Access to the Sheffield Arena Sparkle Hospitality Suite for heavily discounted shows.
Discounted Entry to the South Yorkshire Autism Fayre:
Members of Sparkle Sheffield are entitled to a discount on tickets when attending the annual South Yorkshire Autism Fayre.
To Join, please follow the below link and complete our application form.
Before joining, please note:
*We do ask for evidence to be included to ensure that our members are vetted prior to joining the membership. No diagnosis is required to join the Sparkle Sheffield membership, but we do require your child to be on the pathway for investigations. We accept the following evidence.
- A pathway letter (such as one from your investigating clinic (e.g., Ryegate), CAMHS or the local hospital)
- A letter detailing your/your child’s diagnosis or:
- A letter confirming your/ your child’s entitlement to Disability Living Allowance (DLA)
Driving and Notifiable Medical Conditions
Full list of medical conditions drivers must declare or face £1,000 fine
The DVLA has warned drivers they must declare if they have certain medical conditions or they could face a £1,000 fine.
A full list of health conditions has been published on the organisation’s website, with motorists being urged to check whether their ability to drive might be affected.
They range from anxiety and brain tumours to having tunnel vision and schizophrenia. Drivers can declare conditions online or using a paper form and the agency will then make an assessment and can stop someone from driving if necessary. If someone has a condition they haven’t declared and they then have an accident, they could be prosecuted.
It is thought that around one million drivers are using the roads without properly declaring a medical condition to the DVLA. Some rules are different for drivers of cars compared to those behind the wheel of a bus or lorry. For example those who are deaf don’t need to tell the DVLA if they only have a car licence but do if they have a licence to drive HGVs. Some conditions only need to be declared if it is felt they affect a person’s ability to drive – with motorists being urged to check with their doctors first. Drivers should also notify the DVLA if there condition has got worse since the licence was awarded.
Full list of conditions car drivers may need to report to the DVLA:
Agoraphobia – if it affects your driving
Alcohol problems
Alzheimer’s disease
Amputations
Angiomas or cavernomas
Ankylosing spondylitis – if it affects your driving
Anorexia nervosa – if it affects your driving
Anxiety – if it affects your driving
Aortic aneurysm- if it is 6 centimetres or more in diameter despite treatment
Arachnoid cyst
Arrhythmia – if you you have distracting or disabling symptoms
Arteriovenous malformation
Arthritis – if you use special controls for driving
Ataxia
ADHD – if it affects your driving
AIDS
Bipolar disorder (manic depression)
Blood clots in the brain – but not in the lungs
Blood pressure – if you are experiencing side effects from treatment
Brachial plexus injury
Brain abscess, cyst or encephalitis
Brain aneurysm
Brainhaemorrhage
Traumatic brain injury
Brain tumour
Broken limbs – if you’ll be unable to drive for more than 3 months
Brugada syndrome
Burr hole surgery
Cancer – if it will lead to problems with your brain or nervous system
Cataracts
Cataplexy
Central venous thrombosis – if you’re still having problems a month later
Cerebral palsy
Cognitive problems
Congenital heart disease – if symptoms affect driving
Fits, seizures or convulsions and driving
Déjà vu – if you have seizures or epilepsy
If you have an implanted defibrillator
Dementia
Depression – if it affects your ability to drive safely.
Diabetes – if your insulin treatment last over 3 months
Diplopia (double vision)
Dizziness or vertigo – if it is sudden, disabling or recurrent.
Drug use
Empyema (brain)
Essential tremor – if it affects your ability to drive safely.
Eye conditions
Guillain Barré syndrome
Serious head injury
Heart attacks – check with your doctor
Heart failure – if your symptoms affect your ability to drive
Heart palpitations
Hemianopia
High blood pressure (hypertension) – if a doctor tells you to stop driving
Hodgkin’s lymphoma – if you develop problems with the brain or nervous system
Huntington’s disease – if it causes any symptoms.
Hydrocephalus with symptoms
Hypoglycaemia
Hypoxic brain damage
Intracerebral haemorrhage – if you’re still having problems a month later
Korsakoff’s syndrome
Labyrinthitis – if you have symptoms for 3 months or more.
Learning disabilities but not learning difficulties e.g dyslexia
Lewy body dementia
Limb disability
Long QT syndrome
Lung cancer – if your doctor says you can’t drive
Lymphoma – if your doctor says you can’t drive
Marfan’s syndrome
Medulloblastoma
Meningioma – if it affects your driving
Motor neurone disease
Muscular dystrophy
Myasthenia gravis
Myoclonus
Narcolepsy
Night blindness
Obsessive compulsive disorder – if it affects your driving.
Excessive sleepiness – if moderate or severe
Optic atrophy
Pacemakers – if you’ve had one fitted
Paranoid schizophrenia
Paraplegia
Parkinson’s disease
Peripheral neuropathy
Personality disorder – if it affects your driving
Pituitary tumour
Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) – if it affects your driving.
Psychosis
Psychotic depression
Pulmonary arterial hypertension
Severe memory problems
Stroke – if you’re still having problems a month afterwards
Surgery – and you’re still unable to drive 3 months later.
Syncope
Seizures/epilepsy
Sleep apnoea – if its caused excessive sleepiness for at least three months
Schizo-affective disorder
Schizophrenia
Scotoma
Severe communication disorders
Spinal conditions, injuries or spinal surgery
Subarachnoid haemorrhage
Tachycardia
Tourette’s syndrome – if it affects your ability to drive
Tunnel vision
Usher syndrome
Reduced visual acuity
Vertigo
Visual field defect
VP shunts
Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome
For more information on each of these conditions, check the DVLA website.
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/driver-and-vehicle-licensing-agency
Maturing Child Trust Funds – What You Need to Know – UPDATE
People turning 18 from September 2020 can access the Child Trust Fund set up in their name – but nearly a third of all these funds are still unclaimed.
Nearly two million UK children are owed a collective £2 billion of free money, with the most valuable of these ‘lost’ funds being worth nearly £2,000 each.
Child Trust Funds were created in 2002 by Tony Blair’s Labour government, to give a financial leg-up to all children when they reach adulthood, but especially to the most disadvantaged.
Those born after August 2002 and before August 2010 were given at least £250 at birth in the form of a voucher that could be invested in a variety of funds. If the voucher wasn’t activated with 12 months, it was automatically invested in one of 14 different providers.
Parents could make deposits into their child’s Trust Fund, of between £10 and £364 a month, and on their seventh birthday children received an additional gift of £250.
However, children in households with income of £16,190 or less received £500 on each occasion, at birth and when they turned seven years old.
Now the first children to be enrolled in the Child Trust Fund scheme are reaching adulthood, and can access their money. But 1.8 million of these accounts remain unclaimed, either because the parents never knew about them, forgot about them, or moved home and lost their documents. As a result, around a hundred thousand children this year alone could miss out on a hugely valuable payment as they enter adulthood and independence.
How much could my Child Trust Fund be worth?
Even an unclaimed Child’s Trust Fund, containing no deposits other than the two minimum government contributions, will now have significant value thanks to 18 years of compound interest. Those receiving the lower level of contribution are worth nearly £1,000 by now, while the higher-contribution Trust Funds (given to children of poorer families) will hold nearly £2,000. If parents made additional deposits at any point, then the funds will be worth even more.
The most bitter twist of the Child Trust Fund saga is that around 80 per cent of these more valuable funds – i.e. those set up to help the least well off – have never been activated. The money is there and waiting to be accessed by those children when they reach adulthood, but the families may remain completely unaware that it exists.
Gavin Oldham, chairman and founder of The Share Foundation, called on today’s government to do more to inform those who are missing out. He said, ‘[This] is a life-changing amount of money to an 18-year-old. Tracing these funds could alter the prospects of a whole generation. But insufficient effort is being made to link families with their accounts.’
Onefamily CTF who manage Child Trust Funds decided to be more pragmatic and supportive in circumstances where a young person is Disabled and cannot access the Child Trust Fund themselves as problems were accruing around this . On being notified of the reason why a young person could not personally close their own account, where parents/carers were making it clear why the young person could not Onefamily Child Trust Fund account began ahead of any Government change enabled parents/carers to do it instead by seeking specified forms of identification and issuing to parents/carers in these circumstances declaration documents for them to complete, sign and send back to them accordingly.
Onefamily head of investments, Paul Bridgwater, said: ‘Every case is different, but in some circumstances it is possible to release the funds if sufficient proof of identification can be provided by the person responsible for managing the young person’s finances.
‘We aim to review each application sensitively and with compassion, and would encourage all customers who may be in this position to get in touch, so that we can give them all the support that they need.’
The parents /carers of as many as four in five Disabled young people unable to access their Child Trust Fund savings maybe now seeing a further shift and no longer having to go to court to get access to their child’s Child Trust Fund money after a way of avoiding the costly and time-consuming process was greenlit by savings providers too in February 2021. .
A majority of Child Trust Fund providers have now agreed to proposals first published in December 2020 which would allow the parents and guardians of Disabled young people who have up to £5,000 in their accounts and no other savings to access the money by filling out a five page application form and getting a medical practitioner to fill out another one page document.
Whilst this agreement and the shift forward for some children is welcome, for those falling outside of the agreement specifications it is still proving challenging and the pragmatism of Onefamily is needed in these circumstances too .
Do I really have a Child Trust Fund?
Yes! If you was born a UK citizen between the dates of 1 September 2002 and 1 January 2011, then a Child Trust Fund for you definitely exists somewhere. Note that children born between 1 August 2010 and 1 January 2011 will have received smaller government contributions, due to the cutbacks of the time. However, such ‘austerity Child Trust Funds’ should still be worth at least £70 after 10 years even if no parental deposits were made.
How do I trace a Child’s Trust Fund?
A Child Trust Fund the Government initially said can only be accessed by the child it is assigned to, once they turn 18 – parents/carers cannot access it on their behalf. However, as the above shows as a parent /carer you can still help your child to claim their fund. The first essential step is to trace the provider.
You can do this by going to the Government’s website of Child Trust Fund providers. https://www.gov.uk/child-trust-funds Browse the list and see if you recognise your provider, whom you can then contact.
If you still can’t remember the name of your provider, or never knew you had one, then you can trace the fund directly at the Child Trust Fund website. Click the link under Find your provider and log in to the Government Gateway (if you don’t yet have an ID and password, click ‘Create sign in details’).
You will normally receive an initial response within 15 days, which may then ask you for further information such as a birth certificate or adoption certificate.
How long does it take to track down a Child Trust Fund?
Currently the system for tracing a lost or unclaimed Child Trust Fund can be quite cumbersome. Some parents have reported having to wait several months to track down the details so that the money can be released. It’s therefore worth starting the process now, even if your child won’t turn 18 for a while. The lockdown is a great opportunity to get the admin sorted out, and you know it will pay off in the end.
Once you know your money is on your way, you can choose a new savings account that can be accessed more easily.
If you don’t know or can’t remember who holds your / your child’s CTF, for more advice go to :
https://www.gov.uk/child-trust-funds
Read MorePost-16 Transport
We are receiving numerous questions about post-16 transport as the new school years approaches its start. The information below should be helpful in relation to post-16 transport.
As Contact point out “Transport for young people over 16 in England has particular criterion that should be considered when making application for support or when reviewing your Local Authorities response to such requests”.
Local authorities do not have to provide free transport to educational settings for young people over compulsory school age. This includes 16-17 year olds, even though 16-17 year olds must stay in education or training. It applies whether your son or daughter stays on at school after year 11, goes to college or does some kind of work based learning. Your son or daughters travel arrangements may be reassessed even if they are staying on at the same school. Some local authorities may continue to provide the same transport arrangements, but they may charge for this.
Although your local authority does not have to provide free transport, it must publish a transport policy statement setting out what travel arrangements are available to enable 16-19 year olds to participate in education or training. For Sheffield residents, this policy can be found here. The policy also applies to young people over 19 who are continuing a course started before their 19th birthday.
Local authorities should not have a blanket policy to restrict transport to certain groups of young people, for example those who have received transport to school in the past, or those who have been to special schools. They should consider individual needs and the distance and nature of the route when deciding who is eligible.
What kind of transport might be available?
Arrangements should be flexible enough to allow for reasonable choice of education and training places. Details should be set out in your local authority’s Local Offer section on their website.
Options might include:
- A subsidised bus pass or railcard
- Transport provided directly by the local authority. For example a minibus or taxi for an individual or group of young people.
- Travel training. This can help your son or daughter learn to travel independently on public transport. It may be available through the college or a voluntary organisation. Travel training supports a young person to be independent, but is not right for everyone. Your son or daughter’s suitability for travel training should be assessed before a decision is made.
The local policy must include arrangements to help young people with SEND to get to education. As explained above, these may not be provided for free.
Young people with SEND may need help with transport because they may not be able to travel in the same way as other young people in the area, for example if:
- They have a disability which prevents them from walking or using public transport to their place of education.
- They have to travel further to attend a course suitable for their SEND.
The local authority can make specific travel arrangements if needed and should look at each case individually before making a decision about suitable transport. Guidance says that transport should enable a young person to reach their place of education or training without such stress strain or difficulty that would prevent them from benefiting from the education provided.
If applying for transport, provide supporting information about your son or daughter’s physical disability, awareness of risk or sensory difficulties that would make it difficult for them to walk or use existing transport arrangements.
Contributing to travel costs
Local authorities can ask families for a contribution to travel costs even if they were getting free transport previously. Details should be set out in the local authority policy. The amount should be reasonable and in line with travel costs for young people in the area without SEND. The contribution should also be affordable for low income families. Arrangements should give details about any help available with travel costs, who is eligible, and how to apply.
Other financial help
There may be alternative sources of funding to help with education costs, including transport. The 16-19 bursary may be available to help with education-related costs, including transport, if your son or daughter meets the eligibility criteria. For Sheffield residents, this document can be found here. Young people over 19 may qualify for discretionary funding from their college.
Your son or daughter’s school, college or training provider can give you more information about financial support available.
You or your son or daughter may also qualify for benefits.
Transport over 18
There is a separate duty to provide transport for adults aged 18 – 25.
The law says that local authorities must make transport arrangements if they consider it necessary to enable adults to attend education. Such arrangements must be free of charge. The local authority policy must also specify travel arrangements for adults in the area with Education, Health and Care plans. The adult transport policy is often published together with the policy for 16-18 year olds.
Adults who are eligible for social care may also receive help with transport to education as part of their Care and Support plan.
Challenging decisions
You may be unhappy with a local authority decision on school transport, either because they have decided your son or daughter is not eligible or you think that the transport offered is not suitable. Your local authority should have a complaints and appeals procedure for transport decisions. This should be published alongside the transport policy.
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