Additional Needs Service Showcases: Summary

These 'marketplace' showcase events were launched in February 2023. There have been four events so far (in Walton-on-Thames, Hale, Horley and Camberley). With an array of service providers all in one place, these events offer parent/carers of children and young people with additional needs the opportunity to find out about each service's "offer" and discuss any concerns face-to-face.

• Michael Pipe, Family Information Service Manager at Surrey County Council, said:

"Our reasons for holding these showcase events showcases are simple; Parent/Carers had told us they are sometimes not aware of what support is available locally. By gathering a range of services together at once, we hope to create the opportunity for parents and carers to hear about services who'll be helpful to them and for practitioners to meet one another and increase their understanding of what support they can signpost families to."

There are 'Community Connectors' for each of the quadrants in Surrey. To reach out and engage with parents and carers in all four areas, a showcase event was planned for each of them.

• Jasmine Castelow-Sturges, North West Community Connector (who planned the event in Camberley) said:

"The North West showcase was a great success. We had over twenty services who attended to 'showcase' to the local community, each of whom, shared with me how useful they found the event for networking and meeting local families."

"We had almost forty families and professionals who came to the event. They all left with a smile on their face, so thankful that the showcase had been there for them to access. It's great to hear such encouraging feedback."

• Patrick Buckingham (Social prescriber, Team leader) said he found the 'marketplace' event really useful for his role and added:

"It was great to meet people from all these different services, all in one place."

Feedback and comments from attendees of the showcases:

Feedback received from all of these events has been generally very positive. The feedback below comes from attendee's who attended the four events.

I found the showcase helpful

I found out about a service or information I wasn't previously aware of

Further showcases should be held in Surrey

I will use or contact the Family Information Service or Local Offer in future

Further comments:

• "It was so good to meet with people from all these different services face-to-face."
• "We would highly recommend this event to other parents, it was great for gathering information and everyone we talked to were so enthusiastic about their service."
• "Some of the services here, I wasn't aware of until today."
• "Really useful. Thanks. Good to find out exactly what was offered."

Given the positive feedback we've received about the showcases, we hope to hold more in 2024.