South West Additional Needs Services Showcase

Thank you to everyone who attended our recent Additional Needs Showcase in Cranleigh. We loved organising the event with Family Voice Surrey, and believe the day was all the better for the collaboration.

We would like to express our gratitude to the services and parents who attended and hope it was a positive event for all that came. Whether or not you could make it, we wanted to share the details of all the fantastic services who kindly attended the day.

Local support services

Family Voice Surrey champions the needs and rights of families with additional needs in Surrey. This includes families with children or young adults up to the age of 25 who have special educational needs, chronic illnesses, including mental health conditions, or disabilities.
Waverley Family Centre helps families with all aspects of family life. This may be with parenting and relationship challenges and they will help you to grow in confidence so you can manage any future difficulties. The aim of the family centre is to help families build their own resilience and support network. The Waverley Family Support Team work across the whole Waverley Borough, providing support to families with children aged 0 to19 years old (25 years if they have additional needs). The Centre also offers a variety of courses providing support with all aspects of family life as well as sessions for families with children with additional needs and disabilities.
The Green Hub Project for Teens is a local community project serving residents of Godalming, Milford and Witley, along with the broader Waverley and Surrey areas. They support teens (11 to 18) facing Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) challenges, along with their families and carers.
Home Start Waverley is a voluntary organisation committed to promoting the welfare of families with at least one child under five years of age. They offer practical and emotional support to families who are struggling to cope for a variety of reasons, which might include illness, poverty and isolation.
Elysian is an Animal Assisted Therapy and Learning provision based at 3 farms across Surrey and Hampshire. They work with children and young people with anxiety and a range of complex emotional and mental health needs during term time, and all ages outside of term time, weekends and evenings. They facilitate secondary education, alternative provision, therapy and therapeutic placements for children and young people. Elysian also provide training and various bespoke events for children, young people, adults, families and groups.
Challengers is a charity giving disabled children and young people the opportunity to play, have fun, and make friends in a safe and supportive environment. They support children aged 2 to 18 at our range of services across the South East of England. They also have our Community Hub that supports parent carers with workshops, coffee and craft sessions, 1 to 1 advice and Family Fun Days.
Cranleigh Library is part of the 52 Surrey Libraries. They offer a range of services including recently launching a Special Educational Needs (SEN) Rhymetime with a specialism for Autism, in partnership with Barnardo's.
The Therapy Garden provide Social and Therapeutic Horticulture to young people and adults with a range of additional needs.
Guildford Family Centre sits within Families First Guildford and provides one to one targeted support for families. It also provides and coordinates some support for families with emerging needs from their two buildings.
Citizens Advice South West Surrey is a local charity providing free, confidential, independent and impartial advice to people in South West Surrey.

Surrey wide support services

SEND Advice Surrey provides impartial information, advice and support to parents, carers, children, and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) aged 0 to 25 years.
Learners Single Point of Access (L-SPA) offers help and support if you have a concern about the development or learning needs of a child in Surrey. Both parents and practitioners working with children in Surrey are welcome to call the L-SPA. It is open from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, all year round (except Bank Holidays) on 0300 200 1015.
Surrey Early Support Service provides support to families of children aged 0 to 5 who have disabilities or complex medical needs. They will give you information about support that is available to you and your family. They will visit you at home, keep in touch with you regularly, make referrals and applications to services you want to access and offer support through groups and family support.
Surrey Family Information Service is a signposting and enquiry service for all families across Surrey. Access our websites (which includes the Local Offer for children and young people 0 to 25 years with additional needs), directories and social media for advice, support and signposting.
Action for Carers supports Surrey's unpaid family and friend carers. They help people who are looking after a relative or friend, with advice, information on rights and benefits, practical and emotional support, free events, wellbeing sessions, support groups, a Helpline, drop-in Hubs, resources and much more.
National Autistic Society (NAS) Surrey Branch is a parent-to-parent support group with around 1500 members who are parents, professionals, and people with autism in Surrey. It provides information, support groups, talks, parent courses & programmes and family activities, along with representing the interests of parents to service providers.
Children and Family Health Surrey (CFHS) is the Surrey-wide NHS community health service for children and young people from birth up to 19 years of age and their parents and carers. CFHS includes health visiting, school nursing and school-age immunisation services as well as specialist paediatric, children's community nursing and therapy services to support children and young people who have additional needs requiring ongoing care.
Surrey Independent Living Charity (SILC) is a voluntary organisation led and run by disabled people. They believe that every disabled adult, child, older person and carer should be able to live independently with the same choices, opportunities and control over their lives as anyone else. Their specialist, approachable team offer a range of services to help you live independently however you fund your care.
Helen Arkell Dyslexia Charity provide dyslexia support and advice to anyone who may need it. Providing dyslexia assessments, consultations, courses for parents, specialist tuition for children, short courses for children and students and skills development for adults. In addition we provide workplace dyslexia training and support and professional training courses to diploma level 7.
Surrey Adult Learning offer a number of free Adult learning courses, which include course for parents including neurodivergence, managing anxiety, sensory processing.
Mentell is a UK charity that provides men's groups for males aged 18 and over to talk in a safe and confidential space, free from advice and judgement.
BRAAIN CiC are an information service for parents and carers (and professionals) of autistic or Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) children, young people and adults. They run a telephone information line, email information service and a monthly support group.
Work Wise is a free employment service available to any person with a mental or physical health condition, disability, or neurodivergence, who wants to work. They support people to find, maintain and sustain meaningful, long-term paid employment or to support people already in-work to continue their employment.
Surrey Football Association facilitate the provision of football opportunities for children and adults of all experiences levels and abilities across the county.
Sensory services by Sight for Surrey supporting and enabling children and young people who are blind or vision impaired to lead full and independent lives.
EDGE Disability Consulting Ltd enables people with disabilities (11 years old and over) to fully engage in their local community. They help, advise and support with Education (schools and colleges),

Lastly, a huge thank you for providing refreshments on the day to the Dramatize Tea Rooms. This service provides and enables adults with learning disabilities the opportunity to gain work experience and training required to progress to paid employment. Dramatize also provide other services further details of which can be found on their website.