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Welcome to the Families in Partnership Newsletter for May 2026 - supporting families with SEND
Published
Families in Partnership is the monthly newsletter for families with SEND in Gloucestershire. The newsletter shares the latest updates, news and developments in the county. We cover the topics you tell us are important. We hope you find this edition useful and please use the contact information below to let us know if there is something you would like to see featured in a future issue.
This edition looks at:
Health visiting and toilet training, with a helpful article from one of the heads of health visiting in Gloucestershire, which signposts SEND families to information from the service, including a new co-produced guide to help with toilet training. The article also includes information about Baby Hubs, which are drop-in sessions, or appointments, and provide relaxed settings for families to meet and chat with a member of the health visiting team and other parents and carers, for advice and support. Read the full article here.
Managing finances, food and wellbeing. This article provides an update on new information to support families in Gloucestershire with cost-of-living concerns, activities and wellbeing during school holidays, including the Gloucestershire Family Support Guide, produced by Gloucestershire’s Holiday and Activities Fund, which connects families with useful resources locally. The article also provides details of free seminars around illegal money lending. Read the full article here.
The 2025 Annual Parent Carer (SEND) Survey. The survey closed in December last year and a summary report of the findings is now available for you to read here. The full “You Said, We Did” report is due to be published later this year. Read the full article here.
News from the SEND and Inclusion Local Area Partnership (SILAP), which gives links to bulletins from across the Partnership and covers some of the latest news from Education, Health, Social Care and our partners in the voluntary and community sector. Read the full article here. There is also a summary from the latest SILAP board meeting that was held in April. Read the full article here.
Gloucestershire’s Assistive Technology Lending Library pilot. This pilot, which runs until mid-May, enables local schools to explore and trial a range of devices supporting children and young people. Feedback from schools that attending the launch in March was really positive. The outcomes of the pilot will be shared in July’s edition of FIP. Read the full article here.
Gloucestershire’s draft SEND Sufficiency Strategy for 2026-2031. A public consultation on the draft strategy has been prepared as part of Gloucestershire County Council’s decision-making process and families with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities are encouraged to share their views. The consultation opened on Tuesday, 5 May 2025 and will run for seven weeks, closing on Tuesday, 23 June 2026 at 5.00pm. For more information about the consultation and how you can have your say, read the full article here.
Our regular feature on Listen to Me coffee mornings and other Gloucestershire Parent Carer Forum events taking place in the forthcoming months. Read the full article here.
Our Awareness Events article, which highlights awareness events happening in May and June. Read the full article here.
If you’re reading this newsletter for the first time, we hope you find it useful. If there is a change we should make; or if you would like something to be featured; or if you have any questions then please email us - familiesinpartnership@gloucestershire.gov.uk 
You can subscribe to receive the next FIP as soon as it's published. You may even see your suggestion in the next edition!