Brighter Beginnings Brighter Beginnings is for parents at the beginning of their journey. Through a series of workshops, we support families to tackle some of the unique challenges they might face in the early years. Workshop topics include: Where do we go from here? Encouraging positive behaviour. Money matters. Communicating with professionals. Understanding sleep. Maintaining healthy relationships. Brighter Beginnings courses take place across England, and they’re free for all parent carers. See our family workshops page to see what we’re running at the moment. The Early Years SEND Partnership These workshops are part of the Early Years SEND partnership (special educational needs and disabilities) and are funded by the Department for Education. Contact is part of the Early Years SEND Partnership with the Council for Disabled Children, nasen, I CAN, The Communication Trust, Contact and Dingley’s Promise. The Early Years SEND Partnership will provide support on SEND to early years settings and local authorities in the North West, the East Midlands, the North East, Yorkshire and Humber and the West Midlands. As well as the Brighter Beginnings workshops, Contact are offering the following: Train the trainer parent programme We will co-produce, design and run a training offer which enables parent carers to increase their confidence and skills in order to deliver the parent programme. By training parents to deliver the parent programme, Brighter Beginnings will support its own ongoing sustainability. Training to practitioners As part of the core offer to early years practitioners, Contact will co-deliver with parents of disabled children a one-off training session, which aims to ensure the workforce empowers parents to enable them to get the best from their child’s early year’s entitlement. The session will cover: How to engage and work with parents. How to empower parents to enable them to get the best from their child’s early years’ entitlement. Improved practitioner confidence and knowledge on how to communicate and working with parents, so developing a relationship with parents based on mutual trust and respect. If you have any questions about the project, please email bookings@contact.org.uk