What’s new from Kent County Council

 

We are looking for more Digital Champions to volunteer some time to help support someone with their digital skills and confidence. You don’t need to be a tech expert and there is no strict commitment, you just need patience and a willingness to learn.

If you can support your family and friends and would like to give something back to your community, then sign up today.

 

 

 

Join The Big Help Out on 8th May

We are supporting The Big Help Out that starts on Monday 8 May, a special Bank Holiday celebrating the King’s Coronation. If you are considering volunteering, or are an organisation with volunteer opportunities in Kent, visit The Big Help Out. You can also find out more about volunteering in Kent.

 

Now easier to pay for parking at country parks

We are making it easier for visitors to pay for their parking at our County Parks with the introduction of RingGo and Park Buddy to complement the existing PayByPhone payment app. With most parks having the ability for card payments to be made at the pay & display machine, visitors will also continue to have the option to pay with cash as well.

All money raised from car parking helps fund vital work and improvements across our Country Parks, giving visitors an enjoyable day out while maintaining our natural environment for generations to come.

Car park income helps fund various projects across acres of woodlands, meadows and wetlands in our nine beautiful Country Parks. These projects include:

• Continuing to maintain over 20 ponds and rivers across the parks protecting natural habitats for wildlife;

• Preserving and maintaining over 600 veteran and ancient trees in the parks;

• Ensuring wildflower diversity at the parks for pollination;

• Water vole habitat works – a recent project has had a positive impact on the number of water voles in the area. The population of water voles is under threat so this was a very positive outcome and one which will be continued;

• Eighty-metre hedgerow planted at Brockhill for biodiversity. In the spring it will provide blossoms for foraging pollinators and provide a place for wildlife to have their young and rest;

• A new family-friendly cycle path at Shorne Woods Country Park;

• Changing Places toilets installed at Brockhill, Lullingstone and Shorne Woods, giving people with complex and profound disabilities the opportunity to visit the parks;

• Updated play areas for children to enjoy at the parks including an inclusive and accessible play area at Shorne with a wheelchair swing;

• Extra Tramper mobility scooters allowing visitors with limited mobility the opportunity to get into nature.

From Monday, 24 April, the cost of a season ticket will be £62 which gives access to all nine of Kent Country Parks for the whole year. At £1.19 a week with a season ticket, there are plenty of free activities at the park making it an ideal low-cost day out for the family. Across our nine country parks, there are walking trails suitable for all abilities, play areas for children, wooden sculptures, horse and cycling routes, accessible trails, opportunities for geocaching and orienteering, and many places to enjoy a picnic in beautiful natural surroundings.

Discover our Country Parks

 

Rising living costs have meant many of us are trying to make savings where we can. Get some tips to save money on your food shopping and ideas for cooking healthy, nutritious and delicious recipes.

Find out more about One You Kent and Better Health

 

 

 

Kent Air Week – please turn your engines off

Leaving engines idling while cars are stationary is unnecessary, and has a huge impact on the quality of the air we breathe and our health.

Levels of harmful air pollution are higher during school pick-up times due to cars idling and this has been linked to increases in asthma, allergies, and heart and lung diseases.

Help keep your children and their classmates healthy by turning off your car if you are waiting for more than one minute. For further information and to register for the air quality email forecasts, visit www.kentair.org.uk/

 

 

 

 

Tick activity increases in spring and peaks between April and June, and this is when tick bite risk is highest. Find out what to do if you’ve been bitten by a tick.

 

 

 

 

 

Foster for Kent

To celebrate Autism Awareness Month, we’d like to share some thoughts from one of our wonderful foster carers who supports a young person with autism…

If you’d like to find out more please give us a call on 03000 420 002 or take a look at our Kent Fostering website.

 

 

 

“My wife (Laura) and I have been caring for a young man who was diagnosed with Autism nearly two years after he first came to live with us. He is now 14 and has been with us for nearly 10 years.

After he arrived, we both soon knew that he had some additional needs. We soon joined the waiting list for an assessment for ASC and it is in this time as a Foster Carer that you must advocate for your young person and to the best of your ability. We pushed for our young man’s assessment, endeavouring to get the earliest date possible. We have worked closely with the Social Workers to find the right school, so that he can continue to learn and grow in a safe and secure environment. Both his and our social workers were fantastic and have continued to be a huge help to us as Foster Carers and a fostering family. Our young man now loves going to school and is doing well. Although some might say I was a pain, I know that our young man would not.

I clearly remember the day that our young person finally received the diagnosis of ASC in 2015. It was a huge relief that we knew that our instincts were correct and have now been recognised officially. Fostering a child with autism will present its own unique issues and it is important as Foster Carers to understand the causes of challenging behaviour, through doing so it will become easier to develop strategies for dealing with it. Autism is a developmental disability that can be noticed within the first three years. It affects the functioning of the brain in three specific areas: impaired social function, impaired communication abilities and abnormal behaviour.

The diagnosis enabled us to attend a variety of NHS courses, including an 8-week course to better understand our young man and the world as he sees it and the things that we could do to make it as easy as possible for him to cope.

We also have the fantastic training and support available through Kent Fostering, which has given us the tools to explore and understand the world through the eyes of our young man and to ultimately enable us to help him as best we can. Their fostering support groups also give you the opportunity to meet other Foster Carers that encounter similar challenges we may be facing.

I can honestly say until you have lived with a child with ASC, you have no idea of the depths of your resilience, resourcefulness and abilities. You have no choice but to become a forward thinker, we now need to ensure that we plan ahead and carefully consider any factors that could result in our young man becoming distressed and look to prevent them.

You often have to do some detective work out to find out why something has upset the young person, so you can help prevent similar situations from happening in the future. It is important to find out about their routines; what things are important to that particular child? What are the triggers for anxiety? What do you need to avoid? What are their dislikes? What is known to help the child feel safe, calm and secure?

Our young man must have consistency and predictability, although he himself can be totally unpredictable, or so it seems until you unpick the situation and discover the triggers.

Looking after these children and young people can of course be challenging, but the rewards can be considerable. Our young man brings so much joy to our lives and we continue to be on this learning curve every day. We will continue to help him grow into a young man that will be able to cope in a world he does not fully understand to the best of our abilities and as his Foster Carers we will help in giving him the strategies to cope and be the best version of himself.”

Paul and Laura, Foster Carers with Kent Fostering.