NEWS UPDATE:
The Rt Hon John Bercow is holding an SEN/Disability surgery at Clearly Speaking on Friday 20th January. Mr Bercow will be at Clearly Speaking between 1:30 and 4:30pm. There are some appointments still available for all Bucks parent/carers struggling to get the help & resources that their children need to achieve their potential. Please call 01280 824871 to book an appointment to speak to Mr Bercow. If you would like to raise any issues relating to local services and provision but are unable to attend, then please email us your comments to info@clearlyspeaking.org.uk.
A message for all parents, carers, children, young people & friends.
“Please give us our clubs back”
Can you help Clearly Speaking/The Clearly Cool Clubs to fight back?
We have been overwhelmed by all the calls and comments from children and young people who have just lost their clubs and activities. We have been asked to get the clubs opened again and are very sad to inform you of the new managers of the Youth Centre site. We have been told that young people who are members of the clubs and activities feel sad, angry, upset and frustrated because they have been treated unfairly by members of the Buckingham Youth Centre Management Committee. They are angry about the way they are banned from a site that children and young people who do not have disabilities or special needs are still able to access.
We contacted Mr Ed Malam, who works within the Children and Young People’s Services, Bucks County Council. He was very responsive to our appeal and suggested that we are able to meet and that this meeting should be chaired by an impartial Chair who is to be provided by Buckinghamshire County Council – Youth Services.
The Youth Centre Management Committee and Youth Services Managers want members of Action 4Youth to attend, but we feel that this is inappropriate due to their alliance with the Management Committee of the BYC. However, in our build to try to reach a resolution and meaningful agreement to enable all to move forward, we have agreed to their attendance. This meeting will take place on the 31st January 2012.
We have now received an email from Mr Barnett, Chairman of the Buckingham Youth Centre Management Team who has states that they will not accept our bookings, (despite them being reasonable and on the required forms), and that should we reach an agreement and be permitted to make bookings, there may not be any availability for the long term sessions we have been booking during the ownership of the site by Buckinghamshire County Council.
We have emailed Lucy Pike, Manger of Youth Services - North Bucks. We have asked that our clubs be reinstated immediately as there is no evidence of any reason why our bookings should be withdrawn. We have in fact completed the same processes required by all other hirers of the centre.
Mrs Pike will respond to our request by Thursday so that she can understand our request fully. We will inform you of her decision to ensure our clubs may restart as soon as we hear.
We would appreciate your support on this by adding your name to parents and young people requesting that all long term bookings at the centre are reinstated as was promised by Bucks CC in the summer. We would like you to write to Laura Nankin, Buckingham Youth Services Manger, and copy your letter or email to Clearly Speaking, and Mrs Lucy Pike (based at Bucks CC, County Hall, Aylesbury, Bucks).
We would like you to ask why all the charges for hire of the Buckingham Youth Centre Site for your Youth Clubs, special needs and disability accessible activities have in some cases more than doubled, in others we are paying more than four times the cost for hire, when the onsite “mainstream” youth clubs, inaccessible to young people with more complex needs, (the majority of young people accessing Clearly Cool Clubs) are being supported to run free of charge on site.
We would appreciate your help to find out why members of the Management Committee for the Youth Centre have booked in new groups when clubs have been run by Clearly Speaking/Clearly Cool Clubs for at least twelve months. Our Sunday club has run on alternative Sundays on the whole site for over ten years, however, we were informed in December that Mr Whatmore has booked an adult exercise class in to the hall for two hours every Sunday morning. We were previously assured by Mrs Laura Nankin that this would not happen. We would like to know how this situation can now be rectified.
We feel that Buckinghamshire County Council should be asked to explain why Clearly Speaking’s proposal to run the Youth Centre site as a community resource, prioritising the needs of all local children and young people, was not even considered. Our proposal made it clear that all groups working with children and young people would be supported to remain on site and that charges would not be rapidly increased for any of the community or volunteer based centre user groups.
We would also like your help and support to hear from Buckinghamshire County Council why, having made it clear during face to face meetings with all local parties interested in running the Youth Centre, following Mr Barnett’s comments stating that he would not work with Clearly Speaking, that this went unchallenged. We also need to understand how we have ended up in being banned from the Youth Centre site, as during these meetings Mr Barnett was informed that he had to include Clearly Speaking in any tender for the site, and we were informed that we would not be able to submit a tender without the Youth Club mangers. However, in October Mr Barnett was supported by Action4Youth to submit an independent tender for the site and without any discussion with Clearly Speaking, even when we asked for the information required to submit our own tender as the boundaries had now changed, Buckinghamshire County Council awarded the site to Mr Barnett and his committee.
We feel that the process of consultation, tendering and the awarding of the site all need to be investigated and independently reviewed as the process has enabled much needed and valued specialist provision run largely by volunteers, at no cost to the County Council, to be closed by those in place to ensure such services and resources remain on the Youth Centre Site, a community resource for all local children and young people.
We would greatly appreciate your help and support to raise all these issues with the following people:
Mr Ed Malam – Children & Family Services – Buckingham County Council
Mrs Laura Nankin – Manager of Buckinghamshire Youth Services
Mrs Rona Hopwood – Commissioner of Children & Young People’s Services - Bucks
Sir William Shakespear – Chief Executive – Buckinghamshire County Council.
Councillor Polhill – c/o Buckingham Town Council.
Councillor Hedley Cadd – c/o Buckingham Town Council.
Thank you for your help and support on these matters. Please help us to keep the pressure on Buckinghamshire County Council and the Buckingham Town Council so that we are able to protect these specialist clubs. It will be the weight of opinion and pressure from you as parents/carers and friends of Clearly Speaking which will enable us to get our specialist services, clubs and resources open again at speed.
We look forward to hear from you and we will ensure we keep you fully informed of our progress on these matters.
Kind Regards to all parents, professionals and friends of Clearly Speaking.
Janet and the Valued Team of staff
Legal assistance - can you help?
From time to time legal questions arise and; while we have a great deal of experience on a range of issues, it would be useful if any solicitors or others in the legal profession would be able to give us pro bono support. If you can help then please contact Janet at the centre
Thank you
Visit our new Duke of Edinburgh Award page and find out how you can take part in this exciting programme 
Please visit our News & Updates Page
About Clearly Speaking
Clearly Speaking is a charitable, approachable, professional and caring support service for all families and front line professionals.
We provide an holistic approach to care and support for all children & young people 0-25 yrs of age with any level of Special Educational Needs or Disability.
We are often asked who children and young people make so much progress when they come to Clearly Speaking, or the Clearly Cool Clubs. Our aim is to Find a child or young person’s area of interest and helping them to come and enjoy time with others who have similar interests. Help to make friends, learn new skills, relax and have fun.
Contact us by telephone on:
01280 824871 for General Enquiries
or
01280 824699 for the Confidential Helpline
Or by e-mail: office@clearlyspeaking.org.uk
We are now also on Facebook so please visit our page, tell your friends and family about us and join in (or start) a discussion.
More information is on our News & Updates Page
IMPORTANT NOTICE -
ABOUT CLUBS
Clubs may be cancelled because of the lack of confirmed bookings.
Parents/Carers/Young People: You MUST book your place 2 or 3 days before the date that the club that you wish to attend would normally be running.
The managers of the Buckingham Youth Centre have declared their intention to charge ‘commercial rates’ for the majority of our hire of the building which means that we can no longer afford to run clubs and activities if we only have a few people confirming that they will be attending.
We need you to help us to help you !
We are very sad that this situation has arisen and want to be able to maintain our activities but we cannot run clubs and incur costs if we cannot be sure that people will be attending - and the only way that we know that you WILL be attending is by YOU booking your place.
As the County Council decides upon the future of the Buckingham Youth Centre (which Clearly Speaking - and YOU) rely upon, we hope that the County Council will show support for our activities and for the young people attending those activities.
Please voice your opinions to Laura Nankin of Bucks County Council, to Bucks County Council in general and to Councillor Adams.
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NEWS UPDATE:
Don’t forget to visit our News & Updates Page
We would love to have your help..
In order to develop and maintain the support and services that Clearly Speaking offers to families and individuals we would like to encourage more volunteers and session leaders to join us.
As you would expect, in the best interest of everyone visiting and being involved with Clearly Speaking, there are certain formalities that need to be followed before becoming involved with Clearly Speaking’s activities but if you think that you might like to become involved the please visit our Vacancies & Volunteering Page to find out more …Thank You.
Thank you to Aiming High for supporting the work of Clearly Speaking with funding for some activities... everyone at Clearly Speaking greatly appreciates your help.
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