Author: acctsheffield7

Dear all

Unfortunately, Hillsborough Leisure Centre have had to close the pool today.Therefore the ACCT swimming session will not be running today

Apologies for the disappointment to families

Kind regards 

The ACCT Team

Many thanks to all members who attended ACCT’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) on the 30th January 2024. Here are the minutes from the meeting.

Dear ACCT Member,

You are invited to attend the ACCT Annual General Meeting on Tuesday 30th January 2023 from 7-8pm held online via Zoom – link and codes to join the meeting below.

This is an important meeting in the ACCT calendar. It is the main opportunity for the wider ACCT membership (that’s you!) to discuss the work of ACCT, our finances, how we’re doing as a charity and what our future plans should be. We present the annual report and accounts from 2022-23, appoint an independent examiner for our 2023-24 accounts and elect trustees to serve on the board. It’s normally quite a short meeting, lasting no more than one hour. We really hope you’re able to join us for some or all of the meeting.

The agenda for the AGM, the minutes from last year’s AGM and the 2022-23 Annual Report and Accounts are all available to download from here.

The Zoom details are:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82396671230?pwd=UzlPdVMrVW5QaEp1Vjc2SlJ2ZkZEdz09

Meeting ID: 823 9667 1230
Passcode: 605736

Kind Regards

Danny Antrobus, Fundraising and Finance Coordinator, Autistic Children and Carers Together

Due to the heavy rain we have made the decision to cancel tonight’s ACCT Academy Football Club. Hopefully we’ll be back next week!

‘ACCT has a great work culture and atmosphere which allows you to be yourself whilst maintaining high standards for children’s enjoyment and safety.’

ACCT is looking recruit playworkers at Acctivate Children’s Club on Saturday mornings and / or Wednesday evenings (at St Mary’s Community Centre, Bramall Lane, S2 4QZ).

The role would suit someone with prior experience working or studying in education, psychology, social care, speech and language, occupational therapy or similar. ACCT has an excellent reputation for providing high quality services and support in Sheffield. Join our friendly and experienced team, job satisfaction guaranteed!

For information and to download an application pack please visit our recruitment page – https://acctsheffield.org.uk/recruitment-page/

We are looking for football coaches to work at our successful and established football club ACCT Academy on Friday evenings (at Goals, 95 Norfolk Park Road).

This is a great opportunity to work in sport, providing high quality support and skills.

“I’ve really enjoyed my first few months working for ACCT. I was keen to find something fulfilling within football coaching and my experience has been really positive. The kids and my new colleagues are great and I’m looking forward to many more fun sessions!”

For information and to download an application pack please visit our recruitment page – https://acctsheffield.org.uk/recruitment-page/

Due to the heavy rain forcasted this evening we have taken the desion to cancel the ACCT Academy Session at goals.
Hopefully the weather will improve for next week.

Three exciting opportunities have arisen to join ACCT Sheffield. ACCT is looking for Playworkers to join our established team at our Teenage Club and Acctivate Children’s Club and a new Football Coach to join our fantastic team working at ACCT Academy Football Club.

If you are interested in working at ACCT or know someone who would be perfect, please visit our recruitment page to find out more about the roles, working at ACCT and to download an application pack.

‘ACCT has a great work culture and atmosphere which allows you to be yourself whilst maintaining high standards for children’s enjoyment and safety.’

Do you have a will? Have you thought about the long term care needs of your children? As parents we know these things are important but often put off getting them in place. 

ACCT are hosting a talk from Co-op Estate Planning on Tuesday 6th June at 10 – 11am at St Mary’s, Community Centre Bramall Lane, S2 4QZ. Refreshments provided.

The talk “Tax, Care and Toy Boys” is a tongue in check name. The Tax part of the title refers to inheritance tax which is cover in the talk, Care looks at long term care fees and the Toy Boy part of it relates to disinheritance tax which looks at a second marriage (maybe to a toy boy) where the children of the first marriage could be left out, as the second  marriage makes the first will void. These are all important things to consider when setting up a will. There will be an opportunity to ask questions and the option to use the Co-ops Will Writing Service.

Please email enquiries@acctsheffield.org.uk to book a place at this talk.

Voting is now open for the National Lottery People’s Projects!

Some stuff about the whys and wherefores below, but here’s what we really need you to do, please:

1. Vote for ACCT via our campaign page https://www.thepeoplesprojects.org.uk/projects/view/accting-up
2. Get everybody in your family to vote, even children (there’s no age limit)
3. Share the voting info around your social media, work email networks, neighbourhood WhatsApp groups, and wherever else you can!

The Background

ACCT has reached the public vote stage of this year’s National Lottery People’s Projects and, with your support, we are in with a real chance of receiving a vital grant of £70,000 to help autistic young people in Sheffield.

ACCT is one of five shortlisted projects in the Calendar South region. On our campaign page you can see a great short film about ACCT featuring some of our amazing young people. And check it out tonight (Monday 15th) on ITV Calendar South News from 6pm.

https://www.thepeoplesprojects.org.uk/projects/view/accting-up

Voting is open from today, Monday 15th May, to Friday 26th May. If we are in the top three of five projects in Calendar South, the Lottery will give ACCT a grant of £70,000.
 
Which would be massive for us this year.

More about voting

To vote for ACCT, go to our campaign page.

https://www.thepeoplesprojects.org.uk/projects/view/accting-up

You’ll see a ‘Start voting’ button. Then there’s a short form to fill in with your name, postcode, email address or mobile number (you’ll need this to verify your vote), how you heard about the People’s Projects and a checkbox to agree the terms and conditions (I’ve read em all, they’re fine, honest!).

Then when you hit continue, you have to verify your vote. If you put in an email address, you’ll get an email with a link you need to click/tap. If you put in a mobile number, you get a text message with a verification code which you enter on the website.

And that’s it. You’ve voted for ACCT. Thank you!

You can only use an email address or phone number once, so if your children or other family members are voting, you’ll need to use different emails and mobile numbers. Please let us know if this is causing you any issues.

We have a small number of pre-printed voting cards available. So if you or a non-online family member want to vote for ACCT but are struggling with the website, you can email Danny at d.antrobus@acctsheffield.org.uk with your name, address, postcode and contact telephone number and we can get a voting card completed for you.

Spreading the campaign around

Once you’ve voted, we would really appreciate you sharing our campaign with people you know, by forwarding this email on, sharing our social media posts or however else you could help us reach more people who could give ACCT a vote and help support autistic children in Sheffield.

Thank you for your support

Due to the adverse weather and heavy snow fall across the city we have made the decision to cancel tomorrow’s (Saturday 11th March) Acctivate Children’s Club.

Due to the adverse weather and heavy snow fall across the city we have made the decision to cancel tonight’s (Friday 10th March) ACCT Academy Football Club.

Many thanks to members who attended ACCT’s recent AGM, held on 31st January. At the meeting, members unanimously agreed with our special resolution to change the charity name from Asperger’s Children and Carers Together to Autistic Children and Carers Together.

This has now been updated on the Charity Commission register, so it’s official! We are now updating our name everywhere we need to, with all our service providers and on this website and a bunch of other places. What that means is that you should mainly now see the new Autistic Children and Carers Together name and logo, but there might be a few previous logos and names knocking around for a while while we make all the changes.

Minutes from the AGM are available here.

Dear ACCT Member,

You are invited to attend the ACCT Annual General Meeting on Tuesday 31st January 2023 from 7-8pm held online via Zoom – link and codes to join the meeting below.

This is an important meeting in the ACCT calendar. It involves the usual AGM business of presenting the annual report and accounts from 2021-22, appointing an independent person to examine our 2022-23 accounts and electing or re-electing trustees to serve on the board.

This year we are also proposing a special resolution to change the ACCT charity name from Asperger’s Children and Carers Together to Autistic Children and Carers Together, as well as updating our charity governing document to include current and inclusive language regarding Autism and gender identity.

The agenda for the AGM including the details of the special resolution, the proposed new ACCT constitution, and the minutes from last year’s AGM are all available to download from here, along with the 2021-22 Annual Report and Accounts.

We need at least 8 members to attend in order to hold a formal meeting and pass the special resolution; we really hope that you’re able to join us. The Zoom details are:

Meeting link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83411558708?pwd=bEx5VThSVzVYMFp3Y0Jua1VhVFI1UT09
Meeting ID: 834 1155 8708
Passcode: 919838

Kind Regards

The ACCT Team

Due to the freezing temperatures and icy paths around Goals we have made the decision to cancel tonight’s ACCT Academy Football session.

Apologies for any inconvenience caused.

ACCT Sheffield have a long standing relationship with BBC Children in Need and have received funding from the charity for a number years. One of the many projects BBC Children in Need funds at ACCT is our Dungeons and Dragons Club. The club started in lockdown on Zoom and continues to run with success, both online and in person.

In the run up to BBC Children in Need day, ACCT were selected to take part in promoting the fantastic work BBC Children in Need supports. Our video, that features our Dungeon and Dragons Club, is available to view now on the Newsround website!

The children who took part did an amazing job of explaining Dungeons and Dragons and autism, as well as promoting the work ACCT does to support those with autism in Sheffield. They had a great time hanging with the presenter DeGraft, and those filming the piece.

Are you a fan of board games? Fantasy and world building? Ridiculousness while chatting with pals? Classic table top game Dungeons and Dragons covers all that!



Our welcoming and supportive Dungeons and Dragons group for young adults (18+) is looking for new members. We meet online every Monday evening 6-9pm via Zoom and welcome complete beginners as well as experienced players.

The sessions are run by two experienced Dungeon/Game Masters who are patient, understanding, entertaining and skilled storytellers.

All you need to get started is:

1. Internet Access
2. Access to Zoom
3. Microphone
4. Pen
5. Paper

Interested in joining in and being on the list for places? Please get in touch at enquiries@acctsheffield.org.uk.

Two exciting opportunities have arisen to join ACCT Sheffield. ACCT is looking for a new Football Coach to join our fantastic team working at ACCT Academy Football Club and a playworker to work at Acctivate Children’s Club.

Asperger’s Children and Carers Together (ACCT) is a charity that has been supporting autistic children and their families in Sheffield since 2006. ACCT’s mission is for all autistic people in Sheffield to be valued and supported to live happy, fulfilling lives. We run a wide range of in-person and online activity groups for autistic children and young people, parent-carers and whole family activities.

Job summary:

We are looking to recruit energetic, friendly and fun individuals who are passionate about providing quality support and football coaching for young people. The role would be suitable for someone with prior experience working with children, social care, football or sport.

As an ACCT Employee you will be committed to improving the lives of Autistic children and young people in the Sheffield area. We need you to be open minded, empathic, understanding and patient, have a positive attitude, and be willing to learn.

ACCT Academy Football Club is a weekly in-person, inclusive group for autistic children and teenagers on a Friday evening at Goals Sheffield, Norfolk Park Road. The club is attended by up to 25 young people, looking to access football, develop their skills and make friends. The sessions include a warm up, drills and skills and end with a game.

Acctivate Children’s Club is a multi-activity, weekly in-person group for autistic children on a Saturday morning at St Mary’s Community Centre, Bramall Lane. The club is attended by up to 35 children, looking to play games and make friends. There are all sorts of activities running every week, including gaming, LEGO, arts and crafts, board games, football and outdoor activities.

Teenage Club is a multi-activity, weekly in-person group for autistic teenagers on a Wednesday evening at St Mary’s Community Centre, Bramall Lane. The club is attended by up to 35 young people, looking to play games and make friends. There are all sorts of activities running every week, including gaming, music, LEGO, arts and crafts, outdoor activities, board games, table football and pool.

ACCT has an excellent reputation for providing high quality services and support in Sheffield. Join our friendly and experienced team, job satisfaction is guaranteed. You can view our Instagram or Facebook to get a snapshot of what our clubs look like and the work that we do.

To apply read the Recruitment Advert, Role Descriptions and Specifications, fill in an Application Form and Personal Details Form and return to enquiries@acctsheffield.org.uk by Friday 2nd December 2022. Please get in touch if you would like to discuss either role.

Football Coach – Role Description and Role Specification

Playworker – Role Description and Role Specification

We are excited to welcome back Ruth Bright from Bright Futures Consultancy to deliver a Question and Answer Session on Tuesday 25th October @ 11am – 12pm.

Ruth will be on hand to answer all of your EHC Plan and SEND questions, offering legal advice set out in the SEN Code of Practice – 

• What is the criteria for applying for an EHC Plan?
• Can I apply for an EHC Plan without agreement from my child’s school?
• The difference between a My Plan and an EHC Plan
• What is the process for applying for an EHC Plan?
• Applying for a specialist provision
• My child is having non-attendance difficulties, what are my rights, what support should be put in place and what options are available?
• School are not meeting my child’s needs, what should I do?

The session will be recorded, if you are not able to attend please email your questions to us  before the event.

Please email enquiries@acctsheffield.org.uk to request your place. An invite and Zoom link will be sent out via email prior to the session.