STOP PRESS….. YOUR PARENT CARER FORUM NEEDS YOU!!
Wirral has a Parent Carer Forum – Parent Carer Participation Wirral. They will soon be recruiting new members including a new co-Chair and Deputy so click on the link below to find out more about who they are and what they do.
Parent Carer Participation Wirral as of January 2021
Each month the Steering group from Wirral’s Parent Carer Forum (PCPW) meet with the SEND and Inclusion Lead and SEND Participation Manager to openly and transparently discuss issues and seek solutions. During COVID 19, these meetings are online and follow a structured agenda to maximise the time together. Guest speakers are sometimes invited to talk about their roles and responsibilities, their current priorities as well as things going well and those in need of some improvement. Recently the forum have invited the senior manager for SEND Transport and a senior manager from Adult Social care with more guests in the pipeline.
Prior to each meeting, the forum survey their members and the emerging common themes are raised. During the pandemic these included topics such as issues with laptop provision, deteriorating mental health, SEND transport and the Designated School Grant. The questions are collated and responded to by the most appropriate service lead.
It has been agreed with PCPW that the questions raised and responses given (albeit some are work in progress) will be added to the Local Offer website for all Parent/Carers to have sight of.
Look out for the positive outcomes as the months unfold.
PCPW KIT Action Points raised December 2020
PCPW KIT Action Points raised September-November 2020
NNPCF – National Network of Parent Carer Forums
A parent carer forum is a group of parents and carers of disabled children who work with local authorities, education settings, health providers and other providers to make sure the services they plan and deliver meet the needs of disabled children and families.
In England there are parent carer forums in almost all local authority areas.
The Local Authority is currently working with the newly formed Parent Participation group who are called Parent Carer Participation Wirral. This is the official group which will replace the former group which was called Wirral Family Forum. The new group will have representatives on all the main Local Authority SEN steering groups and play an important role in co-production of our services for Children and Young People who have Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. (SEND). This is because Wirral recognises that the people who use services are in the best position to advise on how those services should be shaped.
Parent Carer Participation Wirral (PCPW) will be made up of parents and carers for these children and will offer service providers the views and concerns of parent carers to influence service development, design and delivery. PCPW are made up of a Steering Group which will manage the work of the parent carer forum.
Successful forums are regularly involved in joint work to shape and develop services for children and young people with SEND and their families . To contact PCPW, please either telephone on 0151 670 0777, write to Parent/Carer Participation Wirral, c/o Wired Resource Centre, St James Centre, 344 Laird Street, Birkenhead, CH41 7AL or by e mail to [email protected]
An application form to become a Parent Carer member of PCPW is available on request at the above contact details.
The main function of the National Network of Parent Carer Forums is to develop cohesive good practice, effective participation and a solution focused approach at all levels, locally, regionally and nationally.
Click here to read more about the NNPCF.
Education Health Care Plans (EHCP) Parent/Carer Feedback
All plans sent out include a feedback form asking parents and carers about their child’s Education Health and Care Plan and their experience of the process to get a Plan.
Form included 5 questions with four possible ratings for each question. Comments were also invited for each question.
Between January and June 2016 a total of 98 forms were returned and of these 86 (88%) were positive replies. 12 (12%) were negative replies.
Click the link below to read the full report.
Education Health and Care Plans Feedback Jan-Jun2016
Parent Carer Survey
We sent a survey out to parents/carers asking what issues they feel are affecting their child or young person now. The information gathered will be reported in the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment which you can read more about here. The report will then be presented to commissioners on Wirral and we will publish a link to the comments on this page.
This is an open ended survey and builds on the questions asked in the “Tell us what you think” section of this site.
This is a link to the survey if you would like to complete it and below are the comments that parents/carers gave. We have had 11 responses so far.
What is your relationship to the child or young person? – 11 parents completed the survey
How old is the child or young person in your care?
2x age 5-11
7x age 11-16
2x age 16-25
What issues concerning the child or young person matter most to you now and why?
Question 3 Responses
What issues concerning the child or young person do you think will matter to you most in the future and why?
Question 4 Responses
What realistic and practical changes do you think could make a difference for the child or young person?
Question 5 Responses
In an ideal world scenario what changes do you think could make a difference to the child or young person?
Question 6 Responses
Here is a copy of the report for the JSNA based on the feedback you provided.
Please tell us what you think, is this a good way of collecting your feedback or is there a better way we could do it? Let us know in the feedback section.
Get your Rights
Everything you need to know about Healthcare. You have rights when making decisions and choices about your healthcare – click the link below to find out more.
Know your legal rights – download the Disabled Children Legal Handbook 2nd edition Here.
Healthwatch
Healthwatch will give people a powerful voice locally and nationally. At a local level, Healthwatch Wirral will work to help local people get the best out of their local health and social care services, whether it’s improving them today or helping to shape them for tomorrow. Local Healthwatch is all about local voices being able to influence the delivery and design of local services. Not just people who use them, but anyone who might need to in future.
Call us: 0151 230 8957
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.healthwatchwirral.co.uk
Local Area Special Educational Needs and Disability Inspection
Wirral SEND Partnership – Information, Advice and Support Service – have put together some information for parents and carers about the Local Area Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Inspection and how you can get involved by sharing your views with the inspectors.
Click here to find out more.
Below are some parents and carers groups that we have met with to hear their thoughts on the Local Offer
SEND Parents Drop-in
Alongside the SEND Youth Voice Group (which you can read more about on our SEND Youth Voice page) we run a parent/carer drop in. This is a chance for parents/carers to share their thoughts on the local offer and service provision. A fear from all the parents and carers that attend the group is that Creative Youth Development will lose their funding due to the austerity services are facing. Parents and carers told us that they can relax as they know the young person in their care is being looked after in a truly person-centred way and this has a positive impact not just on the young person but on the whole family. Parents told us that they would like to see this person-centred care being used as a standard model particularly for support staff providing sports and leisure activities.
The Observatory Parents Group
This parents group told us that having a Local Offer in each area is a good idea that they wish had happened sooner. Parents told us how challenging it has been in the past to find services that are suitable for thier child and that the key to making Wirral’s Local Offer a success will be to make sure all organisations and businesses are included so that parents have access to all options for their child.
Foxfield School Parent/Carer Association
The parents and carers at Foxfield School told us that the site works well on mobile phones and that it is useful to know it exists. They told us that in order for them to use it regularly it would need to have more leisure activities on that have an SEND provision. They said that the most useful thing the Local Offer could have on it is a list of all leisure activities on Wirral including small community based ones.
Through Community Action Wirral’s links with voluntary, community and faith sector services we are raising awareness of the Local Offer and supporting community groups to add their services. If you or your child has accessed a service that you would like listing please let us know here and we will contact them.
Orrets Meadow School Parents Team Teach
The parents at Orrets meadow school told us that the Local Offer is a useful resource for them however it isn’t very young person friendly. They said that the language would be very difficult for their child or young person to understand and that it is not engaging enough.
This is something that we are aware of and presents as one of the on-going challenges we face. We have to get the right balance of SEND information on the site for parents and carers as well as meeting the needs of young people. This is something we are working on continously and you can read about the changes we have made so far here. The main feedback from young people has been to create a video which we have done and to add more images and artwork. We are now working with schools and youth groups to create some cartoons and other images for the site.
Who Cares? Parents and Carers group
Who Cares? parents & carers group explained that whilst they would like to contribute to the on-going development of the Local Offer due to high demand on their time they need a way of doing this that is easy as possible. The group voiced collectively that they need a Facebook page in order to do this. At present there is no capacity for a Facebook page to monitored however there is a new post being created for a full-time Communications Officer. We hope to have a person in post in the coming months, this will then offer the capacity to monitor a Facebook page. So in short Facebook is on it’s way, we just need a little longer to make it happen.
The Welcome Centre
Community Action Wirral attended a transition event at the Welcome Centre in Birkenhead. During this event, parents and carers were shown the changes that had been made based on feedback from the old site. The general comments were that the new site is much more user friendly and easier to navigate.
It was highlighted by parents at this event that more information on Transition needs to be available on the site including information on the transition team. This has now been included and you will find it in the Growing up and Leaving School box on the homepage.