A VOICE FOR PARENT CARERS

“Gloucestershire Parent Carer Forum is a voice for those with lived experience of being a Parent Carer (This means parents and/or carers of children with any disability, SEN, condition, impairment or additional need).  We can create a bridge to the providers of statutory services to help build better services for all families of disabled children in Gloucestershire.”

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"Listen to Me" social meet ups in your area - check out our Dates for your Diary section
A chance to meet up with other families of disabled children for peer to peer support and to share your views on the services your families need

Gloucestershire County Council were inspected by Ofsted and CQC at the end of last year. Further to that inspection they have updated the Local Area SEND and Inclusion Improvement Plan. You can read more below and by following the link provided:
“Gloucestershire was inspected under the local area SEND inspection framework from the 27th of November 2023 to the 15th of December 2023. The inspection provided a valuable and challenging test and validation of the local area partnerships existing self-evaluation and the associated improvement plan.
The judgement that current arrangements lead to “inconsistent experiences and outcomes for children and young people with SEND”, is the judgement we expected and where we assessed our own performance before Ofsted arrived.
Whilst we are pleased and reassured that the inspection confirmed that we know ourselves well; it also confirms that is much that needs to be done to get to where we want to be. As a local area partnership, we are striving for and committed to achieving excellence! This was noted by inspectors in the report – ‘Leaders across the partnership have a shared vision of excellence’ and the ‘The local area’s strategic plans are ambitious and designed to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND in Gloucestershire’.
As such our approach to adapting strategic improvement plans following the inspection, is one of refinement and evolution, rather than revolution or reinvention.”

Families in Partnership

The Parent Carer Forum has partnered with Gloucestershire County Council to share this key information leaflet for Parent Carers.

If you have any questions or concerns please get in touch with us so we can pass these on.  We are engaging in weekly Q and A sessions with GCC and the CCG to provide up to date information and guidance.

You can email us:   info@glosparentcarerforum.org.uk

or contact us via our Facebook Page or the Forum Discussion Group

The best way to be kept up to date and to help get the voice of Parent Carers heard is join the forum as a member. Click below to join the forum (membership is free)

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We are delighted to be able to share this report with you.  Michelle has worked tirelessly to ensure that the power of what you shared with us over the last year is fully conveyed.  

We recognise that for many of our members being a parent carer can be challenging to say the least.  The evidence is in the report, lack of support, lack of access to services and in a worrying number of cases, a lack of school places paints a difficult picture.  As parent carers ourselves we share many of the challenges you’ve told us about.  

The financial challenges of raising a child with SEND cannot be ignored, especially in the current climate.  Keep an eye out for helpful information on our social media feed about Disability Living Allowance, Personal Independence Payments and Carers Allowance over the coming weeks.  If you’re already in receipt of those don’t forget to check about the Disability Element of Child Tax Credits or Universal Credit if you’re in receipt of either of those.  

If you’re still waiting on news of a school placement for September please know that we are with you – it’s a journey more than one of us has been on  – and we always flag that need for more capacity with the Education Department when we meet.  You may have seen the recent news of a new school coming to Gloucester but we all recognise that’s a little way off and certainly won’t be ready for September this year.  

Here at the Parent Carer Forum our plan is to use what you’ve told us to shape the priorities of our work this year and to share with you where that takes us.  We’d love you to be part of what we do so, if you feel that you’d like to work with us please get in touch.  We’re keen to empower parent carers to be active participants in meetings with our Local Authority and Health boards in anyway you feel able.  That might be as a parent rep attending meetings or it might be by providing responses to targeted surveys or comments on your experience.  

Let me close by thanking those of you who have contributed to our work this year, to those of you who have attended Listen to Me meet ups and shared the issues that matter to you, to those of you’ve who’ve filled in surveys or shared your experiences with the professionals who’ve attended our meetings.  Your voice is important and we will do all that we can to make it count.

WHAT WE DO?

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SOCIAL MEET UPS

Join other parent carers for friendly meet ups, share you views, make new friends, and get support and information.

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BECOME A MEMBER

Receive regular newsletters, join our online chat group, find out about other services.
Membership is free

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STRATEGIC PARTNER FOR BETTER SERVICES

Add your voice to our work to improve services for all children with additional needs, SEN and disabilities in Gloucestershire.

What is parent participation?

Parent carers are in a good position to identify issues regularly experienced by families with disabled children (including those with any kind of physical, learning or sensory impairment, disability, additional need, long term health condition or SEND). Sharing this knowledge with professionals as they plan services to meet disabled children’s needs is a valuable way for Parent Carers to participate in the development of better services and support.

Parent Carer participation occurs when parents and professionals work together, recognising each other’s expert knowledge, to design, develop and improve services for disabled children in the local area.

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ABOUT US

The forum is led by a committee of parent carer volunteers who will work to ensure parent participation is supported and facilitated across services in the county.  If you would like to support the forum by joining our committee please get in touch via email.  The committee will generally meet once a month to plan the forum’s next projects and reflect on current work.  We are a Community Interest Company with a board of Directors, all of whom are parent carers.  The forum does not share Parent Carer details with other organisations,  you will only be contacted by the forum using the details you provide when you register.

email: info@glosparentcarerforum.org.uk to find out more.