The way parent carers work with professionals is by forming groups called parent carer forums. A parent carer forum is a group of parents and carers of disabled children. Their aim is to make sure the services in their area meet the needs of disabled children and their families.
They do this by gathering the views of local families and then working in partnership with local authorities, education settings, health providers and other providers to highlight where local services, processes and commissioners are working well, or challenge when changes or improvements need to be made.
You can learn more by watching the video below.
Forums usually have a steering group of parents who lead this work and listen to the views of other parents in the local area to make sure they know what is important to them. Forums are keen to hear from as many parent carers as possible.
Parents or carers of a child with any type of additional need or disability are welcome to join. Joining your forum does not mean you have to commit lots of time. In most forums you can join and receive information, and then decide if you want to get more involved at your own pace.
The forum represents the views of parents in the local area but does not advocate for individual families.
You can learn more by watching the video below.
Parent carer participation sees parents and professionals working together to improve services for disabled children.
Parent carers can often pinpoint problems frequently experienced by families with disabled children. This knowledge is useful to professionals as they plan services to meet disabled children’s needs.
Parent carer participation is 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.
This webinar Introduction to participation, recorded by Contact offers a good introduction to parent participation.
Co-production is an important principle in parent carer participation. It’s when parent carer forums play an integral and equal part in the decision-making process and are fully engaged in shaping, developing, implementing and evaluating services and systems.
Evidence shows that these partnerships often make the best use of people’s time and money, whilst also improving outcomes for disabled children.
Watch this co-production video or watch the subtitled version, where forums, local authorities, health providers and commissioners share their experiences of working in co-production and how it helped them improve services.
