Parent Carers Share Views

On Friday 17th May, the Steering Group for Parent Carer Participation Wirral (PCPW) met with Council Leader, Cllr Paul Stuart, Council Chief Executive, Paul Satoor, and Director for Children, Families and Education, Elizabeth Hartley, to have a full and frank conversation about SEND and the experiences of parent carers and their children in Wirral.

Chair of PCPW, Cath Griffiths, led the discussion, sharing the views and voice of local parents. Steering group members emphasised that communication with the parent community and SEND training for all professionals and leaders are the essentials that will make a difference.

One of the agreements reached at the meeting was that all parent carers embarking on an Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment should be able to attend an in-person session to explain the process, what to expect, timescales, the responsibilities of the Local Authority and have their questions answered at the earliest opportunity. Council leaders agreed to this, and sessions will be coming to Family Hubs across Wirral as soon as possible.

PCPW are always looking for new members and welcome parent carers of children with SEND to visit their website for more information Home (wirralparentcarergroup.co.uk)

Funded by the Department for Education, PCPW are a group made up of parents and carers for children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities who live or receive services in Wirral. They offer the Local Authority, commissioners, and service providers the views and concerns of parents and carers in order to influence service development, design and delivery. They aim to be the voice of parent carers and contribute to improvement of education, health and care services. They regularly hold events, training sessions and survey parents to get their views, which they feed into the Local Area SEND Partnership Board.