Find out more about Parent Carer Forums...
What is parent carer participation?
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.
What is a parent carer forum?
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 contacts video what is a parent carer forum and what they do.
In England there are parent carer forums in almost all local authority areas.
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.
Who can join a parent carer forum?
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.
Watch this video for more information on why you should join a forum
Co-production
Co-production is an important principle in parent carer participation.
Co-production is 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, where forums, local authorities, health providers and commissioners share their experiences of working in co-production and how it helped them improve services.
Co-production and campaigning
The conditions of their grant mean that parent carer forums can't take part in campaign activity. However, that doesn't mean that forums can't support local and national campaigns with their knowledge and experience.
Find out more about how parent carer forums can work with campaign groups in contacts co-production and campaigning guidelines.
National Alliance for Partnership Working (NAPW)
Contact hosts the National Alliance for Partnership Working (NAPW) and includes organisations involved in special educational needs and disability. The aim of the alliance is to develop a shared language and understanding of co-production.
The NAPW definition of co-production is:
Co-production is an equal and reciprocal relationship where everyone's knowledge and skills are used to create better outcomes.
The NAPW adopted the model of co-production developed in Rotherham. It includes four principles known as cornerstones. The Cornerstones required to create good quality co-production and inclusive practice are:
- Welcome & Care
- Value & Include
- Communicate
- Work in Partnership
Developing and nurturing each of these principles builds:
The Four Cornerstones have been developed into a quality indicator framework that enables local areas to reflect on how well they are co-producing and help embed co-production across organisational culture.
For more information about the National Alliance for Partnership Working, email: parent.participation@contact.org.uk
Quality Indicators of Co-production - a framework and self-evaluation tool
Using the Quality Indicators of Co-production framework should help develop a shared level of understanding and expectation to which all local area partners can aspire.
For more information or support to improve and develop co-production, please contact parent.participation@contact.org
