HELP SHAPE A NEW PARENT CARER FORUM FOR COVENTRY
Are you the parent carer of a child or young person? Do they have additional needs? Coventry needs a new forum to represent the views of parent carers and improve services for their children and young people. You can help to shape it! Find out more at two FREE and friendly virtual Coventry Parent Carer Forum Information Events at 11 am on Thursday 24 March and 7pm on Thursday 31 March.
Simply book via Eventbrite.
Parent carer forums are independent groups run by parent carers. They work with the local authority and health as equal partners to help improve services for children and young people with additional needs and their families.
Every local authority area in England needs a parent carer forum. But at the moment there is no forum for Coventry. That means less say for parent carers in your area. Contact is supporting parent carers to establish a forum for Coventry.
Want to find out more about parent carer forums and how to get involved? Watch the videos What is a Parent Carer Forum and What do they do? to find out more about parent carer forums.
Watch Making a Difference, Why Should I Join My Local Parent Carer Forum? to find out more how parents across England are helping improve local and national services for children with special educational needs and disabilities.
Contact Details
For more information or access support, email Wendy Davey, Contact Associate wendy.contactpcf@gmail.com
Who can attend?
Parent carers of children and young people with additional needs living in or accessing statutory health and/or education services in Coventry are welcome to attend. Additional needs means all special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and additional needs, whether diagnosed or not.
About Contact
Contact supports and champions parent carer participation and parent carer forums across England through our contract with the Department for Education. We lead the strategic participation consortium for parent carers and children and young people alongside the Council for Disabled Children, KIDS and the National Network of Parent Carer Forums (NNPCF).
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An opportunity has arisen for a parent, preferably with an interest in Special Educational Needs, to sit on Coventry City Council's Scrutiny board for Education and Children's Services.
Scrutiny is part of the Council’s decision making process and provides overview of decision made by the Cabinet. The model is based on the select committee model of the Houses of Parliament.
Scrutiny is about…
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Policy Development and Review – provides support to Cabinet and officers in developing policy and investigating whether planned outcomes are being achieved – e.g. ways to recruit and retain social workers
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Holding the Executive (Cabinet) to Account for decisions - at different stages of the decision-making process. Scrutiny is independent of the Cabinet, responsible for setting their own work programmes
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Review of Council Services - reviewing Council services to ensure they are achieving customer satisfaction and value for money together with monitoring Council performance and ensuring standards are met – e.g. delivery of the Holiday Activity Fund
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External Scrutiny - scrutinising the work and impact of external agencies on the community e.g. health service providers, Community Safety Partnership and other partners
- Meetings are held in public and most reports are accessible to all
There are usually about 6 meetings a year – all dates agreed at the start of the municipal year in May. SB2 currently meets at 10.30 on a Thursday morning.
The board will look at all aspects of Education services and Children’s Services, but obviously has to focus on specific areas that are relevant, subject to decisions or is of a concern in terms of performance. Each board has a work programme which identifies items for each meeting, which is a fluid working document. For 2022/23, some of the topics to be covered will be:
- Library provision
- Children Missing Education
- One Strategic Plan
- Adoption Service Annual Report
- Family Valued Programme
- Youth Provision in Coventry
- SEND, employment and post-16 opportunities
- School Performance Information – validated data
Papers and reports are published a week before the meeting and board members are expected to have read them.
At the meeting, Council officers will introduce the items, the relevant Cabinet Member may also contribute and then it’s over to the Board members to ask questions. Each item will have recommendations for the Board to agree and there may be additional recommendations the Board want to make following questions. There can also be actions for officers to pick up as an outcome.
If you are interested in becoming involved, the meetings are open to the public so you would be more than welcome to attend the next meeting on Thursday 17th March at 10.30 in the Council House, to see us in action.
If you have any further questions, please contact:
Gennie Holmes, Scrutiny co-ordinator
024 7697 1857
gennie.holmes@coventry.gov.uk
The Coventry Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Local Offer brings together information for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities and their families.
The SEND Local Offer will cover services available to the public across education, health and social care:
Education: such as nurseries, playgroups, schools and colleges as well as support services like Educational Psychology and SEN services
Health: children's and adult services including GPs, therapists and hospital services
Social care: such as short break services and children's and adult disability services.
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You can keep up to date with latest information about SEND in Coventry through SENDIASS's social media pages
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