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On 4th June 2015, the Wiltshire Parent Carer Council (WPCC) held an Annual Update Event at Trowbridge Rugby Club. The event was to update parent carers and professionals on what we have been involved with and our achievements over the last year. We also talked about what Parent Participation and the WPCC’s Special Educational Needs and Disability Information Service (SENDIS) have achieved and gave an overview of the events we have run over the last 12 months. The WPCC Team Leads spoke about their particular areas of expertise, followed by an opportunity for attendees to sit around the table and chat with them and their parent reps.
A group of 10 professionals and 20 parent carers attended, as well as WPCC staff/volunteers. For those who were unable to attend the event, here is a description of the presentations, along with copies of the slides/speeches.
A Year's Overview (Stuart Hall, Strategic Director) - Stuart's presentation gave an overview of the WPCC's year along with information on the parent carer voice and its impact on services and the WPCC structure, roles and workstreams. At the end of the presentation slides you will also see an overview of the changes brought about by the Children and Families Act 2014.
Click here to view the presentation.
SENDIS Overview (Sharon Selkridge, Senior SENDIS Worker) - Sharon presented the results of the SENDIS Satisfaction Survey - take a look at her presentation and the survey report.
Financial Overview (Stuart Hall, Strategic Director and Janice Grafton, Treasurer and Secretary) - Jan and Stuart gave a financial overview including where the WPCC gets its funding from and what the funding has been spent on this year. Take a look at their presentation.
WPCC Team Lead Updates
Patti Harrison - Learning Disability and Autism Team Lead update
Jenny Oliver - 16-24 Commissioning Team Lead presentation and presentation notes
Shelagh Matthews - Health update
Early Years, Denise Milton (update coming soon)
Our parent reps who support our Team Leads also introduced themselves and it was a great opportunity to welcome our newest parent reps, Christine Shord and Cristina Oliviera. After lunch, attendees had a chance to sit around the table and have a chat with the WPCC Team Leads.
We rounded up the day with information on the Children and Families Act 2014 and future WPCC events that parent carers might be interested in.
To see the full event feedback and our responses, please click here.
Achievements in response to parent carer feedback, consultation and participation by Stuart Hall (Strategic Director, WPCC)
Most recently I can that say the following has been achieved in response to parent carer feedback, consultation and participation:-
- Increase in eligibility age for the Short Break Scheme
- New Children's Learning Disability Health Service
SEND Specialist Carers providing overnight short breaks in their own homes
- Introduction of ASD Youth Clubs
- Continuation of Positive Activity clubs for young people with SEND, in the face of cuts to the Youth Service. Resulting in clubs following the community led model where there was capacity/ interest e.g. South Wilts MENCAP: Our Club
- Targeted Services expanding the eligibility age for their clubs and activities
- Centralised administration of Short Breaks services including ASD clubs and Kaya Drumming sessions
- Barnardo's re-awarded the tender for Short Breaks as identified by parent carers as a priority in Short Breaks consultations last year
- Local Offer: key principles, design and functionality of the website lead and informed by parent carers
- Re-commissioning of Children's Community Health Services: one provider, joined up services at the right time and in the right place. Key principles designed by parent carers
- Widening the eligibility criteria of the Companion Bus Pass for children and young people with SEND and embedding the process in SEND rather than passenger transport. A parent carer tells us that: “She has personally benefitted from the change in Passenger Transport becoming part of the SEND Service for getting a bus pass. The whole process was much simpler and quicker. I have passed this on to several other parent carers who have had equal success in gaining companion bus passes for their teenagers with SEND. In the past, parent carers often didn't bother as the general feeling was that it would be a lot of effort with no guarantee of success”
- Wiltshire Autism Information Pack: Parent carers had stated the lack of specific and specialist 'info and support' for families of children an d young people with Autistic Spectrum Conditions (ASC). Parent carers reported there was a lack of centralised knowledge and they expressed a desire for a 'one-stop-shop' for ASC-specific information during the consultation on 'Better Support for children and young people with Autistic spectrum Conditions' 2012. The information pack, as well as the Children’s Autism Strategy, has been developed in direct response
- Online application for the Short Breaks Scheme: parent carers have reported how much easier they find this, WPCC are able to support any parent carer who does not have access to the internet or would prefer support to complete the application
- Winterbourne View Focus Groups, which were an important strand in the consultation about gaps in current services . The consultations so far have resulted in the creation of the new Learning Disabilities Wiltshire Intensive Support Service which goes live at the end of this month to support people with LD who also have mental health and/ or complex and challenging needs. Also arising from this consultation work with parent carers is the building of the Daisy - a purpose built housing resource in Devizes to provide much-needed, in county provision, for this particular group of people
An ever increasing number of Universal providers are skilled and equipped to meet the needs of children and young people in activities, groups and clubs etc. in their communities so that they are included in their local areas; it was rewarding to hear from parent carers during the most recent Short Breaks consultations (including the session in the south of the county) how many more opportunities there are now for young people, how much more accessible universal settings are to young people with SEND, how much more empowered families are to find opportunities for their children, and how much more included families are feeling.
Anecdotally, a parent carer has fed back that her son has personally benefited from the Ability Sports Programmes and they do “seem to be more inclusive for those with sensory impairments as they now have a colleague who can sign BSL”. The parent carer tells us she has been proactive in “spreading the word”.
A parent carer has told us that she feels that there has been a positive effect on some of the children's centres as there are more early years engagement sessions in some of these venues for families do not qualify for the Short Break scheme due to the increase in age of eligibility. “So families with under 5s and even some under 11s are not being left out either. I've noticed this with the Children's Centre along with Stepping Stones/ Longmeadow Primary School, due to knowing families who have attended these”. “I also know that Chippenham Children's Centre (Frogwell) and Devizes Children's Centre has sessions that are drop-in for all under 5s. So again it relates to more children and their parent carers being given the opportunity to access local services”.
My Early Years Team Lead tells me that the early years parents in the Salisbury area who have met with her at John McNeill seem to fully accept that they were given lots of different opportunities to give their views and she always remind them that they can phone or email the WPCC if they are not able to attend the consultations.
More historically, the WPCC was successful a few years ago following a WPCC consultation session with parent carers which Karina Kulawik and Jason Salter helped to facilitate, and Cllr Lionel Grundy attended. Meetings with Cllrs Lionel Grundy and Laura Mayes followed and the conclusion was: “It wasn't broken so didn't need fixing”; as a result of this work, a decision was made to stop SEN Transport overhauling its service, the whole project was abandoned due to parental input.
And of course, as I often quote, when the Short Breaks Scheme was in it's very earliest stages of being designed, the solutions regarding eligibility criteria and age ranges were actually borne from listening to the ideas of parents at the consultation held in Salisbury.
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