The Parent Carer Voice Herefordshire (PCVH) is a group composed of parents and carers of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in Herefordshire. Their aim is to ensure that the voices of parents and carers are heard and their views are taken into account when planning and delivering services for children with SEND.
PCVH works closely with Herefordshire Council, The ICB, and other organizations involved in delivering services for children and young people with SEND. They provide feedback on services, advocate for change, and offer support and information to parents and carers.
PCVH also organizes events and training sessions to enable parents and carers to meet with each other, share experiences and learn new skills. They aim to strengthen the voice of parents and carers in decision-making processes and ensure that the services provided are of excellent quality and meet the needs of children with SEND and their families.
We have three main aims
Community
The creation of a Herefordshire parent carer community that reduces isolation and strengthens the capacity of parents to support their family.
Empower
The provision of information to inform and empower parents and carers about the issues that affect their families.
Opportunities
The provision of opportunities for parents and carers to influence the decisions that affect their families and to contribute to developing services that meet the needs of their families.
My name is Debbie, and I am the Chair of the PCV Herefordshire. I have been associated with Parent Carer Voice for over ten years but in March 2019, I was voted in as Chair and this means a great deal for me. As we are working towards making a change to SEND support and hopefully will help change the lives for others with Additional needs. My Son was diagnosed with ADHD when he was 5 but by the age of 8 that changed to ASD with ADHD as his Autistic traits became more noticeable. But I believe that all children with Additional needs should have their voices heard even if its from the parents it’s still a voice.
I have an 11 yr. old who has severe GDD, non verbal, limited understanding, poor muscle tone and a very rare form of epilepsy which effects her whole brain. She required 24/7 supervision.
I have over 20 years in law having my law degree and I qualified as a legal executive Many years ago. I was originally head hunted with regards to EHCP as my daughters first EHCP was totally incorrect and put her in a band B. After fighting the point she became a band D. She is now a band E, and 2-1.
I am currently fighting WVT with regards to policy PR 179 as it breaches the disability discrimination act 2005 and have been fighting since Sep 2021, despite WVT saying my complaint is closed my fight continues.
I also ran the PTFA of Blackmarston for nearly 2 years building it from 6 members to over 30 and on Christmas raffles two years in a row pulled in excess of £1000 both years and ran summer fates, bingo nights and a race night.
Hi my name is Kirsty, I’m married and have a son with additional needs, currently his diagnosis is ADHD and Generalised Anxiety Disorder with autistic traits and sensory processing issues. I joined the PCV steering group so that I can get “hands on” with making changes that help other parent carers and to offer support and understanding to families on similar journeys. I currently work full time and in my “spare” time I enjoy crafting and attending craft fairs
Max is Communications lead of PCV Herefordshire and is a mum of three, a self-employed researcher (“Data is my bag”!) who lives in Hereford. My middle child has a severe learning disability and various (yet un-diagnosed) medical issues. I initially joined Parent Carer Voice to meet other mums going through similar issues therefore understood what life is like as a mum of child with additional needs and find out all the things, I need to know that no-one thinks to tell you! More recently I took a more active role to help make sure the group continues to run and provide a source of support for other parents and help make sure services are good for our children.
I am the secretary for PCV Herefordshire, and I have been married for 17 years. We have one child – he is 12 with complex SEN needs. He has a severe visual impairment, high functioning Autism, Hypermobility, Asthma, and allergies to name a few. My work background (before I had my son) was in Administration for a local mental health charity that I held for over 10 years. In my spare time (joke!), I like to read, go to cinema with my tribe, listen to music and dabble in a bit of crafting with fabric.
What is Parent Participation
Parent Participation is when parent carers and professionals work together, recognising each other’s knowledge, to make informed decisions about services that make the best use of resources.
- We work with all key areas – across Health, Social Care and Education – with health and LA partners, and also the voluntary sector partners.
- We work with service leads to share collective views.
- We work with commissioners to develop and design services, pathways and processes to improve outcomes for our children and young people.
- We shape and support improvement to practices and services focussing on person centred processes where possible.
- We influence policy and strategic direction.
This means that services can better meet the needs of families with children & young people with disabilities and additional needs so resources are not wasted on services which parents and families do not take up.
Effective parent participation happens when parents have conversations with and work alongside professionals, in order to co design, develop and improve services.
Working with parents and carers helps professionals to understand what needs to happen to develop services that meet families’ needs and also helps parents and carers understand the complexity involved and the challenges faced by the professionals who have to bring about that change. Working together and sharing knowledge enables parents and professionals to find solutions that work.
We strongly believe, along with other forums across England, that in order to have effective partnership working with the best outcomes you need the following:
Good Information
Honest Consultation
Effective Participation
Co-production.
Where possible we work at Co-production and Participation based on the ladder below:
Information on Becoming a Parent Representative
Parent Carer Representatives play a vital role in the work of the Parent Carer Forum by promoting the voice and lived experiences of families in Herefordshire. They help to develop positive and constructive working relationships with other parents and professionals to find solutions to improve support and services.
The Parent Carer Representative’s role is to represent the wider parent voice in all its complexity. Parent Carer Representatives are objective and focus on the collective view of parents, putting their own personal circumstances or situation to one side.
Here are some useful links:
– Parent-Carer-Rep Role Description
– Parent Participation
– Steering Group Terms of Reference
– Parent-Carer-Representative-Person-Specification
– Parent-Carer-Rep Application Form