A local partnership agreement between Warwickshire Parent Carer Voice (WPCV), Warwickshire County Council (WCC) and Coventry and Warwickshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has been signed.
This agreement recognises the forum as the area’s strategic voice for parent and carers of children with special educational needs and or disabilities (SEND).
Warwickshire Parent Carer Voice is an independent, parent carer led organisation for everyone with a child or children with SEND aged 0-25. Their main role is to ensure that parent carer voices are heard and acted upon. By working with education, health and social care they ensure that parents and carers are involved in designing services for children, young people and their families.
As part of their role, Warwickshire Parent Carer Voice represent parents and carers on the SEND workstreams and the steering group for the Written Statement of Action following the recent Ofsted and CQC inspection, as well as the SEND and InclusionChange Programme, delivering improved outcomes for children and young people with SEND in Warwickshire.
Councillor Jeff Morgan, Cabinet Member for Education and Children’s Services said:
"As a local area, we are committed to listening to families to ensure that we improve the outcomes for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities in Warwickshire. This agreement is key to helping us to improve the services we deliver and we know that by working together and putting the voice of parents, carers and our children and young people at the heart of everything we do, we can and will make a real difference.”
Elaine Lambe from Warwickshire Parent Carer Voice said:
“The agreement is one of many steps that we have taken recently to ensure that we are recognised as the key strategic partner for engagement, consultation and co-production on how SEND services are delivered here in Warwickshire. We know there is lots to be done and the recent Ofsted and CQC Inspection and the Written Statement of Action have reinforced the need to involve the voice of parent carers, children and young people.”
Dr Sarah Raistrick, Chair of Coventry and Warwickshire Clinical Commissioning Group.
“Ensuring patients are at the heart of everything we do is a key priority for the Clinical Commissioning Group, so I’m really pleased that we have been able to agree this partnership with the Warwickshire Patient Carer Voice. We are committed to improving services for children and young people with a special educational need and their families, and this is integral part of making that happen.”
Parents and carers will be able to provide feedback on local services through a range of ways including engagement events, surveys and consultations. This will help them to regularly review and improve the services delivered to ensure they meet the needs of local families.
Warwickshire Parent Carer Voice are currently supporting the following programmes of work:
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Supporting with parent and carer webinars providing regular updates on the Written Statement of Action and key programmes of work.
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Collecting parent and carer feedback on the written statement of action and the key actions children, young people and their families would like to see taken.
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Advising on the use of plain English for leaflets and letters about SEND, which are aimed at parents and carers
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Representing parents on steering groups for each workstream of the Written Statement of Action
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Providing expert patient advice on Autism waiting times and the Autism Strategy
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Supporting the Local Offer redesign
For more information on Warwickshire Parent Carer Voice visit https://warwickshireparentcarervoice.org
Alternatively to find out more on the Local Offer visit https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/send