Parent/carer participation in services for children and young people with SEN/disability

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What does parent participation mean?

You may already be very involved in your child’s education, through things you do at home, regular contact with your child’s teacher or Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO), or participation at meetings about your child’s progress.  This input is very important.

Parent participation in services is about giving you the opportunity to be involved in a wider sense – in the development of services for SEN/disability and in the shaping of local authority policy and practice surrounding SEN.  It means that your opinion as parents/carers will be asked for and listened to, you will be given information about what is available and what is planned, and you will be able to work in partnership with the local authority, to develop better outcomes for children and young people with SEN/disability.  

Why should parents/carers participate in service development?

Wiltshire Council believes that it is important to encourage service users (in this case children and young people, and their families) to be involved in decisions which will affect them.  We want to work together with parents and carers as equal partners in order to develop better services.

Our Participation Strategy has been drafted and endorsed by the Children and Young People’s Trust Board Disability sub-group.  It sets out in detail how we will facilitate the participation of both children and young people and their parents/carers in decision making. The strategy will be available here soon.

How can I participate in the development of services for children/young people with SEN/disability in Wiltshire?

Wiltshire Council is committed to increasing the range of ways in which parents/carers can be involved – new ways of doing this are currently being developed.

At present, you can be involved through

• The SEN pages on this website – keep abreast of what is available, for children and young people with SEN
• The SEN Parents’ Forum -  a series of meetings at which parents, carers and voluntary sector groups raise and discuss issues surrounding SEN, with local authority officers. Find out more on the SEN Forum.
• The Wiltshire Parent Carer Council – a group of parents and carers of children/young people with SEN/disability, who aim to increase the ‘voice’ of parents and carers in Wiltshire. The group hosts regular meetings for parents/carers with local authority/health representatives and also have their own website, through which users can access their electronic discussion board, to chat with other parents/carers. To find out more, go to the Wiltshire Parent Carer Council website.
• Consultations – Wiltshire Council regularly consults the public, to get feedback from service users. Where service users are children/young people with SEN/disability, a wide range of parents/carers will be involved and this will often include representatives of the Wiltshire Parent Carer Council
• The SEN Consultations page - you can look at current consultations relating to services for children and young people with SEN/disability from this page
• The Key – Wiltshire Council’s new database of children and young people in Wiltshire who have a disability or additional needs.  This has been developed to ensure that we know more about the children and young people who need services, in order to provide more information to the people who need it, and make service delivery better. You can register your child on 'The Key' page.

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Last updated: 10 August 2010