Brighton and Hove Parent Carer’s Council (PaCC) has been working hard to stay in touch with parent carers and gather and represent the issues affecting families during this difficult time.
Survey
Please let us know how you are coping and what else you need by completing this SENDIASS survey asking you about your families’ access to education support and other services. The survey will take no longer than 10 minutes to complete and all responses will be entered into a prize draw to win an activities hamper or shopping vouchers. Responses can be anonymous if preferred and are needed by midday on Friday 24 April, in order to affect change quickly.
Influencing work
We are working closely with B&H City Council (BHCC) and the Clinical Commissioning Group to identify issues and strengthen support available to families during lockdown. For example, with Amaze, we made the case to BHCC CEO Geoff Raw that families with CYP with SEND need extra help to access supermarkets and an ‘essential carers letter’ has been sent to over 1800 families with have a Compass Card. If your child has a Compass Card but you haven’t received this emailed letter for any reason, please check your junk/spam folder for an email from [email protected]. If you haven’t got a Compass Card or it has recently expired then please apply via https://www.compasscard.org.uk/get-a-compass-card/ and once Amaze has checked your eligibility they will send you the letter.
With Amaze, we liaised with Sussex Police who are asking all officers to ensure that guidance is followed around people with additional health conditions, LD, autism etc when accessing the outdoors. We are pleased to learn that this has been communicated widely to all officers across Sussex and Surrey Police force but still encourage you to carry our template letter with you if this is a particular challenge for your child. See the template here https://amazesussex.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Letter-re-exercising.pdf and read our Letter to Sussex Police from Amaze & Partners 9.4.20.
Working with local services
We are pleased to hear that BHCC caseworkers are in the process of calling families who have been identified as most vulnerable during the crisis, to check in on their wellbeing and needs. We have asked BHCC what this process looks like as PaCC know how important it is for families not to fall through the gaps, when needing support.
Lots of our other work with partners, eg around the new SEND strategy, has understandably been delayed. PaCC reps have been involved in Skype meetings discussing the actions of the Home to School Transport review and the need for BHCC to move forward collaboratively to operational planning for the return to school.
Stay in touch with the PaCC Steering Group to share your thoughts via [email protected] and @PaCC FB page
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