Lockdown #2 – how was it for our families?
The PaCC steering group continue to highlight the issues you and your family face. We realise how important it is to talk to parent carers first-hand about how they are coping and learn about ongoing or new issues that families are facing so in November, PaCC attended the Sunflower Support Group and the Hangleton & Knoll parent carer coffee mornings. Find out how Lockdown #2 was for our families
Covid and SEND families – challenges and issues
PaCC understands the significant issues that families are facing across education, health and social care. Being a parent carer can be tough going and Covid has made life much harder for many. Together with Amaze SENDIASS helpline staff, we have been collating all your issues and concerns and sharing these concerns with professional leads in the city. You can read a summary of the particular challenges Covid continues to post for families with children with SEND
SEND children at secondary schools – letter from Secondary Heads Forum
Secondary head teachers play a huge role in our children’s lives, running the very busy mainstream schools that many of Brighton & Hove’s pupils with SEND attend. PaCC has been working closely with our local school leaders to flag up equalities issues and reasonable adjustments for pupils with SEND and to ensure that this is an ongoing priority. We are planning a further meeting with the Secondary school heads forum in early December, to discuss concerns around the ongoing impact of Covid for children and young people with SEND in their schools. We will feedback in January about what conversations we had. In the meantime, we thank John McKee, chair of the forum for sharing a letter with us which strongly outlines the heads commitment to pupils with SEND at secondary school. Read John McKee’s letter here
Communication with families – letter from SEN team
PaCC know how important good communications from the SEN team at the council are. Parent carers have fed back to us that contact with the SEN team has presented some problems for families recently, including responses to parent carer queries around provision in their child’s EHC plan. PaCC acknowledges that Covid has presented huge challenges for families and staff teams and, alongside our PaCC partner mASCot, we asked that the SEN team write a letter to families outlining recent difficulties around communication and the requirements around the delivery of EHCP provision. Please read the letter here
Brighton & Hove SEND Strategy 2020-25
Following on from the above news from schools, PaCC have an update on the Brighton & Hove SEND Strategy 2020-25. The strategy is an important piece of work as it’ll lay out how services and support will be provided for children and young people with SEND in the city. Fiona England, PaCC Chair, has written a short update on the SEND strategy.
Home To School Transport
Home To School Transport is always a hot topic in the city for many families. It’s been a very busy few months across the summer and autumn terms for PaCC reps, Diana and Pippa, working alongside the local authority Home to School Transport team following the extremely turbulent experiences for students, families and schools in 2019. The September return to school this year ran a lot more smoothly – despite the increased challenges presented by the ongoing pandemic. Read more about the progress that has been achieved Home To School Transport – news and updates
PaCC Awards
And finally, we come to our PaCC Champions Awards 2020. The event has been postponed so you still have time to nominate that special person or organisation who did that little bit extra for your family this year. That is what the PaCC Awards are all about.
We are fully aware that the past few months have been even more challenging than usual. We hope that, along with the challenges you have faced, you have also had some good support, from individuals, school staff and from other organisations as we know how important good support is and the huge positive impacts a person can bring to your child and your family. To celebrate these great individuals, PaCC is collecting nominations for our annual PaCC champions.
You can nominate your very special Champion by using the form on this link PaCC Champions Nomination Form or go to PaCC Awards – PaCC | Brighton and Hove’s forum for parent carers where you can also find out about previous years’ winners and the diverse range of work they do. Deadline is 15 January 2021.
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