Welcome to PaCC’s February Round Up
A big focus for PaCC recently has been mental health and wellbeing – more needed than ever with the latest disruptions caused by Omicron. Lots of children have been out of school again, as well as staff absences across services, all of which puts more pressure on our mental health.
We have hosted two coffee mornings to support parents around their children’s distressed behaviours. PaCC are also planning to set up a safe space for parent carers who identify as having a disability or are neurodiverse, you can find out more here.
Mental health has also been a focus in our co-production work: we represent parent carers on various groups, including the Foundations for our Future project group, and have shared our report on the neurodevelopmental mental health workshop with service providers.
Another top priority for PaCC is social care. We have just met with parent carers in a focus group looking at short breaks provision and heard about the huge unmet need for respite. We discussed these social care provision priorities and other issues in a recent meeting with the new head of the children’s disability service.
Behind the scenes, we have been working with local authority officers on areas linked to the SEND strategy. A real focus recently has been creating a quality assurance framework with the SEND team which we hope will take the pressure of parent carers having to monitor their own child’s plan.
In a more public arena, we have been speaking up for the needs of children with SEND at the Children, Young People and Skills committee, most recently in a meeting focused on proposals to reduce the admission numbers of some primary schools. The points I made are included in our PAN position statement.
Finally, click here to meet Alison, our PaCC steering group member representing parents and carers of deaf children.
Wishing everyone a peaceful half term. I just spied my first crocus which always lifts my mood!
–Diana
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