On Tuesday 3rd of June 2025, PaCC organised a PaCConnect engagement event for parent carers. The purpose of this gathering was to update the parent carer community about the work and planning that is happening in the city around education. The idea of updating the SEN community around education, followed discussions at an earlier PaCC engagement event, which focused on Brighton & Hove City Council’s (BHCC) consultation around proposals to change secondary school admission arrangements.
Georgina Clarke Green (Director of Education & Learning at Brighton & Hove Local Authority), Rhian Hughes (Head of SEN Statutory Services), Tracey Williams (Head of BHISS), Amanda Meier (SEND & AP Change Programme Lead), Yvonne Ely (SEND Sufficiency Lead and Emma Sharpe (Active Service Lead for Schools Mental Health Service) attended the Education PaCConnect on behalf of Brighton & Hove Local Authority (LA).
A PowerPoints presentation was used to illustrate the updates. The slides sharing information about priority 2 (secondary school admissions criteria) have been removed as the information was in draft form only. This was explained to parent carers at the event.
During the PaCConnect, parent carers were able to provide feedback about the information they heard from the LA. The feedback has been passed on to the LA. Parent carers were also able to highlight some areas that they would like to explore with Brighton & Hove LA in future focus groups, such as EHCPs and Ordinarily Available Provision (OAP).
Save the date: in response to parents’ feedback, PaCC is organising a focus group around the OAP work and graduated approach, which will take place on Thursday, 3 July 2025, from 10am to 12noon in the Conference Room, Community Base, 113 Queens Road, BN1 3XG – more details to come.
PaCC continues to create safe spaces for parent carers and people from Brighton & Hove LA to meet, provide updates and exchange ideas. Please email [email protected] if you need more information or have a query.