PaCC Round Up June 2023

Welcome to PaCC’s June round up.

Last week, the outcome report following Brighton & Hove’s Local Area SEND inspection by OFSTED and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) was released.

We want to communicate with you here the shock we felt on reading the report, which lacks detail and omits many of the significant issues faced by many children and young people and their families in the city. Families raise these issues with PaCC and Amaze SENDIASS on a regular basis.

We shared these with inspectors during the inspection, seeing this as a key opportunity to enable improvements for children with SEND in the future. We also feel confident that these issues and concerns were included in the high number of inspection parent carer surveys. These omissions are stark and harmful to parent carer wellbeing. Parent carers filled in the survey with the hope and belief it would make a difference, and it is both frustrating and demoralising to feel those views weren’t listened to by the inspectors.

PaCC will asking Brighton & Hove City Council and NHS Sussex leads to meet with PaCC and parent carers, before the end of term, so we can have open discussions together about the inspection process and the outcome. During this meeting, we would like reassurances from BHCC and NHS Sussex that parent carer experiences will continue to inform priority areas of work alongside the findings of the local area SEND inspection.

This week PaCC has been articulating in all meetings the strength of feeling we are hearing from parent carers about the outcome of the inspection and it not being reflective of their experiences, and we will continue to do so.

Pippa Hodge, one of our steering group reps, has asked me to share with you her reflections on the inspection process. I hope you find her words as comforting as I do; read what Pippa has to say, here.

It is also important to recognise the many people within services and community groups, who are working hard and doing their best for children and young people with SEND. PaCC is pleased to announce the winners of our PaCC awards for this year, which will be hosted next week. Paolo has more details for you here.

Paolo has also written an update about our recent PaCConnect around the Inclusion Charter that is being created for schools. Thank you so much to the parent carers who attended. Click here to read Paolo’s update and find information about how parent carers can still contribute to this important area of work.

PaCC also recently held one of our regular education workshops. The theme was around transitions within education, across all ages. SENDIASS provided a presentation for the workshop, which we are sharing with you within this article about the workshop. It also contains other resources and information that might be helpful. Thank you to the parent carers who attended.

Recently, PaCC and East Sussex Parent Carer Forum have recruited a Parent Carer Forum Support Worker. Stef Fallows has been with us for a few months now and it’s great to have her on board. Here’s a bit more information about Stef and her role.

Lastly, PaCC were recently involved in a consultation as part of the Adult Learning Disability Strategy. The consultation included questions about activities, clubs, services, work and college. Fiona England, PaCC steering group rep, has written an update of the findings, which you can read here. Included is the information PaCC presented at a recent Adult Learning Disability Strategy meeting.

If you aren’t already a member of PaCC, here are some details of how you can join.

Please look out for future updates around the inspection outcome report and next steps. In the meantime, we will continue to use your feedback to strengthen our position to challenge the inspection process and Brighton & Hove service providers.

-Becky Robinson

Chair of PaCC