Three key reasons parent carer forums ask for more support

Parent carer forums are independent, collective groups of parent carers who work alongside local authorities and health organisations as equal partners to improve services for children and young people with additional needs and their families. For instance, by taking part in surveys, consultations, focus groups and strategic level meetings to improve provisions such as Education, Health & Care Plans (EHCPs) and school transport. Forums might also get involved in a range of other projects. For instance, one forum has worked with its local Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to improve the language health professionals use when meeting families with children with health issues. Another is part-funded to work alongside the NHS Child & Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) to give parent carers a voice whilst their children are stuck on a waiting list.

I have a parent carer forum background myself, and now I support forums across England in my role as a freelance Contact Associate (Contact is the national charity operating as the Department for Education's lead partner for the delivery of parent carer participation in England). Every forum I go into is different. Some of them are small constituted groups, run by a committee of four or five dedicated volunteer parent carers, reaching out to a couple of hundred Facebook subscribers and participating in a handful of strategic meetings. Others are much bigger (sometimes with charitable status and/or employing paid workers) and a well-established reach into strategic decision-making.

But, in another important way, all the forums I work with are the same. They are always inclusive and welcoming. They all know that parent carers often live tough and unpredictable lives. They are happy for parent carers to give as little or as much time as they are able. And they believe that parent carer participation and co-production makes a difference.

So, what are the three most common reasons a forum reaches out to me for additional support?

1. Parent carer recruitment and engagement. Forums want to get better at recruiting, managing and reaching out to others in a targeted way (including building their number of subscribers, members, committee or steering group officers, parent carer representatives and volunteer workers).

2. Communications. Managing the complex communications loop that sits at the heart of operations for forums doesn’t have to cost a lot of money (there are plenty of digital communications solutions that are free at entry-level) but creating, sharing and distributing internal and external communications is extremely time-heavy. Forums want to explore strategic solutions to lighten the load. (Occasionally, I even agree to manage their communications for them for an interim period.)

3. Mediation. It is not uncommon to find just a few parent carers doing most of the work for a forum. They are truly amazing. But sometimes the pressure of family life alongside forum volunteering or working becomes too overwhelming. At other times individuals outside of the forum begin to raise challenges against those working within it (this usually happens because others do not fully understand the role of parent carer forums). Forums committees work by consensus. Gentle, informal mediation by an external Consultant is often all that is needed to drive a 'stuck' project forwards.

Time and time again I observe that a lack of underpinning Governance policies and procedures contribute to problems and challenges faced by forums. For instance, the lack of a published membership, conflict of interest or compliments & complaints policy. Sometimes I input a piece of work to support a committee to turn this around.

I love the work that I do, meeting other parent carers across England, getting to know more about them and their forums and discovering the priorities and challenges they deal with in their local areas. I know the massive difference even small changes can make on the ground. I’m a parent carer myself. That’s why I continue to do what I can to support forums all over the country.

Parent carers explore new ways of working.