Parent & Young person Engagement and co-production
Parent Engagement and Co-Production
What is parent carer participation?
Parent carers can often pinpoint problems frequently experienced by families with disabled children. This knowledge is useful to professionals as they plan services to meet disabled children’s needs.
Parent carer participation is when parents and professionals work together, recognising each other’s expert knowledge, to design, develop and improve services for disabled children in the local area.
What is a parent carer forum?
The way parent carers work with professionals is by forming groups called parent carer forums. A parent carer forum is a group of parents and carers of disabled children. Their aim is to make sure the services in their area meet the needs of disabled children and their families.
They do this by gathering the views of local families and then working in partnership with local authorities, education settings, health providers and other providers to highlight where local services, processes and commissioners are working well, or challenge when changes or improvements need to be made.
You can learn more by watching our video ‘What is a parent carer forum and what they do?
The webinar Introduction to participation, recorded by Contact associate Sharon Smith and Grainne Saunders from West Sussex Parent Carer Forum offers a good introduction to the topic.
Forums usually have a steering group of parents who lead this work and listen to the views of other parents in the local area to make sure they know what is important to them. Forums are keen to hear from as many parent carers as possible.
Coventry's Parent Carer Forum 
Coventry has recently had a new parent carer forum come on board to champion the voice of parents and carers. As the group gets established, it will be hoping to share the views of the families of children and young people across Coventry. To find out more and to keep in touch with their activities, information is available on their website
All forums across the country are supported by Contact, a national charity supporting families of children/young people with SEND.
Who can join a parent carer forum?
Parents or carers of a child with any type of additional need or disability are welcome to join. Joining your forum does not mean you have to commit lots of time. In most forums you can join and receive information, and then decide if you want to get more involved at your own pace.
The forum represents the views of parents in the local area but does not advocate for individual families.
You can learn more by watching our video Making a Difference – Why should I join my Parent Carer Forum?
Co-production
Co-production is an important principle in parent carer participation.
Co-production is when parent carer forums play an integral and equal part in the decision-making process and are fully engaged in shaping, developing, implementing and evaluating services and systems.
Evidence shows that these partnerships often make the best use of people’s time and money, whilst also improving outcomes for disabled children.
Watch this co-production video or watch the subtitled version, where forums, local authorities, health providers and commissioners share their experiences of working in co-production and how it helped them improve services.
You can read more about co-production in our Parent Carer Forum Handbook [PDF]
Co-production and campaigning
The conditions of their grant mean that parent carer forums can’t take part in campaign activity. However, that doesn’t mean that forums can’t support local and national campaigns with their knowledge and experience.
Find out more about how parent carer forums can work with campaign groups in our co-production and campaigning guidelines