Our Work
Essex Family forum represents parents/carers across a range of services, workstreams and projects.
As the Parent Carer Forum, part of the role for Essex Family Forum is to work with various SEND services at a strategic level to represent parents/carers views and experiences. Our team of trained and co-ordinated representatives aim to influence service development, review and improvement across a range of boards, workstreams and projects throughout Essex and beyond.
This aspect of our forum’s activity includes:
- SEND Partnership Board (Essex County Council)
- Joint Commissioning Board (Essex County Council and Integrated Care Systems)
- Steering Groups & Workstreams (e.g. SENDIASS, Neurodevelopmental Pathways, Equipment and Therapies)
- Focus Groups (e.g. Local Offer, Home to School SEND Transport)
- Quadrant Meetings – held with representatives from across Education/Health/Social care and Parent Support services/charities.
- Recommissioning of services- (e.g. Shortbreaks, CAMHS)
As members of the Eastern Region of Parent Carer Forums and the National Network of Parent Carer Forums we also represent the voice of Essex parents and carers at a regional and national level. For example: we are members of the Regional All Age Autism Network and have provided evidence, via our National Network, to the SEND Review Team.
See below for more detail on some specific areas Essex Family Forum have been working on.
