Boards, meetings & projects – Family Voice Norfolk

Since the SEND Local Area Inspection by Ofsted/CQC in March 2020, just before the pandemic impacted all our lives, Family Voice Norfolk representatives have been involved in a great deal of work resulting from the Written Statement of Action that was created in response to the three areas of significant weakness that the inspection identified. You can download the whole Ofsted/CQC letter that set out the areas of weakness and other matters of concern here.

The areas identified were:

EHCPs – their quality and creation to specified deadlines
Plans and provision for young people as they move into adulthood
Communication and co-production with parents and carers, and with children and young people themselves

The Written Statement of Action included over a hundred actions. Family Voice representatives have been involved in hundreds of meetings and given advice on many documents to progress these actions. That initial stage of the work is coming to an end in 2022 as the revisit of Ofsted/CQC is likely to happen before the end of this year.

The focus now is on ensuring that work to improve provision for special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) continues in Norfolk. This work includes, for example, refreshing the Local Area SEND Strategy, which we helped to revise last year. It is also very important to discover whether all the work from the Written Statement of Action has had a positive effect on the lives of children and young people with SEND and their families. This is one of the many reasons why Family Voice Norfolk encourages all families with an interest in SEND to join us and make sure we hear your views on what is happening.

All of this work, of course, has been happening during a global pandemic that has affected each one of us. Children and young people with SEND are known to have been particularly impacted by schools closing, the difficulties of accessing education from home, and the affect of the pandemic on their health (including mental health) and social needs. Family Voice representatives have been involved in meetings to develop ways to improve this inequality and will continue to ensure that parent carers’ voices are heard. We know that the pandemic is not yet, in fact, over, and its effects are certainly still with us.

Family Voice ambassadors have been unable to attend face-to-face meetings until very recently but have offered a range of online Let’s talk… sessions at which professionals and parent carers could discuss key issues. Informal Check in and chat sessions have also given parent carers the chance to meet and share ideas in a relaxed setting, as well as to learn more about the work Family Voice has been doing. In 2022, our Question Time event featured ten sessions in which parent carers could ask professionals about five key topics:

Carers and caring
Short Breaks
SEND strategic improvement in Norfolk (with Michael Bateman)
SEND transport and TITAN travel training
SEND Information, Advice and Support Service (SENDIASS)

2021–22 Family Voice representation

Family Voice sends representatives to the following meetings and working groups. Please do get in touch with us if you have concerns, information or compliments about any of these subject areas. The majority of meetings with the local authority, health and voluntary services remain online, but a handful of meetings are beginning to be held in person.

Adult social services – Employment services
Adult Services – Housing and accommodation webinars
Carers Council Partnership meeting
Carer’s Passport Workshop
Carers Voice locality meetings
Child Nursing Programme
Children and Young Persons Mental Health (CYPMH) Alliance Executive Management Group
Children and Young Persons Mental Health (CYPMH) Stakeholder Group
Children’s Health and Integrated Commission Group (CHICG)
Children’s Services Partnership Recovery Group
Communication Technology Aids (CTA) advisory meeting
COVID-19 Communications meeting with parent carer groups
District Early Childhood Advisory Networks (DECANS)
Direct Payments Support Service (DPSS) advisory group
Early Childhood Advisory Board (Norfolk) (ECAB)
Early Language Forum
Early Years Survey review
Eastern Region Peer Network SEND forums
Eastern Region Parent Carer Forum (ERPCF) meeting
EHCP Quality Audit Framework meetings
Every Relationship Matters in Norfolk steering group
Families…We’ve Got This meetings
Green Light Champions Network
Home–School Transport Collaboration
Integrated Care Systems – Adult Services
Learning Disabilities Health Checks meetings
Learning Disabilities Partnership Board
Learning into Action
Local Area SEND Survey
Local Offer revision – Speech, Language and Communication web pages
Local Offer revision – Health section
Local Offer revision – Children’s Social Care section (including Short Breaks)
Making it Happen Strategy Oversight Group
Making Sense of SEND (LO) roadshows
Mental Health Support Teams in Schools Steering Group
National Network of Parent Carer Forums (NNPCF) Webinars
NCC Health Oversight Scrutiny Committee
NCHC 15-Step Challenge
Neuro Developmental Delay (NDD) Stakeholder Group
Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH) Children’s Board
Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH) Transitions Working Group
Norfolk Autism Partnership Board (NAPB)
NAPB – Autism Engagement working group
NAPB – Autism Diagnosis working Group
NAPB – Autism Workforce Development group
Norfolk Area SEND Multi-Agency (NASMA) steering group
Norfolk Area SEND Strategy (NASS)
Norfolk County Council – Carers Voice Carers Co-production meeting
Norfolk Children and Young People Strategic Alliance board (CYPSA)
Norfolk Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (HOSC)
Norfolk Speech and Language Therapy (SALT) stakeholder group
Norman Lamb Coalition for Young People
Palliative Care Network
Parent Carers Multi-Agency Steering Group
Partnership Recovery Meetings (COVID-19)
Patient Inclusion/experience Steering Group – Norfolk Community Healthcare Trust (NCHC)
Preparing for Adult Life (PfAL) interviews
Prevention and Early Help Board
Provision Expected at SEN Support (PEaSS) meetings
Queen Elizabeth Hospital Unpaid Carers Group
RUSH Self Harm Pathway
SEN Information Report (SIR) Audit
SEND Communications Group
SEND Glossary – terms and words
SENDfest planning meetings
SEND Health Clinical Network
SEND Information, Advice and Support Service (SENDIASS) steering group
SEND Post-16 Learning Group
Short Breaks review meeting
Speech and Language Therapy Project Board
Transforming Care Navigators Stakeholder Group
Transition Working Group (Schools)
Virtual School SEND advisory group
Voluntary Sector Forum (children, young people and families) county meeting
Vulnerable Adolescent meetings
Written Statement of Action – Adult Services Catch-up meetings
Written Statement of Action Board meetings
Written Statement of Action Subgroup – Communication and Co-producton
Written Statement of Action Coproduction Stakeholder Group and focus groups
Written Statement of Action Subgroup – EHCPs
Written Statement of Action Subgroup – 18–25 years (Preparing for Adult Life and Transition services)
Written Statement of Action – SEND Post-16 Booklets
Young Carers Multi-agency Steering Group