ABOUT

US

OUR VISION

To build an inclusive, credible and evolving forum that provides parents and carers a vehicle to voice their opinions and influence the decisions that affect all SEND families in the future.

OUR GOALS

To be an inherent part of the decision making process across all relevant Southend services. To ensure we use all our available resources to gather a comprehensive and diverse cross section of views and experiences, so we can represent a wide range of SEND families in Southend with children from 0-25 years old. To continually gather common themes derived from all perspectives, that shape the direction and strategies of the forum in the future. Constantly striving for ways to grow our community of parents and carers and build our networks with already established groups to deliver the best outcome for all families involved.

Who are Southend SEND Independent Forum (SSIF)?

Southend SEND Independent Forum (SSIF) is made up of a group of parents and carers of children and young people with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities, SSIF is funded by the Department for Education and we work in partnership with the Southend-on-Sea City Council as well as Health and Education settings with an aim to shape and influence services, to ensure they are fit for purpose and meet the needs of children and young people (0-25 years) with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities and their families living in Southend.


We understand the day-to-day challenges faced by parent-carers as we are parent-carers too. SSIF aims to give parent-carers a voice and make our collective views heard to improve services for our children.

What We Do

We Aim To

  • Provide a forum for views to be a collective voice
  • Work together with those who provide services locally
  • Enable all children and young people in Southend with additional needs and/or disabilities to lead full lives by  pursuing improvement of services and providing informal support 
  • Be accessible to all
  • Represent the views of as many parents as possible
  • Promote and encourage inclusive attitudes and practise
  • Provide examples of good practise 
  • Collate information from parents and carers and highlight  priorities
  • Establish what support and services children and young people and their families need in Southend
  • Challenge discrimination and promote disability equality

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What is a Parent Carer Forum?

  • In England, there are Parent Carer Forums in almost all Local Authority areas. The 2015 SEN Code of Practice describes parent carer forums as “representative local groups of parents and carers of children and young people with disabilities who work alongside local authorities, education, health and other service providers to ensure the services they plan, commission, deliver and monitor meet the needs of children and families.”
  • SSIF has a steering group of parent and carer volunteers who lead this work and listen to the views of other parents and carers in Southend to make sure we can establish what is important to them, what is working well and areas that need attention. Southend SEND Independent Forum is keen to hear from as many parent carers as possible.
  • SSIF works with those who provide services for children and young people with additional needs and/or disabilities to share knowledge, experience and what families tell them to help plan and improve the quality, range and accessibility of the services they use.
  • We aim to work in partnership with Health, Education and Social Services to ensure that families are at the heart of all policies that may affect them whilst focusing on creating the best possible outcomes with the resources available in Southend.

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What can you do to help ?

As a parent / carer in Southend you can play a vital role to help shape and develop services available to our children and young people.


ParentCarers:-

  • are the experts on their child(ren)
  • are the primary teachers (educators) of their children
  • meet the needs of their children on a daily basis
  • see and experience difficulties encountered from gaps in services

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Who we work with:-

The Eastern Region of Parent Carer Forums (ERPCF)


We are members of the The Eastern Region of Parent Carer Forums (ERPCF) and the National Network of Parent Carer Forums (NNPCF). The aim of these Networks is to ensure that good practice, knowledge and shared experiences around parent participation continues to grow and strengthen, and to develop a cohesive and coherent structure to sustain and develop the effectiveness of parent carer forums across England, individually and as a collective voice.


National Network of Parent Carer Forums (NNPCF)


The National Network of Parent Carer Forums is made up of all of the parent carer forums from across England. The NNPCF ensures that local parent carer forums are aware of national developments. It promotes opportunities for the voice of parent carers to influence at a national level. The NNPCF works closely with the Department for Education, the Department of Health, and other partner organisations to improve outcomes for children and young people with disabilities or additional needs and their families.

SSIF works best by working on general issues that affect a number of families, by representing the views of parent carers in the local area. Unfortunately, we are unable to undertake individual issues that parents and carers have about their own child or young person so we are unfortunately not able to offer a 1-to-1 advocacy service.

However, please (Contact us) with any concerns or issues and we will support and/or signpost you to other appropriate organisations.