Haringey’s previous Parent Carer Forum (PCF) was decommissioned in 2019, and while work was undertaken with parents and carers following its demise, a local area SEND inspection in 2021 concluded the borough had neither a culture of co-production nor systems in place to enable it. Since then, the local authority (LA) and parents and carers in Haringey have been working together to rebuild an active PCF – Haringey SEND Power – from the ground up. This has involved: establishing a shared culture of co-production by drawing on approaches from other local areas; running internal training and developing trusting relationships between PCF and LA leadership; investing in infrastructure support to provide the PCF with the staff, premises and resources to carry out its role responsively and consistently; ensuring the PCF is represented at or plays a leading role in strategic decision-making forums as a matter of course, and providing a range of ways in which parents and carers can have their voices heard.
The SEND Effective Practice Evidence Framework considers that the “strength of evidence” of this case study is promising – the work has been sustained for over two years and there has been some internal evaluation of the work, alongside external inspection, with findings shared publicly. The “breadth of impact” of this case study is emerging – there is evidence of impact in terms of lived experience of children and young people with SEND1 and their families2.
[1] For ease of reading, we use the term ‘SEND’ to refer to disabled children and young people and children and young people with special educational needs.
[2] The SEND Effective Practice Evidence Framework uses two “signal strength” indicators to present the strength of evidence and the breadth of impact of a case study. Each indicator has four bars – emerging, promising, good and robust. The “strength of evidence” indicator is based on how the project has been evaluated and the length of time it has been sustained. The “breadth of impact” indicator is based on whether the case study can demonstrate impact in four broad areas – the more areas of impact, the higher the signal strength indicator.