Awards
SEND Best Practice in Health Special recognition Honour for Parent Carer Voice for Change
A few weeks ago V4P were invited to a NHS England Award event in Sheffield as we had been nominated by Local Health Partners for the work we have done in relation to the SEND Health Strategy and the POW ( power of words) project which we co produced with Wolverhampton's Outreach Service . We are really pleased to announce we were presented with a Special Recognition Honour for representing Parent Carer voices and influencing change .
Please see below for further details of the reason Heath Partner Nominated Voice 4 Parents
Impact and change is a top priority for our PCF ( Parent Carer Forum) and they are a key partner in our SEND Health Steering Group that the ICB hold monthly, they ensure parents/carer(s) voices are heard and as a Steering Group we have open discussions of how Health Services can address any concerns raised and agree actions to address the feedback.
Over the years they have worked and progressed key pieces of work that have had a significant impact with ensuring parent carer voices are heard. The first piece of the work relates to a review of health services in 2019 when we were Wolverhampton CCG where the PCF coproduced a SEND health strategy. As part of the PCFs annual survey in 2023 they also coproduced an action plan with Health services to demonstrate concerns raised by parents/carers and what health were actively doing to address the concerns raised, the action plan is then jointly monitored at SEND Health Steering Group. Additionally they have been the forefront of a bespoke training offer for professionals called the Power of Words (POW) training, around the use of language and inspiring positive changes in terminology for our parents/carers and CYP.
The power of words (POW) training package was a collaboration between our PCF and the LA outreach service.
The aim of the training is to inspire positive change in language used by professionals when speaking and supporting children and young people with special educational needs (SEND). The main themes of the training were based on themes gained from feedback following evaluation of the PCF annual survey which goes out to parents and carers of SEND children/young people across the city. Training can be bespoke to each service area and will include an overview of the project, time for reflection within teams, a range of tasks designed to support reflections and shifts in language use, including time for action planning within individual teams.
The POW training package has already been delivered to various Health professionals, including delivery at SEND Health Steering Group, Acute and Community Paediatrics. Positive feedback and engagement has been received by all professionals involved and we are looking at how other services are able to sign up to the training offer going forward.
The POW training has been presented and shared across the Black Country and there has grabbed particular attention from other PCFs in the region. The use of POW has also been discussed as part of the training package for the Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools (PINS), again not just in Wolverhampton but for other areas of the Black Country. Within Wolverhampton there are plans for the training to form part of the LA Outreach offer.
The relationship between the PCF and Health have been built on trust following the key pieces of work referenced and it is the ongoing commitment of the PCF to co-production that ensures that the local parent/carer voices and community in Wolverhampton is very well represented, and health improvements are made.
