Our 2022/23 conference this year was a two part event, with a digital offering as well as an in person conference in Bristol.

Face-to-face conference

Our face-to-face conference was held on 28 February 2023 at the Double Tree by Hilton in Bristol City Centre.

The day was jointly organised and facilitated jointly the Contact and NNPCF teams.

We were joined by PCF members from around the country, as well as representatives from the NHS and the DfE.

The conference was livestreamed for the first time and you can watch the sessions below.

Contact’s Carolyn and our co chair Tina, opened the conference with a very warm welcome to our attendees. Amanda Batten gave her last conference speech, as she has now stepped down from her role as Contact’s Chief Executive.

 https://youtu.be/2Ph61WMCdLw.  

You can download the opening presentation here.

Next came an Ofsted SEND inspection framework update from Dr Tina Pagett, HMI for Ofsted.  https://youtu.be/KqKKF14QFeo  

Our co chair Mrunal gave an impassioned address, asking the question ‘What next for SEND?’ highlighting that the time it was taking to put the 2014 SEND reforms into place was equal to an actual childhood.  https://youtu.be/8iQub582AXY  

Download Mrunal’s presentation here.

The Q&A panel, included Alison Ismail, the Director for SEND and Alternative Provision at the DfE, Amanda Allard, the Deputy Director for Health, at the Council for Disabled Children,Tina Pagett, HMI, for further education and skills at Ofsted and Sue Nort from National Health England who answered questions that had been submitted from our PCF members in advance. https://youtu.be/Phc7un-iZQI

The Eva Sharma, from the DfE gave a presentation about the National Standards, something that had been included in the SEND review. This led to a round the table coproduction session with our attendees, who explored what should be included in the national standards in each stage of a child’s development.  https://youtu.be/mwbvhSgwcm8 

Download the DfE coproduction session slides here

Finally we welcomed the minister for Children Families and Wellbeing, Claire Coutinho, who had joined us for the afternoon. She gave an address and hinted about the much anticipated SEND and AP green paper review response. The minister then answered questions from our co chair Tina.  https://youtu.be/10oR7_V8UI8

Virtual conference

Thank you to all those who joined us at our joint virtual conference which took place on January 31, February 1 and February 2.

Please see the links below to recordings of sessions, as well as the resources.

Planning the recovery in children’s community services

The NNPCF has heard throughout the year of the challenges faced by families accessing community based services including SALT, ASD / ADHD services and paediatricians in the wake of the covid 19 pandemic.

NHS England has created a new recovery team to address these issues around children’s services who have agreed to speak to NNPCF membership about what NHS data is telling them and the steps they are exploring to tackle the problems. Included was an opportunity to coproduce the latest thinking on what the model for recovery might look like. Watch the recording session here you can also download the presentation, the Menti survey results and Menti summary from the session.

NNPCF AGM

This session includes:

• Review the first six months of our operation as a Community Interest Company from October 2021 to March 2022
• A look at what has happened in the world of SEND since April 2022 and put it into the broader context of political turmoil, cost of living and the NHS.
• Coproduce our priorities for the coming year 2023-24 that will form the basis of our business plan and longer term strategy.

You can watch the AGM recording here  and download the slides from the presentation too.

IPSEA SEND law

IPSEA, the SEND legal support charity, lead a session that outlines the major pieces of legislation that protect children and young people with SEND including the Children and Families Act, Equalities Act, Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act. They cover the tools that families (and forums) have at their disposal to seek redress if they have concerns. IPSEA also cover the services and support that they offer and how forums can seek further help and training.

View the recording of the session along with the presentation and a Q&A document from the session.

Delivering Better Value in SEND (DBV)

This interactive session provided an opportunity for parents and carers to understand the DBV programme, ask questions, and contribute to how it is set up for success. The session explores:

• What the DBV in SEND programme is and how it sits alongside other DfE activities
• The progress made and findings to date
• How to best connect parent-carers into the work of the programme

See the following link to the local authorities participating in DBV – https://nnpcf.org.uk/2022/10/19/dfe-update-delivering-better-value-for-send-and-safety-valve/

You can watch the recording of the session and download the presentation

Developing the Parent Carer Forum handbook with Contact

Last year, Contact asked what forums wanted in the new forum handbook – In this session they share the survey results and discuss how to take things forward to develop a handbook that works for all parent carer forums.

View a recording of the session here.