Who we are
Nottinghamshire Parent Carer Forum (NPCF) is a charity run by, and for, parent carers of children and young people with additional needs and/or disabilities, from birth to 25, across Nottinghamshire.
Our main role is to listen to parent carers and make sure family experiences are shared with the people who plan, provide and review local SEND services.
We gather parent carer views, look for common themes, and feed these back to services and decision-makers across education, health and social care.
NPCF is an independent charity. We work closely with local services, organisations and decision-makers, but we are separate from them. This means we can build positive working relationships while still sharing parent carer feedback clearly and honestly.
Listening to families across Nottinghamshire
NPCF is not based on a small group of people sharing only their own personal experiences.
Steering Group Members are parent carers, and their lived experience is valuable. However, their role is much wider than speaking from their own family situation. Their work helps NPCF listen to families across Nottinghamshire, gather wider feedback, identify common themes and make sure a broad range of parent carer voices are shared with services and decision-makers.
NPCF gather parent carer views through surveys, events, workshops, school sessions, focus groups, conversations, feedback forms, emails, and our membership network. We then look for shared themes, patterns and gaps in support, so that what we raise is based on wider parent carer experience across Nottinghamshire.
Using a range of different ways to listen helps NPCF hear from families who may not already be connected with the SEND system or wider parent carer networks.
NPCF does not claim that every parent carer will have the same view or experience. Our role is to gather a wide range of feedback, identify common themes and make sure wider parent carer experiences are shared with services and decision-makers.
This wide range of family voices and experiences helps inform all feedback NPCF shares.
Video: parent carer voices
How NPCF works
NPCF works in different ways to make sure parent carer voices are heard and shared with services and decision-makers across Nottinghamshire.
1. We listen and connect
We listen to parent carers in different ways, including surveys, events, workshops, school sessions, focus groups, feedback forms, conversations, emails, and our membership network.
This helps us understand what families are experiencing across Nottinghamshire, including what is working well, what is difficult, and where there are gaps in support.
2. We represents parent carer voices
NPCF attends meetings with local services and decision-makers to share what parent carers tell us.
We do not usually raise individual cases. Instead, we look for shared themes, patterns and issues, so services can better understand the experiences of families across Nottinghamshire
3. We champion parent carer involvement
We encourage services to involve parent carers when they are planning, reviewing or changing support.
This helps make sure families’ experiences are considered early, rather than only being asked for views after decisions have already been made.
4. We share information and opportunities
NPCF shares information that may be useful to parent carers, including local SEND updates, events, workshops, surveys, consultations and opportunities to share views.
We share information through our website, newsletter, social media, events and direct contact with families.
5. We contribute to projects and wider SEND work
NPCF is involved in different projects, workstreams and themed areas of SEND work where parent carer feedback is important.
This may include work such as Partnership for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools,(PINS), Neurodiversity in Schools, Part-time Timetable Work, school-based parent carer sessions, and other local SEND work.
Some of this work focuses on a specific topic, school or service area, while other work helps us understand wider issues affecting families. Together, this helps NPCF share clearer parent carer feedback with services and decision-makers.
6. We gather evidence from families
NPCF gathers feedback from parent carers through surveys, events, conversations and project work.
This helps us build a clearer picture of family experiences and raise wider issues with services in a more informed and evidence-based way.
7. We support connection and local groups
NPCF supports opportunities for parent carers to connect with each other.
Where possible, we also support the growth and development of local parent carer groups by offering encouragement, signposting and practical help.
8. We work in partnership across Nottinghamshire
NPCF works with local services and organisations across Nottinghamshire to share parent carer feedback, raise common themes and identify where support, information or communication could be improved.
Ask Us Nottinghamshire, the local SEND Information, Advice and Support Service, is a co-opted member of the forum. This supports good communication between our organisations and helps us understand common themes being raised by parent carers, both through NPCF and through Ask Us, while keeping our roles clear.
Working in these different ways helps NPCF hear from a wider range of families across Nottinghamshire, not only those who are already connected with the forum or wider SEND networks.
The NPCF team
NPCF is supported by trustees, staff, Steering Group Members and volunteers, who help run and guide the work of the forum in different ways.
This includes:
Trustees, who have overall responsibility for the charity
Forum Lead, who manages the day-to-day work of NPCF
Steering Group Members, who help guide the forum’s work and support the different areas of activity
Bookkeeper, who supports the forum’s finances
Our Steering Group is made up of parents and carers from across Nottinghamshire County. They have children and young people of different ages, with a wide range of additional needs and/or disabilities, and experience of different types of educational support. Some Steering Group Members also run or support local parent carer groups, helping NPCF stay connected with a wider range of family experiences across Nottinghamshire.
Steering Group members may attend meetings with local and regional service providers, where they share anonymised themes, experiences and concerns from the parent carers NPCF has engaged with. This helps make sure wider parent carer issues are heard.
For more information, please visit our Steering Group page.
If you would like NPCF to come to a local support group, school or organisation to talk with parent carers about the forum, please get in touch.
What NPCF can and cannot do
NPCF wants to hear from parent carers about their experiences of SEND services in Nottinghamshire. What families share helps us understand common themes, gaps and issues that may need to be raised with services and decision-makers.
NPCF is not an individual advocacy, legal advice or crisis service, so we cannot take on individual cases, attend meetings as an advocate, investigate complaints or give specialist advice.
Even so, what you share really matters. Your experience can help us understand what families are facing and where services may need to improve.
NPCF works constructively with services and decision-makers, but we are clear and direct when raising the views, concerns and experiences parent carers share with us.
NPCF is committed to co-production at every level. This means working with services so parent carer views help shape support, services and information. It also means championing personal co-production, where children, young people and their families are listened to, respected and meaningfully involved in decisions about their own support.
If you would like to tell us your experience or difficulty, get in touch via our contact form
The wider Parent Carer Forum network
NPCF is the recognised Parent Carer Forum for Nottinghamshire County. There is one recognised Parent Carer Forum for each local authority area.
NPCF is part of the regional and national network of Parent Carer Forums across England. This helps make sure the views and experiences of Nottinghamshire families can be shared locally, regionally and nationally.
NPCF receives Parent Carer Participation funding through the Department for Education, which supports our work to gather parent carer views and share wider themes with services and decision-makers. This funding does not make NPCF part of the local authority, health services or any other organisation.
Please visit our Regional and National Involvement page for more information.
