Parent Participation
Parent participation happens when parent carers and professionals work together, sharing their knowledge and experience to shape and improve services for children with additional needs or disabilities.
The forum’s main role is to support this work in Somerset, as well as regionally and nationally. Parent carers play a vital part by highlighting common challenges families face. This insight helps services understand what really matters to families and make changes so they meet their needs more effectively.
Get involved and share your experience as your voice can help make a real difference for families in Somerset.
In Somerset we have worked to develop a Collaboration Framework to ensure that everyone has a shared understanding of participation and coproduction.
We want services to be clear how they intended to involve parent carers and understand the importance of keeping them informed throughout the process, feeding back the changes that have been made or why changes could not be made.
Co-Production
Co-production takes participation a step further. It happens when service providers work in true partnership with parent carers, practitioners, and service users from the very beginning of a project.
This means that the right people are involved from planning and developing a service, through to implementing and reviewing it, and that everyone has an equal voice.
By working this way, participation and co-production can lead to real improvements and make a positive difference for families and everyone involved.