PACC is a local Parent Carer forum, that provides opportunities for Parent Carers of children and young people with any disability or additional need and aged 0-25 years, to use their experiences to influence local decision making and improve services. PACC is run by a team who are all Parent Carers and who have a wide range of experience. PACC is registered with the Charity Commission and has a board of Trustees. Board members stand for election annually at our AGM. Further details about the PACC Trustee Board are available in the About Us section of the PACC website. We also have a number of Parent Carer representatives who work with us and increase our capacity to attend meetings and gather information. We have a small team of volunteers who support the delivery of our Community Support offer too.

Each year PACC is able to submit a grant application of up to £17,500 for the Department For Education Participation Grant. The grant application process is manged by Contact a Family on behalf of the DFE. Sometimes PACC will receive other funding from individual grant applications for specific projects or will receive payment for providing participation services to third parties, details of these will be available in our annual reports and current work areas. In 2023-2024 PACC are receiving funding from: Inclusive Communities Heart of England - Funding Healthy Lives Program Shropshire Integrated Care Board - Funding PFA Navigators Project Energize STW - Actio SEND Activities Program "All In Short Breaks"

Yes. PACC is managed purely by Parent Carers and is a stand-alone organisation. We have no political affiliations. In our role as ‘critical friends’ we do work closely with decision makers in education, health and social care, to ensure that Parent Carers experiences and views influence service design and delivery. While we work closely and often in collaboration with partners across the SEND system, we do so with the intention of raising the profile of concerns and issues across the SEND community and ensuring that decisions made take the SEND communities needs into consideration.

PACC is reliant on your support. By engaging with our social media and signing up to our mailing list you show your support for PACC and help us to understand the needs of SEND families in Shropshire. We also need to hear about your experiences of services, what worked or what didn’t work for your family. To influence decision making PACC needs evidence about what needs to change and why, your voice is that evidence. We also want to hear what you think of the work that PACC does and where we can improve what we do. Please see our surveys and social media for more information about our active work areas and discussions we are trying to inform and influence on behalf of the SEND community.

The main role of PACC is to ensure that Parent Carers have a voice in local decision making. To do this we need to have representatives at meetings where SEND service provision and care opportunities are being discussed. Parent Carer Representatives attend meetings on behalf of PACC to gather information about service development and to provide the Parent Carer perspective in any discussions. It is important that Parent Carer Representatives share the general views and experiences of Parent Carers in Shropshire and not just their own. This means that Parent Carer Representatives also need to attend regular PACC team meetings so they are familiar with the issues being raised by the Shropshire Parent Carer community and to report back to the Board on any meetings attended.

There are lots of ways to share your experiences with PACC. We have an active presence on social media and have multiple closed groups, where the discussion can only be seen by members of the group. You must be a Parent Carer to join these chat groups and will have to complete some qualifying questions so that we can be reassured that members are in the right place for them. You can also contact PACC by email or telephone, if you want to speak to us about a particular experience, as well as book a call with one of our PFA Navigators. PACC is keen to hear about good experiences as well as those where you have had concerns.

The feedback from Shropshire Parent Carers is crucial to our work. The issues that Parent Carers identify in service delivery inform our activity and priorities. It provides information about what works or what doesn’t work from a families’ perspective and means that we can identify where the way services are delivered could be improved. The Children and Families Act requires that local services are designed in partnership with families and so local decision makers must evidence that they are doing this. We regularly share information about what we are telling the 'system' and share information about what families are telling us and what we do with that information. You will see this shared across our social media, reports, and our You Said We Did posts too.

PACC cannot resolve individual challenges faced by Parent Carers. On some occasions where there is an issue being experienced by a number of families, PACC will work with individual families to develop case studies to inform our discussions with local decision makers. PACC is able to signpost families to other services that are specifically funded to provide advice and guidance for Parent Carers and to resources and information that Parent Carers might find useful in their individual circumstances. In some cases, our PFA Navigators will be able to offer a one to one conversation to support families to understand the Preparation for Adulthood landscape, what this means to your family, and how you can prepare for next steps. We cannot offer direct advocacy or attend meetings with families.

The National Network of Parent Carer Forums represents local Parent Carer Forums at a national level. All local Parent Carer Forums, which are funded via a participation grant from the Department For Education, are members of the NNPCF. The NNPCF national steering group is made up of Parent Carer representatives from each of the English regions. The regional representatives meet regularly with local forums at regional meetings, providing a pathway for local issues to be considered on a national level. The NNPCF works closely with the DFE, the Department of Health and other Government departments to raise the profile of the issues impacting on Parent Carers, children and young people with SEND.

PACC representatives work with Commissioners for both Shropshire Council and Shropshire Integrated Care Board (Health Services). Commissioners lead on the development and procurement of services, based on local need. They oversee the tender process for services and play a key role in contract monitoring.