A huge thank you to parent carer forums this Volunteers’ Week 2021!

2 mins read

Tuesday 1 June 2021

This Volunteers’ Week, we want to say a massive thank you to the incredible 96,969 of you who are members of 151 parent carer forums (PCFs) across England.

Volunteers’ Week, which starts today, is the perfect time to show our appreciation for the thousands of parent carers who volunteer their time and do an incredible amount of unpaid work as part of their local PCF to help improve services for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

The range of work they do is vast and includes sharing their views and experiences, representing parents at local authority and health provider meetings, running events and collecting evidence to help  improve both local and national services.

We’d like to say a particularly HUGE ‘thank you’ to all the parent carers who help to run PCFs in England and for all the time you dedicate and the difference you make to families of children and young people with SEND – especially during such a challenging year.

Want to find out more about parent carer forums and how to get involved?

Watch our video What is a Parent Carer and What do they do?, to find out more about them and how parents across England are helping improve local and national services for children with SEND.

Watch Making a Difference, Why Should I Join My Local Parent Carer Forum? to hear parent carer forum members talking about why they got involved with their local PCF and find out how to get in touch with your local parent carer forum.

Contact supports and champions parent carer participation and parent carer forums across England through our contract with the Department for Education. We lead the strategic participation consortium for parent carers and children and young people alongside the Council for Disabled Children, KIDS and the National Network of Parent Carer Forums (NNPCF). Find out more about how Contact supports PCFs.