Equality, diversity and inclusion and reaching out further

Like all organisations and groups, parent carer forums must comply with a range of legal duties including duties under the Equality Act 2010. The Equality Act 2010 ensures that people with nine protected characteristics are considered and supported. It is against the law to discriminate against anyone because of a protected characteristic, including their:

• Age.
• Disability.
• Gender reassignment.
• Marriage and Civil Partnership.
• Pregnancy and maternity.
• Race.
• Religion or belief.
• Sex.
• Sexual orientation.

For more information on how to support EDI in the workplace:

• Equality, diversity and inclusion in the Workplace | Factsheets | CIPD
• What they are – Equality, diversity and inclusion – Acas

Each forum area has underrepresented communities and every local area has a different demographic and population.  Some forums may not have engaged with a refugee community yet, others may not have reached male carers, and for some, they may have a large rural county that makes it harder to get word to everyone. 
 
Collecting some data from the forum’s membership might help forums to identify the communities that they might want to take proactive action to reach next. You will need to ensure you have a GDPR policy in place on how you collect and store data.

PACC worked with Friends, Families and Travellers (FFT), a local organisation supporting traveller families, who told them that high numbers of families with children and young people with SEND were struggling to find out what support was available to them. 

Through their work with FFT, PaCC became aware that adult literacy was an issue. So, in conjunction with Traveller families, PaCC and the disability charity Amaze they designed and produced an easy read version of their forum flyer with pictures and key information, and numbers that families could call for support. In collaboration with FFT, PaCC organised an informal information session at the local permanent Travellers’ site where they told Traveller families about the forum and left some flyers.

Parent carers from the Traveller community told the forum that the best way to keep Travellers informed is through face-to-face contact, and while talking to people in a group is good for information, a more confidential setting needs to be offered to some families.

One parent carer suggested ‘To have a person we can relate to, someone we can trust and understand us.’ Ongoing support from one trusted person, a referral point.’

Another parent carer said ‘for me it is very important to have one person as a referral point. We spend time and time again repeating what we need; our children/young people’s conditions and needs. Having not to repeat that all the time will save so much time and make ourselves more relaxed and less stressed. For someone to record the situation, write everything on a letter.”

In addition to making Travellers families aware of the forum, FFT became more aware of PaCC, so they could signpost families to support and to hear their views and experiences. 

This project was part of wider work funded by Brighton and Hove City Council Third Sector Investment Programme (TSIP). The project was delivered in partnership by PaCC, Amaze and Friend Families and Travellers (FFT).

Read more PaCC’s work with the Traveller families.

The Lewisham Parent & Carer’s Forum works hard to reach out to as many different families and communities as possible to ensure their experiences are at the heart of service development. 

The forum is a charity and has run a range of activities such as a pamper day, ‘warm hubs’ (where families can come along with their children and get a free warm meal), and arts and crafts.  All these activities help to connect with their communities and help the forum learn, in an informal way, about the experiences of a range of families with children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities. 

The video was provided free of charge by Media Trust and with funding from City Bridge Trust (CBT) who have provided four years of funding for two workers supporting families with transitions and benefits. Awards for All provided the funding for 6 months of winter warm hubs and the forum’s pamper days funding are provided by the DfE’s participation grant to promote engagement and participation. 

Find out more about how Lewisham Parent & Carer’s Forum reach out to their communities and watch their video.

The summary toolkit is useful for new forums looking to put on engagement events, or those who wish to reach out into their community to grow their membership. You can use this on its own, or alongside the full toolkit. It helps you to:

• Know where to look and find different community groups in your area and think about their different needs.
• Put on inclusive events.
• Know how to take action now and in the future to become more inclusive.

The full toolkit can help forums to think about developing a welcoming and inclusive culture. It provides a lot of useful information including:

• Guidance for arranging accessible in-person and online events.
• Help for forums to understand the Equality Act, protected characteristics.
• Information about underrepresented groups.
• Information on how to build networks.
• Equality, diversity and inclusion policies.
• Exercises and development resources for the forum’s steering group.
• Signposting to organisations and training, and more.

As the provider of the annual grant to parent carer forums, the Department for Education (DfE) likes to see how forums’ membership and diversity is growing each year. As part of grant monitoring, forums must indicate the number of parent carers involved in your forum, and in Section 8, about the diversity and reach of your forum. This is so that the DfE can see who forums are reaching.

It might be helpful for you to collect some membership data (anonymously if GDPR is a concern) so that you can complete this section, but more importantly so that you can identify communities that the forum can take steps to engage with and might include in your following year’s grant application. Please talk to your contact adviser for more information and support.

Please talk to your contact adviser for more information and support.