Parent carer forums work with a wide range of service providers. It is important that forums maintain a working relationship to enable them to influence change. Sometimes things will happen that can impact on the relationship and forums will need to navigate these.
Managing differences
It is almost inevitable that at some point in time there will be differences of opinion within workstream or meetings. This might be because of disagreement over a range of things such as priorities, use of funding within projects, feeling people are not listening, personality clashes or inappropriate conduct. Conflict can trigger strong emotions and can lead to hurt feelings, disappointment, and discomfort.
Conflict can be minimised by making sure that at meetings everyone is encouraged to express themselves openly and honestly and that decisions are made transparently. Try to remember that managing conflict calmly is key to neutralising or resolving it. Tips to help include:
- Managing stress and remain calm. By staying calm, you can accurately read and interpret verbal and nonverbal communication.
- Control your emotions and behaviour.
- Take a break if needed and consider if you need to step away.
- Be aware of and respect differences.
If you find that the differences are impacting on the forums ability to be effective or the forums wellbeing, it is important to speak to your Contact adviser.
The follow areas are some examples where challenges may occur and suggestions on how forums may be able to manage these.
Forums work with a wide range of service providers and attend a range of meetings and workshops. There may be occasions where forums could feel stuck between different competing agendas held by services. This can feel uncomfortable for the parent carers involved.
It can help forums to reflect on their key role, to be the voice for parent carers in their area and to be solution focused. The forum steering group may want to review the forums priorities or key areas of focus and ensure all parent representatives are clear on these.
The forum may find that talking to other forums, their NNPCF regional representative or Contact adviser is also helpful.
Professionals sometimes invite individual parents who are not members of the forum to sit on their working groups or committees as parent carer representatives. When this occurs, it is not always clear how these parents represent experiences other than their own.
Sometimes this is due to professionals not being aware of the role of a forum. It can be helpful to meet with these professionals to tell them about the forum and explain how you would like to work with them.
You might also invite the parent carer representatives on these committees to become a member of the forum. This enables the forum to benefit from the skills and knowledge of the parent carer and for the parent carer to receive support and the benefits of being in a team.
Parent carer forums often invest time to build a working relationship with key individuals within external agencies. When these people move on or there is a restructuring this can feel like having to start again.
Practical things that forums can do include:
- Have induction sessions for new staff that explain the role of the forum and the work the forum does.
- Write directly to new leads including details of how you would like to work with them and any ongoing work you are involved in within their work area.
- Ensure any new staff are aware of any local agreements which are in place such as coproduction agreements.
Ensure staff are aware of how to contact the forum. This could include contact details, opening hours and names of any relevant people for example the participation coordinator in the forum.
Don’t panic
If a forum is experiencing difficulties in an area related to working with external agencies they should reach out for help from their Contact adviser.
Do you have any thoughts about this page? Visit our How to feedback page to share them.
Looking for something else? You can find a full list of pages on our Parent carer forum handbook contents page.
Support for forums
Support for forums
Find out what support there is for forums
Support for forums
What all forums have in common
Find out about the shared values of forums
What all forums have in common
Working in partnership
Find out more about the forums role in partnership working
Working in partnership
Understanding and resolving conflict
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NNPCF website and social media
Find out how to connect with other forums
NNPCF Website and Social media Template letter to send to local services
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