We are very pleased to be involved with the SEN Forum in Wiltshire. This is a series of meetings designed to allow parents and carers to raise problems or questions about SEN policies and provision within the county and a series is held twice a year.
The forum series is made up of four area meetings and a county forum. The aim of each area meeting is to identify questions to be taken forward to the County Forum. The questions, which will relate to SEN issues, policies and practices rather than individual children, will then be discussed at the County Forum.
The area meetings are very informal and are chaired by a member of the SENSS team. Only parents/carers and support group members may attend and no member of the Local Authority will be present. Discussion is open, honest and frank and our past experience is that parents find it a supportive environment in which to share their problems. We introduce the meeting by agreeing group rules to respect each other's contributions and at the end of the meeting we make a democratic decision on which questions will go forward to the County Forum. Each area meeting chooses two questions to be submitted and reserve a question. At the end of the area series we choose two of the four reserve questions to make a total of ten for submission. These questions are given to the LA and they choose the most appropriate people to respond to the questions.
Attendance at the County Forum is by invitation and can only be accessed by people who attended the area meetings in that series. This is to ensure that the people who originally ask the questions get the opportunity to discuss the response within the county forum. We normally limit parental attendance at the County Forum to approximately 20-24 i.e. 5-6 people from each area meeting. Priority is given to questioners. This allows us to have a total of approximately 40 present in the room, including representatives from the LA and Wiltshire NHS and enables us to hold the meeting 'in the round'.
The County Forum gives parents and carers the opportunity to meet with educational specialists from the county council in a constructive and relaxed setting, and to raise and explore SEN-related issues. It aims to improve the understanding of issues surrounding SEN, and SEN processes and practice. For example, parents are able to ask about how or why things are done in a certain way.
It also helps to ensure that developments in SEN policy and practice are influenced through discussions with parents by providing examples of how decisions impact on families and identifying where parents agree with local authority practice and where they see a need for change.
Areas of discussion so far have included:
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provision for various types of SEN, for example autism;
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requesting a Statutory Assessment of SEN;
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referral to services such as CAMHS (Child/Adolescent Mental Health Service);
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special examination arrangements
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parental involvement in SEN developments
The County Forum lasts for 3 hours including a coffee-break (which many people use as a good opportunity to have personal discussions with the LA reps) and this allows time for some discussion after each response. Afterwards notes of the meeting are published on our website and the Wiltshire Council's website. The LA also produces a Parents' Briefing which updates parents about progress on issues discussed at previous forums.
Parents and carers' feedback about the forum has been very positive. Parents commented that the forum is a very valuable resource and have been impressed by the level of commitment shown by both professionals and parents. Attendees also said that they appreciated the chance to gain a better understanding of SEN processes.
We would be pleased to hear your feedback on the responses given at the previous forum, details of which can be found in our 'SEN Forum notes' section.
If you would like to attend one of the district meetings please go to SEN Forum - Request to attend
