About Parent Carer Voice North Yorkshire
We are the recognised Parent Carer Forum for North Yorkshire, supporting families with children and young people (0-25 years old) with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEND). Our vision is to inform, empower and represent the collective voice of families with SEND in the region. We are a community, connecting families through shared information, experiences and mutual support. We know how isolating and confusing it can be to navigate services and family life with SEND, so we organise events and training across North Yorkshire and share information with the aim to inform and empower families. We work together, using our collective voice for positive change. We work closely and co-productively with our strategic partners and service providers such as the Local Authority and ICBs to help improve services and support for families.
You said, we did
We collect and share the voices of parent carers of children and young people with SEND throughout North Yorkshire in order to share these with our strategic partners and work co-productively together for positive change.
We asked how you would prefer us to hold our events across our locality: locally, in one central location, or both:
What we will do and what we are doing
These responses confirm that our plans to move into locality areas but with a central point for our larger events (Spring Event and Autumn Conference) is what our members want to see us doing and in turn this allows us all to come together from across the whole county as well as reduce isolation in the locality areas.
We’re continuing the preparation of our locality hub areas in order to reach more families across North Yorkshire.
Our most recent membership survey showed us that our strategic plans reflected how our members wanted the forum to proceed and we are continuing to work to achieve these goals.
Meet Our Team
ALISON (Ali) BORG: CHAIR
Alison was born and brought up in Scarborough and today lives there with her partner, five girls and dog Sparkie.
Ali is teacher trained and has worked at local FE colleges as a Learning Support Tutor and a manager of Additional Support Services. However, Ali’s role in Surrey as Locality Manager really changed her life. This role combined education and social care responsibilities and through this, Ali became interested in fostering. Ali has fostered nineteen children in total and is now a Specialist Foster Carers with her partner.
Ali strives to improve the life chances and the educational provision available to the children in her care and wider community.
sandra bell: Vice cHAIR/TREASURER
Sandra is a specialist foster parent carer member of the Steering Group based in Ryedale.
EMMA LOCKER: PARENT CARER MEMBER
Emma is a parent carer member of the steering group from the Whitby area.
MELANIE LEIGHTON: PARENT CARER MEMBER AND Associate Member (SENDIASS)
Melanie lives with her husband, 1 child, another at university and one living with support nearby. All three have different levels of SEND, each bringing different challenges, learning and support needs.
After many years of moving around the country as an Military of Defence family, they finally came to live in North Yorkshire
Melanie now works locally within SENDIASS North Yorkshire an impartial, arm’s length, confidential service.
HELEN PRINCE: PARENT CARER MEMBER AND ASSOCIATE MEMBER (CARER’S RESOURCE)
Helen is a Parent Carer and also works for Carers’ Resource, a charity that supports unpaid carers, parents who are caring for children with SEND and young carers.
Helen is keen to gather the views of parent carers in the areas she works and to share these with PCV steering group to help improve services and relieve carer strain.
Supporters and strategic partners
NNPCF
We are a member of the National Network of Parent Carer Forums; this enables us to share the collective voice of North Yorkshire parent carers at a national and regional level.
CONTACT
We work closely with Contact and the Regional Parent Carer Forums in order to improve local services through their parent carer participation support programs.
NOrth yorkshirE council
We receive funding from North Yorkshire Council. Together and with North Yorkshire ICBs, we work strategically and co-productively towards positive change.
DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION
We are funded by a grant from the Department of Education through Contact.
