PODS PARENT CARER FORUM - SEND REFORMS 2026
National Panel of Experts to help shape future SEND System
Extract: The Department for Education has announced the appointment of a national panel of experts to help shape the future SEND system, ensuring that children and young people with SEND receive better support in every classroom.
The National Inclusion Standards will set out what good support looks like across the country, giving schools and colleges clearer expectations and helping ensure children receive consistent support regardless of where they live. For children and young people with the most complex needs, we are proposing Specialist Provision Packages will underpin EHCPs, setting out clearly the support they should expect to receive, from specialist teaching and therapies to communication aids and assistive technology.
Read more about this here and how Sarah Clarke and Jo Harrison (Co-Chairs of National Network of Parent Carer Forums are involved in this work):
Experts at Hand: what parents of children and young people with special educational needs need to know
Extract: We’re re-shaping the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system to help make all mainstream education settings – where most children learn – truly inclusive. We’re investing to train teachers, educators and assistants and bring more experts such as, speech and language therapists into mainstream nurseries, schools and colleges.
Experts at Hand is about strengthening support in mainstream settings and is in addition to existing statutory support. This must be provided on top of any existing support that children currently receive and should never be used to replace the support provided through an education, health and care plan (EHCP).
Read more about this here:
We would like to extend our sincere thanks to all Parent Carers who took the time to participate in the SEND Reform White Paper consultation. Your insights, experiences, and honest feedback are invaluable in helping to shape a system that better supports children and young people with SEND. The NNPCF has now submitted its response to the Department for Education consultation: SEND Reform – Putting Children and Young People First.
Website link: https://nnpcf.org.uk/2026/05/19/nnpcf-response-to-the-dfe-consultation-send-reform-putting-children-and-young-people-first/
One Community Conference Feedback - March 2026
Feedback gathered at our annual conference, around what is working well and what could be better.
Parent Carer Forum FAQs - April 2026
Contact have recently created a set of Parent Carer Forum Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) with the NNPCF. These are aimed at the public and cover common questions about what parent carer forums are and what they do, please click on the link below to view them.
NNPCF - March 2026
We are sharing this national report/article here which includes quotes and experiences from our National Network of Parent Carer Forums.
SEND Conversation Summary - December 2025
DfE SEND CONVERSATIONRESPONSES TO 5 PRINCIPLES
PODS (Parent Carer Forum) Experience Survey Results 2024
FAMILY EXPERIENCES & IMPACT REPORT Winter 2024/25 (reported Summer 2025)
PODS (Parent Carer Forum) Experience Survey Results 2023
FAMILY EXPERIENCES & IMPACT REPORT Winter 2023 (reported Summer 2024)
PODS (Parent Carer Forum) Covid Survey Response – You Said, We Did
FAMILY EXPERIENCES & IMPACT REPORT – September 2022 (reported April/May 2022)
A parent carer forum is a group of parent carers of disabled children. Their aim is to make sure the services in their area meet the needs of disabled children and their families. They do this by gathering the views of local families and then working in partnership with local authorities, education settings, health providers and other providers to highlight where local services, processes and commissioners are working well, or challenge when changes or improvements need to be made.
Parent carer participation is when parents and professionals work together, recognising each other’s expert knowledge, to design, develop and improve services for disabled children in the local area. PODS (Parents Opening Doors) is a peer led charity based in Telford & Wrekin, we involve and support families of children and young people (aged 0-25 years) who have an additional need, or a disability, or SEND.
We are aware of the inequalities and that the community of parent carers is disproportionately affected by COVID19, and this has been further evidenced in the national report by Disabled Children’s Partnership ‘Left in Lockdown’ and wider reports, links given in further reading at the end of this report.
We have helped to reduce isolation and to promote inclusion wherever possible through offering opportunity to participate in activities to improve their health and wellbeing. A poignant reminder of finding the right place to be for our families, from a new family: “Connecting with other parents of children with SEND. I was feeling quite isolated before embracing what
PODS has to offer and meeting other families”
Thank you to all our families who have shared their experiences with us – these will go towards helping with service development in the future and for any immediate changes that may need to be addressed and that we pick up at regular communications meetings with key strategic leads across social care, education, health and community partners.