The meeting of North Yorkshire Council’s Children and Young People's Service - Executive Members & Corporate Director Meetings considered whether to commission a service to support the participation of parents of children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) in council decision-making.

Procurement for Parent Participation, Engagement and Co-production

The meeting considered a report on a proposal to begin a process to appoint an organisation to support the participation of parents of children and young people with SEND in the council’s decision making. The report, prepared by Chris Reynolds, the Head of SEND Strategic Planning and Resources at North Yorkshire, was scheduled to be presented by Wendy Butterfield, North Yorkshire’s Lead SEND Development Officer.

The report explained that the council has a legal duty under Section 19 of The Children and Families Act 2014 ¹ to seek the views of parents of children with SEND. It explained that the council was coming to the end of a 5 year contract with Parent Carer Voice, an organisation which provides parent participation services to local authorities, and that a decision was needed on whether to run a new process to appoint a similar organisation for another 5 years from April 2025.

The report notes that, In Yorkshire and Humber, it is common practice for local area partnerships to have organised Parent Carer Forums (PCFs) to support families with children and young people with SEND and constructively engage with partners to facilitate coproduction . It goes on to list the Parent Carer Forums operating in York, East Riding, Leeds, Sheffield and Hull.

The report also included an equality and climate impact assessment, which concluded that continuing to fund parent participation was unlikely to have a negative impact.