Review of 2019

  • By The Difficult Parent
  • •
  • 05 Jan, 2020
  • •

OMG sooooo much has happened this year - we've said goodbye to the parent carer forum Haringey Involve, the SEND Head of Service and their deputy, noooooo!, But, I know I have to get over it! We have a new cabinet member for children and families - and she has already made quite an impact! So, we thought we'd have a review of 2019 against the 10 quick wins we gave to CB (Cllr Brabazon) and see how things went down!

Dear Councillor Brabazon

As the councillor with responsibilities for schools - we thought you'd really enjoy a report card at the end of your first few months in office 

1. Please can we have a date in our diaries - well in advance (1 mark)

Done - well done Cllr Brabazon and the SEND department - this one you have knocked out of the park.  Excellent work.

2. Why not have rotating Chairs for meetings? (no marks)

Sorry everyone, you know this is a bit of a Difficult Parent bugbear - we really would like to see this and we think this is an easy one to fix.

3. As parent carers we really need to see meeting minutes we can trust (1 mark)

Well, once again DONE - well done everyone.

We now have super official and efficient independent minute takers of meetings and that is great.

Well done.

4. Please ask officers to send agenda and papers well in advance (3/4 a mark)

This one is a bit hit and miss.

Sometimes this happens - and sometimes no so much.

Going to give this a 'could do better'.

5. Please ask officers to read their own papers in advance (1 mark)

Not only do they now read their own papers - but they also read the papers we send to them.

Agendas are co-produced and we are moving forwards together.

Good job, well done

6.Please ask officers to ensure they give reliable information to parent carers (3/4 of a mark)

At the time of writing the 10 easy wins we wrote:

"It is really important that parents are given the right information at the right time.  With reference to the Haringey Local Offer website, the list of parent groups on the Haringey  'Get Involved' pages confuses me. HealthWatch chair and convene the Transitions Group, but it is only SENDIASS and SENDPACT that the Difficult Parent sees regularly attending all of the other meetings. Stella's autism group have attended the Parent Engagement Group. Haringey need to be clear who parents should go to, to 'get involved'."

There has been an improvement in the 'get involved' pages, but it is still not crystal clear to parents who they should go to in order to 'Get Involved' - who attends what meetings and how regularly.

There has also been some confusion around the SEND Transport Consultation and we need to work together to plan these consultations collaboratively and closely.

7. Please ask officers to keep in touch! Let us know you have received information (3/4 of a mark)

On the while ok - but our last 5 emails have been ignored - feeling a bit rejected here 

8. Please ask officers to be more moderate in their use of language (1 mark)

Done - well done Glinda, this one was you I am guessing

9. Please ask officers to really listen to us and make the information accessible and available and easy for parents to read and access (3/4 of a mark)

So, I was in a SEND Improvement meeting and I was DELIGHTED to hear that one of the schools in Haringey has become a PODD school (this is a whole school method of communication for non-verbal children).  This is really fantastic - but how are parents to know about that successful piece of engagement and co-production. 

It would be lovely to have an evaluation and assessment stage included in our co-production work and consultation work. This will oresent an opportunity to celebrate successful collaboration.

That said, there has been more positive feedback in meetings with officers, so well done on that.

10. Please, ask officers to respect us, treat us with dignity. The same dignity and respect they should show you, Councillor Brabazon (1 mark)

So, this is definitely the case with the AD's who run the co-production work.  And the best way to change behaviour is to model it.

Total score: 8 marks out of 10

That's an awesome improvement - isn't it!

But there is something I feel that I need to add.  We have fantastic parents here in Haringey and fantastic parent representatives who give up their time freely and work really hard to co-produce services with the local authority. We do this without reward and at a cost to ourselves. 

At times, officers might think we are being difficult, moaning or a little pedantic, but I say this about all my parent representative colleagues, all of you are  doing a fantastic job.  Attending meetings, producing co-production materials for meetings like the Behaviour Framework arranging events like SEND PACT's Fairness Commission event or running a stall at the Transitions event, as Stella's Autism Service did, all the community groups that WAVE runs, the selfless volunteering of Haringey Autism, the time the parents who attend Transitions Reference Group put in month after month, the work done with parents by SENDIASS and Markfield.

I would like the Officers, the councillors and parents never to forget that.

I have been looking at other authorities recently - you know what, WE ARE AWESOME.

Revised score: doubled to reflect the efforts of the stakeholders 16 / 10 - 160% yeah, it's a totally real number 

Now, let's do some awesome co-production in 2020!!!!!!! (oh, and bring it on OFSTED - we are waiting for you)

The Difficult Parent

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