Plymouth Parent Carer Voice

This week, PPCV will be at Knowle Battery Playing Fields (PL5 3QG) for the Plymouth Family Hubs Play in the Park event.

Looking forward to seeing you on Wednesday 26th August from 10:00 am - 2:00 pm ☺

Sharing on behalf of The Hideaway Cafe at Faraday Mill

For further information and to find out if this is suitable for your family, please contact them directly.

🌈 FIND YOUR TRIBE 🌈

This one is very personal to me. ❤️

I’ve spent 20 years working in education, SEND, inclusion and trauma-informed practice, but this idea hasn’t just come from my professional experience, it’s come from my lived experience as Brooklyn’s mum.

Brooklyn is 16, autistic, and like many neurodivergent young people, he’s struggled to find friendships and somewhere he truly feels he belongs.

Find Your Tribe is a relaxed monthly meet-up for SEN/neurodivergent teenagers and like-minded young people. No forced conversations, no pressure to join in, just board games, colouring, a safe space and hopefully the chance to meet people who get you.

Parents/carers need to come along and remain responsible for their young person, so it’s also a chance for us to meet other parents walking similar paths.

📅 Saturday 26th September | 2:30–4:30pm
📍 The Hideaway Café, Faraday Mill, PL4 0ST
❤️ Last Saturday of every month
🍕☕️🥤Food and Drink available to buy
🆓 Free to attend

Sometimes you don’t need to change who you are.

You just need the opportunity to find your tribe. 🌈❤️

Around the start of the summer holidays, we had lots of requests from different services asking us to share their consultations. To help you, we have listed them in the post that is pinned to the top of our page.

We really would like to encourage you to take part to help shape the SEND services that we need. In the meantime, we promise we will still share your experiences on your behalf when we have the opportunity.

Thank you to everyone who has taken part so far 🙏

Transport for September.

As we all know, many children with disabilities are unable to access the nearest local school. Many are travelling long distances, with knock-on effects for the whole family - this is why school transport is vital for so many families.

Is your child or young person's transport set up and ready to go for the start of the new term in September?

Let us know by:

🗨 Commenting below (Please remember this is a public page, so please respect the privacy of individuals)
💬Sending us a private message
📩Emailing [email protected]

Sharing on behalf of Plymouth City Council. We would particularly like to encourage families with young children with SEND to take part, so your experience is included, too.

📣 Parent Survey 2026 - Have Your Say

👶 Are you a parent or carer of a baby, toddler, or young child? We'd love to hear from you.

🍼 Your feedback will help us better understand the childcare and early years needs of families and ensure that services are accessible, high-quality, and meet the needs of young children.

Photo by Pavel Danilyuk on Pexels

📝 By completing the Parent Survey 2026, you can help shape future childcare provision and support for families in our area. The survey only takes a few minutes to complete, and every response makes a difference.

🔗 https://www.plymouth.gov.uk/childcare-surveys

Sharing on behalf of OCEAN City RUGBY inclusive :

🏉Do you care for a child with SEND with a love of sport? Then come along and see what we have to offer!

🏉We are a NEW, inclusive, non-contact Tag Rugby Club for children with SEN, ADHD, Autism, and neurodivergence who have a love for sport. Boys and girls aged 5 yrs upwards are welcome.

🏉Ocean City Rugby Inclusive was launched in July 2024 by Stephen (Hoops) Hooper, Captain of the Invictus Games 2024. Our aim is to help players gain self-esteem, self-confidence, communication and listening skills and develop coordination whilst exercising and team building. Young people will gain skills both in Non-Contact Tag Rugby and socially whilst having fun and laughter in a safe space.

🏉Training is tailored each week to the players that are at the session. At every training session, each player must have a parent / carer with them and be prepared to help their player's participation (there is no pressure - do it your way!)

🏉Our coaches are volunteers and work with the players to gain their trust at the same time working with the parents all in a safe environment.

🏉Our season runs from September - July. During the summer holidays, we have extra fun sessions. We have a Player of the week medal and an end-of-season trophy presentation. We also have a social side which has included trampolining and bowling.

☺️Everyone is welcome. along side our parents / carers/ volunteers we want to be able to develop the club in the future for our players allowing the club to expand.

⭐Let's build something great for these amazing children.

For more information please see our page OCEAN City RUGBY inclusive or email - [email protected]

Citizens Advice Plymouth is a really useful contact for families. If you want to find out more about how they can support you and your child/young person with SEND, check out the PPCV Members' Hub for a short introduction. You will find it under "Local Area Partnership".

❓We asked our advisers:
what do you wish more people knew about?

💡They said:
the disabled child element of Universal Credit.

The disabled child element is an extra payment from Universal Credit. You may be eligible if any of your children are disabled, and there are two different payment rates depending on your circumstances.

Sometimes families aren't aware of this payment, because they weren't entitled at the time of making their initial Universal Credit Claim.

Find out more on our website ➡ https://tinyurl.com/2h8m5sd3

Has your young person accessed the Sound Minds Calm Cafe? If so, we would love to know what you think.

For more information about it, please contact the group directly (see post)

𝐒𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐦 𝐂𝐚𝐟𝐞
📅 Wednesdays, 4:30-6:30pm
📍St Aidan's Ernesettle, 42 West Malling Avenue, Plymouth PL5 2SS

St Aidan's have developed a new calm café for young people aged 11-18 years facing additional challenges e.g. social, neurodivergence or SEND. This is a calm space for young people with a strong focus on well-being, better mental health and good peer and adult mentor relationships through creativity and communication.

If you are a parent/carer or working with a young person and believe that this could benefit them, please email Sianne Spry at: [email protected]

Have you taken part in the Livewell Southwest and Plymouth City Council survey to share your views on the Neuro-affirming commitments that they would like to work towards?

⭐Children and young people can take part here: https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=0cOjqQ_8Q0m8Ktc-OIzC3_9hAIeMIstEv4K6rNSgfd9UNTBWSU1MNkpQNUUwNTFKMloxQ1RaTlJKNiQlQCN0PWcu&route=shorturl

⭐Parent Carers can take part here: https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=0cOjqQ_8Q0m8Ktc-OIzC3zzqz31485lFsrnuaDj03tFUMzAwSFM5NUVBTzlDU0lCSEZHTDQyVFFTNi4u&route=shorturl

🙏Thank you to Plymouth Youth Ascends for designing a logo. Don't forget to give them feedback about their design while you are there!

We had a fabulous time with Plymouth Family Hubs at the Southway Community Hub and Cafe today. Thank you to the families who stopped by for a chat - it was great to meet you.

Our weighted doggie has now been given plenty of different names - we will have to start a list 🐾