Plymouth Parent Carer Voice

It was great to meet the Early Years Team at the PPCV SEND Conference last week.

We discussed their Childcare Survey - they are keen to hear from families who support children with SEND to make sure that every family can find childcare that works for them.

Their surveys help them understand what parent carers REALLY need: opening hours, accessibility, affordability...etc. Please consider taking part to help them work with providers and partners to plan better childcare services for everyone.

Survey link is in the comments 👇🏾

Photo by Nikita Nikitin on Pexels

Back in May, we asked you a couple of questions on behalf of the Local Area Partnership regarding "Experts at Hand" - part of the SEND Reform, which aims to improve access to specialist support for children and young people with SEND.

For transparency, we have now published a blog on our website that summarises what you have told us - you can read it here: https://plymouthpcv.co.uk/experts-at-hand-what-you-told-us/

Thank you to all the parent carers who took the time to respond to our call for information 🙏 We may not use your exact wording, but we have done our very best to include everything you have told us. As always, if you think that we have missed/misrepresented anything, please let us know.

Here are the questions we asked:

⭐ What stage (Early Years, Primary, Secondary, Post-16) is/was your young person when you requested support?

⭐What additional private services did/do you use for your young person that are NOT provided by the local authority, school or health? (eg: tutor, speech and language therapy, play therapy...)

Plymouth Family Hubs are offering parent carers the opportunity to take part in a Level 1 Makaton Course in September.

There is a charge for this course: £25 for the resources that you will use and get to keep at the end of the course. This offer is at a heavily discounted price for parent carers.

For more information, please contact Plymouth Family HubsPlymouth Family Hubs. Alternatively, you can watch the presentation by Naomi (who is running the course) in the PPCV Members' Portal.

This is the final question on the feedback survey for the 2026 PPCV SEND Conference. The full survey is still open, or you are welcome to share your comments via social media.

Q7. Is there anything else you would like to let us know about this year's SEND Conference?

Thank you for taking part and helping us get it right for as many Plymouth families as possible 🙏

📅Wednesday, 8th July
⏰Midday
💻Online
⭐PEEP Learning Together Programme with Plymouth Family Hubs

Join us for an online session looking at how you can support your child at home. Kim from Plymouth Family Hubs will share a brief overview of the PEEP Learning Together Programme in relation to children with SEND, before going on to share tips and ideas on how you can use it to support your children at home.

Visit the PPCV website to register. You will receive an email link to join us.

If you have any difficulties in accessing this, please do not hesitate to contact us 😊

Photo by Ksenia Chernaya on Pexels.

Here is Q6 in the SEND Conference Feedback Survey:

⭐Would a talk for young people with SEND be of interest to your young person? And if so, what would they like?

💭The survey is still open. You can still complete it by following the link in the comments, or you can answer the questions we are posting via social media. We would really value your input, as this will help us plan future events.

🙏Thank you for taking the time to support improvements.

Q5 in the SEND Conference Feedback Survey is this:

Would a breakout room or quiet room at the SEND Conference be useful to you?

The survey is still open. You can still complete it by following the link in the comments, or you can answer the questions we are posting via social media. We would really value your input, as this will help us plan future events.

Thank you for taking the time to support improvements 🙏

We know that face-to-face meet-ups are not possible for all families, so we are sharing this online opportunity on behalf of SEND Help Plymouth , who are running their online Cuppa and Catch up session this evening (Saturday).

Please get in touch with them for more information and a link to join - they would love to see you there!

Join us tomorrow 😃

We know of LOTS of young people with SEND who would be AMAZING at sharing their experiences to help make a difference to others.

If you are caring for one of them, why not take them to Youth Ascends next week? See below for more information 👇

𝐒𝐄𝐍𝐃 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐮𝐦
Youth Ascends invite you to join them for activity based fun and discussions, to meet others, share stories and help make a difference.

📅 Thursday 9 July 2026
🕠 5:00-6:30pm
📍 at The Underground, City College, Plymouth PL1 5QG

Open to young people aged 8-25 years old.

𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗲𝗱:
☎️ Call: 01752 308900
🟩 Text/WhatsApp: 07833 048700
📧 Email: [email protected]

The SEND Conference Feedback Survey is still open. We would really value your input, as this will help us plan future events.

The survey has 7 short questions that should only take a few minutes to complete.

For those who prefer fewer questions or bite-sized chunks, please feel free to comment on the posts that will follow over the next few days.

Q3.What did you like most about the SEND Conference?

Q4. What improvements would you suggest for future conferences?