We often hear about juggling duties as a parent, says Kingston Parent Carer forum, a group of local parent carer volunteers who have children with special needs and disabilities (SEND). 

It added: "but the life of a SEND parent carer adds a few more balls to the mix: added paperwork, appointments for our children, and sadly, having to fight for the right support to be in place." 

However, in the next few years, parent carers have an extra element to consider: the SEND White Paper and the proposed reforms. 

As volunteers with lived experience of the SEND system, The Kingston Parent Carer Forum says it "is here for all local SEND Parent Carers - to listen, empower and advocate".

Kingston Parent Carer forum said: "The new proposals from the government aims to help more children be included in local, mainstream schools and it is intended to provide additional support to many children who right now under Special Education Need (SEN) Support are not able to get extra help within the schools budget. 

"At the heart of the government's proposals, that accompany their Schools White Paper, is a completely new system and a new way of writing the paperwork." 

It added: "As the Parent Carer forum, we had to get our heads around what will change, how this is different from the system now and form ideas for how to respond on behalf of Kingston SEND Parent Carers. 

"The reforms, which will start coming into effect in 2029 are likely to affect many children in our borough and it is really important that families know they can have their say."

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Kingston SEND Parent Carer forum says it "is here to listen to parent carers and then work in co-production with local education services, provided by Achieving for Children, local schools and the NHS integrated Care Board". 

It added: "As such we have regular meetings with the Strategic Leads from these services, attend the SEND Partnership Board and also run a monthly Kingston Parent Carer Consortium, where we always welcome parent carers to join us and speak with these decision makers.

"Our role in the next few months is to respond to the government consultation and help draft the local reform plan - no mean task and we want to connect to as many other SEND Parent Carers as possible and hear their views. 

"With our experience, we have identified five key issues for our area: What Inclusion Looks Like, Relationships between families and schools and settings, Transition to Secondary School, Mental Health and Wellbeing, and Accessible Environments. 

"On the basis of these key topics, we have created a short survey to invite all local parent carers to be part of these reforms. Your feedback will drive our response to local implementation." 

If you would like to join in the SEND Parent Carer work you can join the forum by clicking here or emailing [email protected].