How we can help

Highland Children's Forum strives to hear the voice of children with additional needs and that of their parent carers and to take that voice directly to policy makers to bring about change.

Forum staff gather information from children, young people and familes to highlight good practice and areas that need improvement in services.

Through its opportunities at policy committees it uses these pieces of testimony to bring about change in services to young people.

The terms of the Forum's Constitution do not allow it to act as an advocate for individuals or families. However it will signpost children or families to partner organisations or Advocacy Highland where they need specialist support to make their individual case to services.

From time to time it will host open meetings with the policy makers in services for members and other interested parties so that they get a first hand understanding of the views of service users.

Recent examples of this work have been:

the public meeting with the NHS Highland Head of Community Care on Speech and Language Therapy Services in Highland

and

the facilitation of meetings between parent/carers and Stephen Iliffe the Senior Manager [Additional Support Needs]. These meetings were organised at Stephen's request to allow him to gain a better understanding of the experience of parent/carers of the previous Record of Needs process so that the new Co-ordinated Support Plan protocols could avoid the pitfalls of the previous system.

If you wish to contribute to this work contact us through the office - details can be found under "Contact Us"