Parent Carer Council for Cornwall

Parent Carer Council for Cornwall

The Parent Carer Council for Cornwall has been set up by a group of parents all whom have children with disabilities or additional needs up to the age of 21. We aim to work with professionals and managers who provide services to our children and young people to develop change and improve services to families who live daily with the impact of disability.

Bringing up a child with additional needs can be difficult, challenging and upsetting. It brings families into contact with a wide range of professionals and agencies and parents often feel they have little control of their own lives and families.

The Parent Carer Council aims to give parents more control by ensuring that parents fully participate in service development both nationally and locally. We want services to be family centred and all members of the family supported especially brothers and sisters of the child with difficulties.

We also aim to promote a positive image of our children as they bring families much joy and love.

We represent all families whatever the difficulties their child has, whether it be cerebral palsy, autism, problems with sight or hearing, epilepsy, mental health issues etc. The list is endless and we encourage all parents to be involved. We presently have over 600 members but we know there are many more families out there that don't know about us yet! The more members we have the louder voice we have!

We meet three times a year as a full council and keep in touch with our members with a regular newsletter. We try and provide information on activities, consultations and events across Cornwall.

We are managed by the charity Contact a Family who assist us with finance and supervision of our manager but it is the management committee of parents who decide the every day to day running of the council. We have good working relationships with managers in the Cornwall Council and in the Health service. We also work with existing voluntary organisations and parent groups.

Parent Carer Council for Cornwall