Brighton and Hove

Ailsa HolmesHello, my name is Ailsa Holmes and I am the Parent Participation Officer for Brighton and Hove. 

I am really looking forward to meeting and working with local parents, carers and authority staff and anyone else interested in TreeHouse! My role is to help you make a difference in your local community; working with you to make your voices heard and to work in partnership with professionals to develop more and better, services. I am keen to hear your ideas and to support any events and activities such as training courses, networking events, information days etc. that will develop your work. I want to hear your stories and feedback, establish new partnerships and network, contributing to making a positive impact both locally and nationally.

If you would like to meet, find out more about the project, or tell us what you are up to - please do get in touch. I work on Wednesdays and Thursdays, but can be flexible. My mobile number is 07545 697306 or please contact me at Aholmes@treehouse.org.uk.

About parent partnership in Brighton & Hove…

AmazeAlready established in Brighton & Hove is Amaze; the umbrella organisation that supports parents of children and young people with any special educational need. Amaze is the charity that for the past ten years has been commissioned by the local authority to run all the parent participation and Special Education Needs support work. There is a lot of information about key local events and news in their newsletter ‘Out of Amaze’.

Amaze set up the Parent Carers’ Council in July 2008 to bring together keen local parents who wanted to get involved with shaping local services. The Parent Carers’ Council is lead by elected co-chairs, Nicola Gibson and Debbie Collins, and we have 14 regular steering group members.

The aim of the Parent Carers’ Council is to develop a single forum that represents parent carers of children or young people with any condition (learning disabilities, mental health needs, physical disabilities or complex health needs).

Our parent carers work together to maximise our children’s opportunities to flourish by working with all organisations to champion equality and raise standards of services and support for carer families.

Eighty seven parents took part in either the focus day or survey about ‘More Therapies for Children in the Community’. This was about explaining our experiences of where therapy services were really working well, and where they were not. As a result of this there is a short review underway and parents are taking an active part in contributing their ideas about how services could be strengthened and communication with parents improved.

Our membership has grown during the year to over 100 – and we would love you to join us too!

To find out more about Amaze and the work they are doing in Brighton, visit www.amazebrighton.org.uk.

Local Authority contacts

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