Lincolnshire Parent Carer Forum
Lincolnshire Parent Carer Forum
admin@lincspcf.org.uk LPCF, PO Box 1183,
Spalding, PE11 9EE
Registered Charity No. 1141060 * ICO Registration Z1810966
LPCF Achievements
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2026
LPCF Excellence Awards
We are delighted to announce the latest recipients of our LPCF Excellence Awards.These awards recognise individuals who have gone above and beyond to support children and young people with disabilities and/or SEND and their families. Each recipient was nominated by an LPCF parent carer who wanted their kindness, understanding and dedication to be recognised.
All nominations were carefully considered and voted on by LPCF’s Trustees and Volunteers.
First place: Ally - Skegness Pool & Fitness SuiteAlly was nominated for the amazing support she provides to an autistic child through her swimming lessons.
Her lessons are fun, colourful and engaging, while gently developing swimming skills, water confidence and greater independence. Ally remains calm, patient and understanding, adapting every lesson to the child’s individual needs and continually offering encouragement.
Because of Ally’s creativity and dedication, the child has made enormous progress and swimming has become one of the highlights of her week.
Her parent explained:
“As a parent, it means so much to have someone who truly understands and supports your child as an individual. Ally absolutely deserves recognition for her kindness, creativity, patience and dedication.”
As our first-place recipient, Ally will receive an LPCF pin badge, a certificate and a £50 voucher as a small token of our appreciation.
Second place: Emma Eden - Head of SchoolEmma was nominated by a parent who described her as their family’s “guardian angel”.
Following a significant change in the child’s health, Emma went above and beyond to ensure that she could return to school safely and remain included. She developed the necessary assessments and care plans, regularly checked on the child’s wellbeing and offered invaluable reassurance and emotional support to the whole family—including outside normal school hours when urgent information was needed.
Her compassionate and practical support has enabled the child to continue attending school, while giving her parent confidence that she is understood, cared for and safe.
Her parent said:
“Without Emma’s support, my daughter wouldn’t be attending school. She has been there for us and is an incredible woman with a truly beautiful heart.”
Third place: Daniel Chung — Lincoln UTC Daniel was nominated for giving a young person the opportunity to join Lincoln UTC after he had found mainstream education extremely difficult and had spent several years out of school or attending on a reduced timetable.
Mr Chung recognised the young person’s potential and gave him the chance to succeed. With his support and the inclusive approach of Lincoln UTC, the student’s attendance increased from 62% to 98%. He has taken part in school trips and work experience, achieved grades 7 and 8 in his mock examinations and now hopes to continue into sixth form before studying biomedical science at university.
His parent explained:
“For the first time within the education system, we feel seen and heard. Mr Chung has changed my son’s life and made our home life so much better.”
Congratulations to all our recipients
We would like to congratulate Ally, Emma and Daniel, as well as everyone who received a nomination.
Thank you for the kindness, commitment and individualised support you provide. Your contribution makes a genuine difference to children, young people and their families—and it has not gone unnoticed.
You can read all the nominations on our LPCF Excellence Awards Hall of Fame:
Juggling the Joys of Parenting!
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Parents Workshops with Hil
October 2025 to June 2026
Small Steps, Shared Experiences and Growing Confidence
In partnership with Hil, LPCF developed a series of nine Juggling the Joys workshops, based around issues and pressures that have been identified by our membership over the last few years.
The series was created for parent carers who wanted an opportunity to have some fun, meet others with shared experiences and explore practical strategies that could help make everyday life a little easier.
Each session was a 90-minute interactive workshop held on Zoom and was free to parents on the LPCF membership.
Across the series, parents explored topics including resilience, emotions, goals, behaviour and some of the everyday challenges of juggling family life. Just as importantly, the sessions gave parents time and space to talk, reflect and connect with others who understood.
The feedback showed the difference this could make:
“I didn't feel so isolated in my feelings or experiences.”
“I feel more confident in myself as a parent.”
“I learned that baby steps is still progress.”
“It helped me understand my child's behaviour better.”
Parents also valued the interaction and support they received from one another. One commented that “all the ladies gave great advice supporting me,” while another summed up an experience familiar to many parent carers:
“We all struggle to balance it all.”
One comment particularly captured what Juggling the Joys is about:
“It was a really useful session. I don't always have to be resilient.”
Parent carers spend so much time supporting, caring and advocating for
others that their own needs can easily move to the bottom of the list. Juggling the Joys provides an opportunity to think about themselves too, while learning strategies that can make a practical difference.Thank you to Hil and everyone who joined us, shared their experiences and supported one another throughout the series. Your feedback helps LPCF understand what works and will continue to shape future sessions.
More parent feedback and learning from the series can be found in our Juggling the Joys report.
The next Juggling the Joys series starts on 1st October 2026. Details of the sessions and how to join can be found on our Events page.
LPCF Parents' Voice
1st April to 30th June 2026
LPCF has continued to develop its Parents’ Voice reporting during Quarter 2, strengthening the way we bring together, analyse and present the collective experiences of parent carers across Lincolnshire.Rather than reporting individual engagement activities separately, the latest Parents’ Voice report brings evidence together from a wide range of sources, including Feedback Fridays, Service Spotlights, Facebook discussions, Your Say submissions, workshops, coffee mornings and direct conversations.
This enables LPCF to identify recurring patterns across different types of engagement and provide a clearer picture of what the evidence is telling us, rather than simply reporting individual comments or survey results.
What developed this quarter
The Quarter 2 report now includes:
What the evidence told us
Five strong messages emerged during the quarter:
1. Education: consistency matters as much as capacity.
2. Inclusion: families increasingly describe inclusion in terms of belonging and participation, not simply attendance.
3. Health: parents distinguish between dedicated individual professionals and fragmented systems.
4. Communication: clear and joined-up communication underpins almost every part of the SEND journey.
5. Parent Voice and Co-production: families are more likely to engage when they believe their experiences can influence change.
Strengthening LPCF’s strategic role
A significant development this quarter has been the stronger focus on LPCF analysis and co-production.
The report demonstrates that parent voice is not simply collected and passed on. LPCF brings individual experiences together to identify recurring themes, highlight emerging issues and recognise positive practice.
It also reinforces the importance of involving parent carers and LPCF at the earliest stages of service design. Early co-production enables services to benefit from collective lived experience, identify practical barriers before implementation and potentially reduce the need for costly redesign later.
Closing the feedback loop
The report will be shared with strategic partners across education, health, social care and the voluntary and community sector.
Partners are being invited to reflect on the themes, share work already underway and identify future developments. Their responses will then be shared through the LPCF website, helping parent carers see how their experiences are informing strategic discussions and service development.
The impact
This developing approach strengthens LPCF’s ability to:
Overall, the Quarter 2 Parents’ Voice report represents a further step forward in how LPCF listens to families, analyses collective experience and uses parent voice to influence change across Lincolnshire.
Please see the full report here
Toilet Skills Workshop
June 26
with LCC Specialist Continence Team
LPCF invited Lincolnshire County Council’s Children’s Continence Service to deliver an online Toilet Skills Workshop for parents, carers and professionals. The session explored toilet skills development, sensory needs, interoception, toilet anxieties and practical strategies that families could try at home.
Feedback showed that the workshop provided both practical ideas and reassurance. One parent said:
“I got some ideas about things to implement at home to see if they can support my son’s toileting difficulties.”
Another explained:
“I learned that we are doing the right thing so far and may just need to reassess and tweak a few things in our routine.”
Attendees described the workshop as a “very informative session” and valued the large amount of information shared. The feedback also
highlighted the importance of allowing enough time to explain such a detailed subject, as one attendee felt some information was delivered too quickly. This learning will help us work with partners to shape future workshops so that families have time to absorb the information, ask questions and leave feeling more confident about the next steps for their child.
Lincolnshire Parent Carer Forum
Find out what we do
17th June 2026
This workshop was designed to introduce attendees—both parents/carers and professionals—to the work of Lincolnshire Parent Carer Forum (LPCF).
The aim was to provide a clear overview of LPCF’s mission, membership benefits, and the various ways individuals can engage with and contribute to the forum’s work.
By attending the workshop, attendees gained an insight into the role and remit of LPCF, found out about how LPCF gather the views of the membership and the ways in which they use them to inform practice.
Attendees were also given guidance on what signposting and support LPCF could offer and information about what LPCF were not able to support with.
One attendee commented "Very informative, really good explanation about what they do and how to use the site".
Thank you to LPCF from the NNPCF
As we come to the end of another academic year, we wanted to take a moment to say a huge thank you to each and every one of you. It has undoubtedly been one of the busiest and most significant years we have seen in the world of SEND.
Alongside supporting your own families and local parent carer communities, you have continued to play a vital role in shaping local and national SEND developments. Whether through co-production with local authorities and health partners, contributing to inspections, influencing local SEND reform planning, responding to consultations, attending strategic meetings, or ensuring the voices of families are heard every single day, your commitment has been extraordinary.
This year has also seen an unprecedented level of national engagement around SEND Reform. We know many of you have given up countless hours to attend our Community of Practice (CoP) sessions, read consultation documents, participate in discussions, and feed back the views and experiences of families from your local areas. Together, Parent Carer Forums have helped ensure that lived experience has informed national conversations at every stage, providing invaluable insight to the Department for Education and wider partners.
The Community of Practice itself has demonstrated the real strength of our network. By learning together, sharing ideas and offering constructive challenge, Forums have supported one another through what has often been a complex and fast-moving policy landscape. The quality of discussion, collaboration and mutual support has been something to be incredibly proud of.
The Community of Practice has also created valuable opportunities for senior civil servants and Ministers to speak directly with Parent Carer Forums, and, importantly, to hear first-hand about families’ experiences, concerns and priorities. We have never before had this level of direct access and engagement. It is a powerful testament to the value the Department for Education places on the insight, expertise and collective voice of Parent Carer Forums.
Throughout the year, the NNPCF has had the privilege of taking your collective voice into meetings with Ministers, the Department for Education, NHS England, Ofsted, CQC and many other national organisations. Every conversation has been strengthened by the evidence, experiences and insight you have shared with us.
Regional working has continued to be an essential part of the strength of our network. Engaging regionally enables PCFs to share learning, identify common challenges and highlight where experiences differ between local areas. It also helps to build a stronger and more representative evidence base, ensuring that the issues affecting families locally and regionally are reflected in the NNPCF’s national work and conversations with government.
Regional engagement is increasingly important because DfE Regional Directors have significant oversight of local education systems, including working with local authorities and partners on their plans to improve SEND services and outcomes. Strong regional relationships help ensure that the experiences and priorities of families are understood and inform these important conversations and decisions.
We remain incredibly grateful to our NNPCF Regional Directors for their leadership, commitment and hard work throughout the year. Their role in bringing Forums together and strengthening regional relationships, particularly with DfE regional colleagues, has been invaluable in ensuring that PCF voices are heard and represented at both regional and national levels.
We know that behind every meeting attended, every survey completed, every social media post shared and every piece of feedback gathered are many hours of commitment. Much of what Parent Carer Forums do happens quietly behind the scenes and often goes unseen, but it makes a genuine difference to children, young people and families across England.
As Co-Chairs, it continues to be an absolute privilege to work alongside such an inspiring network of people. Your passion, resilience, generosity and willingness to support one another never cease to amaze us.
We hope that over the summer you are able to take some well-deserved time to rest, recharge and spend time with your families. We know that many of you never truly stop and that the summer holidays are difficult for many of our children and young people, but we hope you are able to find moments to pause before what is likely to be another busy year ahead.
We are incredibly excited about continuing our work together in the autumn, including our ongoing engagement with the Department for Education as the SEND Reform programme develops.
With our sincere thanks,
Sarah Clark & Jo Harrison
NNPCF Co-Chairs, on behalf of the entire NNPCF team
LPCF AGM
1st July 2026
LPCF held its AGM where the 2025-26 Annual Report and Accounts were presented.
Volunteers and Trustees were thanked for the enormous amount of volunteer time given during the year.
A quick overview of the Annual report was given by the Chair.
Our Achievements 2025–2026
This year has been one of continued growth, influence and impact. Thanks to the experiences shared by parent carers and the dedication of our volunteers, Lincolnshire Parent Carer Forum has continued to strengthen the voice of families across the county.
Over the past year we have:
Alongside this, we published our largest ever State of SEND Survey, introduced a new Live Survey to capture real-time parent feedback, expanded outreach into schools, children's centres and Early Years settings, and welcomed 15 new volunteers, with eight continuing to strengthen our future capacity.
Behind every statistic is a family whose experiences have helped shape services, improve understanding and influence positive change across Lincolnshire. None of this would be possible without the ongoing support of our members, volunteers, trustees and partners.
The Annual Accounts were presented by the Chair and will be available on the library page of the LPCF website.
Annual Report
A Heartfelt Thank You to Nicole at Hummingbird Hypnotherapy
LPCF would like to say a huge thank you to Nicole from Hummingbird Hypnotherapy, who so generously donated her birthday money to LPCF instead of receiving gifts.
Nicole runs our popular wellbeing sessions for parent carers and is always passionate about supporting families. This incredibly kind gesture means so much to us and will help us continue providing support, information and opportunities for parent carers across Lincolnshire.
Thank you, Nicole, for your kindness, generosity and continued support. We are so grateful.
Lincolnshire Parent Carer Forum
Find out what we do
30th April 2026
This workshop was designed to introduce attendees—both parents/carers and professionals—to the work of Lincolnshire Parent Carer Forum (LPCF).
The aim was to provide a clear overview of LPCF’s mission, membership benefits, and the various ways individuals can engage with and contribute to the forum’s work.
By attending the workshop, attendees gained an insight into the role and remit of LPCF, found out about how LPCF gather the views of the membership and the ways in which they use them to inform practice.
Attendees were also given guidance on what signposting and support LPCF could offer and information about what LPCF were not able to support with.
One attendee commented "It gave me a better understanding of what LPCF does and how it can be used by parents and professionals".
Workshop on Transitions
with LCC Specialist Teaching Team
Monday 11th May 2026
Transition to Secondary School
As part of LPCF's ongoing commitment to supporting children through key educational transitions, LPCF invited the Specialist Teaching Team and the Dyslexia Outreach Service to deliver a free online workshop for parents and carers of children with SEND transferring from primary to secondary school.
This workshop was held to provide guidance and reassurance to families during what can be a challenging and emotional period.
The session aimed to:
• Equip parents and carers with practical strategies to help prepare their child for the move.
• Share insights into common concerns and how to address them.
• Foster confidence in families so they can support their child effectively both emotionally and academically.
• Highlight available support services and how to access them.
One parent commented "The meeting has helped me feel more confident and prepared to support my son as he moves to secondary school. Thank you for providing this session and for the ongoing support available to families".
Another parent commented "We found the session very valuable in terms of providing tips on how to prepare ourselves and our son for secondary school transition, including the importance of practicing the new
routine in advance and keeping the process positive. We also took a lot away in terms of tips for assisting executive functioning, e.g. keeping sticky notes in the pocket with a pen and colour coding timetables".
A big thank you to Jane, Jenny & Helena for presenting this informative and helpful workshop.
LPCF Consultation Response
Lincolnshire Parent Carer Forum (LPCF) have now published its full response in this report relating to the proposed 2026 SEND reforms consultation.
This work represents a significant piece of engagement, consultation and evidence gathering carried out by LPCF volunteers over a number of weeks to help ensure the voices of LPCF’s 4,800+ parent carer members were represented within the national consultation process.
As an independent parent carer forum, LPCF designed and developed its own parent-friendly consultation survey to help families engage with what was a highly detailed and complex consultation. Considerable volunteer time and expertise went into ensuring questions were accessible, understandable and meaningful for families.
Alongside the survey work, LPCF volunteers gathered feedback through:
A substantial amount of work was also undertaken behind the scenes to analyse both quantitative survey data and extensive narrative feedback shared by families. This included identifying recurring themes, reviewing lived experience comments, mapping responses against consultation questions and ensuring parent voice remained central throughout the final submission.
Volunteer Engagement Days also played an important role in enabling LPCF volunteers — all of whom bring lived experience as parent carers themselves — to work collectively through the consultation proposals, discuss emerging themes and help shape LPCF’s final response.
One of the additional challenges within the formal consultation was the 1,500-character limit applied to each response. LPCF worked hard to ensure the strongest themes, concerns and lived experiences remained visible within those restrictions whilst still producing evidence-based and balanced responses.
The final report brings together LPCF’s submitted consultation responses, anonymised parent feedback and recurring themes identified throughout the engagement process.
Key themes raised by parent carers included:
LPCF would like to sincerely thank every parent carer, volunteer and supporter who contributed feedback, attended events, completed surveys or shared experiences throughout this process. The scale of engagement and evidence gathered demonstrates the importance of independent parent carer voice within discussions about future SEND reform.
LPCF Parents' Voice
1st January to 31st March 2026
Parents’ Voice Report – New FormatAs part of LPCF’s ongoing commitment to strengthening the parent carer voice, we have introduced a refreshed format for our Parents’ Voice reports.
Our Parents’ Voice reports have always provided a valuable quarterly summary of what families are telling us across education, health and social care.
However, this new format builds on that by making feedback clearer, more accessible, and more useful for both families and professionals.
What has changed:-
The updated report now brings together multiple sources of feedback into one place, including:
• Feedback Friday polls
• Facebook discussions
• Your Say submissions
Feedback is now presented alongside the actual questions, poll results and parent comments, helping to clearly show what parents were asked and how they responded.
Information is grouped into clear themes, making it easier to identify patterns, priorities and areas for improvement.
The report also includes a balanced view, highlighting both challenges and examples of what is working well across services.
Why this is an improvement
This new approach means that:
• Parent voice is more transparent and evidence-based
• Feedback is easier to understand and use in meetings and decision-making
• Key themes and priorities are clearer for partners
• Positive practice is recognised alongside challenges
• Volunteers can more confidently represent parent voice in meetings
What we have learned
Through this new format, LPCF has identified that parents are engaging more readily through accessible and informal routes, such as polls and online discussions, while participation in formal consultations remains low.
This insight is helping to shape how LPCF gathers feedback in the future, ensuring that as many parent carers as possible are able to share their views.
The impact
The new Parents’ Voice format strengthens LPCF’s ability to:
• Represent the collective voice of parent carers clearly and consistently
• Provide strong, evidence-based feedback to partners
• Support co-production by identifying both challenges and good practice
• Ensure parent experiences are effectively reflected in strategic discussions
Overall, this improved approach ensures that Parents’ Voice reports remain a powerful tool in influencing services and improving outcomes for children and young people with SEND.
Report
Virtual Volunteer Engagement Day -SEND Reforms Consultation
As part of our ongoing commitment to ensuring parent carer voice is central to system change, LPCF dedicated a recent Volunteer Engagement (VE) Day to exploring the proposed SEND reforms in detail.
This session brought together our volunteers — all with lived experience — to review the consultation proposals, share reflections, and contribute directly to LPCF’s collective response.
Volunteers worked through key themes within the reforms, discussing what they felt would make a meaningful difference for families, alongside concerns about how proposals may be implemented in practice. This created a valuable opportunity to draw on both personal experience and wider feedback gathered from our membership.
Key areas highlighted by volunteers included:
This dedicated session ensured that volunteer insight formed a core part of our consultation evidence, alongside survey data, parent feedback, and engagement activities.
By embedding this work within our VE Day, LPCF continues to demonstrate:
The outputs from this session have been incorporated into LPCF’s formal consultation response, strengthening the authenticity and credibility of the parent carer voice we represent.
New Volunteers Embedded into LPCF
Over the past year, LPCF has successfully supported a number of new volunteers through a structured recruitment, induction, training, and onboarding process, enabling them to move into active involvement within the forum.
From initial conversations and informal interviews through to induction and ongoing training, volunteers are supported at every stage to build confidence, knowledge, and understanding of both the SEND system and LPCF’s role within it.
This includes training in representation and co-production, alongside practical opportunities to apply learning through engagement activity and meetings.
Volunteers are supported through:
We recognise that our volunteers are parent carers first and foremost, often balancing complex family lives and caring responsibilities. For this reason, onboarding is designed to be flexible and supportive, allowing individuals to build their involvement at a pace that works for them.
Becoming confident within the role — particularly in areas such as representation and strategic engagement — can take time. It is not uncommon for volunteers to take many months, and often up to a couple of years, to feel fully comfortable and embedded. This reflects both the complexity of the system and the importance of ensuring volunteers feel genuinely confident in their role.
While not all who begin the journey are able to continue, those who do progress into active roles represent a highly committed and skilled group of parent carers. Their lived experience, combined with the time invested in their development, significantly strengthens LPCF’s work.
These volunteers are now actively contributing to engagement, feedback gathering, and representation across a range of strategic and operational forums, supporting LPCF’s role in ensuring parent carer voice is embedded within co-production.
Our current active volunteers can be seen on our Team page, providing a clear and visible reflection of the strength, resilience, and sustainability of the forum.
The time invested in recruiting, training and embedding volunteers is essential to ensuring authentic, informed parent carer voice within co-production and strategic decision-making.
LPCF Wellbeing sessions
September 25 - March 26
A series of "virtual" Wellbeing sessions with Nicole from Hummingbird Hypnotherapy.
After the success of our last series of Hypnotherapy sessions with Nicole, members of LPCF were excited to start on the next series which commenced in September 2025.
These sessions were kindly grant funded by Lincolnshire County Council to help improve parents wellbeing.
LPCF Members were given the opportunity to attend these FREE sessions taking place during the evening.
Seven sessions were held covering topics such as looking after yourself, self compassion and achieving your goals.
An evaluation form was completed by members so Trustees could monitor the usefulness of the sessions.
Due to the positive comments and success of the sessions, monthly sessions are being held from April 2026 (see events page for more details).
One member commented about the session on looking after myself "I so needed this reminder to look after me, I know I was looking after me by attending but I need to look after myself from now to the next session. I manage to attend and that doesn't just mean going to the chiropractors once a fortnight! I need to walk the dog once a day and do other thingsjust for me and not have the guilt about wasting time; spending time on me is not a waste of time, it's an investment that means I can do so much more!"
Another member commented "I have learnt that: I need to see that I am doing my best for my child; I do not need to feel guilty for not being able to do it all, for needing breaks and time for myself; that I need to be kinder to myself; that nothing good happens if I keep focusing on negatives; that I deserve things for me too."
A relaxation followed each session where parents were encouraged to take some time for themselves.
Special LPCF wellbeing page
LPCF have developed a private page on the website just for LPCF members who attend the Hypnotherapy sessions. On the page are the links to the sessions, Nicole's PowerPoints and some useful resources to keep members informed between sessions. Some resources have also been donated by LPCF to use between the sessions. Book recommendations and helpful articles and videos will also be added.
More feedback is included in this report
Promoting Positive Behaviour
with Aspens
2025-26
LPCF invited Chris from Aspens to talk about Promoting Positive Behaviour.
The series of workshops explored:-
A mixture of parents & professionals booked themselves onto the sessions and feedback was very positive.
One parent commented "I found it really helpful to hear others perspectives and to know that I am not alone in this. I felt a lot of empathy for my son when listening to the facilitator explain how our brain works and how we get into fight/flight because we think we are in danger. When you sit to think about it, it helps everything become clearer. I have realised that it is not my fault, or my sons. It is just something we need to navigate and provide further support for".
Another parent commented "I have learned about the 4 functions of behaviours, along with how to monitor and record said functions, causes, consequences, to enable me to work out the cause of crisis and implement a plan to reduce it happening. I found the information about what happens to the brain in crisis fascinating and very informative."
Please see the report for more feedback
LPCF Zoom Socials
Reducing Isolation and Building Parent Support.LPCF introduced regular Zoom Socials after parent carers told us they were feeling isolated and wanted opportunities to connect with others who understand the realities of raising a child or young person with SEND.
These informal sessions provide a safe, friendly space where parents can talk openly, share experiences and learn from each other. The sessions are led by LPCF volunteers who are themselves parent carers, helping to create a welcoming environment built on lived experience and understanding.
Parents attending the sessions regularly share that hearing from others
who face similar challenges helps them feel reassured, less alone and more confident in supporting their child.The sessions also provide opportunities for helpful signposting to services, resources and opportunities that families may not otherwise know about.
One parent shared:
“It was reassuring to know I am not alone.”
The Zoom Socials also help LPCF stay connected to the day-to-day experiences of families across Lincolnshire, ensuring that parent carer voices continue to inform our representation work with education, health and local authority partners.
By creating an accessible and supportive space, LPCF continues to strengthen the parent carer community and provide valuable peer support for SEND families across the county.
Please see here for more details
Helping Parents Support Their Child’s Learning
2nd March 2026
In March 2026, LPCF worked with Lincolnshire County Council’s Specialist Teaching Team, Inclusion Team and Dyslexia Outreach to deliver an online workshop for parents and carers on Supporting Your Child’s Learning at Home.
Specialist teachers Odette and Jane shared practical strategies to help families support their child’s learning through everyday activities at home. The session explored simple techniques such as using mnemonics for spelling, highlighting tricky parts of words, and helping children better understand number concepts in maths.
Parents valued the opportunity to hear directly from specialist teachers and ask questions about supporting their children’s learning. Feedback showed parents gained reassurance and new ideas they could use immediately at home.
The online format allowed families from across Lincolnshire to attend, making the session accessible for parents who may not be able to travel to face-to-face events.
By providing opportunities for parents to learn from specialist professionals, LPCF continues to help families build confidence and develop practical strategies to support their child’s education.
See here for more details
Working with schools to support your child
2nd February 2026
In partnership with LPCF, Odette and Jane from the Specialist Teaching Team (LCC) delivered a workshop for parents about working with schools to support their child with SEND.
During the session, Odette shared practical recommendations on how parents can work in partnership with schools to help achieve the best possible outcomes for their child.
Parents were introduced to a range of helpful strategies that can be incorporated into everyday routines at home and in school.
By attending the workshop, parents gained greater confidence in supporting their child’s learning journey. The session also provided a valuable opportunity to ask questions and learn directly from experienced specialist teachers in a supportive and understanding environment.
One parent commented "Have come to appreciate that being more involved in my child’s learning and education increases my awareness and exposure to valuable opportunities and resources, which can be applied at home and over the long term to support positive and satisfactory outcomes."
Another commented "Others in the session asked questions relevant to me and my situation, showing that it's not just me, and that others are facing these issues too. The Q&A part was also very informative. Thank you very much. I feel more equipped for upcoming communications with school, and will be looking to attend future sessions offered by LPCF, particularly ones offering training and insight from the specialist teaching team.
Virtual Volunteer Engagement Days
Supporting Volunteers and Strengthening the Parent Carer Voice
LPCF’s Virtual Volunteer Engagement (VE) Days play an important role in supporting its volunteers while strengthening LPCF’s ability to represent the voice of parent carers across Lincolnshire.
These sessions ensure volunteers remain informed, confident, and connected to LPCF’s work, enabling them to contribute meaningfully to improving services for children and young people with SEND.
Supporting and Developing Volunteers
Virtual VE Days provide a welcoming and supportive space where volunteers can:
This is particularly valuable for new volunteers, helping them settle into their role and feel part of LPCF.
By providing regular updates and opportunities for discussion, these sessions help volunteers feel confident, informed, and supported in contributing at a level that works for them.
Strengthening Representation and Impact
Virtual VE Days help ensure LPCF’s work remains informed by the real experiences of families. Volunteers play a vital role in:
This strengthens LPCF’s ability to raise key issues with education, health, and local authority partners, helping influence improvements to local services.
Accessible and Inclusive Engagement
Offering virtual sessions allows volunteers from across Lincolnshire to participate in a way that is flexible and accessible, recognising the demands many parent carers face.
These sessions complement face-to-face Volunteer engagement opportunities and form part of LPCF’s commitment to supporting volunteers and maintaining a strong, connected volunteer community.
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The Difference This Makes
Through Virtual Volunteer Engagement Days, LPCF has seen:
Most importantly, these sessions help ensure that parent carer voice remains central to shaping services and support across Lincolnshire.
Study Skills and Revision Strategies Workshop
12th January 2026
In partnership with LPCF, Odette and Jane from the Specialist Teaching Team (LCC) delivered a workshop for parents and their children with SEND about Study Skills and Revision strategies.
The interactive session gave attendees a chance to ask on the chat about the difficulties they were experiencing and gain some useful strategies and techniques to explore after the workshop.
One parent commented "It was nice to be able to be able to quietly sit and take notes through the session without the fear of having to answer questions or to engage. it was a one-way workshop but I liked this and I was put at ease knowing I could just take the info in and make my notes. The speed of the talking and slide changeover was perfect for me and I ably kept up.".
Another commented "A variety of useful learning strategies that we can try with our child to see which work for them.".
Please see the report for more feedback.
Lincolnshire Parent Carer Forum
Find out what we do
13th January 2026
This workshop was designed to introduce attendees—both parents/carers and professionals—to the work of Lincolnshire Parent Carer Forum (LPCF).
The aim was to provide a clear overview of LPCF’s mission, membership benefits, and the various ways individuals can engage with and contribute to the forum’s work.
By attending the workshop, attendees gained an insight into the role and remit of LPCF, found out about how LPCF gather the views of the membership and the ways in which they use them to inform practice.
Attendees were also given guidance on what signposting and support LPCF could offer and information about what LPCF were not able to support with.
One attendee commented "A really helpful presentation. It was great to see what you do and what help is available for my family.".
Please see the report published on the library page of the website
LPCF Parents' Voice
1st October to 31st December 25
Our extensive quarterly round up of what parents have been saying about Health, Education, Transport, EHC Plans, Leisure, Social Care etc.In this edition of parents' we have easy to read sections for Education , Health & Social Care separated to hopefully make it easier to read.
We are now housing all of the responses to the feedback you give us in the Parents Voice from professionals on the LPCF Website>Information>Feedback from professionals page.
In this edition of the Parents Voice two issues stood out particularly strongly alongside the others of private diagnosis and Respite. (Page 2)
We have also received lots of comments on the following:-
We have again used our "Feedback Friday" polls to gather more information from our closed parents only Facebook page. This simple polling system means that more people can give us their feedback.
The comments from our workshops can now be seen on the library page of the LPCF website.
The October to December report can be found here.
For other Parents Voice reports please have a look in our extensive library or check back through our Achievements pages or our library page.
Responses to issues raised in our parents voice report can be found here:-
LPCF Excellence Award Winners
July to Dec 25
Congratulations to Vanessa Hobart And Lee Hextall from Lincolnshire Music Service who were awarded first place in the LPCF Excellence awards.
Jonathan Draper from Linkage College Toynton Campus was awarded second place and Karen Seekins from Moulton Harrox Preschool was awarded third place.
A special award was presented to Karen Seekins from Moulton Harrox Pre school for being nominated by 2 parents in the six month award period.
The awards are voted on by the Trustees and volunteers of LPCF every 6 months.
Well done to all nominations for going above and beyond for families of children with SEND.
For full details of all the listings click on the blue link to see the July - Dec nominations.
Volunteer Engagement Day
8th December 2025
LPCF held its Volunteer/Trustee engagement day in person at the Victoria House Tea Room in Gosberton.
A team of nine volunteers joined together to discuss the topics below:-New volunteers were given support and training around accessing the internal area of the LPCF website, expenses system and were given a demonstration of the admin area. Volunteers kindly collated packs for the ongoing outreach project and Senco Briefings.
A lovely afternoon tea was enjoyed by all.