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Co-production, Get Involved & Have a Say

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This information has been provided by the BMBC SEND participation Team


What can getting involved look like?

You can get involved with shaping send service in a number of ways, committing as much or as little time to it as you like.

BMBC and Schools and SEND services regularly ask for your thoughts, feelings and experiences on different topics. 

Here's some of the ways you could get involved:


  • 📱 Completing online surveys
  • 💭 Getting involved with developing strategies
  • 👨‍🦼 Taking park in workshops, discussion groups and focused sessions
  • 💬 Having a face-to-face discussion with the participation team to share your story.

How getting involved can help

It is important that parents and carers of children with SEND are involved with shaping SEND services in Barnsley. BMBC calls this participation or co-production. 

Here are a few examples of how your participation helps: 


👩‍👩‍👧‍👦 Telling BMBC what your family needs. 
Parent carers know their children best, so they are best placed to tell BMBC what services families need.

🚍 Making services easier to use. 
Parents and carers can help make sure services are easy for everyone to use, by suggesting better locations, and convenient hours, and talking about any other barriers that they face


🤝 Working Together. 
By involving you in their decisions, there's a feeling of teamwork between the BMBC and the community. This makes it more likely that services will be successful and used by families.


✅ Checking things and getting better.
Parents and carers can help check how good services are and suggest ways to make them better. This helps in always improving the quality of the services offered.


💷 Using Resources Wisely
Parents' input helps BMBC decide where best to spend it's money and where to put staff in place to meet the most important needs of families.

Getting your voice heard as a young person

Finding out about how young people feel about the services and support they receive is important.

If you would like to find out how to get involved with the Barnsley SEND Youth Forum, and have input into the planning of SEND services watch the below video to learn more 👇

Ready to take the next step?


Contact the Youth Voice and Influence Coordinator, to find out how you can get involved.
Email: KimberleyLeighSmith@barnsley.gov.uk or ring 01226 753406


Looking back: Past Consultations

Your feedback has an impact on how we do things, find out what SEND families said and what Barnsley is doing to improve SEND services.


BMBC SEND Strategy 2022 - 2025

If you decide to get more involved in the world of SEND you may want to familiarise yourself with the current  BMBC SEND strategy. 

It's got information in there about: 

  • 🌷 Barnsley's SEND Improvement Programme
  • 🏡 Independent Living  
  • 👬 Community Inclusion
  • 👩‍⚕️ Health & Wellbeing 
  • 🎓 Education & Employment and much more. 

Strategies are long-term visions and goals developed by the council with help from children, young people, parents and carers to support and meet the needs of children and young people with SEND in Barnsley.

📄 Click here to read The Barnsley SEND Strategy 2022 - 2025

The SEND Strategy includes some extra parts:

These strategies make sure that children with SEND get the right help, at the right time to support them to be the best they can be.

Past BMBC SEND Strategies

When a strategy comes to its end date, several things may happen depending on the nature of the strategy, the goals achieved, and the ongoing needs of the community.

Here's what BMBC does when a strategy has run it's course:

  • 🔎 They look at what went well and what didn't.
  • ✅ If it worked, they might keep it going or create a new plan.
  • 📋 They ask the public for their opinions.
  • 🧾 They share a report on what happened, with key people involved
  • 💷 They may adjust their budget based on what they learned.
  • 💬 They keep everyone informed about what's happening.

Click here to view past BMBC strategies, that have helped shape where we are today in our current SEND strategy including:

  • Joint Commissioning Strategy 2021 - 2023
  • Barnsley Children and Young People's SEND Plan 2020-2022
  • Engagement and Participation Strategy 2020-2022
  • BMBC Placement Sufficiency Strategy part of the 2022 - 2025 SEND strategy
  • Preparation for Adulthood (PfA) Strategy 2021 - 2022


SEND Participation drop in

When parents are part of the decision-making, local services become more helpful, fair, and effective for everyone. It's a way for Local Authorities to work closely with the community and make sure they're doing a good job.

SEND Participation Drop-in

If you want to be involved in shaping SEND services and strategy in Barnsley why not come along to a SEND Participation drop-in session?

Someone will be available between 10am - 2 pm, you can drop in at a time to suit you and stay for as long as you like. 

DateLocation 
Tuesday 20th February 2024Central Family Hub, Overdale Avenue, S70 4BD
Tuesday 26th March 2024Dearne Nursery (Formally Known as Dearne Family Centre) Billingley View S63 8ES
Tuesday 9th April 2024Athersley Roundhouse Library, Laithes Crescent, S71 3AE
Tuesday 7th May 2024Penistone Library, High Street, S36 6BR
Tuesday 26th June 2024 Wombwell IKIC Centre, School Street, S73 8HT

In addition to these community venues, the SEND participation team hold an extra drop-in session on the 3rd Wednesday of each month at The Ozone, Barnsley Football Club Oakwell, S71 1ET from 10 - 2pm 

Contact the SEND Participation Officer, to find out about upcoming participation events and how you can get involved. Email: sendworkingtogether@barnsley.gov.uk

Or ring the SEND Participation Assistant on 07733314775

Getting in touch with the SEND Participation Team

If you'd like to know more about anything on this page you can contact the SEND Participation Team: 

Email: SENDworkingtogether@barnsley.gov.uk 

Follow on Facebook: SEND Co-Production Barnsley 

Ring: The SEND Participation Assistant on 07733314775

Contact us

Need help?

0800 0345 340 

infofis@barnsley.gov.uk

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