Brent parent support group awarded £24,000 grant to support SEND families during coronavirus
Brent Parent Carer Forum (BPCF) has been awarded a grant of more than £24,000 to provide extra support to families of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) during the Covid-19 outbreak.
The grant has come from the government’s Coronavirus Community Support Fund (CCSF), distributed by The National Lottery Community Fund, which was set up to help deliver activities that are supporting communities during this difficult period.
BPCF, which has about 330 parent members, has seen an increasing number of local SEND families seeking help. The group’s volunteer parents have provided emotional support and given advice on a range of issues, from face masks and protective clothing to food vouchers, as well as running coffee mornings and online workshops.
Working in partnership with Brent Council and Brent Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), the forum will use the grant to extend its reach and support families in additional ways over the next six months, including:
· Distributing health and wellbeing packs
· Setting up a SEND support and information helpline, run by ‘parent champions’
· Running health and wellbeing sessions, delivered in partnership with the mental health charity Mind
· Producing a marketing video to direct parents to local sources of help and information
Chair of BPCF, Amytia Puspawresti said: “We are so pleased to have received this funding which will allow us to provide much-needed extra support, such as wellbeing packs, to parents during this challenging time.”
Small to medium organisations in England were invited to make an application to the Coronavirus Community Support Fund in May.
The fund aims to increase community support to vulnerable people affected by the COVID-19 crisis, through the work of civil society organisations, and to reduce temporary closures of essential charities and social enterprises which provide services for vulnerable people impacted by the pandemic.