Issue - items at meetings - Parent's Forum Annual Report and Presentation

Report of the Director of Children’s Services (copy attached).

1.       That the Parents’ Forum Annual Report 06-08 (The story so far) and the presentation from the Chair of the Parents’ Forum be noted.

14.1    The Board considered a report from the Director of the Children’s Services concerning the Parents’ Forum Annual report, which updated Members on the work carried out and the progress of the Brighton & Hove Parents’ Forum (for copy see minute book).

14.2    The Parents’ Forum representatives and the Parents’ Forum Development Coordinator highlighted the activities in place to promote the involvement of the fathers; the work carried out for parents and teenagers; and was pleased with the growing emphasis given to consultation to capture service-users comments for further improvement. The representatives noted the good work done and achieved so far, but also recognised that a lot more work was still required (see appendix 1 to the minutes).

14.3    The Board very much welcomed the report and the presentation and noted its content. A question and answer session followed and members enquired about the inclusion aspect of the services and how foster and looked after children were taken account of in this process.

14.4    The Parents’ Forum Development Coordinator explained that officers utilised various methods in order to reach all parents, both working and non-working parents. Some of those tools were the printed reports and the services’ website. It was noted that children’s centres played a major part in the work of the Parents’ Forum and that, in this environment, mothers were mostly the target audience. It was recognised that more work was required with fathers.

14.5    In terms of foster and looked after children, officers recognised that this matter was part of what they still needed to work on. They explained that the events organised were open to all parents generally and, in this way, they were not targeted at any particular group of service-users. It was also noted that staff shortage in the section had an impact on how much and how quickly things could be implemented.

14.7    The Board reiterated its welcome of the report. The Chairman also registered her appreciation to all the volunteers involved with this work and thanked the Parents’ Forum representatives and the Parent’ Forum Development Coordinator for the presentation.

14.8    RESOLVED - that the Parents’ Forum Annual Report 06-08 (The story so far) and the presentation from the Chair of the Parents’ Forum be noted.