Parent Action CIC

1.Parent Action CIC is a social enterprise set up by parent carers for parent carers.  Parent carers are the parents of babies, children, young people and adults with disabilities/lifelong health conditions.  Based on 2011 census figures, there are more than 300,000 parent carers in NI.

2.Since 2016, Parent Action CIC has been gathering and collating the experience of parent carers across NI, and feeding these into wider policy discussions with key decision makers, the Coalition of Carers Organisations, and relevant government departments, including the Implementation Programme of the Recommendations of the Inquiry into Hyponatraemia Related Deaths (O’Hara,2018).  This has resulted in helping to shape the Department of Health guidance, during COVID19 pandemic, for unpaid/family carers.

3.Parent Action parent carer members, have co produced since 2014, a voluntary independent family advocacy training service for parent carers, staffed by parent carers and peers with disabilities/lifelong health conditions. (www.fons.org/library/report-details/73212) 

Independent Family Advocacy in Parent Action, for parent carers, is about listening to a person and then helping them to take control and have their voice heard, for themselves and their child and family, in vital public services.

Independent Family Advocacy is a way of empowering people to;

• Clearly express their wishes and feelings
• Protect their rights
• Ensure that all public services to parent carers, their child and family are accessible and appropriate, and identify gaps in service provision
• Ensure that individual voices are heard in public service design delivery and evaluation in our children's homes, schools and communities
• Ensure that parent carers voices influence decisions made which affect parent carers lives, and the lives of their children with disabilities/lifelong health conditions, by those in positions of power.

4.Our independent family advocacy training service is delivered on both a 1:2:1 advocacy level, in individual parent carers homes,  (http;//www.tnlcommunityfund.org.uk/funding/grants/00310584) 

and a group advocacy level, where we facilitate small groups of parent carers to come together in a local Parent 2 Parent (P2P) groups, usually weekly, for support, learning about advocacy, children’s rights and parents emotional wellbeing, support in finding specialist childcare and employability skills. 

5.

Since the COVID19 outbreak, we have come together as parent carers in Parent Action CIC, to bring both levels of our Independent Family Advocacy Training Service   online, and create our virtual parent carer community, Parent Action Connects, Parent Action Connects : Online Independent Family Advocacy services for parent carers of children and adults with disabilities | CommunityNI; an online platform, which connects parent carers with others having similar experiences, and with vital public services in their local area.

6. Since June 2020, thanks to the kind support of Community Foundation NI and National Lottery Community Fund, we have delivered almost 700 hours of independent advocacy to isolated parent carers during lockdown.