Abstract
The symposium will address the issue of partnership by investigating both policy and practice.
Current thinking on policy will be explored. The role of the Parent Partnership Officer will be outlined and illustrated by the use of a training video. The results of the Survey carried out by the Hertfordshire branch of NASEN, and oral data, collected during 1999/2000, will illustrate the parental view.
The symposium will contain four presentations as follows:
Parent Professional Partnership in special Educational Needs: What
does it all mean?
Presented by Christine Such, Lecturer in Early
Childhood Studies at Suffolk College, Ipswich
Parent professional partnership has been articulated in terms of building relationships based on trust mutual respect, sharing of information, and a willingness to learn from each other. From the Warnock report to the present day, successive policies have sought to clarify how teachers and parents can successfully work together in partnership. The basis of these partnerships is still evolving. The paper will review how definitions of partnership have developed, and to what extent their use is linked to practice which is both child and parent-centred. It will argue that there is a need to place partnership within the changing policy context, affecting both education, and public provision. There is an ethos of accountability, with parental choice and parent power evoked as necessary. Parental involvement is shown to help the child, and making a lack between school and home, is seen as the basis of good educational practice. However, government action is also placing parents in a critical role as consumer, further changing the relationship between parents and teachers, and this will impact on partnership.
The work of a Parent Partnership Officer - one model
Presented
by Pat Chick, the Lancashire Parent Partnership Co-ordinator, will talk about
the development of the service and show extracts from the video "A Special
Partnership".
Many parents of children with Special Educational Needs describe feelings of confusion and isolation when confronted with the language and systems of the world of Special Needs. This is particularly true for those parents who have literacy difficulties themselves or for whom English is not their first language. It is, however, recognised that all parents seem to experience a similar range of emotions, no matter what the disability of their child or their own educational background.
Lancashire Parent Partnership is an independent service, largely funded by the Local Education Authorities of Lancashire, Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool. The service runs a Telephone Helpline Service and produces parent-friendly information and a video (available in 5 language formats).
The service runs an accredited training course for Named Persons (Independent Parental Supporters). These volunteers are available to give parents both emotional and practical support at all levels of their child's educational assessment.
The Partnership runs training for professionals to encourage better communication between themselves and parents and has direct input into many policy decisions. Members of the Partnership team act as mediators in particularly difficult situations between parents and the local Education Authority.
Hertfordshire Branch of NASEN Parent Survey - Children with Special
Educational Needs
Report witten by three members of the Hertfordshire
branch of NASEN. Chris Goodwin-King, who is Parent Partnership Co-ordinator
(SEN) in the Education Department at County Hall, Brenda Loveday, an SEN
Advisory Teacher, Hertfordshire LEA and Margaret Rayner, a retired SENCO. The
report was written in July 1997.
Methodology
Questionnaires were sent to approximately 5000
homes where a child had special educational needs. It contained the following
questions:
Quantitative data was produced to illustrate (a) the spread across the county (b) the response to each question. Qualitative data was produced using grounded theory.
Findings
A total of 116 (58%) questionnaires was returned.
Analysis highlighted the following issues:
For Parents - The future; provision; school placements; career guidance; helping one's child.
For Professionals - Communication; honesty and trust; mutual respect; turnover of professionals; understanding of needs.
For NASEN - Getting parents and professionals together; providing information; lobbying; training on teaching methods; help with navigating the system.
Consideration is being given to replicating this research in Spring 2000 in order to draw comparisons and chart progress made.
The Parental Perspective of the Parent Professional Partnership in
Mainstream SEN
Research carried out by Margaret Rayner, ex Primary
SENCO, while carrying out an Open University EdD.(1998-2001). (By July 2000 the
majority of the data collection will be complete)
Methodology
The researcher carried out semi-structured
interviews with parents to chart the parental experiences from the time of
identification of the child's need, through statementing and beyond. The main
focus of attention was on parent professional partnerships, but included
children's experiences as seen by the parent. To afford triangulation the SENCO
was interviewed and school documentation relating to partnership with parents
was analysed.
The data collection was set within a number of schools. In each case the data collected from parents, SENCO and documentation was treated as a unit and the data analysed and written up as a case record.
The data was analysed using grounded theory methods and case records compared for common elements.
Findings (based on the data analysis to date)
Parents and
Professionals do not always hold the same understanding of the word
'partnership'.
Parents do not feel equal in the partnership.
Parents do
not always feel that the professional is considering what is best for the
child. Concerns that resources have to be considered.
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