SEND Partnership Service Parent Champion (volunteer)
Location:
- Flexible to suit
Hours:
- This is a flexible role during term time and could fit around existing commitments
- To protect you and the families you help we use a Safer Recruitment policy and references and Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks will be carried out before you start.
Role Profile:
Parent Champions are parents who volunteer their time to share their positive experiences with families whose children may need extra support. Parent Champions -
- Raise awareness of the support available through the SEND Partnership Service and through the Rainbow Resource
- Act as ambassadors for the SEND Partnership Service in daily life and at events and activities (if you want to)
- Are in the playground/available to talk with families who need support
- Are available to signpost families to appropriate services and resources if asked
- Share own experiences in a positive way
- Link with parent groups to tell them about the SEND Partnership Service and the support on offer
- Understand and offer support to overcome the barriers to the use of childcare and early years services from a parent or carer’s point of view
- Keep basic records which demonstrate the benefits of Parent Champions
- Feedback concerns about services and information to SPS so that we can work with the local authority to get it right for families
Activities: what you could be doing
- Communicating with parents and carers using a variety of methods.
- Offering choices to parents and families on the different family services they could use.
- Signposting families to relevant organisations who may be able to support them
- Referring parents and carers to children’s centres and other local organisations to get involved in local activities and services.
What we want from you:
- Recording accurate information manually so that we can see the impact of the Parent Champion scheme.
- Meetings with Project Manager and other Parent Champions regularly.
- Attend a minimum of 3 update training sessions per year including attending SPS Team Meetings to share good practice and update knowledge
What we will give you:
- Induction training and support in your volunteering role
- Relevant training to keep your knowledge and skills updated
- Out of pocket expenses can be reimbursed
Person Profile: we need
- Someone who feels confident approaching and speaking with others.
-Someone who can get along with people and understand their world.
-Someone who understands the difficulties parents and carers face when their child has an additional need
- Someone who knows what is in the local area in terms of children, family support and fun things for families to do
- Someone who is actively engaged/has good links with parents, carers and other groups in their local community.
- Someone with positive experience of accessing support for a child with additional needs
- Someone with an understanding of how to keep children safe and a positive motivation for working with parents.
- Someone who has emotional maturity, is non-judgmental and has personal resilience.
As a volunteer with the SEND Partnership Service you will be required to adhere to our code of conduct policy