Parent Carer Zone
PODS
PODS is a grassroots parent carer peer led charity with staff and volunteers who have ‘real life’ experience to support families who have a child with a disability or additional need (aged 0 – 25 years).
PODS Parent Carer Forum is the formally recognised, independent peer-led organisation, founded in 2008, representing and involving families of Children and Young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), aged 0 - 25 years.
Who are we?
The team is comprised of 8 permanent staff members, supported by a wonderful group of volunteers. All team members have a wealth of knowledge surrounding SEND through their own personal lived experience and are committed to involving and supporting families.
PODS Parent Carer Forum
The forum is led by Jayne Stevens, our Strategic Lead. She is supported by a team of volunteer Parent Reps.
PODS Parent Carer Forum is the formally recognised, independent peer-led organisation, founded in 2008, representing and involving families of Children and Young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), aged 0 - 25 years. Share your experience here.
Influence and Change
We champion your parent carer voices and experiences to ensure that you are heard where it matters most and your voices inform and influence service changes across health, education, social care and wider teams.
Information Provision
It is important to us that you receive timely and trustworthy information from reputable sources. We aim to empower our parent carer and family carers with the right information at the right time.
Support Offer
It’s important that we deliver support offers that meet the needs of our families, and we only do this through regular feedback. Eg. workshops, Challenges at Home, Preparing for Adulthood, PINS, Annual Conference, etc.
Share your experience
We champion your parent carer voices and experiences to ensure that you are heard where it matters most and your voices inform and influence service changes across health, education, social care and wider teams.
The main benefits for families involved with PODS Parent Carer Forum are:
- Support and Community: Families receive support and can connect with others who understand their experiences.
- Voice and Influence: Parents can share their opinions and experiences to help improve services.
- Information and Resources: Access to reliable and helpful information to make informed decisions.
- Events and Learning: Opportunities to attend events, workshops, and meetings to learn and discuss important topics.
- Improved Services: Collaboration with various sectors to enhance services for children and young people.
- These benefits help families feel empowered, informed, and supported in their journey.
PODS Activities and Events
The charity is led by Elaine Pearce, Chief Executive Officer along with supporting staff/volunteers.
Our charity provides vital support to families with children/young people who have an additional need or disability. We do this in a variety of ways:
- Forum and parent voice
- Befriending scheme
- Family groups and support sessions
- Children’s clubs and sessions
- Inclusive events and activities
- Key worker support
- Sleep support sessions
- Sign posting and weekly information ebulletins
- Coffee mornings with schools
- Workshops
- Training offer to other organisations around disability awareness and inclusion.
Parent/carer participation is at the heart of the charity via means of our steering group, annual surveys, workshops, and social media, to mention a few, this enables parent/carers to feed into us as a charity to ensure we are meeting their needs and requirements. Secondly it allows them to highlight problems frequently experienced by families accessing statutory services, this knowledge is vital for professionals in assisting them to improve how services are delivered, so they better meet families’ needs.
Alongside this we host a befriending scheme, providing 1-1 peer-led support, this is particularly important to families who have a newly diagnosed child and/or in times of crisis and transition. The service is delivered by trained volunteers, who have both the empathy, lived experience and knowledge to support the family as a whole.
Supporting, uniting, and complementing the areas above are our inclusive events and activities, such as family support groups, activity sessions for the children, Lego Therapy, coding club, PFA (Preparing For Adulthood) Navigator and Perinatal & Infant Disability support worker.
Who can access the service?
PODS support families living in Telford & Wrekin who have a child/young person aged 0-25 with an additional need or disability, regardless of whether they have an official diagnosis or not. To get involved either join the forum, sign up to attend events or just drop in.
Contact us
PODS Hub, 1 Hawksworth Road, Central Park, Telford, Shropshire, TF2 9TU
PODS Parent Carer Forum
Contact: [email protected] / 0777 534 2092
PODS Charity/Support
Contact: [email protected] / 01952 458047