Special School Advisory Committee

Dear parents/carers,

We have been informed of a new initiative, the “Special School Parent Advisory Committee” being established by KCC, in partnership with Kent PACT.

The aim of the committee is to enhance special school parent engagement in the strategic long-term planning of special school places across Kent. This builds on the feedback received during the recent consultation, where parents expressed appreciation for the direct dialogue with local authority officers, and asked for this to be established long term.

We have been asked to nominate 1-2 parents to represent the school on this new advisory committee.

Key details:
• KCC are keen that this committee’s engagement is shaped collaboratively by those that participate.
• There is a suggestion that the committee would meet twice a year, proposed for March & October.
• Meetings KCC requested by some parents to be face-to-face with local authority officers. As Kent is a large authority, they propose these meetings take place at an area level so that parents would not be expected to travel across Kent. That would mean the nominated parents from special schools in an area (N/E/S/W) would meet with a local authority officer.
• Ideally, the meetings would be hosted within a special school at a time that was convenient to the parents taking part.
• These are proposed suggestions and KCC would like the details to be discussed and confirmed once the parents have been identified so that the arrangements are suitable for those taking part.
• KCC would like to receive the names of nominated parents by Friday 13th December 2024 so they can begin contact with those parents identified and organising the schedule of events.

If anyone is interested in representing the school please let Adrian know and he will pass names on. Please could we have names by Friday 29th November. Once KCC have received the names of nominated parents, they will begin organising the meetings.

KCC believe this will be a valuable opportunity for parents to actively contribute and feedback directly into the planning and future development of special school provision in Kent.

Thank you