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Support for responding to Plymouth City Council PIAS Consultation

Support for responding to Plymouth City Council PIAS Consultation

Want to take part in the PCC PIAS consultation but don’t know how? At PPCV, we are listening to you.

In response to questions we have received from parent carers, we have drafted this guide to help you. You don’t need to use it and you don’t have to write about everything listed.

The bits in bold italics [like this] are just examples that may help you gather your thoughts.

Keep it as brief and to the point as you can. Bullet points are useful.

Your information is likely to be shared, so don’t include personal details if you can help it.

Submit your response by 10am on Monday 3rd February to piasconsultation@plymouth.gov.uk.
(It would also be useful if you copied it to admin@Plymouthpcv.co.uk as well – but you don’t have to.)

Feel free to use the guide as a template – it might help to copy and paste it into your email.

Every response helps. Make sure your voice is heard.

 

1. Introduction

Explain who you are [parent carer/young person/PIAS user] and why you’re submitting a response about the proposed changes to PIAS [how the changes affect your family].

Say which of the topics you’ll be covering in your response: 

  • Opening times
  • Support provided/team structure
  • Cost savings

Remember, you don’t need to have something to say about all of them!

If you do not want your name published in any public reports, this is the section to say so.

2. How the proposed changes to opening times will affect your family

Things that might fit well in this section:

  • Experience of contacting PIAS [easy/difficult/response times] and the affect that it has that had on you and your family.
  • How the proposed changes to telephone access times will affect you [working hours, uncomfortable leaving a telephone machine message, difficult to take incoming calls due to your own circumstances].
  • If someone didn’t answer the phone, would it affect you? How? [Do you have your own anxieties that may stop you seeking help a second time or leaving a message?]
  • How the proposed response times will affect your family [waiting times/care received/quality of support]
  • Your own recommendations relating to opening times.

 

3. How the proposed changes to the level of support provided will affect your family

Things that might fit well in this section:

  • The type of support PIAS have provided you with in the past [telephone discussions/email discussions/courses/specialist advice]
  • The type of support has worked well or could be better [response times/information available/1-1 conversations/tribunal support/meeting support/explanations in a way you can understand]
  • Whether you have received the right support at the right time from PIAS [give examples of the support and the difference it has made]
  • Your experience of mediation or tribunal appeals with PIAS, [how well that worked and how it could work better]. 
  • How the proposed reduced team will affect your family [waiting times/care received/quality of support]
  • If you’ve had experience of courses/Youth Ascends, how well it worked and how it could work better [financial cost to you/relationships built/trust/impartial based on law rather than what is considered cost-effective]
  • Whether the proposed changes will affect your family.
  • Are there any circumstances in which a reduced team or proposed changes to the service would benefit your family? [for example, perhaps there is an alternative service somewhere else that you have used/if all other services work well and within the law so there is less need for PIAS support?]
  • Your experience of getting accountability for local SEND practice before accessing PIAS – and what would need to change to improve it (if applicable)?
  • Your own recommendations regarding the level of support and moving of services.

 

4. How the proposed cost savings to PIAS will affect your family

Things that might fit well in this section:

  • Under what circumstances could it be considered appropriate to cut the PIAS team to save money? [reducing the number of support requests to PIAS/accurate and high quality EHCPs being issued at point of issue/legal timescales being met/provisions being supplied/professionals providing accurate information/reduced number of tribunals required]
  • Other ways cost savings could be made [saving costs of tribunals by providing suitable support/accountability of placements not providing suitable support]

 

5. Anything else you can think of 

Things that might fit well in this section:

  • Any thoughts that have come up from the consultation meetings (if you attended).
  • Any other implications that affect your family as service users.

 

6. Summary/Recommendations 

Things that might fit well in this section:

  • Any final thoughts that don’t fit well in the previous sections;
  • If you’d prefer to move or summarise your recommendations above into a final section, this is the place to do it.

    Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels

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