Bracknell Forest Parent Carer Forum
Who we are
The Bracknell Forest Parent Carer Forum (Bracknell Forest PCF) is a parent-led partnership forum that brings together parent carers of children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), alongside key professionals from education, health, and social care services in Bracknell Forest.
Our team is made up entirely of dedicated parent carers who understand the daily challenges and rewards that come with caring for children and young people with additional needs.
Who we represent?
Bracknell Parent Carer Forum (BPCF) is for Parent Carers
We’re a group of parent carers in Bracknell Forest, who represent families with children and young people (0-25) with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Bracknell Forest PCF is led by parent carers, shaped by lived experience, and focused on making things better for families like ours.
A parent carer is anyone with parental responsibility for a child or young person with SEND — including parents, foster carers, kinship carers, and others in a caring role.
If that’s you, you’re welcome here.
Our purpose and mission
We were established to ensure that the views, concerns and lived experiences of Bracknell Forest’s SEND families reach the people who design and manage the services they depend on. Through close collaboration and regular dialogue, we shape local provision so that it keeps pace with the real and evolving needs of our community.
Our mission is straightforward: to secure better outcomes for every family living with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. We do this by fostering a culture of genuine participation and co-production across education, health, social care and the voluntary sector—working as equal partners at every stage from design and commissioning through to delivery and review. At the same time, we empower our members to raise their voices with confidence and inspire our professional partners by sharing good practice and first-hand insight.
We work with Bracknell Forest Council, schools, local health services (Thames Valley ICB and BHFT), and more to improve local services and support. We also team up with other Parent Carer Forums across the region — and nationally through the National Network of Parent Carer Forums (NNPCF) — to make sure our voices are heard in decisions that affect us. We’ve even met with the Secretary of State for Education to share what matters most to families.
What We Do — And Why It Matters
We Listen
We gather feedback and lived experiences from families.
We Influence
We work with local services to co-design better support.
We Celebrate & Challenge
We highlight what’s working — and speak up when it’s not.
We Champion Co-Production
We make sure parent carers help shape services from the start.
We Represent You
We speak up for shared concerns in decision-making spaces.
We Focus on Systems
We don’t offer individual advocacy — our work is about improving services for everyone.
Whether you’re just starting your SEND journey or have been navigating it for years, Bracknell Forest PCF is here to connect, support, and amplify your voice.
You’re not alone — and together, we can make a difference
How we work
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Regular Meetings: We meet frequently to discuss current issues affecting SEND families in Bracknell Forest.
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Co-production and consultation: We actively participate in planning, developing, and improving local SEND services.
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Social and networking opportunities: We provide valuable spaces for families to connect, support each other, and share experiences.
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Engagement with key professionals: We host guest speakers to discuss local SEND developments, ensuring our members are well-informed.
“Working together to achieve the best possible futures for all families living with
Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)
Our Mission
Our mission is to deliver better outcomes for families living with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). We aim to:
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create a culture of participation and co-production across the education, health, social care and the voluntary sectors. This means that we are involved in all aspects of designing, commissioning, delivering and reviewing services as an equal partner
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empower our members to ensure that their voices are heard
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inspire our service partners by sharing good practice and lived experience.
Our Vision
Working together to achieve the best possible futures for all families living with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)
Support
We are a community of volunteers, learning from one another and growing by sharing our experiences: how to navigate the system, how to support our children at home, at school or at work, but also how to support each other.
Some of us have been navigating the system for years, others are just starting. We can advise and guide you by sharing our experiences. The Useful Links page will also give you a wealth of information as your child goes through his or her school years.
Guidance
Video Transcript
The Bracknell Parent Carer Forum is a group made up of parent carers in Bracknell Forest,
with the vision of working together to achieve the best possible futures for all families living
with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (known as SEND.)
Parent carer is an umbrella term for those with parental responsibility for children and young
people with SEND up to the age of 25. This includes parents, grandparents, guardians,
kinship carers, foster carers and adoptive parents.
As a group, we share our experiences of using local services for our children and young
people with SEND. This includes experiences with schools, health services, social care and
many other local authority services. We use social media, emails, workshops, webinars, face
to face meetings, informal chats, socials like breakfasts, park visits and family fun sessions,
to gather lived experiences.
Representative parent carers volunteer to attend strategic meetings with those providing
services for families living with SEND to coproduce better services based on the feedback
we gather. We work with services to create policies, processes, events, activities and
sources of information to ensure SEND services improve based on what the parent carers
and children and young people of Bracknell Forest need and want.