At the SEND Futures Conference, Rosie Fletcher-Brown gave an impassioned speech about the role of parent’s voice in the changes coming in Kingston

Good morning everyone. My name is Rosie and I am a member of the Kingston Parent Carer Forum, and a mother to a little boy with autism and an EHCP, but also a deputy SENCo. It is a privilege to be here today representing the Kingston Parent Carer Forum.

Gosh – there are lots of us here today aren’t there: educators, health colleagues, volunteers, advocates, policymakers, and parents and carers. We each bring different expertise, different experiences, and different responsibilities. But we are all here because we care about the same thing… improving the lives and futures of children and young people with SEND.

I’d like to start by acknowledging something that many of us are feeling right now.
We are living through a period of uncertainty and change. Change can be exciting, but it can also be unsettling. New priorities, new structures, new expectations, and ongoing conversations about what the future of SEND support should look like. For many professionals in this room, that uncertainty is real. It affects your work, your services, and sometimes your ability to plan and deliver the support you know children need. But I’d like to gently offer another perspective. While change can feel uncomfortable for everyone, professionals often have something that many parents and carers do not: a seat closer to the decisions.

You may not always control what changes, but you are more likely to have access to the conversations shaping that change. More opportunity to influence it. More visibility of what might happen next. For parents and carers, uncertainty can feel very different. When your child depends on support to learn, communicate, regulate, make friends, stay healthy, or simply access the world around them, uncertainty can feel frightening. Because what feels like a policy discussion to one person can feel like a question about a child’s future to another.

Because what feels like a policy discussion to one person can feel like a question about a child’s future to
another.

Rosie Fletcher-Brown, Kingston PCF

And that is why listening matters. Not as a consultation exercise. Not as a box to tick.
But as a genuine commitment to understanding the lived experiences of the families we serve. As a Parent Carer Forum, we are privileged to hear those experiences every day. We hear about challenges, frustrations, successes, and breakthroughs.

We hear from parents and carers who have become experts through necessity. Parents and carers who have learned entire professional vocabularies, attended countless meetings, and spent years advocating for their children.

When you leave here today, encourage yourself and those around you to consider this: When you have the power to shape change, let parents and carers help shape it with you. Because the people living with the consequences of decisions often have the clearest insight into what is and isn’t working.

We’ve all heard the saying, “It takes a village to raise a child.” For many families of children with SEND, that village doesn’t simply appear.

The choices we make, individually and collectively, will leave a lasting impact on the lives these children go on to lead. And my challenge to all of us today is simple… Be bold enough to lead change. Be humble enough to listen. And be committed enough to ensure that the voices of parents and carers are not simply heard, but genuinely valued. Some of the best seeds of change are planted in those awkward and difficult
discussions. If you’re listening to parents and carers and you feel uncomfortable, or even challenged, it’s likely because you’ve stumbled across an opportunity or growth.

Because remember this if nothing else…. We may sometimes feel like we are
swimming in a sea of hypotheticals, debating possibilities and imagining
different futures. But while we discuss what might happen, children are
growing up. Their futures are not hypothetical. They are happening right now.
Be the change for their future to be the light