We empower parents/carers by influencing positive changes in health,
education and social care policies and practices for families, children and young people with disabilities/additional needs

Our Vision

Vision and Mission

The PFBA’s vision is for parents and carers of people with special educational needs and/or disabilities, living in Bradford and Airedale area to have access to relevant and current information, be represented at all levels of service planning and development and to feel confident that their voices are both heard and listened to by the district’s health, social care and educational agencies.

Our mission is for the PFBA to become known as a provider of information to parents and carers, and through which parent and carer concerns, issues and needs are collected and voiced in relation to health, social care and education agendas and service development and delivery.

Our Mission

Why must there be a Parent Carer Forum?

The Children and Families Act 2014 made some key changes to the ways in which SEND children and young people, aged 0-25 should be supported:

  • Children, young people and their families should be at the heart of assessment and planning.
  • That there would be a change in culture leading to assessments and plans being undertaken using person centred approaches.
  • That everything we do should be focused on the outcomes for children and young people.

Read more here

How We Help

How We Help

We work to support parents and carers of disabled/SEN children and young people in the Bradford and Airedale area

PFBA has a range of services available to support members:

  • Events and workshops on Education, Health and Care Plans to inform parents on current and relevant issues
  • Yearly ‘Bigger Voice’ event that brings local support groups together to share their good news stories and concerns
  • Regular surveys to ask parent/carers what they want the forum to focus on and feed back how we have tackled these
  • Representation on strategic groups in Health, Education and Social Care to enable the voice of parent/carers to be heard where decisions are made
History and Successes

History & Successes

We work to support parents and carers of disabled/SEN children and young people in the Bradford and Airedale area

PFBA was founded in 2009 when a group of parent carers came together to provide a forum for 9 new special schools in Bradford. With help from Barnardo’s and the National Parent Forum we grew and become a registered charity in 2010.

Our focus is always drawn from what parent/carers want to know more about or what they are concerned with. Our aim is to try and be a voice for families of children and young people with disabilities and/or additional needs.

At present there are over 9000 families with a child/young person with SEN or disabilities in Bradford and this continues to grow. Our membership has quadrupled, mainly through our outreach work but we need your help to reach even more families who need support.