Blackpool Co-Production - Parents & Carers

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Are you a parent or carer? Or someone who has a significant relationship with a young person?

Ever heard the phrase ‘it takes a village to raise a child’? Basically, it means that lots of people in a community have a part to play in helping children and young people be resilient and thrive. Parents, carers, grandparents, teachers, youth workers ... we welcome everyone and anyone, including parents and carers into Blackpool’s Resilience Revolution

Want to get involved? Below are some of the fantastic opportunities parents and carers can get involved in. A wonderful mix of parents, carers and significant others are already involved and using their expertise to contribute.

Parents of the Revolution

Parents of the Revolution is a group of parents and carers who meet weekly to have a coffee and chat about issues that matter to us, from working at home, to schooling, to just general day to day life. The group offers a listening ear when times get tough and a space to reflect about how we, as a group, can be part of the solutions to tackling some of Blackpool problems. We want to upskill and grow with the changes that are being made in our town by giving access to training, co-production spaces, workshop delivery, volunteering and potentially employment opportunities.

Parents and carers have told us that although access to digital spaces has initially been a daunting experience, as we are sure it has been for many of us, we have got used to this new way of meeting and it has made life a little bit easier. We don’t have to get everyone ready to leave the house, we don’t have to think about bus fare or travel time, we don’t even have to brush our hair or switch on a camera if we don’t want to. And for many, it has given us a sense of belonging in a time when we could have been evermore isolated and so have provided digital support to make sure than anyone and everyone can get involved.

Take a Stand

Parents of the Revolution Take A Stand (TAS) is a group of parents and carers with a wide range of lived experience, working in co- production with professionals and other members of the community. The main aims and objectives of the group are to identify where there is a need for change in a system i.e. school, social care, CAMHS etc. and identify how we can bring about this change. We want to make Blackpool a better place to live and grow up in. We promote inclusivity throughout everything we do and we want parents and carers just like you to join us in our mission.

Since October 2020 we have been working with Children’s Social Care seeing Blackpool parents and carers being involved in the recruitment of new posts within the service. We will be supporting Children’s social care with the training of social work teams in a bid to incorporate the lived experience of parents, carers and families from Blackpool.

Training Workshops

There are also lots of different workshops/training available free for any parents/carers. These include workshops in interview skills, note taking, first aid training and many other essential skills.

Recently, we began to do training workshops to provide additional support to both the parent/Carer, family and their children. These training workshops have been made in partnership with Boingboing; to ensure that the training would be a positive experience for any parents and staff. These skills include; low mood, anxiety, stress and much more. There has been a big positive reaction for the workshops in particular, saying how they have helped to improve the skills they had prior to these workshops and that ‘it’s good to know there are others who are like me!’

Special Guardians Support Group (SGO)

We are a group of people with lived experience as carers where an Special Guardianship Order (SGO) is in place or being considered. This includes both foster carers and kinship/ connected carers. We meet on a regular basis to share knowledge and experience in a bid to help and support each other. We know that there are challenges we may face in becoming a carer but together we can begin to tackle some of these challenges

Want to get involved?

The groups mentioned above are always happy to welcome new members or if you have another idea about how parents and carers can contribute then please get in touch. coproduction@blackpool.gov.uk

We also support projects across Blackpool to use the Resilience Framework to compliment the work they are doing. If you’re an organisation that is working alongside parents and carers, you can join us to!

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