Solihull Parent Carer Voice

23/01/2026

This morning no need to book just pop along to get advice ☕️

20/01/2026

‼️THIS FRIDAY‼️

📣 EHCP & SEND Drop-In – Friday 23 January 2026

Got questions about SEN support or EHCPs? Come along for free advice and support from a range of professionals.

You’ll be able to speak to:
✅ EHCP Team
✅ Educational Psychologists
✅ EPAS
✅ SOLAR
✅ SAS
✅ Specialist Teachers (SiSS)

📍 Solihull Council House
🕤 9:30am – 12:00pm
🚶‍♀️ No booking needed – just drop in

19/01/2026

UPDATE

We have been speaking with University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB) regarding the situation and the electronic prescriptions.

The systems are now just waiting for final sign off by the Medicines Management Group and UHB and then will be ready to be 'switched on'

UHB are expecting this to all be in place and live by the end of February.

We will keep you updated as we hear more.

15/01/2026

Please see the below message from Paediatrics:

"We have had a number of calls today from parents distressed as prescriptions have not reached pharmacies. We completely understand their urgency and distress. We know we really need to improve our prescription service and are working really hard to implement electronic prescribing but the ones being reported today all seem to be prescriptions that have been delayed by Royal Mail due to snow disruptions to their deliveries last week 🙁

We are trying to contact pharmacies and check they are receiving our post and some are starting to receive as of today but some others do appear to still be a little behind.

Where prescriptions have not reached pharmacies after 7 days of us posting (we record the date of every prescription we send by post) we can reissue and try to get them sent out as quickly as we can in replacement. Our phone lines are busy with this but if parents can please let us know if their prescription has not been received, we will support as best we can to get children's medications issued. Please bear with us, the team are working hard to try and prioritise and get through this additional activity.

Parents/ Carers and professionals can contact the Solihull Community Paediatric Services via email or telephone.

Telephone:
We have a dedicated line for ordering repeat prescriptions
0121 746 4473 - Prescription line.

This line has a 24 hour answer machine available 7 days a week.
The line is open every day Monday to Friday between 9am and 11am for parents to speak to a member of staff, but it does get very busy so callers may still get the answer machine during these times. We encourage families to please leave a message with a child/ young persons name, date of birth and home address and the number you wish us to call you back on so we can access the right record for information and get back to you in a timely way.
If messages are left we try to responded within 24 hours within our office hours – Monday to Friday 8am to 4pm.

Email: communitypaedsscripts@uhb.nhs.uk – this is for parents ordering repeat prescriptions only, or who have prescription queries.

I hope this is resolved quickly and we have no further Royal Mail delays"

13/01/2026

Coffee this Thursday 10-11:30 The Greville Arms we will have EHCP team there.

12/01/2026

Today Solihull Parent Carer Voice, along with Parent Carer Forums from across the whole country, met with Ministers, to give our views as part of the National Conversation regarding the SEND Reforms.

12 key themes emerged during the conversations, the dominant themes unsurprisingly were accountability, trust and implementation.

Families are not asking for new rhetoric, but clear ownership, enforceable standards, adequate resources, meaningful partnership, and a system that does what it already promises- early, fairly and consistently.

THEMES.
1- System-wide Accountability and Enforcement.
Accountability is fragmented, weak and inconsistently enforced across education, health and care.
2- Parent Carer Trust, Partnership and Power Imbalance.
Trust is critically low due to parent-blaming, exclusion from decisions and a lack of follow-through.
3- Inclusion: Definition, Reality and Limits.
Inclusion is poorly defined, inconsistently applied and sometimes unrealistic.
4- SEN Support Before and Beyond EHCPs.
SEN Support is weak, non-statutory and inconsistently delivered, driving EHCP demand.
5- Workforce Capacity, Training and Resourcing.
The system is under-resourced, understaffed and insufficiently trained to deliver inclusion.
6- Funding Transparency and Fairness
Funding is opaque, inconsistent and often disconnected from outcomes.
7- Early Identification and Early Intervention.
Early intervention is inconsistent, poorly defined and often ineffective.
8- School Culture, Behaviour Policies and Discrimination.
Behaviour-led systems often punish disability and drive exclusion.
9- Data, Oversight and Children Missing Education.
Systemic blind spots allow children to fall out of education unnoticed by the system.
10- Outcomes, Life Chances and Post-16 Pathways.
The system prioritises narrow academic metrics over long-term life outcomes.
11- Communication, Transparency and Information Access.
Poor communication reinforces mistrust and inequity.
12- The Need for Structural and Cultural Reform.
Many issues are not new, existing law is sufficient but not always complied with. Failure lies in culture and enforcement.

12/01/2026

📣 EHCP & SEND Drop-In – Friday 23 January 2026

Got questions about SEN support or EHCPs? Come along for free advice and support from a range of professionals.

You’ll be able to speak to:
✅ EHCP Team
✅ Educational Psychologists
✅ EPAS
✅ SOLAR
✅ SAS
✅ Specialist Teachers (SiSS)

📍 Solihull Council House
🕤 9:30am – 12:00pm
🚶‍♀️ No booking needed – just drop in

12/01/2026

An updated structure chart for the EHCP Service is now available on our website:
https://spcv.org.uk/ehcp-structure-chart-january-2026/

(If viewing on a phone, it is best viewed in print format)

Please see the current EHCP Service Structure Chart EHCP Team Structure Chart Dec 2025

06/01/2026

FYI upcoming online workshops for parents of children in early years (age 0-5), from Contact, as part of the Early Years SEND Partnership:

PLEASE NOTE THESE ARE NOT ARRANGED BY THE SPCV. SIGN UP VIA THE
LINK

Workshops for families with disabled children aged 5 and under. If there are no workshops listed, please come back soon as we're always adding new dates.

06/01/2026

📣 EHCP & SEND Drop-In – 23 Jan 2026
Got questions about SEN or EHCPs? Come for free advice and support.

📍 Solihull Council House
🕤 9:30am–12pm
No booking needed!

05/01/2026

We are writing a response to the Government's SEND Reform National Conversation, based on all the things that you have been telling us.

Is there anything particular that you think we should include in our response?

If you want to read more about the National Conversation, or submit your own response, you can do that here:

Find and participate in consultations run by the Department for Education

05/01/2026

IT'S A SNOWY, COLD DAY IN SOLIHULL!

Make sure to be careful when travelling by car or foot to school or work⚠️⚠️

Here are some tips for travelling to school:
- Wear flat, rubber-soled boots with deep treads.
- Use pavements along main roads, as these are more likely to have been gritted.
- Watch for shiny or darkened patches on pavements; these are often invisible ice.
- Take short, careful steps with knees slightly bent to maintain balance over your centre of gravity. (like a penguin🐧)
- NEVER use boiling water to clear footpaths or frozen windscreens.

For more information visit https://www.solihull.gov.uk/roads-pavements-and-streetcare/snow-clearance

Have a great day Solihull! 😀😁