Parentsactive CIC exists as a force for positive change. Our core purpose is to improve life for parents of children and young people with additional needs in Hammersmith & Fulham by creating a supportive, inclusive community where everyone belongs, our voices are genuinely heard, and our challenges are recognised. Together, we help shape the services that our children and young people deserve. We are a Company led by parent carers of children and young people with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities. We work in partnership with organisations that deliver services for our families, while remaining independent of the local council and health services (NHS). This independence allows us to gather and share honest experiences and insights from families, helping ensure their voices influence real change. Our Vision Parentsactive exists to ensure that families have the support they need to navigate the complex and overwhelming landscape of health, education and social care. We believe knowledge is power and that every parent supporting a child or young adult with a disability should have access to the information and tools they need to support their family’s wellbeing. Through our support network, we offer advocacy, peer support, empowerment and learning events. These are designed to reduce the isolation, confusion and helplessness that many families experience. Unlike many, Parentsactive also supports families of young people aged 25 and over. We recognise that for many, the end of an EHCP can feel like falling off a ‘cliff edge’ yet the need for guidance and support doesn’t stop there. That’s why we continue to walk alongside families beyond this formal cut-off point. Aligned with National Parent Carer Forum principles and relevant legislation, we actively gather the views of a broad range of families, ensuring they reflect the diversity of our local population. We work collaboratively with the local authority, education settings, health and social care providers, and other local organisations to highlight both what is working well and where improvements are needed. We aim to co-produce services as equal partners, ensuring that new initiatives are genuinely responsive to the needs of our children, young people and their families. The company has 3 main activities. The Parent/Carer forum, the Post 19 Coproduction Coordinator service and Advocacy services. Parent Carer Forum The Parent/Carer forum offers peer support and coproduction opportunities to families of children and young adults within the age range 0-25 through Coffee mornings, workshops and training at various community centres in the Borough. The forum also offers online support through WhatsApp support groups and online training and consultation events. Parent/Carers are encouraged to contribute and coproduce the development of services relevant to their children by participating in consultation events, workstreams, conferences which would enable them to feedback their views to the local authority and health. Parents are also encouraged to participate in recruitment processes and evaluation of bids within statutory processes of the Local Authority and Health, as the Parent representative, thereby ensuring services are truly coproduced and reflect the needs of the clients that use the services. The Forum aligns with the principles of National Network of Parent/Carer forums and is funded by the Department of Education and the Third sector investment funds of the council Hammersmith and Fulham The Advocacy services The Parent Carer Advocate provides independent one to one support for parents and carers of children and young people aged 0-25 with special educational needs or disabilities in Hammersmith and Fulham. The advocacy services work to secure people’s rights, promote their well- being and ensure that their wishes are fully heard and respected. The advocate supports families of disabled children through statutory meetings with the Local Authority and Health, around Health, Education, Social care and Housing. The advocacy service is accessible to families who struggle to express themselves, families who may have mental health and learning disabilities, may be on low income, asylum seekers or those who have English as their second language. As of 31st March 2025, the advocate has supported around 43 families. To access Advocacy, the families must care for a child or young person within the age range of 0-25 with disabilities, they must reside in the Borough or register with a GP in the Borough. The referral process is through self-referral or through referrals from other sources such as statutory or voluntary sector organisations, friends or family. The service is funded by the Third Sector Investment funds of the council Post-19 Coproduction Work- Shaping Adult services together As young people move beyond school and children’s services, families often face an array of changes in education, health, and social care. Our post-19 Co-production work helps bridge that gap, bringing families and professionals together to design adult services that truly work for young people with learning disabilities or autism. Co-production is about making sure services work with families, not just for them. It means families and professionals working together - combining what matters to families, with what services can offer. Our Post-19 Co-production work brings parent-carers and local decision-makers into the same room to share ideas, challenges and solutions. We recognise that not every young person with learning disabilities or autism can always share their views directly, so parent-carers are an essential voice in shaping support that works for real family life. Together with parents and the council, we’re currently looking at: Adult social care and supported living: contributing parent-carer insight to the borough’s vision of Independent Living Employment and day opportunities: ensuring meaningful pathways for adults. Information and communication: improving how updates are shared so parent-carers can plan ahead and access help early. We do this through workshops, events, focus groups and ongoing conversations with families. Our work is driven by the needs of parents. The regular frequency and variety of our sessions have helped parent carers to understand navigating areas of disability, accessing support and created empowerment through awareness. Parentsactive have held 32 sessions this year on a variety of topics. Sessions run almost weekly in term time and last between 1 – 3 hrs each session, depending on the topic. Following each session there may be some follow up sharing of resources with parents or supporting individual situations - liaising with parents/professionals where a parent needs something to be picked up or further signposting/ advice/ support. In the period between April 2024 and 31st March 2025 the parent/carer advocate has supported 26 families with a total of 37 children/young people who have had disabilities ranging from ASD, ADHD, Global Developmental Delay, Mental health and sight impairment. Of these 6 parents themselves had ASD, physical disabilities or learning difficulties 10 parents were known to Mental Health services and almost all suffered from stress and anxiety related directly to personal circumstances i.e. Domestic Violence, housing, health or navigating services and dealing with professionals. 5 of the 26 cases were closed and were then reopened again on at least two occasions as these family’s self -referred due to new challenges presenting themselves so effectively the number of cases dealt with over the year amounted to 36. Also, as at least 5 families had more than one child with a disability the case load was closer to 43. Of the 36 cases 25% of referrals came from Children’s Social care, 16.6% were self-referrals, 11% from Early help team, 5.5% each from Parentsactive, Health and Hf Mencap and 2.7% each from Adult Social Care and Police. Although many cases are ongoing there have been several successful outcomes for families and almost 100% have reported that the support of an advocate has resulted in their voice being heard, better emo-tional wellbeing, contributing to improved school attendance, fewer meltdowns, greater educational pro-gress, parental empowerment as many parents gained confidence, became less isolated. For those parents on a Child in Need plan, Child protection or had a child in care meant that they were able to understand processes, exercise their rights, there was increased engagement and trust and a greater willingness to co-operate. Other Projects Well - Being Project funded by Northwest London Integrated Care Board. Since 2021/22 Parentsactive was offered funding to provide Well Being sessions for Parent/Carers. The funding was intended to support the mental health and well-being of parent/carers within our membership as well as reduce social isolation. To access the support, the parent/carers must care for a child or young with disabilities from 0-18, reside in the Borough or register with a GP within the borough. During the financial year 24/25 Parentsactive piloted a project with London Sports Trust for 5 weeks called Parentsactive Con-nects, offering parents exercise sessions and other opportunities to reduce isolation. However, this was dis-continued due to poor attendance and further options are being explored Partners in Change In May 2023, Parentsactive was approached by, Director of Education and SEND in H&F, to collaborate on developing an engagement and co-production initiative that would capture the voices of a broader range of residents, particularly focusing on hard-to-reach groups, those with disabilities, and vulnerable communities. This led to a series of meetings with the local authority to address the need for wider resident engagement beyond the existing Parentsactive membership. To facilitate this effort, the local authority and health authorities (NW London Integrated Care Board) commissioned Parentsactive to develop the ‘Partners in Change’ initiative and chair regular meetings with various voluntary sector partners, including Action on Disability, ASE, Carers Network, HF Mencap, Advocacy at Parentsactive, SENDIASS, and Young Hammersmith Fulham Foundation. The intent was to enable these organisations to share insights and challenges regarding resident support with themes raised through the key organisations. As of 31st March 2025, 3 meetings were held every quarter focussing on Emotions Based School Avoidance, Mental Health, Challenging Behaviour and focussed on solutions-based discussions. Mental providers CAMHS, MINT, HFEH Mind attended the meetings and discussions were held around mental health support in schools, mental health support during transitions to adulthood and support around Challenging Behaviour. The meetings are expected to be continued throughout the next financial year As of 31st March 2025, Parentsactive CIC also successfully fundraised for an Administration and Commu-nication Assistant through a grant from Young Hammersmith and Fulham Foundation to improve its so-cial media and membership reach and to provide more administrative assistance to various projects within the organisation. Parentsactive is the CIVIC Honour winner in 2024/25 for building a Kinder Stronger and Safer Borough and was presented with our award on 9th April 2025.

Our stakeholders are our membership who are essentially Parent/Carers of disabled children and young people from birth and beyond, the Local Authority, Health and other voluntary sector organisations. While, no formal consultation events were held during this period, the weekly sessions help us gather the views and issues faced by parent/carers whilst navigating services on behalf of their disabled children and adults. Parentsactive regularly feeds back on the views, concerns and issues through regular meetings with the Local Authority and Health. The views and concerns are gathered through various weekly meetings, training events and coffee morning sessions as stated above. Our WhatsApp groups also give us good insight into planning our activities and to escalate concerns. We also conduct polls on WhatsApp to understand the training and information needs of our families. Parentsactive has been a member of the Children Education Policy and Accountability Committee (CEPAC) since 2014 as a non-voting co-opted member, which enables us to raise concerns and ask questions, based on feedback from our membership. The weekly sessions as well as the online support groups clearly indicated the need for further advocacy which enabled the organisation to fundraise and plan for more Advocacy support in the new financial year 2025/26, thereby offering more support to families. Our Partners in Change initiative helps Parentsactive CIC work in collaboration with other voluntary sector organisations to reflect the wider resident voice, thereby helping with future partnership work. Parentsactive’s membership has significantly grown over this past year, with 87 new members and an overall membership of over 500 parent carers. The increase in membership can in part be attributed to our online presence. We now run around 30-40% of our sessions either online or hybrid which has provided greater accessibility for parent carers to attend. We also have a WhatsApp community platform that members can join for updates on our events and groups for peer-to-peer support. Many parent carers are now accessing signposting and information through this method. This is especially helpful for working parents. Many parents now join Parentsactive through other parents who are on the WhatsApp groups.

As of 31st March 2025, 2 Directors out of 3 have received Director’s remuneration and they are clearly stated in our Accounts They are included within staff costs, page 4 of the Profit and Loss Accounts.

No transfer of assets other than for full consideration