What we do

Pinpoint is the Parent Carer Forum for Cambridgeshire. We support parent carers of children and young people aged 0 -25 years with additional needs or disabilities. As a parent carer forum, we enable the Local Authority to fulfil its statutory requirement to listen, engage and work together with parent carers for the benefit of children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and their families.

Pinpoint: 

• Provides information and signposts parents and carers to the services best suited to help them with their child’s needs. 
• Engages and empowers parent carers by running free events, workshops and training, including an annual conference, and helps them ask for the services their children need. 
• Works with statutory services as both a partner and critical friend; they both fund and provide support and services and Pinpoint ensures parents’ voices are heard and that parents help to shape services.  

Formed in 2008, initially hosted within another charity, we have been an independent Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) since 2014. 

We are a registered charity (1156920).

Our Vision

Pinpoint’s Vision is for all children and young people in Cambridgeshire to be valued and thrive, whatever their needs.

Our Mission

Pinpoint works with parents and carers of children and young people with additional needs, Special Educational Needs and / or Disabilities, to celebrate their differences and empower their families.

We are committed to working alongside families and services to represent parent/carers in co-producing service improvements so that children and young people have the support they need.

Our Values

• Children, young people and families with additional needs are at the heart of what we do.
• We listen, and value the expertise of parents/carers, standing in their shoes.
• We expect high aspirations to be norm for children and young people with additional needs.
• We take a positive ‘can-do’ approach to problems.
• We focus on people’s abilities: what they can do, not their disabilities and what they can’t do.
• We treat everyone with respect, we value difference and are not judgemental.

What we do to make your voices heard

The Parent Carer Forum, Pinpoint, is the way to get parent carer voices heard here in Cambridgeshire, regionally in East Anglia and nationally.

We work to ensure you are heard by those who commission your services – we do this by formally holding a meeting (Partners in Commissioning) with the Local Authority and Health Service Commissioners each term. We also hold adhoc conversations as issues arise to ensure that service providers have the opportunity to react quickly. We proactively contact services to ensure they know what is working, is not working and what would be ‘better if’.

We work with those who make local policies that affect your child and young person, in education, social care and health to represent your concerns and to ensure that they understand your needs and the aspirations you have for your child / young person. The Local Authority and Health Service are committed to working with us and we have a seat on all the strategic boards that oversee and direct policies relating to our children and young people. We are round the table as equal partners on your behalf.

Co-production is key and we work with the Local Authority and Health staff  to promote co-production at every opportunity. We have worked to ensure the Cambridgeshire And Peterborough SEND Strategy and Action Plan have been co-produced. Co-production should happen when polices are developed and services commissioned. Good co-production also means working together when implementation takes place and this is happening in Cambridgeshire through formal structures (boards and working groups) and by working with officers. You can read more about co-production in Cambridgeshire here.

Pinpoint is part of the regional network of parent carer forums. We attend the Eastern Region Parent Carer Forum Network termly meetings and use this to share good practice and learning that would benefit Cambridgeshire parent carers.

We are also part of the National Network of Parent Carer Forums. This network enables us to feedback to central government to ensure your voices are being heard at the highest level. We provide this feedback when requested or when there is a pressing issue. We attend the annual national conference to add your voices alongside the voices of parents  from all over the country.

Pinpoint uses its connections to work with national officers and civil servants in Government to raise issues and seek clarity when needed.

By joining in and becoming a member (when you sign up for our newsletter service),  you have the opportunity to: get your voice heard; to shape services; and to improve what is on offer for your child and young person. This section of the website lets you know how you can join in and participate. And you can always contact us at anytime to raise and issue or share feedback: information@pinpoint-cambs.org.uk