Peterborough parents and carers are being asked a fundamental question about the SEND requirements in Peterborough and how they should be run more effectively.

So if we look at If SEND services are being reformed, how should families themselves be represented while the decisions are being made?

A council survey is open until 25 September 2026 and is focused specifically on parent and carer representation during reforms to support children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.

That may sound administrative and probably that is predominately true because without the suitable funding little is likely to change.

For families already dealing with assessments, support plans, school meetings, waiting lists or the exhausting business of trying to work out who is responsible for what, representation is not an abstract issue that they should or can afford to ignore.

It decides who is in the room. It decides how feedback reaches decision-makers.

And it affects whether the experience described in official meetings resembles the experience families are having at the kitchen table.

All to often, those in the offices making the decisions have no hands -on experience of the day to day lives of those children and young people directly affected.

There is also a wider point.

One on one consultations are easy to ignore because each individual response can feel tiny.

But if the people with the most direct experience stay out of the process, the gap gets filled by people with less direct experience.

Who are not as well equipped to understand the real needs of those needing the help and support

So if SEND is part of your family’s life, this is one of those surveys worth doing before the closing date disappears into September.

And if you think Peterborough’s SEND system has one problem that decision-makers consistently underestimate, tell us that too.