This project was designed to support and build on the existing ESRC IAA COVID-19 impact project titled ‘Addressing Pakistani community’s needs in Rochdale during Covid-19’, which concluded on 31st April 2021. The project was based on developing a ‘call to action’ document that raised the needs of some of the most vulnerable members of the Pakistani communities in Rochdale. The initial findings suggested strategies for consideration by policy makers across education, health, media, local authority and national government departments and politicians. In particular, some work on Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) and local services was suggested, which this extension to the project was designed to implement.
The aim of this project extension was to develop toolkits to address the immediate needs identified as part of the call to action document. Hence, this is a follow on and was not costed in the original project.
The ‘PaCCT Action Toolkit project’ involved the development and dissemination of two toolkits to address some of the needs identified in the ‘call to action’ document. These included:
1. SEND toolkit - A toolkit for parents of Rochdale children with SEND, in relation to their perceived needs identified in the ‘call to action’ document (see Apeendix 1 of the report). The development of this toolkit required examining and collating existing information from Rochdale council (through their website, contacting council members, and contacting relevant departments within the council) in relation to existing SEND support measures for parents.
2. Council Services toolkit - A toolkit for the Pakistani community members in Rochdale with information on accessing and utilising services provided by the Rochdale Council (or those available within Rochdale) that can help address the needs identified in the ‘call to action’ document (see Appendix 2 of the report).
The development of this toolkit required examining and collating information from Rochdale council in relation to help and support available for non-English speaking members of the Pakistani community in Rochdale who struggle to access online council services. The information was gathered through the Rochdale Borough Council website and by contacting council members and relevant departments within the council (in particular, via a meeting held with the Head of children’s services and her staff on 30.04.2021).