Become an Ambassador

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Volunteers across Devon

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Why become an Ambassador Volunteer?

Becoming an Ambassador Volunteer is a rewarding opportunity to make a real difference to families across our community. As an Ambassador Volunteer, you’ll use your lived experience, passion, and insight to help improve services, strengthen local support, and ensure that every family’s voice is heard.

Volunteering with us also offers a range of benefits. You’ll gain new skills through training and development and connect with other volunteers and partner organisations who share your commitment to supporting SEND families. There are also opportunities to take part in projects, support local families, and contribute to strategic work.

“I became an ambassador volunteer because I want to help other parents to become more confident in finding and getting support for themselves and their children.”

Steps to becoming an Ambassador Volunteer

Step 1

Contact the Ambassador Volunteer Coordinator

Step 2

Submit an application form

Step 3

Complete the induction training

Step 4

Have a one-to-one discussion with the Ambassador Volunteer Coordinator to discuss areas of interest

How we support you

Our Ambassador Volunteer Coordinator provides ongoing help and support to Ambassador Volunteers including:

induction training and development sessions
one-to-one support
connections with partner organisations
opportunities to work with Parent Carer Forum Devon and DIAS
regular updates and meetings
help developing local SEND support groups or projects
opportunities to link with other Ambassadors and organisations

Frequently Asked Questions

Ambassador volunteers have all kind of backgrounds and personal experience. Many of them choose to volunteer because they want to give something back to their community, and now feels like the right time and this feels like the right role. Volunteers enjoy helping people find their way through the system and get the right help and support. They feel like they make a real difference.

Volunteers get support and training to help them do their role and a sense of being a part of a wider network. Each half term they have a virtual team meeting with other Ambassador Volunteers. They have in-person training sessions twice a year too, focusing on topics that the volunteers have asked for help with. Volunteers don’t have to do these, but it helps them feel part of something bigger. We also ask all volunteers to do safeguarding training online.

All training is free.

“Sometimes it’s the small things: I was able to confirm to a parent that she wasn’t being pushy by emailing the SENDCO to chase something which had been promised. She had been on the verge of this for a year but was lacking confidence.”

You need to be a good listener and a sense of humour helps! You’ll be meeting and talking to lots of people, so you will need to enjoy that kind of thing and be supportive and understanding. Our volunteers have a positive attitude to life with a child with SEND and to the benefits of supporting others.

When you’re supporting parents and carers you will need to be impartial, which means you won’t take sides or tell someone to act in a certain way. You must be confidential too – that means you won’t pass on information about someone without their permission, unless there is a safety concern.One part of the ambassador volunteer role is to listen to what parents are saying, find common themes and then pass these on to be shared with the Parent Carer Forum. So being able to pick out what is important and talk about that in an accurate and honest way is an important skill to have.

If you’re interested in becoming an Ambassador volunteer, you can contact us here. Abi, who runs the programme, will be able to have a discussion with you about the role and provide you with an application form.

The next step is to do the volunteer training. Volunteers will be helping parents become informed, know how to access DIAS services and have their voice heard through the Parent Carer Forum Devon. So, you’ll need to learn about how to best do this and work out how this will happen in your local area.

Training sessions are both face-to-face and virtual, with the initial training induction taking about 2 hours.

“The programme has been great for me to build a support network for myself and to enable me to support others. I am learning new skills due to being part of the project and expanding my network.”

PCFD is the independent Parent Carer Forum for Devon. It’s for all families of children and young people with additional needs and disabilities in Devon. They are an independent group of parents and carers of children with additional needs and disabilities who want to make things better for the families, children and young people of Devon.

The forum connects with parents across the county to understand the wide picture of what life is really like for families – showing problems as well as what’s working well. They work as partners with the Local Authority (LA), the NHS and other professionals to make sure that services in Devon are accessible and meet the needs of children and their families.

DIAS (Devon Information Advice and Support) provides information, advice and support on special educational needs and disability (SEND). It’s a statutory service, which means it must be provided by law. Every local authority in England has this type of service and what they provide is shaped by chapter 2 of the SEND Code of Practice and the National Minimum Standards for IASS services.

DIAS’ main activity is to provide a service for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities, aged up to 25, and their parents or carers. They give support around SEND issues at every stage of a child’s education, including into further education and adulthood. The service offers: