All Wales Forum

Giving a national voice to empower parents and carers of people with a learning disability

about us

About Us

The All Wales Forum of Parents and Carers (AWF)

The All Wales Forum was set up by a group of parent carers in Wales concerned that the way services for people with learning disabilities were run were outdated and discriminatory. One of the founders’ first priorities was to work with other service providers to lobby for change. This resulted in a national policy document called the All Wales Strategy. Buoyed on by this success, the parent carers formed a steering group to drive forward change for people with Learning Disabilities and provide peer support for carers. Other smaller groups of carers also formed across Wales, wanting to see similar change for people with Learning Disabilities in their own communities. Out of this came an agreement that these local steering groups would be more effective if they worked together for change and AWF was established as a charity in 1998. http://awf2.midwalesdesign.com/allwalesforum/history-awf/

Today, AWF’s core mission is to bring a national voice and recognition to parents and carers of children and adults living with Learning Disabilities in Wales and we work through an alliance of 26 parent carer networks across Wales. http://awf2.midwalesdesign.com/groups/

We also work in partnership with a number of voluntary organisations including Mencap Cyrmu, All Wales People First, Carers Wales, Age Cymru and many more. http://awf2.midwalesdesign.com/allwalesforum/who-we-work-with/

AWF is unique among learning disability organisations in that it is the only organisation that represents solely the views of parents and carers of people with learning disabilities across Wales. Although there are other umbrella bodies working in the Learning Disabilities area, AWF remains the only organisation that is run by parents and carers working together at both local and national levels seeking to ensure that families are at the heart of planning and consultation. This provides us with a strong credible base which ensures that families and parent carers are heard and respected at both local and national levels, helping them to shape their communities and services. http://awf2.midwalesdesign.com/allwalesforum/who-we-support/

Strategic Aims

  • Raising awareness nationally and regionally of parents and carers of children and adults with learning disabilities – providing a strong and equal voice for parents and carers across Wales
  • Advocating for the rights of family carers to be heard as equals in service planning and policy development -enabling and supporting carer groups and individual carers to play fuller roles in their community, consultations and planning processes.
  • Highlighting and campaigning on national and local issues that directly impact upon parents and carers and their family members – working together to ensure that those issues directly facing family carers are both heard and given proper consideration by the wider community through partnership working and effective engagement.
  • Facilitating growth and working in partnership to identify and develop innovative solutions to improve the lives of parents and carers and their family members – bringing together solutions from carers and partner organisations to help improve and shape both services and support available at local and national levels through better use of resources and shared knowledge.