FAMILIES have a crucial role to play in helping to achieve the Government's Every Child Matters outcome, a leading professor from the University of Worcester has claimed.

Dr Barry Carpenter made the announcement at a major partnership conference in Solihull and immediately encouraged everyone involved in special educational needs to work together to harness information and learn from best practice.

Dr Carpenter, who is a professor of early child intervention at the university and chief executive of Sunfield School in the West Midlands, provided an insight into harnessing the knowledge and expertise of families when looking to help support the development of children with special educational needs.

He said this could range from tapping into their knowledge of their son/daughter's unique condition to making sure the right diet is provided to encourage good behaviour and effective learning.

"Parents will always be the best source of information on a child, as they will be living with them every day and will often have spent hours researching disabilities and how they can improve the life of their son or daughter," said Dr Carpenter.

He was one of a number of key speakers organised by the British Institute of Learning Disabilities, nasen (the National Association for Special Educational Needs), autism.westmidlands and Sunfield Professional Development Centre in what was described as the largest event of its type this year.

Dr Carpenter said: "Every practitioner - be they involved in education, health and social care - needs to make sure that we take this expertise and build it into what we do best and this should be carried on through the child's development right up until they are 19."