About Us

A parent/carer led organisation whose mission is to ‘Support and Empower Families to be Heard and Achieve Better Outcomes’.

The Rainbow Parent Carers Forum has now been in existence for more than 32 years. It was originally set up in 1986 as the Floyd Group, a support group for parents of young children with disabilities attending the Trent Day Nursery in Nottingham. Parents relaxed or were engaged in workshop activities whilst the children were cared for in a separate area by qualified nursery staff. The group was run entirely on a voluntary basis by a small group of committed people, including some group members, with paid staff to provide the supervised play sessions.

Over the years the group expanded and moved to a venue more suited to the wider age range of children attending. This required increase in child-care staff numbers, and hence higher salary costs, necessitated a re-evaluation of the group’s financial arrangements and it registered as a charity in October 2001 in order to enhance access to funding sources. During the 3 year Aiming High for Disabled Children Programme the group was facilitated by Barnardo’s until October 2011 when the group became an independent parent led organisation. The group now enjoys the support of 3 trustees and employs a full time Co-ordinator, Project Officer, Volunteer Co-ordinator and 2 part time Administrator.