Today, we have written to the Department for Education as part of a group of 30+ organisations who work with and support children with special educational needs and disabilities, and their families, to call for future SEND reform to be underpinned by six principles.
We believe, based on our engagement with parents and carers, professionals, and organisations in the sector that reform must:
- Be co-designed with children and families
- Strengthen compliance with the law
- Ensure parental choice is retained
- Make post-16 support a priority
- Not squeeze children’s needs into funding bands
- Address existing gaps in the Green Paper
The Government’s consultation on its recent SEND Green Paper closed in July. Now the Department for Education will deliberate on the feedback it received and is expected to respond by the end of the year, with new regulations likely to follow shortly after.
While the government’s SEND reforms were originally introduced to ‘improve an inconsistent, process-heavy and increasingly adversarial system’, we are concerned that the proposals in the Green Paper as they stand do not address the accountability gap and could worsen delays and access to support across the country.
Research conducted by the Together Trust earlier this year suggests that 9 in 10 parents and carers currently require specialist help to understand what support their child is entitled to.
One parent, Samantha, said that “there are so many obstacles to getting your child the right help, every decision is appealed before the support which is so desperately needed is finally given”.
The current system is underperforming for children and their families, but the SEND proposals as they stand miss the mark. This joint letter demonstrates the will of organisations who support children with SEND to get reform right without cutting corners.
Lucy Croxton, the Together Trust’s Campaigns Manager
Signatories to the letter
- Mark Lee, Together Trust, Chief Executive
- Stephen Kingdom, Disabled Children’s Partnership, Campaign Manager
- Parmi Dheensa, Include Me TOO, Executive Director
- Kate Steele, SHINE (Spina bifida • Hydrocephalus • Information • Networking • Equality), Chief Executive
- Sally Polanski, Amaze, CEO
- Sue Millman, Ataxia UK, CEO
- David Coe, AFK, CEO
- Caroline Stevens, National Autistic Society, CEO
- Michael McGrath, Muscle Help Foundation, Founder & CEO
- Louise Griew, Roald Dahl Marvellous Children’s Charity, CEO
- Kathy Evans, Children England, CEO
- Jane Harris, I CAN, Chief Executive
- Sarah Pugh, Whizz-Kidz, Chief Executive Officer
- Claire Bryant, Cherry Trees, CEO
- Tom Madders, YoungMinds, Campaigns Director
- Rita Waters, NYAS (National Youth Advocacy Service), Group Chief Executive (England and Wales)
- Zillah Bingley, Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity , Chief Executive
- Dr Rhidian Hughes, Voluntary Organisations Disability Group, Chief Executive
- Gill Gibb, Tree of Hope, CEO
- Helen Hewitt, Chailey Heritage Foundation, Chief Executive
- Assunta Soldovieri, Sebastian’s Action Trust, Head of Family Services
- Katie Ghose, KIDS, Chief Executive
- Dr Beth Bodycote, Not Fine in School, Director
- Tania Tirraoro, Renata Blower, Special Needs Jungle Ltd, Co-Directors
- Mike Hobday, National Deaf Children’s Society, Executive Director Policy and Campaigns
- Ali Gunn, United Response, Public Affairs and Policy Lead
- Megan Jarvie, Coram Family and Childcare, Head of Coram Family and Childcare
- Kevin Williams, The Fostering Network, Chief Executive
- Andy Fletcher, Together for Short Lives, Chief Executive
- James Taylor, Scope, Director of Strategy, Impact and Social Change
- Carolyne Willow, Article 39, Director
You can read the full joint open letter below:
