Fixing the SEND system for local families

Since becoming the MP for our area, I have met with many parents whose children have special education needs disabilities (SEND). When they speak about their children, and the difficulties they have faced securing the support they need, I am struck by their bravery and determination.

But so often, when they tell me about those struggles, that drive to help their children - a drive any parent would have for their kids - is characterised by frustration and exasperation.

They have to fight to secure an Education Health and Care Plan, and even once they have one it can still be a nightmare actually getting enough support. They find themselves fighting against a system designed to help them, forced to become experts and advocates when all they want to be is parents.

I’ve heard this story of frustration and delay time and time again, both from parents and the specialist teachers and local authority workers that deliver SEND support.

It’s a story with a clear conclusion: the system is broken.

It’s broken for a reason, the previous Government treated special educational needs provision as an issue for other people’s kids. It ignored parents, campaigners and teachers while settling for a one-size-fits all approach; something any SEND parent could tell you just wouldn’t work.

When I speak to my colleagues in Government, they share my determination to turn round the system so that every child gets the chance to thrive in education, and to end the poor outcomes so often delivered by today’s system.

Since entering office, Labour has taken significant steps to improve the life chances of children with SEND. We have already put more funding into the system to support better outcomes, investing £1 billion into high needs SEND support and providing £740 million to support councils to create more specialist places in mainstream schools.

This funding will be vital, and helps pave the way for the significant, long-term reform that will restore families’ confidence in the system.

We need to build a system shaped by what works in supporting children. One in which schools, parents, professionals and local government work together.

This isn’t about making false promises, the families I speak to are tired of that. Instead, careful, complex reform is needed, with local children at its heart.

Children with SEND will continue to be guaranteed a legal right to additional support to ensure they are supported throughout their education and can move on to fulfilling adult lives.

While the SEND tribunal must remain as a backstop for all families, we must also create quicker ways to ensure the system delivers the support children need, especially when cases are urgent and life-limiting.

As this work progresses, I will continue to advocate for a system that works for children and their parents.

I’m meeting with the Children’s Commissioner to discuss how we can deliver it, and will be hosting a roundtable to hear from the true experts: local parents. Together, through careful reform, we can create a system that works for children, not against them.