National SEND demonstration comes to Surrey
At various places across the country today (November 3), including outside Surrey County Council parents will be taking action against the current SEND system
Families across the UK are leaving empty shoes outside council offices to symbolise the thousands of children they feel are being failed by the SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) system.
The National event is called the 'Every Pair Tells a Story' campaign and has been set up by The SEND Sanctuary UK in partnership with Let Us Learn Too and Let’s Make a Difference.
One of the places where shoes will be left is outside the Surrey County Council offices, where the demonstration will take place between 10:30 am to 1:00 pm.
A Surrey mum Abigail, who has two autistic children will be one of the campaigners there. She emphasised that it wasn't a protest, but a silent action.
"It's not a protest. It's a silent action to highlight the failings in the SEND system, it's to make the problem visible, make the invisible visible, basically, because a lot of us are fighting in the background and people don't see it."
Abigail says that she was delighted to shine nationwide spotlight on the issues surrounding SEND.
"It's amazing, as a SEND parent going through these these battles, and it really is, you have to battle for every little thing for your child. It's very lonely and it isn't until you start connecting with other SEND parents that you start to realise how big of a scale it.
How many kids are being failed, not having access to education or not getting the right support and then leading to them being in in burnout and in major distress."
Abigail added that she thinks a lot of people underestimate the relentlessness of life as a parent caring for a child with SEND issues.
"Without a doubt, they have no idea, how much time we spend on paperwork, how much time we spend on meetings, how much time we spend researching what the best place is.
And then you think you found the place and then in my experience they say they can't support your needs so and you don't get a place or the council says no."
She says that it's important that there isn't a one-size-fits-all solution to the issue of SEND
"Absolutely. And I think that's the problem. That's what particularly in mainstream schools, because both of my children are have been in mainstream schools.
Mainstream is a one-size-fits-all set up. That is how it's designed. That's why they have to have such strict behaviour policies and all of this stuff. They do not look at the individual needs of the child.
I think as they should and I think if they adapted, if it needs to be top down, it needs to be guidance from the government as to the best way to make sure that all kids are supported and happy and comfortable and obviously the ones that need to be in a specialist provision should be in a specialist provision"
Abigail says that on the day she's expecting a supportive atmosphere rather than an intense one
"I'm hoping it's supportive. I think it'll be nice to see the other parents coming and to visually see the scale of it as well.
I've had private messages from people telling me their stories and I'm looking forward to giving one or two of them a hug.
I think we just want to be seen. That's what it boils down to."
A Department for Education spokesperson said:
“This government inherited a SEND system on its knees, with thousands of families struggling to secure the right support. We’re determined to put that right and deliver a better system that supports children and families at every stage.
“We have already carried out over 100 listening sessions with families, and Minister Gould will be leading the engagement with more parents to make sure we deliver better outcomes for every child through the Schools White Paper as part of our Plan for Change.
“Through that engagement we have already made progress on our plans to build a truly inclusive system – including through improved training for teachers, £740 million to create more specialist places, earlier intervention for speech and language needs and embedding SEND leads in our Best Start Family Hubs in every local area.”