We are calling on the government to uphold current laws that help children with SEND get the assessments, support, and school place they need, and protect their funding, to avoid making things worse and causing active harm to children and families.
The government knows that the SEND system is not working. We’ve spoken to nearly 2,000 parents and young people and they’ve told us the same – the system is broken.
Two thirds (65%) of families say they are not happy with their autistic child’s mainstream education, while over a third (36%) of autistic pupils say they have been out of school against their wishes.
The government has put forward solutions in its SEND Green Paper. But we’re concerned that some of the proposals will make it even harder for autistic children to access support in education, for example by limiting parents’ ability to choose a school for their child.
We also want a public commitment from the government to fund support for children with SEND. The additional £2bn for education announced in the Autumn Statement 2022 only restores education funding per pupil back to 2010 levels. There are more than twice as many children with SEND in schools and colleges now than there were in 2010, but the government has not set out what funding will be available to pay for the additional support they need.
Join us in calling on the UK government to:
- Uphold current laws that help children with SEND get the assessments, support, and school place they need, and protect their funding, to avoid making things worse and causing active harm to children and families.
- Make all education policy work for SEND pupils so they can achieve their potential, with a clear expectation that every school is a SEND school, every teacher is a SEND teacher, and every policy is a SEND policy.
- Publish a plan to develop a valued, skilled, sufficient SEND workforce, backed by resources, with clear timescales.
- Ask Ofsted to make the quality of SEND support a greater priority in inspections.
- Gather and share evidence on how mainstream education and special schools and colleges can work together to get children the right support, at the right time, in the right place.
Join us and fight to protect SEND funding and rights for autistic children and young people.
To find out more about our campaign visit our website.
