SIgn Tee-Jay’s petition to protect SEND legal rights!

It is clear that the Government isn’t waiting for responses to its consultation—it is still moving on with its proposals, even though it must know what its AI analysis is likely throw up. It cannot have been deaf to the sector-wide voices raising concerns about many of its proposals, the attack on rights among them, but the question is, will they make any difference?

Helen Hayes MP’s Education Select Committee is also still waiting for a full response to the 2025 Solving the Crisis inquiry, and if the government cannot fulfil its duties there, what hope is there that it will pay attention to what they have been told by respondents–the same respondents-to the consultation? The committee has already held a hearing into the proposals, including evidence given by IPSEA’s Kate Cox

THE NEW PETITION

But the end of the consultation was not the end of this fight.

A new parliamentary petition, started by 14-year-old autistic campaigner Tee-Jay, is now calling on the Government to protect the legal right to support for children and young people with SEND. You can sign Tee-Jay’s petition here.

Tee-Jay’s petition echoes our original warnng that the Government’s proposed SEND reforms could limit statutory EHCPs, weaken legal rights, replace individual plans with standardised packages, reduce appeal rights and the ability of the Tribunal to name a school. These go to the heart of how children and young people secure the support they need when systems fail to provide it voluntarily.

Special Needs Jungle has written about Tee-Jay’s campaign and why his petition matters. Tee-Jay knows from his own life what support can mean. After years of struggling in a mainstream setting without the right provision, his move to specialist education changed his experience of school. His campaign is a reminder that these proposals are not just about policy design, funding routes or administrative processes. They are about children’s daily lives, safety, learning, confidence and belonging.

SNJ has also published a clear reminder that families and professionals should not stop making noise now that the consultation has closed. Their post, with a video from Gill Doherty, “Don’t stop making noise: Sign to save SEND Legal Rights”, sets out three practical actions:

1. Sign the petition,
2. Write to your MP, and
3. Join the Save Our Children’s Rights campaign.

WHY A NEW PETITION?

The wildly successful first petition to protect SEND legal rights reached more than 132,000 signatures and helped force a parliamentary debate. This new petition has already passed the threshold requiring a Government response, but it needs many more signatures to be considered for debate in Parliament.

We need you to sign and share as widely as possible.

If you have already signed, please share it directly with friends, family, colleagues, parent groups, school networks and professional contacts. Many people still do not know what is being proposed or how existing SEND legal rights protect children when local systems fail.

You can also use SOCR’s Write to Your MP tool to explain why legal rights matter in real life. Personal evidence from constituents remains one of the most effective ways to make MPs pay attention. Even if you’ve written before you can write again—ask them to share their response to the consultation, share your own thoughts, tell them why this must stay at the top of the agenda.

WE’RE BRUISED BUT NOT BROKEN

Parents and professionals are tired because they have been carrying a fractured system for too long. But while our exhaustion is real, our children and young people with SEND cannot afford for Parliament to hear only from those who want enforceable rights weakened.

Please sign Tee-Jay’s petition, share it widely, and help keep SEND legal rights on the political agenda.