Save our Children’s Rights Campaign

Dear Editor

The legal rights to an education that meets the needs of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are under threat. Many thousands of children risk being denied vital provision, or losing access to education altogether.

As new education reforms loom, every sign from the government suggests the right to an education, health and care plan (EHCP) is to be removed from children attending mainstream schools. Local authorities want EHCPs drastically reduced, or removed altogether, to relieve them of duties they often find costly and troublesome.

85% of children with SEND are educated in mainstream settings. Over 270,000 of these children have EHCPs. These legally enforceable documents detail a child or young person’s needs, and the support to enable them to fulfil their individual potential. EHCPs allow children and young people with all kinds of disabilities to receive an education.

Without statutory support, underpinned by necessary extra resources for schools, it’s extremely unlikely ministers will achieve their aim of more children with SEND thriving, or even surviving, in mainstream education. A reduction or complete snatching away of EHCPs in mainstream wouldn’t mean their needs magically vanish. It would, instead, increase applications for already-overcrowded special schools or mean they would be forced out of school altogether.

We believe the public is on our side, and we support the newly-launched Save Our Children’s Rights (SOCR) campaign. This campaign is calling for EHCPs to be retained, now and in the future. SOCR’s recent petition reflecting this aim rapidly passed 100,000 signatures and is still growing. It now stands at over 108,000, meaning the issue will be considered for a parliamentary debate.

For more than 40 years, children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities have had a statutory right to an education that meets their needs. Set alongside catastrophic plans to cut benefits for disabled people, this raises the question of who we are as a country and the kind of society in which we want to live. Whatever the SEND system’s problems, the answer is not to remove the rights of children and young people. Families cannot afford to lose these precious legal protections.

Signatories

Save Our Children’s Rights Organising Group

Celebrities / notable disability campaigner signatories

Organisational / parent group Signatories

Academics in the disability field signatories

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