OUR CAMPAIGN

WHY ARE WE CAMPAIGNING?

The current rights-based legal framework for children and young people with SEND dates back to the Education Act 1981, which enshrined in law disabled children’s legal right to an education. 

‘Rights-based’ means that:

• They have the right to attend a suitable education placement where the necessary special educational provision can be made
• Children and young people have the right to an assessment of their individual needs
• They have the right to the provision required to meet these needs

But these legal protections are under threat.

A ‘rights-based’ legal framework ensures that children and young people have their needs individually assessed and provision made accordingly. If reforms weaken the existing legal rights, it could leave some children and young people with no legally enforceable right to an accessible education that meets their needs and no clear route of redress for families when children and young people’s rights are not upheld.

Our Save Our Children’s Rights campaign demands that any such plans are halted, and all education reforms work in the interests of children and families, particularly those who are most vulnerable.

WHAT DO WE WANT?

• No rolling back of the existing legal rights of children and young people with SEND
• A commitment that reform of the system will not include any dilution of the law
• Retain lawful independent routes to challenge decisions

WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?

The SEND system is in crisis after to a decade of underfunding, legal non-compliance, schools reaching breaking point, and an erosion of the help available to children without an Education, Health and Care plan (EHCP).

As that help has evaporated, more children need an EHCP because cuts to schools’ funding mean they can offer even less help, employ fewer teaching assistants and so on…

This leads to needs increasing and more applications for EHC needs assessments. Which in turn leads to councils making unlawful decisions to avoid funding the more expensive provision now needed, that could have been avoided if help had come earlier.

And this leads to the SEND vicious circle.