Protect the law for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities

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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
  • IPSEA, SEND legal advice charity
  • Special Needs Jungle Ltd, parent-led SEND website
  • SEND Rights Alliance, parent group
  • John Harris, journalist and SEND parent
  • Learning Disability Today, disability magazine
  • SOS!SEN, SEND legal support
  • SEND National Crisis, parent group
Celebrities / notable disability campaigner signatories
  • Carrie Grant, broadcaster and SEND parent
  • Chris Packham, Naturalist and neurodiversity campaigner
  • Christine McGuinness, broadcaster, campaigner and SEND parent
  • Jane Asher, President, National Autistic Society
  • Cherylee Houston actor, campaigner
  • Baroness Campbell of Surbiton, Crossbench peer, disability rights campaigner
  • Dame Stephanie Shirley CH, autism philanthropist, businesswoman
  • Sally Phillips, actor, campaigner
  • David Mitchell, novelist, SEND parent
  • Melissa Simmonds, autistic campaigner, SEND parent
  • Peter Stefanovic, Lawyer & CEO Campaign for Social Justice
  • Baroness Sheila Hollins, Peer, SEND parent
  • Dr Anna Kennedy OBE, SEND parent, campaigner
  • Dr Tony Lloyd, former CEO ADHD Foundation
  • Dr Virginia Bovell OBE, writer, founder of Treehouse school
  • Frances Akinde/InclusionHT, author, former headteacher, SEND parent
  • Hayley Newman, SEND Blogger/author
  • Ian Birrell, journalist, campaigner
  • Jim Blair, campaigner, Learning Disability advisor to WHO
  • Paula McGowan OBE, campaigner
  • Professor Sara Ryan, campaigner
  • Professor Tom Shakespeare, The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, campaigner/author
  • Baroness Rosa Monckton, campaigner, parent
  • Steph Curtis, SEND blogger, author
  • Stephen Unwin, parent, playwright, campaigner
  • Saba Salman, disability journalist, campaigner
  • Scarlet Page, photographer, SEND parent
  • Rachel Ryan, Senior Lecturer and Online Widening Participation Lead at The University of Law
Organisational / parent group Signatories
  • Afasic
  • Amaze
  • Ambitious about Autism
  • Autism Action
  • BCP Alliance for Children and Schools
  • BCP EHCP Support
  • BiLD
  • Brainwave
  • Bristol SEND Justice
  • Buckinghamshire Disability Service
  • Campaign for Disability Justice, Inclusion Barnet
  • Child Autism UK, charity
  • Connect Parent Support
  • Contact
  • Disability Rebellion
  • Disability Rights UK
  • Disabled Children's Partnership
  • Down's Syndrome Association
  • DS Achieve
  • DSPCC (Devon SEND Parents and Carers for Change)
  • Educational Freedom
  • Ehlers Danlos Society
  • Extraordinary Links
  • FACSA
  • INFACT
  • Hackney SEND
  • Housing Inclusion Hackney
  • International Coaltion Against Restraint and Seclusion (ICARS)
  • Isle of Wight SEN Support
  • Kids
  • Learning Disability England
  • Mencap
  • NASS National Association of Special Schools
  • National Autistic Society
  • The National Organisation for FASD
  • NDCS
  • North Worcestershire Autism Parents Support Group
  • Nurturing Affective Care
  • PDA Society
  • Phoenix Education Consultancy
  • PRUSAP
  • Reaching Families
  • Restraint Reduction Network
  • Reverse Rett
  • RUILS
  • SeeAbility
  • SEND Action
  • SENDAGENDA
  • Sense
  • SNAAP (Special Needs Advisory and Activities Project)
  • Speech and Language UK
  • Supporting SEND Parent Carers Kent
  • TCES
  • Ups and Downs Southwest
  • Vocal Advocacy
  • Voluntary Organisations Disability Group
  • Whizz Kids
Academics in the disability field signatories
  • Sir Simon Baron-Cohen, Autism Research Centre, University of Cambridge
  • Professor Katherine Runswick-Cole, Chair in Education, The University of Sheffield
  • Dr Damian Milton, Senior Lecturer in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, University of Kent
  • Dr Mine Conkbayir MBE, Early childhood neuroscientist, author
  • Dr Emma Ashworth, Associate Professor in Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Liverpool John Moores University
  • Prof Elizabeth Pellicano, Professor of Autism Research, UCL
  • Prof Luke Clements, Cerebra Professor of Law and Social Justice at the School of Law, Leeds University
  • Dr Kieron Smith, Author and SEND parent
  • Dr Louise Platt, Faculty of Business and Law, Manchester Metropolitan University
  • Dr Lucy Series, Associate Professor in Social Care Law and Policy, University of Bristol
  • Dr Seamus Byrne, Reader in Law, Manchester Law School
  • Dr Sophie Boyron, Associate Professor in Law, University of Birmingham
  • Prof Angela Hassiotis, Professor of Psychiatry of Intellectual Disability, UCL
  • Prof Lucy Bray, Professor of Child Health Literacy, Edge Hill University
  • Professor Amel Alghrani, School of Law and Social Justice, University of Liverpool
  • Professor David Abbott
  • Beth Tarleton M.Phil, Senior Lecturer in the School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol