Parents of children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) are urging city leaders to enhance support services as cases rise. At a recent meeting of the newly launched parent forum, they voiced their concerns over the current state of services and the need for improvement. Natalie Brewer, a parent and advocate, emphasized the importance of addressing the needs of all disabilities, stating, “We want to include everyone, so no one’s left out whatever disability, whatever ethnic background, whatever cultural differences.”
Finally, the forum equips parents to be powerful advocates by providing useful information. It gives them critical tools to deal with the challenges of parenting neurodivergent kids. Brewer expressed hope that the forum would become “instrumental for what we need to do, going forward.” She urged city leaders to ensure that “services are right for people and meeting the children’s needs.”
Helen Taylor, the councils’ head of SEND and inclusion described revealing, shocking discoveries. Achieving the project’s stakeholder vision for SEND children would see Wolverhampton rise above the national average in multiple indicators, including the percentage of SEND children excluded from school. That increasing statistic sheds light on a tremendous need for better support and services.
Jacqui Coogan, the councillor responsible for children, young people and education, underlined a burning shame. She pointed out that speech, language, and communication needs is the #1 need, but autism spectrum conditions are quickly closing that gap. This is an important shift, showing that there’s increasing recognition for the need of more individualized, specialized support for children with different needs.
Corinne Marie, a parent who leads initiatives to assist others facing similar challenges, highlighted the emotional toll that catering to a child with special needs can take on families. She provides tools like yoga, reiki and meditation to teach parents to cope with stress. “Catering to the needs of a SEN child can take its toll on any parent,” Marie remarked.
Pav Mahey added to these sentiments, lobbying for a change in the perception of SEND families within society. “It’s a shame. I think society needs to do better on that,” she said.
The forum goes into barriers that some families face, such as language barriers that prevent them from accessing valuable resources. As Shashmi Kambo noted, one effect is that many families “just don’t know where to turn” for help.
As parents work to demand this change, the Done Waiting Movement’s Priya Pallavi captured what their collective voice could do. “I would really hope that this voice turns into a force,” she stated. She highlighted the need to keep advocacy momentum going. We need to fight to protect this tooth-and-nail and ensure that this gets improved, going forward and not doing it in reverse.
Luckily for Richmond, their city council is proactively responding to such cries for help. They are meeting the needs of children and making parents feel supported at the same time. Additional meetings are scheduled for the Parent Leadership Development Forum, including coffee mornings and evening meetings specifically structured to help build relationships between parents.
Brewer finished off by reiterating that there needs to be more flexibility in local approaches to support SEND families. It’s not a cookie-cutter approach by any means,” she explained.
