Tania writes:
Here's a video made by the DfE about when Ed Timpson, the SEN Minister, came to Surrey. It features families and young people trialling the Education, Health and Care plan and two key people from the Surrey pathfinder whom I greatly admire, Susie Campbell, Surrey's Pathfinder Manager and Julie Pointer, Transition Development Manager.
If you find it difficult to understand what the reforms are all about through reading the documents, have a look at this video and you will learn lots about what is planned for the whole of England.
Let us know what you think!
Founder, Co-Director at Special Needs Jungle
Founder of Special Needs Jungle. (She/Her) Parent of two young adults with autism. New grandma. Tania, who is autistic, is a leading SEND advisor, working with the Special Education Consortium, Ofsted, and Whole School SEND. She is also an Advisory Board member of the Royal Holloway, University of London Centre of Gene and Cell Therapy and an Editorial Board member of Springer Nature Gene Therapy journal.
Tania is an experienced broadcast and print journalist & author. She also runs a PR, web & social media consultancy, SocialOro Media.
Tania is a rare disease & chronic pain patient advocate with Ehlers Danlos syndrome.
Tania is an experienced broadcast and print journalist & author. She also runs a PR, web & social media consultancy, SocialOro Media.
Tania is a rare disease & chronic pain patient advocate with Ehlers Danlos syndrome.
Latest posts by Tania Tirraoro (see all)
- Chaos, mistrust, poor inclusion, and no communication: How Kent’s SEND provision has failed its disabled children and their families - November 10, 2022
- Ofsted and ONS offer further evidence that lack of funding, training and specialists damages children with SEND - November 8, 2022
- No specialists = No support: The future for children with SEND is bleak without a trained workforce to support them - November 3, 2022
The aspirations demonstrated by this clip are laudable but so far away from the everyday reality of what goes on for children and families with SEN in Surrey that it made me cringe to hear Surrey being held up as an exemplar. To make the new system work, major culture change will be needed if the exiisting attitudes and behaviours are not to ossify around new buzzwords. Creating new systems and processes does not mean changed attitudes. Those involved in the pilot are in the right space. It will be a much bigger task to bring the rest of Surrey along with them and I have yet to see any evidence that they are ready for that journey. There needs to be pressure on all authorities to discuss how the new behaviour needed to support the reforms will be embedded and monitored if this whole initiative is to lead to meaningful change. Organisational transformation of this nature is difficult to achieve and does not happen by itself.