About Matt Keer
Matt Keer is the parent of two deaf children and a long-standing SNJ columnist. He had to take his LA to the SEND Tribunal, to get the educational provision his children needed. It was a bruising time. In an blog on the NDCS campaign site, Matt said, "We got there in the end, as a family. We went through Tribunal, some of us broke briefly, but we mended ourselves and the boys finally – finally – now have a full shot at life. It was worth it – but it never, ever, should have been this way. It never should have been allowed to be this way."
As a result of Matt's articles for SNJ, he was invited to give evidence at two SEND inquiries - the Education Committee and the Public Accounts Committee. He was part of the SNJ delegation to the Department for Education to feed into the Lee Scott inquiry and dug deep to highlight taxpayer funds paid by local authorities to the law firm in the BS Twitter Storm. He's great at finding and analysing obscure data that SEND departments would rather you didn't know about.
Matt's posts on SNJ
Matt's posts on SNJ
- Join the SNJ Squad as a “Patron” and get exclusive content!Tell me more... We’ll never charge for you to read articles on SNJ so everyone can access information whatever their…Continue reading »
- New Budget funds for SEND capital spending. But how did LAs spend previous cash? We checked…This post contains original research. If you would like to use this, please get in touch. Yesterday, the Chancellor of…Continue reading »
- Is the DfE’s SEND funding “safety valve” on a collision course with schools and families?It’s a strange time out there, and it’s a strange time in the world of SEND too. Some sort of…Continue reading »
- SEND in schools 2021: Waiting for the other shoe to drop?Yesterday, the Department for Education (DfE) published its annual set of statistics on special educational needs in England. If you…Continue reading »
- What’s next for Ofsted/CQC SEND Inspections? And is accountability about to nosedive?Last week, Ofsted published a report on the experiences of children and young people with SEND during the pandemic. The report is…Continue reading »
- 15,000 disabled learners with EHCPs but no provision: The EHCP figures for 2021It seems like an ice age since the last time we this rather than just a year – but yesterday,…Continue reading »
- SEND judicial review and how LAs spin tales about “litigious” parentsOver the years, we’ve written a lot at SNJ about the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) First Tier Tribunal.…Continue reading »
- Blockbusting: What’s Happened to the £780m in Extra SEND Funding?In 2019, the Government announced the biggest increase in school funding in years – a three-year funding programme, pumping an extra £2.6bn…Continue reading »
- 95% of decisions in favour of parents, but nobody wins at the SEND Tribunal2020 is a year that most of us will be glad to see the back of. But before we kiss…Continue reading »
- Ofsted/CQC SEND inspectors dropping by soon, but in learning modeIt seems like a lifetime ago now – but there was a time when local SEND services were subjected to…Continue reading »
- SEND 2020: What’s the current state of Ofsted local area inspections?Four years ago, Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission started inspecting local SEND services. Thanks to COVID-19, inspections are on…Continue reading »
- EHCPs 2020: Postcode lotteries and the Hall of ShameYesterday, the Department for Education published their annual snapshot of statistics about Education, Health and Care Plans in England. So…Continue reading »
- Public Accounts Committee Inquiry report adds pressure to #fixSEND. SEND Review MUST NOT delay furtherIt seems like a lifetime ago, but for most of last year, you couldn’t move for official inquiries into the…Continue reading »
- Savage cuts to support staff leave deaf children in England fighting for their futuresSo far, the SEND reforms have not been kind to deaf children and young people. Despite a series of ground-breaking…Continue reading »
- Relentlessly unlawful LA decisions are damaging children and forcing the SEND Tribunal into crisisLast Friday, whilst people were still getting their heads around the General Election, SNJ’s relentless data hoover sucked in a…Continue reading »
- EHCP Annual Review: Our stats show there’s nothing annual about them…After months of form-filling, evidence gathering, panel meetings and bureaucratic slow-dancing, your child or young person now has an Education,…Continue reading »
- Why the next government must make investing in new teachers of the deaf a prioritywith Ian Noon of the National Deaf Children's Society I’ve got two deaf sons. They’re brighter than I am. They’re…Continue reading »
- SEND Inquiry Report: Education committee blasts DfE, LAs and Ofsted over multiple SEND failuresEighteen months ago, the House of Commons Education Select Committee launched a formal inquiry into SEND. The Committee (made up of…Continue reading »
- What does ‘£700 million for SEND’ actually mean in reality?4.55pm on a Friday doesn’t normally mean good news for SEND parents. It’s often a time when bad news pitches…Continue reading »
- SEND funding “completely inadequate,” says Education Select Committee reportFor well over a year now, the House of Commons Education Select Committee has been running an inquiry into the…Continue reading »
- The latest SEND Tribunal figures paint a troubling pictureIt’s raining cats and dogs outside where I live. More happily for me, it’s also raining statistics – the latest…Continue reading »
