Sharon Smith has a daughter who has Down syndrome and as a result, has been engaged in the SEND system for over 15 years as a parent carer. During this time, through both voluntary and paid roles, she has met hundreds of other parents who have struggled – and continue to struggle – to get suitable support or educational placements for their children. This provides Sharon with the ongoing motivation to do her bit to contribute to efforts towards meaningful change for disabled children and their families.
After a short period as a frustrated Chair of a Parent Carer Forum, and not knowing what to move on to next, Sharon followed her husband’s suggestion to ‘do a short course’. Not one to do things by halves, Sharon undertook a degree course, followed by a Masters degree. She subsequently designed a PhD research inquiry related to the educational inclusion of disabled children. Following successful graduation in 2024, Sharon can now call herself Dr Smith (though rarely does!). She is an Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Education, University of Birmingham.
Sharon writes for Special Needs Jungle in a personal capacity, and all views expressed are her own.
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Sharon’s posts on SNJ
- The Unacceptable Truth: 20 SEND legal rights at risk from the Government’s SEND reformsYou may be feeling like the Department for Education has beaten you into submission this year with confusing consultation after…Continue reading »
- Beyond EHCPs: Why Inclusion Needs More Than a DocumentFor many families, the EHCP becomes the one solid thing in a system that otherwise wobbles under our feet. It’s…Continue reading »
- Why every child deserves Portage, wherever they’re bornwith The National Portage Association Portage is one of those Early Years interventions that quietly transforms lives, yet far too…Continue reading »
- When hope has been drained, families struggle to trust promises to fix SENDHope is not a luxury in the SEND system. It is what keeps families going through years of assessments, exclusions,…Continue reading »
- When “Easy Read” isn’t easy: Why the SEND consultation risks excluding disabled children and young peopleMany people and organisations, including us, welcomed that an Easy Read version of the SEND Consultation was published on the…Continue reading »
- “We are living on a knife-edge” SENDCo research sounds the alarm about the high cost of mainstream inclusionSince taking office, the Labour government has been clear about its ambitions: more children with SEND should be educated in…Continue reading »
- The Lords publishes a “blueprint” to help young disabled people “thrive in work” saying too many are “written off”“Disabled people face continuous barriers to securing long-term employment. This starts from the moment a young disabled person enters nursery…Continue reading »
- Should we ‘mind the gap’ of disabled pupils’ attainment? Or is it really an indictment of how success is measured?Are we missing the point when looking at the so-called “attainment gap” in academic achievement of some disabled pupils? A…Continue reading »
- Have your say about ‘co-production’ in SENDAs part of the Department for Education-funded "What Works in SEND" programme, researchers at the University of Warwick are seeking…Continue reading »
- Give your feedback on a new framework for future SEND policy from the SEN Policy Research ForumDespite significant SEND reforms introduced in 2014 that were supposed to improve children’s and families’ experience of the system, 10…Continue reading »
- The arts are for everyone: My perspective showcasing the talents of people who have Down syndromewith Hayley Newman, DownsSideUp In February last year, Ofsted published a review into the factors that contribute to a high-quality…Continue reading »
- Parent carers protest as 92.3% say engaging with their local SEN Team was “actively detrimental to their mental health”With CWaC SEND Accountability campaign group, Cheshire West and Chester Parent carers shouldn’t have to protest, they’ve got enough to…Continue reading »
- A separate Down syndrome school census category is unlikely to improve SEND provision—and may have unintended consequencesOn Friday, we wrote about the Department for Education announcing a new phase to its short breaks innovation programme and…Continue reading »
- The parables of SEND: Is it more like ‘the drowning man’ or ‘the tree and its fruits’?I recently came across two linked articles written by academic Alan Hodkinson discussing the history of the SEND system. They…Continue reading »
- Uncovering the origin of the evil EHCP ‘Golden Ticket’ NarrativeThe SEND trope of the EHCP “Golden Ticket” has recently once again raised its pernicious head on social media. Over…Continue reading »
- How H&M and WorkFit helped my daughter who has Down syndrome gain purposeful, paid experience of workIn 2022, statistics were published by The British Association of Supported Employment (BASE) showing that only 5.1% of people with…Continue reading »
- Better co-production is crucial for improving SEND provision. But are the Government’s plans a case of magical thinking?‘Critically, we agree with what we heard during the consultation: that the national system should be co-produced with families, children…Continue reading »
- Why the Down Syndrome Act ‘call for evidence’ is also relevant for people with other genetic conditionsGovernment consultations are like buses. No sooner has one gone by, than another arrives. In the same week the SEND…Continue reading »
- The SEND Green Paper and the Down Syndrome Act (2022) We're delighted that Sharon Smith, Parent advocate and PhD researcher, University of Birmingham has joined us as a regular columnist.…Continue reading »
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