How The Wave Project makes surfing possible for disabled children
With Ian Bennett, The Wave Project A decade ago, I wrote here about a young Cornwall charity that was helping vulnerable young people find their feet—and get them wet—learning to …
Category: SEN & Disability Charities
Sensory, inclusive, accessible theatre fun for all
With Sara Cole, Artistic Director, Head2Head Theatre Most people love the pantomime at Christmas. But when you have learning disabilities or sensory issues, it can be hard to tolerate the …
The Government must act to reduce the stark inequalities in disabled children’s health and care
With Aidan Smith, Campaign Officer at the Disabled Children’s Partnership Even though many services have been restored, we’re far from out of the woods completely yet. We were hoping that …
The audiobook service that’s free for disabled people, with 3,000 books for children and young people
While children are always encouraged to read books, for many diving into a good story or even a school text book throws up huge challenges. Whether it’s a visual impairment, …
SNJ In Conversation with Dame Christine Lenehan, Director of the Council for Disabled Children
One of the (numerous) problems many parents find when their child is having an education, health and care needs assessment, is the “care” bit. A social care assessment is often …
The legal loophole that’s stopping young disabled people from getting to school
For local authorities, school transport is one of the most expensive part of providing support for children with disabilities. Often the most appropriate schools is up to an hour away …
SEND reforms a botch job? Another report shows families are being failed
The SEND reforms are failing to meet the needs of autistic children, according to a new report from the National Autistic Society. The report, written by Catriona Moore, says far …
SEND charities and funding: Is there more trouble ahead?
You’re probably reading this because you are involved as the parent, carer, advocate or educator of a young person with SEND. It’s likely you’ve had some contact or information from …
#RareDisease Day: Our quest for answers for our daughter’s mystery illness
When you have a baby, you expect that raising them will bring some ups and downs. But for Laura Joliffe and her husband Graham, life with their daughter Ava has …
The Children and Families Act 2014 is born
Down at the Department for Education, the collective breath of expectant Ministers and civil servants was being held. Then, a cry sounded as news filtered through.. a joyous birth… It’s …
Help for parents worried about their child’s development
It’s always a scary time when you realise your child isn’t developing at the same rate as the children of other parents you know. Sometimes it’s obvious, other times it’s …
The pathway to get SEN help after Sept 2014
To break into our two parter about “The Story So Far in the SEN Reforms”, the Department for Education yesterday published two reports by SQW, the organisation that is evaluating …
Join Carers UK and act now so parent carers are not left behind
Remember our post the other week about Parent Carers being left out of the Care Bill? It seems absurd that just as parent carers are being placed at the heart of …
Making the Disabled Children’s Charter a health priority
As you are hopefully aware, the beginning of April saw a massive shake-up in the NHS and the creation of GP-led Clinical Commissioning Groups as well as Health and Wellbeing …
Early Years Development Journal from NCB
The NCB (National Children’s Bureau) website has some brilliant free resources for parents, carers and practitioners available for download. One is the Early Years Development Journal. “The new Early Years Developmental …
SEN Reforms – The Minister visits
Last Friday a groups of parents from parent-carer forums around the country came together at the Department for Education to talk about how parental involvement in the pathfinder reforms had …
Rare Disease Day: How Dan’s rare disease didn’t stop his mainstream education
Rare Disease Day is at the end of February, with the theme ‘Disorders without Borders’. In Europe it’s coordinated by EURORDIS, the European Rare Diseases Organisation. Many children have special …
SEN Minister offers assurances to parents over Bill wording
I’m sharing this information received from the Council for Disabled Children which I hope you’ll find interesting. ******** Edward Timpson, the Minister responsible for SEN and Disability within the …
Speech Therapy to stay within educational provision – so said the man from the DfE
One question on many lips in the reform to the special educational needs system is, with the inclusion of health in an EHCP, where will speech and language provision end …
Keep Us Close – Scope’s campaign for better local disability services
The charity, Scope, which works to help children and families affected by disabilities, is currently campaigning for improvements to the Children and Families bill, which if you re a regular …