With Megan Horan, Ambitious About Autism A new campaign to stop autistic children and young people being ‘written off’ at school is being launched today by charity, Ambitious about Autism. …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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, …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 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 …
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 …
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 …
