Moving Towards Neurodiversity Inclusion
It’s Neurodiversity Celebration Week! When I launched Neurodiversity Celebration Week over three years ago, I never imagined that my campaign would be so widely embraced and well received. As a …
Category: special needs
SNJ Report: The casual bias and daily discrimination faced by disabled children and their families from ethnic and marginalised communities
A new SNJ survey has highlighted how racial discrimination and unconscious bias are everyday experiences for disabled children and their families from ethnic and marginalised communities. Parents say they, and …
The law on educational provision to support Ukrainian children with SEN and disabilities arriving in England
with Ali Fiddy, Chief Executive of IPSEA We are all beside ourselves with shock and sickening helplessness at the invasion in Ukraine. Everyone can surely empathise with how terrifying it …
“Impowering” the future of SEND where parents and SENCOs just need to be less “demanding”
As the SEND Review Green Paper edges closer – maybe within a week – we decided to look into something that lots of parents have been talking about, not least …
LAs: SEND failings are everyone’s fault but ours and it’s too easy to get an EHCP
with comment from Matt Keer and Ali Fiddy Reports about SEND come and go. Some barely make a mark, some confirm what families already know. But today, the Local Government Association …
We don’t need ”fundamental SEND reform”. Just sharpen the teeth of the legal system we already have.
Getting the Children’s Minister’s attention at a webinar this week attended by 200 parents of children with SEND was an excellent opportunity to give him an unmediated insight into our …
PRE-SEND REVIEW Webinar with Will Quince MP
Yesterday Special Needs Jungle facilitated a webinar with the SEND Minister, Will Quince MP, ahead of the publication of the SEND Review. We joined with the NNPCF, Contact, and Family …
Opinion: Birth-injury compensation payouts highlight the disparity in support for children born disabled
SNJ note: Parent-carer of a child with complex needs and SEND campaigner, Rachel Adam Smith, joins us as a columnist. Her article is followed by the views of a paediatric …
Brian Lamb: Will the SEND Review Green Paper deliver lasting improvements for disabled children and families?
SNJ note: Prof. Brian Lamb OBE’s Lamb Inquiry in 2009 sparked the last SEND Reforms Green Paper. We’re delighted he’s here on SNJ to give his thoughts on what’s gone …
Schools need support to implement vital lessons about better SEND teaching, learned from Covid
with Sharon Smith, SEN Policy Research Forum The pandemic illuminated the yawning gap between schools that put high value on supporting their learners with SEND and those who have little …
Creative reasonable adjustments for SEND learners that don’t have to cost a thing
Today we welcome a new columnist, Susan Lenihan, SEND parent, former headteacher and a SEND Community Alliance campaigner Some time ago SNJ asked the question on our social media: What …
Lockdown stresses worse in parents and their children with intellectual disabilities. Things haven’t improved since
with Dr Hope Christie, Edinburgh University While much of the country is going about their business as if the pandemic is over, many parents of disabled children feel like their …
An essential Guide to SEND Transport
with SEND Advocate Diana Read SEND transport is usually the final hurdle for families seeking an Education, Health and Care Plan for their child. It’s also one of the biggest …
Helping our disabled children understand that difficult experiences don’t define them or their future
Place2Be’s Children’s Mental Health Week 2022 is supporting the theme of ‘Growing Together’. The aim is to help and support children to understand and learn from previous experiences that they …
Eliza’s searingly-honest film about teenage mental health and how the right help is hard to find
With Eliza Gardner, teenage mental health campaigner Children’s Mental Health Week gives rise to grimmer statistics every year and of course, the pandemic has had a significant hand in that. …
£93 million more in SEND funding for respite, supported internships and making LAs do what they’re supposed to
We seem to have a tale of two governments at the moment or perhaps we are flipping between parallel universes. In one, the government is in a chaotic, cannibalistic mess …
Why it’s vital for Deaf children’s futures that British Sign Language becomes law
with Mike Hobday, Director of Policy & Campaigns, National Deaf Children’s Society I learned the British Sign Language (BSL) alphabet as a child in the Brownies. Because of this, I …
Launching the SNJ Intersectionality Panel focusing on disability, race, and cultural discrimination in SEND
With Marguerite Haye and Mala Thapar, Leads for the SNJ Intersectionality Panel *If this is not an issue that affects you personally, please still share this post on social media …
School Attendance? What if your disabled child isn’t allowed in?
with Anna C, parent of a child with complex needs The Government has just launched a consultation seeking views on its plans “to improve the consistency of school attendance support …
SEND Review: Fait accompli or a real chance for parents and practitioners to shape policy?
with Christopher Robertson, independent academic and author, policy analyst and adviser The SEND Review is promised before Easter with a full consultation. But does this mean that everything in the …