Our next PM must listen to parents of disabled kids – we know their needs best and we’re willing to put up a fight
PARENTS of disabled children have one message to the new PM: “We’re sick of fighting.”
The Sun’s Give It Back campaign and the Disabled Children’s Partnership are demanding the Government to listen to advice from mums and dads of disabled kids on a proposed new bill.
The Government review proposes councils should offer parents a list of SEND schools within their county, while introducing council tax-style banding for disabilities.
Now some parents are worried their children’s care will suffer as a result.
Susie Marsh, from Surrey, said she spent £10,000 on lawyers so son Alex could go to a school out of borough which met his needs.
She told of her worries that banding will ignore how children may have the same condition, but very different levels of ability.
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She said: “My concern is that they’ll just lump groups of kids together, and then push them down to the lowest band they possibly can.”
Other parents are asking for the Government to hold councils to account when they don’t follow the law.
Mum Marie Martin and 19-year-old son Zak, who is autistic, are forking out hundreds so he can do work experience – despite his local authority’s health and education plan committing to funding.
Marie – who goes by the name SEND Warrior mum on Twitter – said: “I can’t carry on like this.
“I had to give my £50,000-a-year job to do their job.
“It’s a no brainer – I’m always gonna back my son.”
Last month school standards minister Will Quince MP acknowledged families had been “let down”.
He said: “Every single child who isn’t getting the education they deserve, every parent who has been let down by the system, that pains me.”