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Written evidence from Parents In Need

 

 

Registered Charity Number 1169363

 

  1. What is Parents In Need?

 

  1. Parents In Need is a registered charity which helps fund assessments of children with special needs as supporting evidence to achieve appropriate educational placement or provision.
     
  2. The majority of families in receipt of funding by Parents in Need are referrals from the SEN charity SOS!SEN.

 

  1. Parents in Need was founded in 2014 by a core group of parents who all have children, or grandchildren, with special needs. Having experienced the darkness of a diagnosis followed by the confusion and struggle to find the right provision placement for their children, they established Parents In Need to support other parents through this journey.

 

  1. All too often children with SEN are so superficially assessed that they are placed in an inappropriate setting, or they receive inappropriate or no SEN provision in their educational setting. This results in the child being unable to thrive.

 

  1. Under the current SEN system, it is left to the parents to manage this. To monitor the provision, persuade the LEA that the child needs assessments or an EHCP, request a more appropriate setting, all the way through to taking their LEA to tribunal just to secure the appropriate education for their child.

 

  1. This wrangling between parent and LEA can easily cost both parties tens of thousands of pounds and can have a deeply detrimental effect on families. We are all too aware of how families are torn apart with the stress. The loneliness and despair that parents feel can often cause relationships to end. A number of parents become so desperate that they have committed suicide.  Parents In Need is an organisation that parents turn to in their hour of need.
     

Parents In Need’s objective is to support parents until the time when changes are made to the current SEND system which mean that the charity no longer needs to exist.

 

 

  1. Social injustice, through both disability and demographic

 

1.1      There is no doubt of the existing social injustice through the lack of appropriate educational placement for SEND when appropriate education is something that all mainstream children have automatic access to. There is however, an additional injustice. The majority of the families who are able to achieve the appropriate provision are the ones with the necessary resources and wherewithal to attempt to navigate the complex process of appeal, meaning that not only is the SEN system discriminatory (by only providing appropriate education to every mainstream child, not every child with SEN) but so too is the appeal process.

 

1.2      In 2016/17 89% of parents won their tribunal case (SOURCE: Special Needs Jungle) And from experience we know that these parents are just the small number who feel able to approach the appeal system, there are many, many more who simply find it too daunting.
This is why Parents In Need was set up, to help the parents who, without the charity, would be unable to achieve appropriate education for their child.

 

  1. The need for improved assessment of children with SEND

 

2.1      Parents are mostly not receiving the support they need to look after their children and themselves, and Parents In Need believe that the root of the problem with the SEND system is that the child’s needs are not being accurately or comprehensively assessed…

 

2.2      “Parents In Need raise money to fund assessments of SEN children as evidence of the educational support they require. We know from personal experience that this is one of the most important things of all. Because every single parent in the world wants their child to reach their potential. It’s our greatest wish. And for a parent of a disabled child it’s quite often our only wish. Disabled children have greater needs than mainstream children. But all too often those needs are not being met.
And that is what Parents in Need is all about. Getting children with SEN what they need.”
Parents In Need trustee

 

 

  1. The transition from statements of special educational needs and Learning Disability Assessments to Education, Health and Care Plans

 

3.1      Parents In Need believes that the transition process is flawed and failing, with many complaints from parents of long lead times (often over a year) and weak EHCP’s.

 

 

  1. The level and distribution of funding for SEND provision

 

4.1      Parents In Need believes that vast amounts of funding for SEND is being tragically wasted on taking parents to tribunal when, if budgets were spent on appropriate assessments early on and then throughout the child’s educational career, we would see far more children with SEND thrive in the appropriate placement with the right provision.

 

 

 

  1. The roles of and co-operation between education, health and social care sectors

 

5.1      Parents In Need believes that the roles of and co-operation between the education, health and social care sectors is flawed and chaotic. We believe there should be central person at the heart of the child’s care (someone other than the parent) who is responsible for the progression of the child’s education and welfare, and who will not only manage the information from each sector, but will be held to account if the appropriate standards are not achieved.

 

 

 

June 2018