SEND Consultation or SEND Con
The Government has admitted today that they have already made major decisions on the future of Children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.
This includes removing the SEND Tribunal’s power to name an education setting in Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) and to shift the legal duty to deliver the educational provisions contained in an EHCP away from local authorities and onto the school.
The admissions came from the Governments response to a letter before claim that was issued in regard to a legal challenge to the SEND Reforms.
The “consultation” for the proposed SEND Reforms does not contain any questions on these issues and the Claimant of the legal challenge in question, Jessica Hayhurst, who is a parent of a child with complex needs, requested that the Secretary of state reissues a full consultation including the same.
The response clearly states that this is not necessary as they have already made many of these decisions without consultation.
This news comes despite Georgia Gould, our “esteemed” schools minister, posting on Facebook yesterday a video of her saying ‘Your voice matters’, ‘once in a generation chance’ for reform, and urging, ‘we need to hear from you’.
Translation:-
Your voice matters, as long as it is saying the same as us.
It is a once in a generation chance to cut legal rights to children with SEN and leave more families in crisis.
We need to hear from you so that we can ignore you and do what saves us the most money in any event while claiming you were consulted.
I am more than sceptical about Ms Goulds comments and about the governments motives in general as they seem disingenuous. To have our own Government, the very people that we have elected and trusted to lead our country, make these decisions with one hand while claiming to be giving us the chance to consult, have our voices heard and comment on the same is more than misleading.