mastodon 4.6.8Influential parent-led SEND blog & resource site SpecialNeedsJungle.com
Don't forget the 7:30 SEND legal webinar tonight! We now have a few open places, so hurry! https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_1juk28zeSEK5Nz8vr5Fo8A#/
Sadly, Steve Broach KC is unwell (sending best wishes!). Amazingly, Polly Sweeney of Rook, Irwin, Sweeney (of the consultation legal case) has agreed to step in!
The @SaveOurChildrensRights Campaign has a NEW WEBSITE! socr.org.uk and also saveourchildrensrights.org.uk. It includes a brand new Email Your MP tool about the SEND Reform proposals--making it easier than ever for you to send them your views! #saveourchildrensrights #ehcp
Excluding journalists from education events, alongside controversial SEND reforms that will weaken disabled children’s rights, raises serious concerns about transparency. #SEND
https://schoolsweek.co.uk/journalists-shut-out-of-events-with-ministers-and-officials/
SEND Families and practitioners in Warwickshire, it's your area's SEND inspection 27 April-1 May. Give your feedback from NOW-9am 21 April: https://ofsted.smartsurvey.co.uk/p/AreaSend/10414225 Read more about inspections here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-area-send-inspections-information-for-families
Let's GO! Join the Save Our Children's Rights National Protest and regional demonstrations, REGISTER your interest to give an idea of numbers: https://www.facebook.com/saveourchildrensrights/events To help or organise your own--even a hyper-local event register here & we'll support you https://bit.ly/socr-protest
❓Got a minute❓If you don't mind, we have a few quick Qs for your Views how you're finding the SEND Consultation process: https://forms.gle/zqj4LNJ7ewHggz2h7
NEW POST: SNJ co-director, Renata Watts, who's also a foster carer, asks where are care-experienced children in the SEND reform proposals? https://www.specialneedsjungle.com/send-reforms-where-care-experienced-children/
NEW POST: Our fabulous new SNJ team member, Frances Akinde discusses the SENCO as gatekeeper and how the White Paper proposals bring responsibility for opening doors, not closing them… https://www.specialneedsjungle.com/senco-gatekeeper-white-paper-proposals-responsibility-opening-doors-not-closing/
The government has admitted that decisions on changes to the powers of the SEND Tribunal and proposals to shift the legal duty to secure provision in Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) from local authorities to schools have already been made.
NEW POST: SNJ's Dr Sharon Smith writes that considering how poorly families have been treated since the promise of the 2014 reforms, it's hardly a surprise that hope is hard to find https://www.specialneedsjungle.com/hope-send-farmilies-hard-find/
NEW POST: Rights on paper, not in practice. Parent advocate, Amber Windsor, explains what the legal aid cuts warn us about the government's SEND proposals https://www.specialneedsjungle.com/rights-paper-not-practice/
Appeals to the SEND Tribunal ⬆️ 18% on the same quarter last year, new stats show. 6.7k cases were lodged in a single quarter, the highest ever. 5.3k appeals were disposed of (⬆️ 13%). Open caseload ⬆️ to 16k ( ⬆️ 42%): https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tribunals-statistics-quarterly-october-to-december-2025/tribunal-statistics-quarterly-october-to-december-2025--2#other-tribunals
A message from the Global Equality Collective: Parents & carers: we want to hear from you.
The National Parent & Carer Voice Survey is building one of the UK’s largest datasets on how families experience relationships with schools, trusts & local authorities.
Closes 9 May: https://www.thegec.education/gec-homes
#ParentCarerVoice #Inclusion
NEW POST: A good idea built on wishful thinking and shaky foundations. Matt Keer looks at the DfE's Experts At Hand SEND plan: big funding, unclear delivery, weak accountability, and a serious shortage of specialists https://www.specialneedsjungle.com/experts-at-hand-good-idea-built-wishful-thinking-shaky-foundations/
Future for Rare is a campaign coordinated by @geneticallianceuk.bsky.social to help inform the future of rare conditions policy in the UK. They have a survey for current experiences and the unmet needs of those affected by #raredisease in the UK: https://geneticalliance.org.uk/future-for-rare/
Happy 18th birthday —we’ve come of age! specialneedsjungle.com!
The Government has just published this guide for how to claim for disability discrimination in schools: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/a-guide-for-how-to-claim-for-disability-discrimination-send4/a-guide-for-how-to-claim-for-disability-discrimination-send4
After the disgraceful news that the Government has "already decided" on its plans for curbing the role of the SEND Tribunal, our co-Director, Gill Doherty, has this to say—don't miss this, because it's important. Sign up for our legal roundtable webinar: https://linkthread.eu/specialneedsjungle Donate if you can. What are your thoughts?
NEW POST: Eleanor Wright, Legal Officer with SEND law charity, SOS!SEN asks sceptically if SEND lawyers are REALLY opposing the Government’s reform proposals just to protect their “vested interests” as Bridget Phillipson claims? https://www.specialneedsjungle.com/send-lawyers-opposing-governments-reform-proposals-protect-vested-interests/
NEW POST: Part 2 The Invisible Lifeline: Why EOTAS is Non-Negotiable for the ‘Sanctuary Cohort’. Taking a closer look at the life-changing impact of EOTAS packages and what the Government must do to protect children's legal rights to access them. https://www.specialneedsjungle.com/part-2-invisible-lifeline-eotas-non-negotiable-sanctuary-cohort/
If you missed the SEND debate last night, you can find the transcript here: https://bit.ly/3Ozgl0Z
Meanwhile on the second hour now is the first Education Select committee hearing on the SEND proposals in the Schools White Paper https://bit.ly/4dMQTzq
WEBINAR RECORDING: SNJ's Legal Round Table on the #SEND Proposals in the Schools White Paper, with expert SEND solicitors, Hayley Mason Seager, Polly Sweeney, Eleanor Wright, and Kate Cox. Led by the SNJ team https://www.specialneedsjungle.com/webinar-recording-legal-implications-schools-white-papers-send-proposals/
Will you take a few minutes this weekend to write to your MP and raise your concerns about the Government’s attack on the rights of disabled children and young people? #SaveOurChildrensRights
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EQaGQCzWW/?mibextid=wwXIfr
If you’re attending our Monday Legal Roundtable
1. SEND A QUESTION via link in email confirmation
2. It’s full, so if you can’t come please cancel—link in email confirmation—so someone else can register
3. A small donation, if possible, is much appreciated
#SaveOurChildrensRights
NEW POST: Matt Keer writes about what SEND accountability will look like if the proposals go through. He says it’ll be a system that marks its own homework—and that’s not good for families https://www.specialneedsjungle.com/accountability-after-send-reform-a-system-that-marks-its-own-homework/
NEW POST: The DfE's response to the consultation legal case shows it doesn't care about your views of the SEND Tribunal—it’s already decided to kneecap it. For the sake of our children with SEND, we must not accept it https://www.specialneedsjungle.com/government-not-interested-views-send-tribunal-kneecap/
Our new #SaveOurChildrensRights Protest Launch Video: MAY 9th London and regional locations. BE THERE! Register your interest: https://saveourchildrensrights.org.uk/join-send-protest/
Ed Sec speech: Nice aspirations, but the SEND child who gets a taxi to his special school “doesn’t know...kids in his neighbourhood, as he doesn’t go to school with them." No Beavers/cubs/church? Better stop any kind of faith/private schools too then...https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/education-secretary-speech-at-ascl-conference
REGISTER NOW: Have you signed up for our SEND /Schools White Paper Legal Roundtable yet? With Steve Broach KC, Hayley Mason-Seager, IPSEA & SOS!SEN - One week to go and not many places left! https://www.specialneedsjungle.com/register-now-schools-white-paper-send-legal-roundtable/
NEW POST: The DfE is consulting on updating Statutory Guidance for Supporting pupils with medical conditions at school. SNJ's Tania discusses some interesting inclusions, and startling omissions. Here’s what you need to know: https://www.specialneedsjungle.com/consultation-supporting-pupils-medical-conditions-school-new-missing-need-know/
We’ve been really busy recently bringing you lots of information & we know it can be hard to keep up! Find all the latest articles on specialneedsjungle.com subscribe to email post alerts, or add us to your favourite news reader, including Google news: https://bit.ly/4msMow4
A new report from the Education Policy Institute into England's Educational Psychologists raises alarm bells for the government's SEND reform proposals. The research shows "a stark disparity in provision of between 480 and 9,400 EPs per pupil in different areas https://epi.org.uk/publications-and-research/educational-psychologists-in-england/
A Lancashire health trust pioneers a painless new blood test, transforms the experiences of patients with learning disabilities and needle phobia https://www.uhmb.nhs.uk/news-and-events/latest-news/video-and-story-uhmbt-pioneers-painless-new-blood-test-and-transforms-lives-patients-learning-disabilities-and-needle-phobia
Important update on the SEND consultation legal action.
