Last week, Rachel wrote about a seemingly strategic campaign by local authorities to trash-talk EHCPs so the Government will move forward with reducing LAs’ statutory rights for children with SEND. Worryingly, as Rachel noted, our #SaveOurChildrensRights campaign’s recent engagement with some MPs revealed how their thinking on EHCPs is often skewed, limited, and all too ready to swallow the council narrative, despite their caseloads being full of SEND misery.
We need to remedy this, and that’s what today’s post is about—giving you the real story and a handy-dandy list of facts you can send to your local politicians and anyone else who needs to know, complete with a PDF for printing or emailing at the end.
First, the parliamentary debate promised after the Retain SEND Rights petition reached more than 120,000 signatures now has a date. It’s 15th September, coincidentally the same day as a rally organised by several groups, including SEND Sanctuary and the Disabled Children’s Partnership. To be clear, the debate and rally are not connected, but we support the same red lines of retaining rights, and we are members of the DCP. If you haven’t yet participated in the SOCR photo campaign, please do so here.
For today, though, following on from Rachel’s post, if you find yourself defending or explaining the importance of EHCPs we’re helping you formulate your responses (and educate those MPs) about those LA claims about EHCPs. With help from Renata, I’ve pulled together these...
Gyanesh Kumar mentioned that many voters had complained of double voting in the past few days, but didn’t give any proof when asked for it.