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This website is created to allow parents and carers of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities in the UK to leave feedback both positive and negative about their experiences with their local authority with regard to accessing services associated with EHCPs (Education Health and Care Plans or Statements as they are still called in some parts of the Uk)
About This
I’m a SEND parent and I have approaching 20 years of experience of being a parent to several children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities. It's no secret that things are not always great right now in terms of services and support for disabled children and their families/parents/carers.
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I often hear many individual stories and some are good and some are frankly really not good at all. I have created this website to 'collect' those voices and individual experiences rather than have them be lost on group posts on Facebook and on Twitter threads for example.
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There is already a way to check how things currently are in different local authorities by looking at Ofsted Reports and LGSCO findings. However these never tell the full story since Ofsted never gets to speak to everyone and many families don't have the energy or time to make complaints to the LGSCO. These important individual voices often go unheard.
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I don't think the true picture of the SEND crisis is really properly understood and the only way to really gauge the whole and true situation is to give everyone the opportunity to share their individual experience and then look at where we are overall.
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If this idea grows it might be a useful tool that local authorities can use to see where they might need to improve or indeed where they are doing really well! Not necessarily from Ofsted's perspective but from those who actually use their public service
day to day ie the service users.
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Nationally it might identify areas of particular concern or at the other end of the spectrum areas that are really getting it right and doing well. Could others learn from that?
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More centrally it might allow our government to hear our voices and understand some of the difficulties we find ourselves in rather than our stories being 'summarised by Ofsted' in inspection reports. I really want this website to tell it how it REALLY is on the ground.
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I'd like that to be 'useful'. I'd also really like to give SEND parents and carers a REAL voice.
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I also want it to be safe and I don't want to name anyone because I believe in justice and allowing people (even those I'm really not happy with) a fair right of reply. This isn't the correct or right space for that. This website is therefore created for general experience feedback related to particular areas of the United Kingdom. It's not a website affiliated with any particular group or cause. I'm just an individual who would like to highlight the common issues that we all face and I'm happy to support any group or individual that wants to improve things for us all. I think it's good for all of us to see a clearer picture of the issues in one place for the ongoing record.
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