Wasted money...

SEN Achieve – Update

I have just received an Order through following on from a tribunal at which I represented the parent concerned. I am pleased to say that we won on all counts. This is great news for the child concerned and their family. I wish them all the best going forwards.

It is interesting that the local authority concerned, a local authority who, according to the media, is about to go ‘bust’, and who needs to ‘make savings’, chose to pay a barrister to represent them.

So, on the one hand the local authority are stating that they do not have enough money, but, at the same time, they have the money to pay a barrister to represent them, and, in so doing, represent them on a case which had no moral nor legal footing. How can this be allowed to happen? Why was it allowed to happen? Someone in central government needs to take control of this situation as it simply disgraceful.

It is so sad that the local authority concerned chose to waste money defending the case, money that instead could have been spent on educating our children. It is also so sad that in the process the local authority also caused an unnecessary amount of avoidable stress for the family.

I hope that things one day change.

Someone in authority needs to listen, and they need to act now.

Not just about money

senachieve
Jan 22
1 min read

In my opinion it is hard to believe that, more than 10 years on since the current SEN-related legislation came into place, as a country we are still in a position in which so many parents and their children are let down. Life is challenging and stressful as it is, without the need to have to fight to get what a child is legally entitled to.

I agree, to a point, that funding is one of the underlying causes of the difficulties that so many parents and their children face. However, in my opinion, it is in no way the only reason, the reasons stretch far wider than this. Each and every day families contact me in despair and inform me of things they have been told by certain school and local authority staff which conflict with the law. Some of these things are shocking. I also increasingly see such things written in emails, and hear them said in meetings.

Will increasing the amount of money invested in the education system solve this?

I personally do not think so. Rapid and effective means for parents to report the actions of staff where necessary need to be introduced. People need to be held to account for their actions, rather than the same thing being said and done to the next family and then the next.

I hope things change soon.