Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Academies, accountability, Andy Burnham, Coalition, coalition cuts, David Cameron, demostrate, disability discrimination, Ed Balls, education, Guerrilla Mum, Idayah Miller, inclusion, Labour Shadow Ministers, Michael Gove, Minister of State for Children and Families, Prime Minister, Sarah Teather, schools admissions policies, selection, SENDT, Special Educational Needs, university fees debate, Whitehall
Over the last two or three weeks you could not miss the dispute over student fees. It has been on our streets, on the radio and on the television. I don’t want to comment on the rights and wrongs of this, but another vital issue in Education is being missed. Nobody has yet marched through Whitehall, occupied buildings or caused a split in the coalition over the issue of Idayah Miller and her disgraceful treatment by the Harris Federation.
Idayah is a symptom of wider principles which are endangered at present. I’ve written before about the lack of safeguards and checks and balances for academies, particularly where it affects SEN. Idayah has been denied a place at the Crystal Palace Harris academy and was told (amongst other things) that in her wheelchair she would take up too much space in the corridor in the event of a fire. The Harris Federation have apologised for the ill judged words of the Head (though I note he hasn’t been disciplined) but crucially Idayah still does not have a place. The only options available to her Idayah are to appeal to the academy itself or to the Minister of State for Education. A recent article from the London Evening Standard can be seen here: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23903236-idayah-is-a-bright-child-one-of-a-spurned-minority.do
The academy cancelled the appeal and referred the family to the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal (SENDT). Regular readers will know that I warned some time ago that academies do not have the same legal status in SEN Law as Local Authority controlled schools and that SENDT does not have any jurisdiction over them and they could not help Idayah. This leaves Idayah with a right of appeal either to the school, which has already made its views clear, or to the Minister of State for Education. If I were in her shoes I think I would far rather go to a SENDT tribunal (regular readers will know how harrowing I found SENDT!) than go to an appeal with a man who makes dodgy ideological decisions and changes laws he doesn’t agree with using terrorism legislation.
I don’t have first hand knowledge of Idayah Miller or her family and I don’t know about her particular circumstances. All my sources have come from the Press. However, I do have first hand knowledge of what it feels like to be a family with a disabled child or children. You can quite often feel that you are not a part of society and that some of the agencies that are there to help you are actually obstacles to getting the provision you need for your child. I did, however, see some real improvements under the last Labour administration and greater protection for the rights of disabled people i.e the Autism Act, the Equality Act and excellent initiatives such as Aiming High. It’s really worrying to hear the Prime Minister say he wants to get rid of the Human Rights Act and replace it with a British Act reflecting our values. The evidence since his government came to power is that their values include ignoring, marginalising, and removing benefits from those who have disabilities. Social mobility? Not if you are disabled, it seems.
I wish that Idayah had had one percent of the coverage given to the university fees debate. I wish that we could also see the same degree of pressure put on the government as has been used to argue against the schools sports partnership cuts or child benefit. Is it that people don’t care? Or that in financially straitened times people look only to their own needs? What about the Big Society? Or does it not apply to people with disabilities?
The government have a chance to prove me wrong. The Green Paper on SEN is due soon. (Transparency website!!!!!). Sarah Teather has a chance to put some of these wrongs right and lets hope she does.
In the meantime, please re-tweet. Please try to raise the profile for the issues I have raised. If you know somebody famous, or anyone with influence, or who has a big Twitter following (even better!!!) then send this post on to them. Next time this could happen to somebody you love. This is the thin end of the wedge.
At the moment the government is not doing anything about this case (or others like it) because they think nobody cares and they can get away with allowing these organisations to fail disabled children. It’s cheaper.
The Green Paper for SEN and disability is due to be published soon and my wish list would be:
• Inclusive schools admissions policies – schools should not be able to socially engineer their intake, and children with SEN and disabilities should be able to attend mainstream schools or special schools according to their needs
• An independent appeals procedure – independent of the school heads, governors, and of the Minister of State for Education.
• Retain SENDT and widen its scope to deal with appeals from Local Authority controlled schools, academies and free schools (when they come in).
• Retain the statement of SEN and the rights it confers on children. Widen availability of process to identify and make provision for children with SEN because appropriate assessment is currently far too difficult to obtain.
• No selection in state funded schools – (do realise this is a more general wish, probably beyond remit of Sarah T…)
• No devolved funding for statemented children – all statements should be funded properly by the State.
The lack of comment from the Opposition is also a worry and I would like to see some of our Shadow Cabinet getting involved in this very important debate.
Filed under: Education and the new government | Tags: accountability, Education Minister, Emperor's New Clothes, Green Paper, Guerrilla Dad, Holding the government to account, SEN, Transparency, Transparency website
Dear Dave (may I call you Dave – you may call me Grrrr it’s short for Guerrilla Mum)
Well, gosh! Thank you so much for the new Transparency Website. I opened it this morning at the section I am interested in – number 6: Improve support for children, young people and families, focussing on the most disadvantaged. Here is the link. http://transparency.number10.gov.uk/transparency/srp/view-srp/37/46. Incidentally Dave why is this number issue number 6 and not number 1? Number 2 or 3 would be better…
It’s fair to say that by the time I had got to 6.1 ‘Review and reform provision for children with special educational needs, disability and mental health needs’ I was fairly bursting with anticipation. Opening the next section 6.1.i. ‘Develop and publish a Green Paper on special educational needs and disabilities’, I couldn’t wait for the update on status, as not only did I comment on the Green paper, I spent a lot of time encouraging others to do so. I knew you would appreciate that. So I clicked, with baited breath.
In Progress? I’ll write it again. In Progress? I haven’t worked in public service recently but the Guerrilla Dad who has, and has written a few business plans in his time, reliably informs me that if anybody arrived at a meeting with an update of a plan which said ‘ In Progress…’ everybody knew that it meant one of 3 things …
1. Ooh I haven’t done this yet, there are so many more important things to do and I haven’t really had time to think about this.
2. I know this isn’t on the important part of the agenda and only gets asked about at the end of the meeting.
3. Oh! So that’s why my boss sent me to this meeting …….(note to self consider alternative career development).
Guerrilla Dad also said that if he had used any of these excuses in meetings he would have got his butt kicked soundly, and witnessed this happening to others.
So Dave, back to Transparency. This is proof conclusive that your government thinks we are stupid and able to be fobbed off with vague performance statements and unsatisfactory updates. You have made one thing very clear though, Free Schools (allegedly in great demand but actually only about 30 groups have come forward) are right at the top of the agenda.
One fifth of pupils in Britain will have Special Educational Needs (SEN). One in a hundred will have an Autistic Spectrum Condition. Other children will have a wide variety of other SEN or disabilities. Transparently the government does not care about these children and I am angry and upset. It is offensive to me that you think this is in any way satisfactory. How does this make you accountable? Where is the Accountability button? How do we hold this government and the Education Minister to account? Transparency? Frankly Dave we can see right through this, and I’ve changed my mind it’s MRS Grrrr to you!