Please read an out & follow this campaign just gone to press that wehave been working on with others in the SEND community with over 100 supporting our open letter on launch. Thank you to all who have signed to date #saveourchildrensrights #StrongerTogether #SENDNationalScandal

@SendCrisis Sadly outdated obsolete notions of intelligence and ability - as a measure of who is entitled to opportunities in life - and who isn’t. So we label them disabled or disorder to justify why we abdicate responsibility for ‘including’ them.

Not only did the physio get hyper-mobility as she has it but said “she takes her mum to her appointments too so she has another brain with her to remember things !” Just completely normalises differences and creates such empathy for the situation making it easier all round. 👏👏

Give Aaron a medal @clarksshoes and can we have an Aaron in every store please? It makes such a difference when someone makes the effort to “get it” the same as when I took my 19 yo son to a physio about his hypermobility pains last week & explained I was supporting due to ASD

Last week, we took our 6-year-old son, River, to the Clarks Village outlet store in Street to get him fitted for school shoes. Since River is autistic, he finds it really tough to handle crowds, long lines, and noisy places. The store was packed! I knew he wouldn’t manage well

Yet on other posts Labour is demonising children & young people saying they’re over diagnosed with ADHD or ASD but don’t get support in education therefore causing mental health issues. Then YP’s can’t work & get demonised for being on benefits. You couldn’t make it up!

"The UK Govt. is to launch a review of the prevalence of mental illness & neurodivergence, with particular focus on whether ADHD & Autism are being overdiagnosed” @HSJnews No it isn’t. What is truly expensive is excluding people for being different @wesstreeting esp in education.

Completely agree. Cannot it just not be accepted that we’re better at diagnosing instead and stop using such negative rhetoric in an attempt to save money. We cannot allow this to keep happening as it’s just fuelling hate against those with disability. A protected characteristic!

The Lampard Inquiry, which is investigating mental health inpatient deaths in Essex, resumes it's hearings today. The Inquiry, chaired by Baroness Kate Lampard will be hearing evidence families, about their experiences to do with mental health care. Melanie Leahy will be giving

A probe into the academy trust that paid nearly £5,000 in 'consultancy services' to its CEO’s mum was kept under wraps while officials ruled on its merger https://t.co/O2UXsYzxOs

Autism is an extremely broad spectrum of neurophysiological differences that one diagnostic word simply cannot encompass. The standard distribution curve is getting flatter the more we learn about human intelligences & cognition. @TheBMA @ION_Diversity

And the current Govt seem to be hell bent on not only demonising and downgrading mental health but also removing support from those youngest suffering from it #SaveOurChildrensRights #SENDNationalScandal

When we talk about criminal gangs, we’re also talking about predators who target children and young people in care. Why? Because the system is flawed and allows them easy access. With over 15 years of professional experience, I can say with certainty that we cannot be deluded

The SEND system in Somerset has collapsed. Complaints not progressed, LA refuses to mediate, Tribunal process abused, case officers don’t respond to emails, legal duties breached, EHCPs grossly underfunded, SEND team dismantled. 1/2

This is what successive governments seem to do. Whether it’s mental health, SEND, mobiles or youth clubs it appears blame for Govt’s failings is always laid at children’s and young people’s feet despite the adults with the responsibilities and purse strings being the failures.

Good old @johnharris1969 spot on as so often.

Important point to note for the SEND parent and where their future vote may go 🗳️

Somerset SEND families 'systematically failed: “To try to cope…Somerset LA has set up mainstream SEN units.” —there are of course dangers with that, depending on the profile of children in them, who’s teaching them, & how they’re included in school life

This @bphillipsonMP is why we need to retain

Which area of school cuts are you most concerned about?

@SendCrisis @johnharris1969 @bphillipsonMP This all comes down to who holds the purse strings - there has been zero independence in watchdog roles in the UK. The CDC was funded by whom? The same case can be made for PCFs, SENDIASS, charities. The lack of genuine criticism from NGOs has meant parents have to do it.