MN used to have a thriving SEN support section and now it's like a ghost town

[BertieBotts]

I've just created a thread in Site Stuff, but I wanted to repost here to gain a larger audience.

You may or may not be aware, but MN has several topics covering SEN support. It's my understanding (I've been here a while, but this was before my time) that they were originally created in order to provide some privacy for posters who preferred to discuss SEN related issues with other parents who had been there and avoid upsetting replies from posters who had not registered the mention of SEN in the thread.

The way that this privacy was originally provided was to offer an "opt-in" system - by default, all current (at the time) and new users of MN would not see threads from the SEN topics in their Active Conversations feed. However, there was a section of the forum settings where users could choose to enable viewing of these hidden threads in their own Active Convos. They remained hidden to anybody who did not actively choose to turn this option on.

At some point this functionality got broken or changed, I don't know whether it was accidental or intentional, but I believe it was tied to one of the bigger site redesigns, most likely some time in 2014. The hidden sections can still be "unhidden" in Talk Settings, but this doesn't do anything any more. They are hidden from everyone, whether you've opted in or not. In order to see if anyone has posted there you have to visit the section directly or add it to your subscriptions, and even if you're fully subscribed with notifications on, threads from that topic will never appear in Active.

Since this change, there has been a marked reduction in posts in those sections, to the point that they are much less known about and used. I felt like that was the case, anyway, but I was curious if it was visible as a trend so I used Advanced Search to search for all posts in SN Children during the whole of 2008 - it returned 2,500 results, which is the max number of search results. I reduced the time period to smaller ones until it was reporting well under 2,500 and the time period I found was a week. So I changed the week to be 1st-7th March (inclusive) each year, from 2008 to 2021, and this is what the number of posts (comments) looks like for that random week in each of those years:

2008 - 966 posts a week
2009 - 1541 posts a week
2010 - 1079 posts a week
2011 - 1349 posts a week
2012 - 1533 posts a week
2013 - 2500+ posts a week
2014 - 1530 posts a week
2015 - 466 posts a week
2016 - 262 posts a week
2017 - 296 posts a week
2018 - 113 posts a week
2019 - 151 posts a week
2020 - 118 posts a week
2021 - 129 posts a week

The number of weekly posts has literally been decimated and that doesn't make sense when the number of site visitors has grown and the number of SEN diagnoses and the amount of discussion is also increasing. With a lot of anti-SEN feeling on the site sometimes I feel like the safe spaces are more crucial than ever, and I really want to open a discussion about whether the old functionality can be restored to allow posters who want to use the SEN sections to use them as easily as the rest of the site.

This is just a shot in the dark, based on my own experience. I used to post a lot in the SEN section of MN and on other social media forums. Then my sons grew up. Their needs did not disappear, but they were no longer in education (neither son made it through secondary school), and they were no longer children. The content of the threads just became less relevant to my situation.

I also found that, after years of working with and perhaps battling against the system, I became increasingly tired and disillusioned. Once my sons had left education and entered into adult services, support diminished and a lot of my assumptions about their futures became much more basic. I no longer hoped they would thrive; rather I hoped they would survive. My wish for them now is that they are as safe and happy as they can be.

Perhaps there are posters who, at one time, were very prolific, but now 'SEN' is no longer the most relevant thread, or, like me, they become tired of posting, when there is so little positive change in their loved ones' lives.

This is just my own speculation.

interesting thread. I wondered why I never saw the sn topic even thoughI had opted in.
its a shame its not getting much traffic . I actually joined mn for the sn topic back in 2006.
it was very busy back then. sadly loads of posters left due to lack of support from mn hq.
I remember when the opt in /out was set up.

I prefer to use facebook, the people are more supportive and nice and the admin are quick to delete any rude or unsupportive comments unlike on here where they get left up.

i posted on here as a sen mum to 4 kids with autism and also a lone parent, im unable to work because my oldest isn’t in school and doesn’t have a school place and so i’m unable to work because she can’t be looked after by anyone (we tried and they quit after 2 days and that was two people) i was basically made out to be lazy on here and a benefits scrounger! told i can work and im just “not bothering” to send my daughter to school, never mind the fact that the LA can’t find a school that will take her, was told i should be studying then if im too lazy to work!! and should study at night when my kids are in bed, clearly didn’t have autistic children themselves my kids don’t sleep! i was really upset, wrote the same thing on facebook and got nothing but support and understanding from other sen parents as people who aren’t parents to sen children aren’t on the group so you dont get randoms like on mumsnet with no sen children themselves calling you lazy and benefit scrounger. anyone wanting non judgmental advice i recommend pages on facebook rather than on here. i asked mumsnet to delete the thread but they refused.

I think it would be better opt in and fewer SEN/SN boards.

@ILikeSpicyNoodles I know the thread you are talking about. Some comments were awful. It wasn’t on the SEN or SN boards though, was it? Why don’t you post there and people can help you with knowing how to force the LA to provide s19 provision that is full-time, suitable and does not rely on you facilitating the provision.

@keepingitcoolagain they are quiet, like the OP said, but if you wanted post on the SEN or SN boards you will get advice about the EHCP appeal.

Yes definitely isn't there one section in education and another one elsewhere? I don't actually use Facebook so it would be nice to have somewhere else, but there is also a WA group for our local ASD group which is much more useful for queries of 'can anyone recommend a local OT' variety.

I've also found some SEN threads on MN go a bit weird. I got told I was abusive for sending my child to mainstream once when locally, of course, we know zillions of kids in MS. I think it's always been a bit oddly polarised here.

It’s such a horrible site to be now if you have kids with SEND. The anti autism ableism is appalling. MN does absolutely nothing, the posts and threads they let stand is shocking. They never would have before.

This is very true. But I remember years ago (not to be all "back in my day..." or anything, but I have clearly been here too long ) - posters used to signpost each other to the SEN sections. Someone would have innocently posted in chat or AIBU and be getting absolutely roasted or just be receiving an absolute shitshow of advice and the stalwart SEN mums would say hey, did you know, we have this other place, you can opt in to see the threads, and post there in company of people who get it. It was generally known about and mentioned. Not a ghetto, nobody was required to post there or anything, but similar to the way that people sometimes nudge other posters towards the Relationships forum for example. That doesn't tend to happen as much now, probably because opting in doesn't do anything any more.

And my point is also that if it was possible to opt in to see the SEN threads in your own Active Convos but not have them appear for everyone, then you COULD still rely on Active to find new threads you want to reply to, and they would include SEN threads where ignorant views are unlikely to be present.

But yes possibly as someone else said, the individual SEN sections are possibly overdue a sort out as well. The fact the children's one is called SN and the adults' one is Neurodiversity seems to confuse people as well possibly because ND MNers is first alphabetically on the list, so people post in there all the time about their children.