This morning we and another family went along to meet Tim Loughton MP, Under Secretary for Children and Families at a meeting organised by the Family Fund. They are obviously worried about funding cuts to and wanted to talk about the value of grants they provide to the likes of us..
FF folk were very well informed about all the issues affecting all of us. They appear to have some kind of lobbying role and we were happy to go along and join in.. It wasn't as adversarial as it might have been and perhaps a bit like Riven's experience of DC earlier this year - TL was very nice and appeared to listen and was making notes from the points made.
He knows that the whole statementing process needs an overhaul and seemed aware how stressful it is for us all and said that was being looked at currently.
We talked about need for Early Intervention and scarcity of services,e.g SALT
With regard to DLA, he also tried to reassure me that SN families with kids with identified difficulties need not worry about the changes to the assessment process, saying they were just trying to target people who were trying to swindle the system.. We'll have to wait and see how that develops.
We all tried to ram home issues re severe poverty for families with an SN child and how dependent we may be on DLA and Child Tax Credits to survive.. FF really emphasised this point too..
I printed off some of the issues raised in my earlier post and passed them to TL, he's been invited to come on Mumsnet soon and be grilled about childrens issues and seemed a bit nervous about it!
There was so much to say and we ran out of time with lots of issues not discussed but at least the Family Fund seem on the case with raising issues all round the country with MPs.. If you've had some help from them I guess they may contact you to do something similar in your area. If so give it a go.. I felt good about having my say..
DD came with us but after squashing a few muffins and croissants, banging on a piano and sitting on balloons til they went bang we thought it better she be taken off to the park so we could think!
There are a lot of changes to come but it was suggested they make sure they involve user group/ parent expert groups so they can contribute to discussions about the changes/cuts along the way.. I hope he took that on board..
Sorry for long post but it felt like there was a lot said that I wanted to pass on anyone interested..