Blog human rights and SEN - what to call it? Your views welcomed!!

[appropriatelyemployed]

Thinking of setting up a blog - posting about SEN, Equality Act, LGO etc (facts and stories) Similar in style to this

What would you call it? Something catchy but linked to SEN. I was thinking of borrowing 'cemented to the floor by law' or something

I was thinking a one-stop:

1. area on sen law
2. area on human rights
3. area on equality law
4. area on enforcing rights: Ombudsman, judicial reviews
5. Parent power/voice of children - by you for you/connecting parents
6. Links to lots of other good sites
7. Possibly allow other services/lawyers to advertise

I might also be able to pull together pieces from leading barristers or get them to do something specific

The idea behind it summed up in this quote:

?You know, there are rules and laws and regulations set up by the UN on how disabled people should be treated.There are conferences, meetings, etc held where there are decisions made.WHERE DOES ALL THIS END UP? Let
this all not end up on paper as the previous have. Let it go through to the people, which I think is not a very difficult job. Let the disabled
people know their rights through whatever you come up with so that they can fight for their rights.?
(Girl, 19, Somalia, quoted on UNICEF?s ?Voices of Youth? website)

Sounds good AE. How about something like E SENtials as it's vital electronic info about SEN?

Oooh, like it.

came to me in a moment of inspiration.
I think the blog's a great idea and would help a lot of people. We also need to get the poor treatment of some SEN children 'out there' somehow. If it means that other parents have less of a battle it will be worth it. Happy to help with anything I can.

Great!

I have my own website for my freelance work so I will go back to my friend who designed it and see if she could set me up a cool looking prototype and take it from there.

this sounds fantastic...shout if we can help with anything...parents for parents, parents of SEN/SN children...

Empowering parents on the rocky road with sign post's and concrete guidance and support....

It would be amazing to bring together the first step's towards Dx...legal, medical, assessment processes, where to go for advice and concrete resources for moving forward to help your child...all in a one stop format would be very empowering for a parent...the bottom line, no nonsense guidance and reality of all of this for any parent wondering/worrying about their child and suspecting an issue for concern...

To allow any parent with a question be able to voice their concern and actually be listened to...I always found it was about the way I delivered my question's and what I could reference, jargon I could use, legal facts I could quote, making my question's concrete and demanding of attention by GP, School, any other specialist I met thereafter....having the knowledge beforehand makes all the difference to the responses you get and the outcome...

I always wanted to hear that my child was 'thriving' ...not just 'coping' or 'managing'....as so many of us parents are being told...year upon year by their schools

Having a team of people willing to help with the parents for parents section would be great - volunteers welcome!!- we could think of what format that could best take - stories, local contacts, posting questions and replies, directing them here for chat!

Heh that's an idea - shouts to mumsnet -any chance of supporting this initiative to get a prototype together? I am very professional and legitimate and can let you see my current website with testimonials about my credentials.

There is no other 'one stop shop' out there as far as I know.

E SENtials sounds really good as a website name

would you need to link loads of relevant words for search engines and pop up's with this too...??...not sure how to actually do this though???

a 'lay' person/parent starting a search would be typing in relevant words eg...speech, lack of eye contact, distracted, aggression, autism, aspergers, adhd etc etc...and hoping to find relevant resources to read etc so it would have to have maybe a sub-heading/title/description with lots of linking words included so the site would pop up with a 2 line concise description to guide people towards....iykwim????......

Thanks. I can get all key words 'tagged' by my web guru friend. I would hope to link to, and from, other people's/organisations websites.

I intend to concentrate on the legal side of accessing services, education, enforcing rights etc across all disabilities - tagging key words, disabilities and SEN which should flag things up.

Sounds like a great idea! I've been planning a holiday recently and having to deal with arranging airport assistance and airline customer service. After some digging around I came accross the European Commission on Human Rights info on the legislation covering disabled travellers, it has come in very handy but I didn't know about it before.

Maybe this kind of thing could be included?

yes I am not so pc literate but I'm hoping I can be of some use to you along the way with anything....
PM me your email or something so we can keep in touch and I don't lose a link to your plans and needs as you go forward with it all

watching this space for updates anyway

Cwtches - precisely! PM me with the details and I will start setting up a list.

There is great stuff out there on UN Conventions such as the Convention on the Rights of Disabled Persons which, although not legally binding in this country, are looked upon as interpretive tools which can come in very handy when trying to make 'rights real'......

......unless of course you're dealing with the LGO who really and truly do not know their arse from their elbow in terms of human rights pr public law more generally

All torch bearers PM me

Whatthe - PM on its way.

www.equalityhumanrights.com/advice-and-guidance/service-users-guidance/air-travel/

AE I take my hat off to you . I'm just another mum with 2 asd children and been through a few battles; however I run a local asd support group and am on my la pathfinder as a parent rep.

I would be happy to help if can be useful.

PM sent AE

Great iceflower - do PM me and I will put a list together.

Cwtches - thanks. I have started a document so I can get these links together.

I will need lists of websites for:

Educational charities: e.g. IPSEA, SOS-SEN, ACE

Disability charities: e.g. NAS, AFASIC, Cerebra

Links to resources: e.g. David Wolfe's SEN law summary, Steve Broach's 'cemented to the floor by law' document

Links to legal materials: Equality Act, Education Act, SEN COP, summaries from Equality and Human Rights Commission site

Ombudsmen websites - fwiw

Links to parent forums

If anyone has the odd five minutes now and again to put send across some links, I will add them to my document.

I will do a 'news section too' so people can report things.

For example, I am interested in exposing the sham of SEN green paper pathfinder authorities

A 'name and shame' section would be good. Obviously I would add examples of good practice too if anyone where ever to find any!!

Perhaps not to name the Council's (although let them try and sue me for fair comment!) but we could do very brief stories summarising major malpractice.

I will work on putting some links together and send them asap.

A record of resources by county would be quite useful e.g ASD support groups,independent SALT or EP's, good schools etc.

Thanks Cilla - yes, that's a very good idea.

This would be a wonderful resource, I wish I had the time to help in some way but am rather snowed under atm. I do have quite a long list of nice websites for finding special needs/sensory toys to hire or buy, would that be of any help? If so just PM me.

NICE guidelines for what NHS should do but doesn't always
patient.co.uk for advanced-level leaflets about everything

Great guys - if anyone has any websites, please just PM me and I will put them on there when we arrange it.

Also, if you want to do some research for groups/info in your own county, do send them on.

Thanks so much for your support!

This website is autism specific but has links for all parts of the country.

www.theautismdirectory.com/

Great - thanks!!