Good piece. I posted a comment on the CDC blog early this morning but it is still awaiting moderation - so not sure if they will post it. You can have it instead
At the moment, LAs have blanket SEN policies that routinely break the existing Education Act and play mere lip-service to the current SEN Code of Practice. If a parent dares to go against their LA in their fight for an ?adequate? educational provision for their disabled child, then the parents are treated with contempt and tactics that can only be described as ?institutional bullying?.
Will this change with any new legislation? Will LAs finally be brought to account and made to explain their actions? Or will the LAs once again change the rules and deny even more children than they do at present?
I have been told by several people (including my lawyers) that I should move away from my home and family into an area that has a ?better? LA. That is, into a LA that does not routinely break the Education Act and thinks that it?s ok to deny provision to the most vulnerable in our society: a disabled child. Why should I move away! I wasn?t aware that we lived in a nation where different counties have different sets of laws.
Any new laws have to be applied consistently and legally across every county and every LA, and have total transparency. If a LA breaks the law, then there should be penalties designed to stop them from doing it in the first place and then from them doing it again.
This isn?t about whether I ?want? to have one provision or another for my child (or whether I want jam one day and marmite the next). This is about what my child ?needs? to be able to access a basic British right: an education. And that those that are in the position of power to give me those ?needs? do it legally and morally.