Little Steps SEND

There really is power in numbers, and it’s important people don’t underestimate the difference their individual voice makes right now.

When everything feels overwhelming, it’s easy to think “someone else will respond” or “my view won’t change anything.” But silence is too often interpreted as agreement. And this moment needs voices. Lots of them.

Everyone can do at least one thing:

• Respond to the consultation
• Contact your MP and ask what their position is
• Attend gatherings organised by the major organisations
• Share accurate information with other families
• Keep a copy of your consultation response for your own records

We need to make it visible, clearly and collectively, that these changes affect real children, real families and real futures.

And importantly: don’t feel you don’t count, because you absolutely do.

Change rarely comes from one voice alone. It comes when many voices speak together. Families, professionals, young people, schools, advocates — all disabilities, all experiences, all perspectives.

Everyone can take one step. YTogether, those steps become movement. And movement creates pressure.

Hold the line. Stay involved. Keep responding.

The Times has reported that the Government may face a legal challenge over the legality of its SEND reform proposals.

The article highlights serious concerns from campaigners, lawyers and parents that the consultation plans to “strip” thousands of children with special educational needs of support they are legally entitled to and should be restarted. It adds that the proposals could limit tribunals to reviewing local authority decisions, while removing their ability to order specific support packages or placements at named schools or colleges.

Our campaign partners at IPSEA are quoted: “Legal rights are not optional extras, and any new system must ensure that support is statutory, enforceable and backed by a clear right of appeal.”

Polly Sweeney, specialist education solicitor at Rook Irwin Sweeney, also states that the “whole process is completely flawed and needs to be started again with absolute clarity over the proposals and their impact, including questions that allow parents and others to properly respond”.

Link to article in the comments.

Recently, it has been suggested that those raising concerns about the SEND White Paper somehow “do not want children to thrive.”

At Little Steps SEND, we see something very different.

The parents, carers and professionals engaging in this discussion are often the very people who have spent years working to secure the support children are legally entitled to. Speaking up is not opposition to children thriving, it is part of protecting the foundations that allow them to do so.

Wanting children to thrive means:
• support based on individual need
• provision that is clearly specified and delivered
• lawful decision-making
• and a system that listens to lived experience

Across the country, families, SENCOs, advocates, schools and local authority colleagues are all trying to make the system work for children. When hundreds of thousands of people engage in a national conversation at this scale, it should be recognised as commitment, not resistance.

Constructive challenge strengthens reform.

Listening to families and professionals is how we make sure change genuinely improves outcomes for children and young people with SEND.

As always, Little Steps SEND will continue to support informed, balanced discussion across the whole SEND community.

This legal challenge highlights an issue that many families and professionals are quietly concerned about: whether the most significant elements of SEND reform were ever genuinely open to consultation.

When changes affect Tribunal powers and responsibility for delivering EHCP provision, transparency about how and when those decisions were made is essential.

It is understandable that families begin to question priorities when support for children with complex needs is framed in terms of financial sustainability, particularly if key decisions appear already determined before consultation responses are gathered.

Meaningful reform depends on meaningful engagement with the people who live and work within the SEND system every day.

https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/plan-to-hobble-send-tribunal-a-done-deal-government-admits/5126247.article.

Plan to hobble SEND Tribunal a done deal, government admits Position at odds with education secretary's statement that consultation happens 'before any final decisions are made'.

“The panel has made a decision… but we can’t tell you yet.”

Some parents are being told the EHCP decision must first go through “ratification.”

But if the decision was already recorded at the panel meeting…

what exactly is being ratified?

I’ve written a short article explaining this extra step in the EHCP process.

👉 Read here:

What Happens After the EHCP Panel Makes Its Decision? The Hidden ‘Ratification’ Step Parents Rarely See. Many parents understand that there is a process once a local authority agrees to carry out an Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment. What is less well understood is how the final decision about issuing an EHCP is actually reached, and what happens afterwards.In simple terms, the process usuall...

Some of the brightest children in our schools are also the ones struggling the most, and many are being overlooked.

These children are often called twice-exceptional learners.

They might read years above their age but struggle to write a paragraph.

They might have extraordinary curiosity or creativity, yet find everyday classroom demands overwhelming.

Because they don’t fit neatly into either “gifted” or “SEND”, many of them fall between the two systems.

I’ve written a short article about what I call the forgotten SEND profile and why it matters.

👇 Article below

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/forgotten-send-profile-why-twice-exceptional-children-gale-davies-s2a5e/?trackingId=9YitjVYUxf%2FWSlBZ1EWFwA%3D%3D

The Forgotten SEND Profile: Why Twice-Exceptional Children Matter The Children Who Are Brilliant — and Struggling The Forgotten SEND Profile Twice-exceptional children are often the most misunderstood learners in our education system. Their ability hides their needs, and their needs hide their ability.

Most families do not want to go to tribunal. That is often misunderstood. But the existence of independent oversight creates stability. It reassures parents that disagreements can be resolved impartially. It encourages decision-makers to evidence their reasoning carefully. It promotes dialogue before escalation.

Trust: At the Heart of SEND Reform Hello there, as parents and guardians navigating the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) system, we often find ourselves discussing tribunals, appeals, and the complexities of legal challenges. It’s understandable, given the system's demands. However, I wanted to share a perspective ...

https://www.littlestepssend.co.uk/post/send-reform-when-tidying-the-system-risks-weakening-rights

The SEND White Paper promises reform. But what if it quietly weakens the very rights families rely on?

If appeal routes narrow and oversight doesn’t strengthen, conflict won’t disappear it will simply move. My latest blog explores what’s really at stake beneath the language of “system improvement.”

Let the challenge begin, great article from the Law Gazette. https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/unfair-and-unlawful-send-consultation-facing-challenge/5126054.article?fbclid=IwdGRjcAQPDAlleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEed7OZKp54yMUyFykwDM4CKvyc2P4hkWvuEqvlSZoTgMEIfTAQBJQPZG20UsE_aem_yB19Aby-eQgkD3gHL6zt1w

‘Unfair and unlawful’ SEND consultation facing challenge A letter before claim has been sent to education secretary Bridget Phillipson