I've been speaking with SEND parents about what an ethical local authority in East Surrey on SEND in a resource constrained environment might look like. Amongst other things on my list were the option of face to face meetings with case officers, rigorous transparency and absolute honesty, especially when things go wrong.

At my SEND coffee morning, covered tonight on ITV, parents expressed a wave of anger about cuts to their children’s legal protections from Local Authority misconduct and Surrey County Council's lawbreaking to the School’s Minister Georgia Gould. This included a mum whose daughter lost her life. I’m very grateful that the Minister came to Dorking, and I think she is serious about SEND reform, but she must listen to parents and finally act on Surrey’s routine lawbreaking. If the government wants to know what SEND parents think about cuts to their children’s rights they simply need to watch this. 

I have presented the government, and published in The Times, evidence that hundreds of SEND children are avoidably killing themselves due to public authority negligence.  ITV has broadcast evidence of misconduct and lawbreaking on SEND by 117 local authorities. The government is planning to reduce rights which family after family has said can save lives. The public will be asking their MP’s about this scandal: What did they know, when did they know and what did they do about it?

I said that Fiona Laskaris would succeed in changing the law that prevented her from saving her autistic son Christopher from murder in my maiden speech. Tonight, on national ITV news, Wes Streeting the Health Secretary confirmed that the Mental Capacity Act will indeed be reformed. ITV also broadcast another family devastated by the acts failings. Thank you to Jeremy Hunt, Jake Richards MP and Hilary Benn for all their support, as well as incredible ITV journalists Romilly Weeks and Elisa Menendez. Thanks to the ferocious determination of one grieving mother if in ten, twenty or thirty years time if another little boy or little girl is born in Christopher’s circumstances they might avoid Christopher’s fate.

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The Department for Education has committed to a planning application for Betchwood Vale Academy SEND school (letter in comments). A firm timeline has not yet been laid out so I have written to the DfE asking for one. I welcome this next step, which brings 180 local children with special educational needs closer to receiving the education they deserve.

Possibly hundreds of SEND children are avoidably killing themselves and we don’t know how many because the government is not even recording the data.

This week I met with the Coroner’s Minister, Alex Davies-Jones MP and Dr Georgia Richards (Founder, Preventable Deaths Tracker). The Minister agreed to speak to the Chief Coroner about standardising coroner inquests and improving the treatment of bereaved families, as well as meet with us again soon to discuss potential legislative change to the coronial service.

The tragic deaths of special educational needs children failed by the state

My letter to the Minister: