PaCC’s response to the national SEND green paper consultation
PaCC are very concerned by some of the SEND Green Paper proposals, which we know are shared by many parent carers. We have submitted our response to the government’s consultation, based on our experience as well as views we’ve heard from Brighton & Hove parent carers. We know there is particular concern around proposals for mandatory mediation, tailored lists of placements, and use of funding bands. Our response explains PaCC’s opposition to these proposals, and suggests alternatives.
Diana (PaCC Chair) and Becky (PaCC Vice Chair) have recently attended meetings with the Department for Education’s (DfE) SEND review team leader. We raised the following points:
- Inaccessibility of consultation. The consultations recently released by the DfE are not accessible for all parent carers, and many won’t have time or mental capacity to respond. The questions are too specific and won’t capture the information and priorities parent carers would like to feed back on.
- Accountability. How local authorities, schools and services can actually be held to account? This was something discussed during the previous reforms, but we know is still not happening. There is very little detail in the proposals about how this will be made more effective
- Inclusive schools. What plans and strategies they can use to ensure that all schools are inclusive? If it was just about ‘making them’ be inclusive, all schools would be inclusive now.
- National decisions. Whether the proposals could lead to things becoming less child centred due to national standards and funding bands.
- Impact on families. If the proposals from the consultation are implemented and aren’t successful, this could have a huge impact on families, those already in crisis and a system that is already so fragile.
- Consultation overload. Too many consultations all at once mean parent carers do not have capacity to respond to them all.
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