There is a new SEND campaign that has started in the last few months called Let Us Learn Too. They have social media presence including Instagram and Facebook plus a website . Recently they released a video from children who have been excluded from school. Additionally, they have released a letter to the PM asking him no to weaken the laws governing SEND support in schools, which is currently being discussed in this SEND review.
Their press release is as follows:
“Let Us Learn Too Major new campaign launches, backed by prominent MPs and famous names including Piers Morgan and Lord David Blunkett, asking the government to halt its plans to weaken laws protecting children with special educational needs and disabilities.
A new campaign will launch on Monday September 6 calling on the Prime Minister to reconsider plans to weaken the laws governing school support for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
Let Us Learn Too is backed by actor Stephen Fry; former Secretary of State for Education, Lord Blunkett; former Education Select Committee member Emma Hardy MP; Childline founder Esther Rantzen; former MP Norman Lamb; and the author David Mitchell. It is also being supported by major charities that work on behalf of disabled people and their families, including the Disabled Children’s Partnership, the National Autistic Society and Ambitious about Autism.
The cross government SEND Review will have life-changing consequences for disabled people and their families, but at present they are not being adequately consulted. Let Us Learn Too is urging the government to include disabled people and their parents/carers at the heart of the review.
Last year in England, 16,406 applications for assessment of children’s special educational needs were rejected, with local authorities often using unlawful policies to justify their refusal to assess. Councils have now spent £200 million fighting SEND families at court but have lost 9.5 out of 10 cases, according to government data.
Some families have sold their homes or spent their pensions or savings funding court battles, which are the only way to force councils to meet their legal obligation to provide SEND support. Meanwhile children are increasingly being excluded from school, sometimes unlawfully, and left with mental health problems due to a lack of support.
The campaign is launching a video entitled “Dear Boris, Let Us Learn Too”, which you can view here, as well as sending a letter (attached) to the Prime Minister. The video is embargoed until 00.01 on 6/9/21 and the letter is embargoed until 8/9/21.
Let Us Learn Too was set up by four parents, Hayley Harding, Gillian Doherty, Deanne Shaw and Elizabeth Stanley. All are parents of disabled children who have had to fight to get their children into school or access to reasonable support at school. To get in contact please email Hayley Harding at Contact@letuslearntoo.org or call on 07910624921. We will get back to you quickly.”