A BRADFORD mum who has had to navigate the complicated systems of Special Educational Needs hopes a group she has set up will offer other parents support.
Gemma Muff says her group was set up to let parents know they are not alone in their struggle to fight for the best education for their children.
A shortage of specialist places, tightening Council funding and school staff without the training to deal with some conditions makes life extremely difficult for many families that have children with additional needs.
But Miss Muff, who lives in the East Bowling area, told the Telegraph & Argus that her group was about working with schools and organisations to fix the issue, not about placing blame.
She said: “I have a little boy (Logan) with SEND, and he couldn’t get the support I needed. He was getting suspended every day.
“I was in a position where I was on my own and didn’t know much about it.
“We’re not saying anyone in particular is to blame, it is a national problem that needs looking at.”
She pointed out that while newly qualified teachers will have had training on how to deal with children with additional needs and neurodiversities, people who have been in the profession for longer will have had little to no training. She added: “If you’re a newly qualified teacher you’re actually more equipped to deal with the issue than a teacher who has been there for a while.
“I’ve spoken to people at the local authority like Councillor (Imran) Khan (Deputy Leader) and they are making changes, but it is not happening quick enough and people are falling through the cracks.”
She referred to a recent report into suspensions in Bradford that found out of the 21,000 children who had been suspended last year, 38 per cent had special educational needs.
She said: “These are children who are clearly not coping with mainstream school.”
Her son currently has to travel to Batley, as Miss Muff has been told there were no spaces to meet his needs at local schools.
As well as the disruption and extra travel, she said this is costing Bradford Council an extra £11,000 a year.
Another issue facing many parents was the lengthy wait for assessments, with Miss Muff adding: “It can be a really long time for a parent to wait – especially when they’re in crisis.”
Many of the parents she speaks to have had such a tough time supporting their children that they have required medication themselves, with some even having felt suicidal.
While some schools in the District go “above and beyond,” others were too quick to suspend children who really needed extra support.
Providing the support for neurodiverse children and those with special educational needs would save huge amounts of money in the long run, Miss Muff argues, as it could help avoid a lifetime of relying on social care.
Opening more special schools would be one solution – but current rules requiring all new schools to be academies meant it was difficult for local Council’s to meet the need for SEND places.
To help other Bradford parents in the same boat, Gemma set up regular meetings in cafes where parents can come and ask advice.
She has been supported by Bradford Independent Councillor David Ward, who sits on the Council’s Children’s Services Scrutiny Committee, and neurodiversity practitioner Jo Gaunt.
Miss Muff said: “A lot of us have become friends, and we can point other people in the right direction to go and find the right organisations to support them. We want to be a one stop shop for parents.
“Often schools don’t always know the law well enough or what is available for parents.
“We just want to reach out to parents who need us. The more heads we can get together the better. At the moment a lot of people have to do this on their own. A lot of parents don’t know what they are entitled to or how to access the benefit system.
“We’re not parents who complain to Ofsted about schools. We want to work with together with schools, as we have that lived experience.
“If there are parents out there who don’t know where to go, we want them to know they are not alone.”
The group can be contacted on Facebook (Lack of SEND support Education Bradford) or by emailing lackofsendeducationbradford@outlook.com
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here