‘Our children deserve a better future’ say Grantham parents fighting for special school places
The fight parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) face to get their children into specialist schools has been described as a “crisis”.
It is one that continues to grow year on year.
Not only do these children miss out on education, but their families are left with the stress of both caring for their child and trying to get them into a deserved school place.
Four parents from Grantham have shared their experiences of battles with Lincolnshire County Council (LCC) to get their children into appropriate schools.
You feel like you’re failing your child
Leyla-Jayne, 7, was adopted by Sarah Lawson and her partner David when she was 11 months old. She has autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), global development delay and hypermobility issues.
Sarah said Leyla has always “needed a specialist school, even when she was in nursery”.
She added: “They kept saying she would be fine and she would thrive but she ended up spending about 10 minutes a day in a classroom for two years.”
After Leyla attended Poplar Farm School, in Grantham, for two years, it was then LCC which said she needed a specialist place.
After she was taken out of Poplar Farm, she received no education for six months.
Sarah said: “We attempted home schooling but it wasn’t meant to be.”
In January of this year, a place was found for Leyla at The Place Independent School, in Bottesford, however she no longer attends as it cannot meet her needs.
Sarah added: “I did my research on where I wanted her to go.
“All of the Lincolnshire schools said ‘no, we can’t meet her needs’ or ‘we don’t have spaces’.”
Sarah was “left with no choice” and had to file a tribunal notice in September 2022, and the tribunal hearing is set to take place later this month.
Leyla was offered a home tutor for 10 hours a week until the family’s tribunal in September.
The fight to try and get her daughter a school place has been “stressful” for Sarah and her family as “no one will listen”.
She added: “It’s a pot of gold. We have always been pushed from pillar to post.”
Sarah feels like her daughter has been “let down” and she “deserves a specialist school place”.
She added: “She’s seven now and she can’t even write her name.
“It’s awful that she’s not getting an education, it’s a basic human right at the end of the day.
“As a parent you feel like you’re failing your child because they are so dysregulated, they are not learning, they are not happy.”
LCC has said it is awaiting confirmation from a new school on whether it can meet Leyla’s needs.
Sheridan Dodworth, head of SEND at LCC, said: “The family previously requested a place at a specific specialist school.
“This was arranged, and the child has been attending this school since January.
“In June, the family asked for their child to be moved to a different school, and LCC has agreed that the current school can no longer meet the child’s needs.
“We are currently awaiting confirmation from the new school that they can meet the child’s needs. We will continue to work with the family in the meantime.”
Sarah thinks there is more the government needs to do to tackle the issue.
She said: “The government needs to provide more funding for SEN schools and more training for children in mainstream [schools] to support those children who aren’t getting their specialist schools.
“Our children deserve a better future.
“It is going to be our children ruling the world in so many years.”
It just feels like nobody listens
Oliver Kingston, 11, has autism and ADHD.
Although he hasn’t been officially diagnosed, his mother, Kerry Kingston, has been “fighting for six years” to try and get this diagnosis.
Kerry said: “It’s been very obvious all of his life. Every professional and every teacher we have had has said there is something going on there.
“He requires a lot more care. He’s constantly at risk of running out and that’s a problem because he’s in a mainstream school when he needs to be in a school with a lot more support.
“He has run away from school a couple of times and I just think mainstream schools are not equipped to offer all of the support and safety that he needs.
“A few months ago, we didn’t have a week where he wasn’t getting suspended.”
After Oliver was suspended, he was sent to Springwell Alternative Academy, in New Beacon Road, for 16 weeks.
Kerry said the school was supposed to be a “reset button” for Oliver, but unfortunately it did not work out for him.
However, the fight for Kerry is to get the diagnosis for her son as it is the diagnosis she needs to get Oliver a specialist school place.
Kerry has also been “pushing” for him to get an education and health care plan (EHCP), a document which sets out the educational and healthcare needs for a child who needs extra support in school.
She said: “This would get him to the right school he needs but it seems all schools drag their feet and don’t want to do it.
“I understand it’s a lot of hard work for the school and you’ve got multiple kids trying to go through that process, but I just feel like the kids are being failed because of that.”
Oliver is set to go to West Grantham Secondary Academy, which both he and his family are “dreading”.
Kerry added: “It’s really scary because I think he’s going to end up being labelled as the naughty child and constantly excluded and it’s something he cannot help.”
The journey Kerry has had and continues to have is “like bashing your head against a brick wall”.
She added: “It just feels like nobody listens and it’s so frustrating because it’s almost like you have to prove how much your child struggles and it just feels like you’re not believed.”
Kerry believes if mainstream schools were “more equipped” to help children like Oliver, it would improve things.
She said: “In a dream world there would be much more additional support in schools, but in reality there is not a never-ending pot of money.”
I worry for him and I worry for his future
Logan Wraight, 7, has epilepsy, ADHD, autism, global development delay and has the “development basically of a three-year-old”, said Lucy Wraight, his mother.
At two years old, Logan was diagnosed with autism and ADHD and an ECHP was put in place.
The nursery he attended was also where Lucy worked and she “knew from a young age he had autism”.
She said: “He couldn’t stay at nursery any longer.
“He was trying to escape, he was attacking the staff and he was trying to throw stuff.”
When he turned three, Logan started to attend Gosberton House Academy, a specialist primary school based in Spalding, where he is now.
Logan leaves home at 7.30am to travel one-and-a-half hours to school, and then finishes at 4pm.
At home, Lucy said it is “very difficult” to care for Logan as there is “zero support”.
She added: “We’ve tried lots of different areas and there’s no one that can take care of him either because he’s a really big seven-year-old.
“Unfortunately, I also lost my mum two years ago to Covid so I gained a 15-year-old [Lucy’s sister] who is now 18, and I have no family support, only my husband, who also has ADHD and autism.”
Lucy also has an eight-year-old daughter named Esme, whose “life is very difficult for an eight-year-old”.
Lucy added: “She goes to a kids’ club during the summer, but that’s only 10am to 2pm, which doesn’t give her much time with her mum and dad, and that’s what she’s craving. She has a lot to deal with for an eight-year-old.”
Lucy believes the school Logan attends is a “very lovely school”, but she feels he “finds it very difficult because he doesn’t want to learn”.
She added: “He hasn’t got a very good attention span. Unless he wants to do it, he’s not doing it.
“I don’t think he is learning as much as he would like.
“He can’t write his name and he can’t write any letters. He can count some numbers but that’s about it, and he’s seven.
“I worry for him and I worry for his future, it does upset me. But it is what it is, you don’t have a choice.
“If I moved him, which I wouldn’t be able to, I would then be refusing a school place.
“I am then a parent with a child who needs 24-hour care. I can’t leave him.”
Lucy believes children with additional needs “deserve an education just like any child, and if not more so”.
She added: “I just think there needs to be much more support for these children so they have a good outcome.
“There are already hurdles for them, so many hurdles.
“The potential for their future could be bleak, there needs to be more out there to be able to teach them and to have a future.”
There needs to be a massive shake-up
Louise Smith’s eight-year-old son, who she wished to remain anonymous, has brain damage, cerebral palsy, sensitive processing, autism and ADHD.
In February 2022, it was determined the mainstream school her son was attending could not meet his needs anymore.
Louise said her son requires care 24/7, and it is “really hard”. She also has an 11-year-old daughter.
Louise said: “You can’t leave him alone. If we all go out, my husband has to take one child and I have to take the other.
“If the attention isn’t on him, he’ll kick off, even though it’s all on him. It’s not easy.
“You take going into shops for granted.”
Her son does not currently have a SEND school place and is “not getting anything [education]”, she said.
She added: “He can read, but he could learn more in the right environment, but he’s not, he’s regressing.”
Louise believes more funding needs to be put into SEND places and that local authorities need to work with parents more.
She said: “To me, there needs to be a massive shake-up.
“The budget could be used to actually do what is needed for these children. Stop trying to cut corners because with our children you can’t cut corners.”
A national problem
Just like these parents in Grantham, many others across the UK feel they have been “completely let down” and “gaslighted by a broken system”, said one parent on ITV News last year.
Data collected by the government’s Department for Education in 2023 revealed the number of school pupils with SEND needs increased to 1.57 million, representing 17.3 per cent of students across the UK.
The number of students with an EHCP increased to 4.3 per cent in 2023, continuing an increased trend since 2017.
For pupils with EHCPs, autism was listed as the most common primary type of need, with 116,000 (32.2 per cent) of EHCPs recording this.
Earlier this year, the government identified local authority areas in England where 33 new special schools would be built as part of its SEND and alternative provision improvement plan.
They also said new national standards would be drawn up for families so they knew what they would receive, who would provide it and who would pay.
Gareth Davies, MP for Grantham and Stamford, said it was “incredibly important” that “all children have access to an enjoyable and fulfilling education”.
He added: “This is why the Government announced over £2.5 billion over the period to 2025, creating more than 30,000 new high-quality school places for children with SEND nationally.
“Locally, SEND provision is the responsibility of Lincolnshire County Council, who I know are investing over £86 million to improve and expand 13 special school sites across Lincolnshire over the next few years, including in Grantham and our corner of Lincolnshire.
“I continue to discuss these matters with both ministerial and local authority colleagues on behalf of my constituents.”
LCC “continues to see increasing demand for special school places”, said Sheridan Dodsworth, head of SEND.
She added: “In light of that, the council is investing £100m in local special schools, which will create hundreds of additional places.”
In Grantham, help is offered through the Grantham Disabled Children Society (GDCS) to parents and their children who have additional needs.
The group runs activities for children and their families, but its main aim is to raise awareness of the problems and issues faced by families which have a child with a disability.
Darryl Blair, a trustee of the society, finds it a “shame” that children struggling to get a SEND place are “missing out on a full-time education.”
He added: “Every child is entitled to an education and I think more funding should be made available to SEND schools.
“I think local representatives need to sit down with parents and groups like ourselves and learn about what the concerns are and then put pressure on the representatives to look into SEND schools and offer more support to parents out there.”
Lucy, the mother of Logan, said she “couldn’t survive” without the support of GDCS.
The group does not get involved with the local authorities, but they are there to “offer a shoulder”, said Darryl.
He added: “We’re there to say you are not alone in this, we will do what we can to help.”
It is a struggle that families will continue to have until there is more help out there for them.
On October 13 in Lincoln, SEND Reform England is holding a peaceful protest to raise awareness about the problems they and their children experience.
These families will continue to fight for the education that their children deserve.
