PARENTS across Northern Ireland are coming together at Stormont next week (21 June) to make their voices heard on an issue very close to their hearts.
The group, SEN Reform NI want education to be inclusive and are protesting on behalf of their children, and others affected, to protect special education here in Northern Ireland.
Their main objectives are adequate funding for SEN provision and no to budget cuts impacting on this, a suitable amount of allocation for school places for SEN pupils and actions to be taken in-line with the Independent Review of SEN Report.
Ni4kids were able to obtain figures from the Education Authority regarding how many pupils with Special Educational Needs are still awaiting allocation for a Primary 1 place.
In their response, they stated that as of Monday 5 June, 429 pupils have been placed to date.
“This is 34.1% of the total number (1,259) of SEN pupils identified for a change of placement from Nursery to Primary 1 in September 2023.
“830 pupils are still to be placed.”
Emma Morgan’s four-year-old son, Tom is due to start P1 in September but is now one of the 830 SEN pupils with no placement. The Newcastle mum said: “It’s exhausting fighting for support for our children but we hope that by joining together we can strengthen our voice and advocate on their behalf.”
“As a family, this is very difficult for us as we were in the same situation last year and didn’t have a confirmed placement until August.
“Even with a nursery place, Tom’s statement was inadequate as it lacked any detail about what support he would receive.”
Following this, Emma and her husband, Eoin had to go to a tribunal with the Education Authority which lasted until May meaning Tom’s nursery year was almost over.
“The tribunal granted our appeal and changed Tom’s statement and allowed his placement in the Nest in Carryduff, an incredible school.
“Like many parents here, we have struggled to get our son the support he needs to access education.”
Emma explained that while the family have been “very lucky” to have the support of the Nest they have had to pay for his place there themselves.
Another parent involved with the SEN Reform NI call to action is Belfast mum, Dorothy Murray. And although Dorothy’s daughter has been accepted into a mainstream nursery for September enrolment, the nursery her daughter will be attending does not have the correct facilities to meet her needs.
Dorothy’s daughter is non-verbal and awaiting a diagnosis with other referrals put in place.
She commented: “My daughter struggles with social situations and may need to do reduced hours as the mainstream setting is not correct for her. With her delayed development, I feel reduced hours won’t benefit her in the way she needs and therefore she will not experience the same education as her peers due to her additional needs and the nursery having inadequate facilities and training.
Both Emma and Dorothy had been following campaigns and protests in England and Scotland and together they felt strongly that the situation with SEN education in NI was “dire”.
Emma said: “Like ourselves, parents of children with additional needs across NI are advocating for their children, but we feel it is falling on deaf ears.”
“Inspiration for the reform protest came from the groups in England and Scotland who were deciding to come together and work to make a real difference. I felt the same needed to happen in NI. The circumstances for SEN children regarding education are not great and a change really needs to be made sooner rather than later” added Dorothy.
Emma explained that there are a “huge range of issues” that children with additional needs are facing in the NI education system.
“Issues that need to be looked at immediately are, the lack of adequate school places for children with SEN, with 830 children in NI without a placement for nursery or P1 in September, that’s almost two-thirds of the children with SEN in NI.”
She added: “It’s disgraceful that the planning for specialist placement has been left to the last minute but not surprising as parents are well aware that this unfortunately happens each year.
“The third key issue is that we cannot have any further cuts to the special education provision, it’s been in the news about a proposed £11m in cuts to the role of Special Educational Needs Coordinators and this is absolutely shocking.
“If the kids that require the most support are not receiving it, this will have a detrimental effect for all of students in the class”.
Speaking about the response received ahead of next week’s protest at Stormont, Dorothy said: “The response to the protest has been more than I even imagined as we have not had much time to pull it all together but a lot of people are affected by the services for SEN children and are going through the same processes so they feel very passionate about what we are effectively trying to do and have been very supportive from the outset.
Emma continued: “We have been so surprised by the support; the organisation of the protest has only started less than a week ago but local parents of children with additional needs have been keen to get on board and have their voices heard.
“A local parent support group is arranging a bus to Stormont and across social media parents have been saying that change is needed.
“We have received responses across the political parties in support of reforming and protecting special educational needs provisions, we hope that politicians will listen to our concerns and take action.”
Emma and Dorothy hope there will be a positive outcome from the gathering and that children with additional needs will be granted equal access to education in NI.
“All children should have the opportunity to learn in an environment that adequately supports them. This is a huge task, as our current situation in SEN education requires significant change but we hope to open up the conversation between parents and the decision makers” concluded Emma.
Dorothy added that the main objective is for “every single SEN child in NI to have access to the correct education setting for them and in which they will grow and thrive”.
SEN Reform NI are asking for parents, educators and local communities to join them at the protest at Stormont on Wednesday 21 June at 11am to call for equality in the education system and protect special education.
Other ways to support are to sign the petition for reform https://www.change.org/p/sen-reform-for-northern-ireland?redirect=false
The group also have a Facebook page (SEN Reform NI) where you can find links to the petition and updates.
