The Independent Provider of Special Educational Advice (IPSEA) has highlighted BIHR’s co-produced response to the UK Government’s consultation on reforming the system for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
In its article, Reforming SEND without removing rights, IPSEA brings together responses from organisations across the children’s rights and disability sectors. These responses share concerns that the Government’s proposals could weaken children and young people’s individual rights, reduce accountability, and make it harder for families to challenge decisions when the system gets things wrong.
BIHR’s consultation response was co-produced with members of our RITES Committee and other people with direct experience of the SEND system, including Catriona Moore, Policy Manager at IPSEA. It combines lived experience with BIHR’s legal and practice expertise on the Human Rights Act.
IPSEA quotes BIHR’s warning that many of the proposals point towards “a reduction in accountability and enforceability across the SEND system.” It also highlights our concern that relying primarily on school complaints processes would not provide meaningful accountability for many families. This would particularly affect those facing language barriers and unequal power within the system, as we heard directly from IRMO (Indoamerican Refugee and Migrant Organisation), one of BIHR’s partners on our London Communities Human Rights Programme who contributed to our response.
Our response calls on the Government to properly resource the existing system, protect fair and independent routes for challenging decisions, avoid one-size-fits-all approaches and ensure children, young people and families are meaningfully involved in decisions affecting their lives.
BIHR will be following the process of SEND reform closely and adding insights from a human rights perspective.
If you work for a public authority or you are part of a community group that supports children, young people and families, and you would like to know more about human rights in SEND support, BIHR can provide support to boost knowledge and confidence in the Human Rights Act so it can be used to ensure people are treated with dignity, respect and fairness.