I recently had a conversation with a head of SEN services in a local authority working incredibly hard to stretch scarce school placements for children with SEN. In the middle of our conversation, he explained how it simply isn’t fair for him to allocate resources based on who shouts the loudest. Rather, he has a duty to allocate based on who has the greatest need.
I’ve been thinking about our conversation … A LOT.
He wasn’t saying that only some of the children were suitable or that their needs didn’t match the provision. No, at the heart of his comment about SEN services is a hierarchy of need founded on scarcity.
I’ve been reflecting on how easy it is for practitioners (good, hardworking professionals) to feel the tension with the parents who passionately and loudly advocate for their children. The concern is that those parents without a voice are left behind.
It is tempting to see the problem as the increasing volume of angry parental voices sullying the decision-making process.
But wouldn’t the volume naturally be turned down if legislation and political rhetoric accurately reflected reality?
Is not the loudness of petitioning parents a symptom of a hierarchy of need founded on the fact that children’s requirements consistently outstrip available services?
If there were enough SEN placements, therapy sessions, equipment supplies, practitioners or assessments, then it wouldn’t be a question of volume that determined the allocation of resources, but NEED alone. The problem which requires addressing isn’t how loud parents advocate for their child, but the fact the system is compliant in perpetually funnelling insufficient resources towards children who need more – leaving in its wake a tsunami of children whose needs are not met and whose parents are traumatised by a failing system.
What if a collective voice of practitioners and families heralded the inadequacy of resources which fails to match both the guidance and legislation governing services?
In the advent of even more cuts to public spending to social care, health and SEN, the volume will only get louder. Parents will not be silenced. And when the volume is pumped up does, let’s not vilify the voices of compassionate parents but rather join with them in amplifying our united stand against a system complicit in saying one thing and doing something else. The victims are not only the children being failed but the parents being traumatised and those dedicated practitioners working between the rock and hard place of being trained to do one job and insufficiently resourced to carry it out.
Our health, social care and SEN services will consistently flout the principles they claim to stand on unless there are procedures and sufficient resources in place to bridge the gap between ideology and reality. It is only when parents aren’t pitted against each other in a gladiator ring of greatest need, or most failed, that they will feel safe enough to take off their armour. Practitioners and parents are all working so incredibly hard to improve the lives of children with disabilities, if only we could join forces to bring about real change.
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Rachel Wright is a qualified nurse and unqualified mum of 3, parenting a son with complex disabilities. She’s the author of The Skies I’m Under, host of The Skies We’re Under Podcast, an award-winning blogger and founder of Born at the Right Time. Passionate about effective communication and collaborative working, she uses her skills and lived experience to influence change, educate practitioners with CPD-certified courses and support families.
She is devoted to salt ‘n vinegar crisps and her middle son is writing a book titled, “My mum’s epic fails’. It is likely to have more than one volume.
I wonder if you can advise me with an effective response to the inevitable line I’m expecting from social care regarding equity across the service and how there are others in need too. My son has been in hospital since April. He is now a delayed discharge as he’s well enough to go home but the hospital regards the package of care from social care and continuing care as inadequate enough to be unsafe. I never know how to respond when they do try to put us against other families. I just need the necessary package for it to be safe to take him home!
Hi Gayle,
Sorry for the delay in my response (I didn’t see your comment). The short (and slightly unhelpful) response is when it comes to how something is financed and others missing out – that is their problem not yours. Your responsibility is to your child and ensuring he gets care in line with his needs, your needs, guidance and legislation.
If they want to work with you to present a collective response for making improvements locally and nationally on how services are funded you could work with them on that (when you have the capacity – i.e. your child has the care he needs). The insufficiency of the service is not a stress you can carry – you have enough.
IN summary, if they say “other people will miss out”
You say, “That sounds like a you problem. I am not responsible for the other children in my community only my own.”
Sorry it is tough. I hope he gets home soon with all the support you need. Rachel