This afternoon I met with the Disabled Children's Partnership and the Sutton EHCP Crisis Group to discuss the ongoing need to properly support vulnerable children and their families through the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and beyond.
Hayley Harding - the Chair of the Sutton EHCP Crisis Group - and I have been working together for many months on tackling the issues in Sutton around the Council's dismal SEND service, and indeed this is something I have raised with the Prime Minister directly.
Hayley and I recently met with Vicky Ford, the Minister for Children and Families at the Department for Education, along with representatives from the Sutton Parents' Forum, Get On Down's (Down's Syndrome Association), and the National Autistic Society (Sutton Branch) to discuss the Gray Review into High Needs Block funding, the approach of Cognus locally, Ofsted inspections, and other key issues.
It was a pleasure to speak with Stephen Kingdom and Aidan Smith from the DCP - a coalition of more than 80 charities who have joined forces, working closely in partnership with parents, to campaign for improved health and social care for disabled children, young people and their families - about how Hayley and I can work with them to press for greater support, and what their priorities are as we emerge from coronavirus.
Their three key asks are:
- A therapies catch-up plan could help address physical deterioration, for example helping stop muscle degeneration in children with cerebral palsy.
- Additional respite care for families would help alleviate exhaustion and combat a poor mental health epidemic.
- Flexibility to extend or allow repeat funding for disabled young people in further education could help make-up for lost time, and prepare them for transition into adulthood.
You can more about the DCP's calls for greater support for disabled children here.
This policy area is something that the Women and Equalities Committee, of which I am a member, is also looking at, and we hope to feed-in to Government soon.
I shall be writing to the Minister on behalf of DCP and the Sutton EHCP Crisis Group to set out these key asks, and am also due to meet the Chair of the Education Select Committee, Rob Halfon, next month to discuss these issues further.