Rachel
@rachel.stopsafetyvalve.uk
SEND campaigner, Special Needs Jungle contributor. As seen on local authority dartboards.
Reposted by Rachel
On SNJ Today: The parliamentary petition to #ProtectSENDRights is gaining lots of signatures - @rachel.stopsafetyvalve.uk about why we need 100,000 people to sign—If you haven’t already, please SIGN and SHARE this post and petition! www.specialneedsjungle.com/a... Please Share!
May 20, 2025 at 6:46 PM
On SNJ Today: The parliamentary petition to #ProtectSENDRights is gaining lots of signatures - @rachel.stopsafetyvalve.uk about why we need 100,000 people to sign—If you haven’t already, please SIGN and SHARE this post and petition! www.specialneedsjungle.com/a... Please Share!
We cannot allow the government to take away the vital legal rights of disabled children - sign our parliamentary petition here: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/71...
@spcialndsjungle.bsky.social
@spcialndsjungle.bsky.social
May 18, 2025 at 9:36 AM
We cannot allow the government to take away the vital legal rights of disabled children - sign our parliamentary petition here: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/71...
@spcialndsjungle.bsky.social
@spcialndsjungle.bsky.social
Why do we think that the legal rights of children with #SEND are at risk? Please read on and support our campaign to protect the rights of vulnerable children. 🧵https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/711021
April 22, 2025 at 1:09 PM
Why do we think that the legal rights of children with #SEND are at risk? Please read on and support our campaign to protect the rights of vulnerable children. 🧵https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/711021
Parents, carers, teachers, clinicians, councillors and everyone else who cares about #SEND rights - I’ve started a national campaign, we’ll be planning a protest in the summer. Please sign up, as an organisation or as an individual #UniteForSENDRights www.SENDRA.co.uk
March 20, 2025 at 10:45 AM
Parents, carers, teachers, clinicians, councillors and everyone else who cares about #SEND rights - I’ve started a national campaign, we’ll be planning a protest in the summer. Please sign up, as an organisation or as an individual #UniteForSENDRights www.SENDRA.co.uk
We need to challenge this narrative. EHCPs are NOT a pass to a state-funded private education. They are a pass to a suitable education, and for most that’s already in a mainstream or maintained specialist school inews.co.uk/news/politic...
More SEND pupils could go to mainstream schools as support shake-up is considered
Tighter rules on which children with special educational needs should get EHCPs - guaranteeing support - are being considered, amid SEND cash crisis
inews.co.uk
March 14, 2025 at 8:47 AM
We need to challenge this narrative. EHCPs are NOT a pass to a state-funded private education. They are a pass to a suitable education, and for most that’s already in a mainstream or maintained specialist school inews.co.uk/news/politic...
I’m seeing a lot of “yes but we can’t let local authorities go bust” arguments around SEND. Very true! Sign this petition to ask the government to resolve the deficits and end the damaging scheme caused by them. More info and a link at www.stopsafetyvalve.co.uk
Why we need to Stop Safety Valve
Help us end the government scheme that harms vulnerable children
www.stopsafetyvalve.co.uk
March 10, 2025 at 9:39 AM
I’m seeing a lot of “yes but we can’t let local authorities go bust” arguments around SEND. Very true! Sign this petition to ask the government to resolve the deficits and end the damaging scheme caused by them. More info and a link at www.stopsafetyvalve.co.uk
What’s frustrating is that doing this - enabling more children with SEND to thrive in mainstream - will mean savings. It just won’t mean savings immediately - anything that does will increase costs down the line.
‘We can do better than this': @pepediiasio.bsky.social on why policymakers must act now to ensure mainstream settings can support most pupils with SEND, without tying schools up in red tape
We must help mainstream schools support more pupils with SEND
Giving schools more opportunities to act early when supporting children’s needs could deliver huge improvements, says Pepe Di’Iasio
www.tes.com
March 10, 2025 at 7:22 AM
What’s frustrating is that doing this - enabling more children with SEND to thrive in mainstream - will mean savings. It just won’t mean savings immediately - anything that does will increase costs down the line.
Spot the obvious missing reason from this DfE survey for parents - if you’re going to survey parents of kids in specialist schools, there’s one major answer here you’re missing… what a wasted opportunity
February 11, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Spot the obvious missing reason from this DfE survey for parents - if you’re going to survey parents of kids in specialist schools, there’s one major answer here you’re missing… what a wasted opportunity
New SEND “Safety Valve” petition is live now - find out more about it, and why you should support it here
NEW POST: Parent campaigner @rachel.stopsafetyvalve.uk petition to scrap the government’s #SEND #SafetyValve scheme was cancelled when the election was called. Today, her campaign is relaunching the petition to prevent more disabled children being harmed: www.specialneedsjungle.com/p...
January 28, 2025 at 8:19 AM
New SEND “Safety Valve” petition is live now - find out more about it, and why you should support it here
KsENT, the Kent Special Needs Education Trust, are starting judicial review proceedings over Kent County Council’s planned redesignation of specialist schools. Good to see challenge of the unrealistic narratives being pushed around inclusion, especially in safety valve LAs
December 6, 2024 at 6:27 PM
KsENT, the Kent Special Needs Education Trust, are starting judicial review proceedings over Kent County Council’s planned redesignation of specialist schools. Good to see challenge of the unrealistic narratives being pushed around inclusion, especially in safety valve LAs
If anybody needs me, I’ll be over here slamming my head into a brick wall until I lose my vision so I don’t have to read any more of this absolute drivel
Ofsted's Annual report calls for better early intervention on SEND and "...there is a fundamental mismatch between the scale of demand and the level of resource...This will always leave some families disappointed, no matter how much additional money is forthcoming... 1/
December 5, 2024 at 6:29 PM
If anybody needs me, I’ll be over here slamming my head into a brick wall until I lose my vision so I don’t have to read any more of this absolute drivel
Throughout this year, public awareness of the Safety Valve scheme, and pressure to end it, has increased. Govt have now confirmed there will be no more agreements. It’s a small step but an important one. More here:
www.bcpacs.uk/blog/safety-...
www.bcpacs.uk/blog/safety-...
Safety Valve scheme closed to new entrants
Bridget Phillipson has announced today that no new agreements will be made
www.bcpacs.uk
December 4, 2024 at 1:31 PM
Throughout this year, public awareness of the Safety Valve scheme, and pressure to end it, has increased. Govt have now confirmed there will be no more agreements. It’s a small step but an important one. More here:
www.bcpacs.uk/blog/safety-...
www.bcpacs.uk/blog/safety-...
Alternative headline: Cambs joins the growing list of failed Safety Valve deals. Quite the spin from the council here… you wouldn’t know thats what they are talking about unless you read the final paragraph www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Cambridgeshire County Council bid to rescue £49m Send funding
Paul Jeffries, a parent from Huntingdon, welcomes plans to identify special educational needs early.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 28, 2024 at 11:06 AM
Alternative headline: Cambs joins the growing list of failed Safety Valve deals. Quite the spin from the council here… you wouldn’t know thats what they are talking about unless you read the final paragraph www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Yikes
The NAO is disclaiming the Whole of Government Accounts for the first time ever. This is due to the severe backlogs in English local authority audits
www.nao.org.uk/press-releas...
www.nao.org.uk/press-releas...
Spending watchdog disclaims government’s accounts for the first time - NAO press release
The Whole of Government Accounts consolidates accounts from over 10,000 public bodies, providing an overview of the UK’s public finances.
www.nao.org.uk
November 26, 2024 at 5:28 PM
Yikes
Glad someone is looking at this impact. Trying to juggle work and two disabled kids is already hard (where are the accessible holiday clubs?!) but if your child can’t access school, forget it. Aren’t we meant to be “getting people back to work”?
inews.co.uk/inews-lifest...
inews.co.uk/inews-lifest...
'I quit to fight for my son': how the SEND crisis is wrecking women's careers
Four in 10 parents of children with special educational needs have stopped working, and mothers are hit the hardest
inews.co.uk
November 26, 2024 at 3:47 PM
Glad someone is looking at this impact. Trying to juggle work and two disabled kids is already hard (where are the accessible holiday clubs?!) but if your child can’t access school, forget it. Aren’t we meant to be “getting people back to work”?
inews.co.uk/inews-lifest...
inews.co.uk/inews-lifest...
A rapidly disintegrating SEND system and more young people are out of work or education? How curious - wonder if these two obviously connected things might be related? www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Liz Kendall says young people who won’t take up work will lose benefits
Work and pensions secretary says she will transform opportunities as Starmer bemoans ‘bulging benefits bill’
www.theguardian.com
November 24, 2024 at 4:26 PM
A rapidly disintegrating SEND system and more young people are out of work or education? How curious - wonder if these two obviously connected things might be related? www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
New LGSCO recommendations include:
- powers to investigate EHCP implementation
- admission and exclusion issues related to SEND
Much-needed - wonder if these recommendations will be accepted as easily as some others…
www.lgo.org.uk/information-...
- powers to investigate EHCP implementation
- admission and exclusion issues related to SEND
Much-needed - wonder if these recommendations will be accepted as easily as some others…
www.lgo.org.uk/information-...
https://www.lgo.org.uk/
www.lgo.org.uk
November 22, 2024 at 5:38 PM
New LGSCO recommendations include:
- powers to investigate EHCP implementation
- admission and exclusion issues related to SEND
Much-needed - wonder if these recommendations will be accepted as easily as some others…
www.lgo.org.uk/information-...
- powers to investigate EHCP implementation
- admission and exclusion issues related to SEND
Much-needed - wonder if these recommendations will be accepted as easily as some others…
www.lgo.org.uk/information-...
Reposted by Rachel
Remarkable choice of research lead. Many genuinely independent & capable research outfits are well-equipped to do this work…
But it'll be an outfit whose last report said that SEND poses an "existential threat" to local government, & who already work on Safety Valve for local government
But it'll be an outfit whose last report said that SEND poses an "existential threat" to local government, & who already work on Safety Valve for local government
Exclusive: The government has finally commissioned research into how its SEND cost-cutting programme impacts children and their families – three years after the controversial scheme was launched
DfE finally considers pupil impact of SEND savings scheme
Move comes three years after controversial cost-cutting scheme was launched
buff.ly
November 22, 2024 at 1:10 PM
Remarkable choice of research lead. Many genuinely independent & capable research outfits are well-equipped to do this work…
But it'll be an outfit whose last report said that SEND poses an "existential threat" to local government, & who already work on Safety Valve for local government
But it'll be an outfit whose last report said that SEND poses an "existential threat" to local government, & who already work on Safety Valve for local government
Ever wondered what it’s like to hear biased, inaccurate local government aims pouring out of the DfE by way of a dodgy report? You can hear three of hours of that in the recent PAC meeting, or I’ve explained them all here instead. What a mess.
NEW POST: This week the Commons Public Accounts Committee quizzed top Education and Health civil servants about SEND. We thought it was a bit too gentle, so we gave SNJ’s @rachel.stopsafety-valve.uk the task of scrutinising them instead. It's long, but oh, so worth the read www.specialneedsjung...
November 22, 2024 at 7:00 AM
Ever wondered what it’s like to hear biased, inaccurate local government aims pouring out of the DfE by way of a dodgy report? You can hear three of hours of that in the recent PAC meeting, or I’ve explained them all here instead. What a mess.
Apparently everyone is here now - couldn’t let you all avoid my SEND rants for too long. Don’t forget to follow @spcialndsjungle.bsky.social :)
November 21, 2024 at 9:22 PM
Apparently everyone is here now - couldn’t let you all avoid my SEND rants for too long. Don’t forget to follow @spcialndsjungle.bsky.social :)