'It's so disheartening': Parents protest against Northampton council for 'failing' their disabled children

A group of around 20 parents protested against Northampton council for “failing” to provide education and support for their disabled children.

Parents of disabled children demonstrated outside of West Northamptonshire Council's Angel Square headquarters in Angel Street on Tuesday morning (September 6).

Lauren Chadwick, speaking on behalf of the protesters, said: "WNC is failing its disabled children, particularly in their education.

"There are a whole range of different stories here. There are so many children without a suitable school place, children waiting for special school places, children stuck in mainstream schools.

"We've also got parents of children who have been denied support and simultaneously are being prosecuted because their children's attendance at school is poor - their attendance is poor because their additional needs are not being met.

"It's the way we've been treated is what we can't get over. WNC uses the funding excuse.”

Asked what it feels like to be let down by WNC, Lauren said: "It's awful. It's so disheartening. Just raising a disabled child is hard enough but having to fight the system, having this department of the local authority, which seems to exist to deliberately lock your child out of education and out of getting support, it's really, really difficult.

"We just want change. We want WNC to stop wasting money on lawyers to fight us and instead just educate our children."

Lauren said the solution to the issue is to build more schools and offer more specialist places.

She said: "WNC desperately need to look at the amount of specialist places available. We need, in terms of special schools, another five or six at least. What is available is not meeting the needs of the children in the county. There is a huge number of children falling through the gap."

Councillor Fiona Baker, Cabinet Member for Children, Families, Education and Skills at WNC, apologised to families who are being “let down”.

She said: “Like councils across the country, we are seeing significant pressures on SEND provision for children and their families, especially with the current shortfall locally of places and we are saddened and sorry that some families in West Northants are being let down and not receiving the specialist services we know they need.

“Tackling this major challenge is a top priority for us and we have plans to provide an additional 500 new places within the next two years, including 250 places in this forthcoming academic year. We know this does not immediately address the challenges faced by some families and these improvements won’t happen overnight.

“I fully appreciate the strength of feeling around these issues and would like to thank those families who are taking the time to come along to our offices and voice their concerns as part of this demonstration.

"We hope it will be an opportunity for us to listen to their experiences and offer them one-to-one sessions with members of our SEND team where they could discuss their personal circumstances with us as we look at ways of trying to reach practical solutions to improve outcomes for their children.”