Category: Other

Contact’s policy officer, Imogen Steele has given give her assessment of the ISOS Partnership report (England) published today.

The report, commissioned by the Local Government Association and County Council Network, sets out ideas for the future of the special educational needs system in England. You may have already read the excellent analysis by Special Needs Jungle and others.

As someone who was interviewed by the ISOS partnership for this report, I don’t feel like I was listened to at all.  As a disabled individual who had to rely on the law to get my schools and teachers to even bother to try to teach me, this report has really disappointed me.

Diminish disabled children’s rights

The overall aim of creating a system that is inclusive to all students, where a plan of support that is linked to funding – an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) – won’t be needed for the majority is good.

However, the proposal seems vague, lacking in detail and idealistic. Of greater concern are some of the report’s more controversial proposals such as changing the SEN legal framework and removing the SEND Tribunal which will simply diminish disabled children’s rights in education.

Restricting access to EHC plans

At Contact we are deeply concerned that some of the recommendations in the ISOS report will dilute disabled children’s rights in education. The report proposes to restrict access to Education, Heath and Social Care Needs Assessments, limit Education, Health and Social Care Plans ‘for the minority of children’ and diminishes parental rights to choose where their disabled child goes to school. This is a vital right as parents with disabled children are the experts on their child’s needs and where they will be best met. 

SEND Tribunals

Perhaps most disturbing of all is the report’s suggestion of abolishing the SEND Tribunal – the court where parents can appeal against the decisions made in relation to their child’s Special Educational Needs. The report suggests that the tribunal will be replaced by an independent practitioner body with no judicial powers. These proposals will leave disabled children with diminished rights in education. And their families’ ability to challenge wrongful decisions via appeals will disappear.

Taking away families’ legal rights

Contact’s CEO Anna Bird and others across the disability sector have reacted to the ISOS report with the following statement.  

“Taking away families’ legal rights would only risk more children and their families being failed. This is because these rights are an essential safeguard when nothing else has worked.  What Government should do is give schools the right skills and enough money to be able to support the 1.7 million children in England with special educational needs. Until they do that, thousands of children will fail to learn and many will be unable to go to school at all.” 

Access to therapists

There are some positive recommendation in the report such as:

What’s needed

Contact like to see the government enhance support for disabled pupils in mainstream schools. This can be achieved by boosting funding, legal entitlements and access to specialists. This will make disabled pupils feel welcome and included in the school environment. In the long-term, this will reduce the need for education, health and care (EHC) plans

For more detail on Contact 3 asks for the SEN system see our campaigns section.

ITV News is placing the spotlight on Special Educational Needs and disability (SEND) today, 25 July. It reveals the impact of a failing education system for disabled children across its news channels.

Research ITV carried out reveals that:

Watch GMB interview with actor Sally Phillips who talks about the ITV findings and her own experiences.

A broken system

In response, the Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson pledged that the new government would fix the “broken system. ” But warned change would not be quick. She went on to say:

“We will restore parents’ trust that their child will get the support they need in mainstream school, if that is the right place for them. And that there will always be a place in special schools for children with the most complex needs.”

Struggling to get their hands on vital support

Katie Ghose, from the Disabled Children’s Partnership said:.

“It mirrors our own research that families with disabled children are in a desperate situation – they are struggling to get their hands on support. This means their children are missing out on education and not getting access to the vital therapies they need to thrive,”

“The desperate situation of families with disabled children needs all the attention that we can give it. It’s good to see this new research but it’s shocking to see that half of parents are having to resort to lengthy legal battles to get the support that their disabled children needs.”

Families feel seen

Anna Bird, CEO of Contact said on X (Twitter):

“I really hope families feel seen today. There are some powerful messages in today’s coverage of failures of SEND support about the colossal waste of children’s talent and potential. Good and right that Bridget Phillipson MP response leads with the need to build trust and listen.”

ITV’s focus on education for children and young people with additional needs comes at the same time as a report commissioned by the Local Government Association and the County Councils Network which sets out recommendations for reforming the education system for children with special educational needs and includes some worrying proposals that would take away legal rights for disabled pupils.

Contact continues to support Andrew Turner’s campaign to unlock £210 million of savings held in Child Trust Funds. Andrew has already written to new ministers asking for urgent action.

And now Andrew has set up a Facebook campaign group called Unlock Our Savings – Child Trust Funds & JISAs for disabled young people.  We’d love you to join us in it.

This link will take you to the group: Unlock Our Savings – Child Trust Funds & JISAs.

The Unlock Our Savings group will help us to share information accessing Child Trust Funds and Junior ISAs. It will also help us reach more people who are affected by this unfair situation.

Many voices are stronger than one. We hope the group will be a way for us all to demand action from the new government.

Reasons to join

Hera are three reason to join:

Spread the word

Please share the group with your contacts. If your child attends a special school or specialist services, maybe you could share on their social media too.

Our research tells us that there are many families who don’t know that this is a potential issue for them. We’d love to reach as many people as we can!

Those of you not on Facebook, please be assured that we will continue to stay in touch via email. Make sure that you are opted in to receive campaign emails.


Contact is delighted to announce that the Free School Meals campaign, set up by parent carer Natalie Hay, has taken top prize in the Disability category at this year’s Charity Awards, the longest-running and most prestigious awards scheme in the charity sector.

Contact was recognised for our work supporting and amplifying the parent-led campaign to ensure eligible disabled children don’t miss out on their free school meal.

Together with parent campaigner Natalie Hay and her son Matteo, we were honoured to be invited to a black-tie ceremony at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London, hosted by broadcaster, commentator and writer Baroness Ayesha Hazarika. There we were presented with a trophy alongside the nine other category winners.

Working collaboratively

Anna Bird, chief executive at Contact, said: “We are very proud to win this award, which is testament to the hard work of the Contact campaigns team and our ethos of working collaboratively with parent carers.

“Campaign leader, Natalie Hay saw discrimination taking place and decided to take a stand on behalf of all parent carers. That is the strength of the parent carer community. We were honoured to work alongside Natalie and other parent carers to effect change and ensure that eligible disabled children don’t miss out on the free school meal they are entitled to.”

Proud of this prize

Matt Nolan, chief executive of Civil Society Media which organises the Charity Awards, congratulated Contact on winning the highly-coveted award.  He said: “For 24 years, the Charity Awards has been shining a spotlight on the vital and inspiring work that UK charities carry out right across the country. In 2024, the sector is contending with soaring costs, rising demand and shrinking donations, yet the resilience, ambition and innovation in these applications continues to impress and inspire us. In a year of record entries, Contact should be hugely proud of this prize.” 

Contact’s research found that 164,000 disabled children were missing out on their free school meal due to their disability or sensory needs, or because they are unable to attend school due to illness or waiting for a suitable school place. 

The law is clear that they should receive an alternative such as a food vouchers in lieu of the meal, yet thousands weren’t.

Parent Natalie Hay led the campaign and fundraised to mount a legal challenge to stop disabled children missing out on free school meals, and Contact joined her fight. Together we successfully convinced the government to admit that its current practice discriminated against those who couldn’t make use of the school meals. The government committed to update its guidance making clear schools have a duty to provide a reasonable adjustment such as a supermarket voucher. The guidance was published in March 2024.

If all families who are eligible take advantage of the vouchers, the gain to those families would be around £93m.

We are very grateful to Natalie Hay, Ian Byrne MP and solicitors Rook, Irwin and Sweeney for supporting the campaign. We couldn’t have achieved the win without them.

If your child is missing out on their free school meal

We have template letters to help those missing out on a free meal and want to claim vouchers instead.


School summer holidays have started in Scotland and are on the horizon in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

We have updated our holiday web pages recently which include information about early bird sessions, carer passes, leisure discounts and much more.

We recently held a Facebook Q&A for parents looking for help and advice about activities, childcare and holidays during the summer break. Almost 50 parents asked questions during the hour-long session.

The top two questions were:

What accessible activities are there locally?

For families in England a good place to start is to look at your council’s Local Offer.  It will include the support and facilities families can find in their area for children and young people who have special educational needs (SEN) and disabilities.

In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland most councils have information on their website about playschemes and clubs locally for children with additional needs.

What are the best places to go to for help with funding towards holidays and play schemes?

Many charities can help families with this, ranging from small local charities to large national organisations such as the Family Fund – who often help with holidays. Our Grants webpage has information and tips about searching for a grant, as well as our own downloadable grants list with a summary of grant-giving charities and trusts.

You can also use the online Grants Search tool on our website to search for available grants for holidays and play schemes.

Equipment to help you and your child enjoy being out and about

If you are looking for fantastic products to help you get out about during the holidays our Fledglings shop has everything you could need. Swim wear, ear defenders, changing mats are all available and more.

Looking for something to do?

Here is a list of wheelchair accessible beaches around the UK.

The charity Kids in Museums last week revealed the 18 museums, galleries and heritage sites in the UK shortlisted for an award. They are recognised for being welcoming, fun and accessible venues. Why not try them out this summer?

Best Accessible Museum

In the Best Accessible Museum category, the shortlisted venues use innovative ways to welcome families with children who have additional needs, including: exhibitions devoted to sharing stories of deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people, Makaton Monday video features on social media, weekly relaxed openings and sensory materials to support visits.

Best Small Museum

Best Medium Museum

Best Large Museum

Latest figures from the Department for Education show there are more than 1.6 million pupils in England with special educational needs (SEN), an increase of 101,000 since 2023.

The number includes both pupils who have Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans and those who receive SEN support.

The headlines for SEN Support

The headlines for EHC plans

What do these figures tell us?

These numbers confirm what we already from enquiries to our helpline. The SEN system is not working as it should.

This is because schools are not able to provide the SEN support they should due to funding pressures and a shortage of specialists like speech and language therapists and educational psychologists.

Together with widespread non-compliance with SEN law, this leaves children without the special educational provision they need and are entitled to. This often leaves an EHC plan as the only option. Securing an EHC plan too often is adversarial and lengthy, forcing parents to appeal to the tribunal.

Contact’s three asks

This why Contact has published three asks that will tackle the biggest issues within the education system in England for pupils with SEN.

We are calling on the next government to:

  1. Strengthen the Children and Families Act 2014 to place SEN Support on a statutory footing. The law must also make Health and Social Care jointly responsible for SEND provision alongside Education.
  2. Establish a robust system of accountability so that education, health and social care authorities and education settings comply with their legal obligations under the Children and Families Act 2014.
  3. Significantly invest in the specialist workforce.

Find out more about our three asks for the SEN system.  And please email your local candidates about these and our other successful step for the next government.

Thank you to everyone who has emailed their local candidates.  Nearly 2000 local candidates have received an email about our Roadmap for the next government.

So thank you for supporting our election campaign and helping us get head start in highlighting our 10 successful steps with local candidates who could be in Parliament next month!

One of the candidates asked how much will it costs?  Whilst investment is needed in many areas, many of the steps will actually help the economy such as:

Get involved

With just over a week until polling day on the 4th July, it’s not too late to get in touch with your local candidates.

Tweet your candidate today!

Deadline tomorrow for proxy vote

Tomorrow, Wednesday 26 June by 5pm is the deadline for:

We have now heard from the main political parties on what they will do should they get elected.

We’ve taken just one thing from each of the manifestos that would be a better deal for disabled children, young people and their families:

Conservatives – create 60,000 school places, plus building 15 new schools for disabled children.

Greens – push for mandatory free school transport for 16-18 year old disabled pupils.

Labour – Sir Keir Starmer says his party will hold local authorities to account to improve the services they provide for disabled children.

Liberal Dems – Sir Ed Davey has pledged to be the voice of carers, including reform of Carer’s Allowance and immediately increasing it by £20 a week, expand eligibility and increase how much carers can earn before losing the benefit.

These commitments are all part of our Roadmap for the next government. If you haven’t already, please email your local candidates about disabled children.

Don’t forget to register to vote, deadline tomorrow or get a postal vote by Wednesday 19 June.  

With the General Election just 3 weeks away, now is the time to ask your local parliamentary candidates to pledge their support to unpaid carers and disabled children if elected.

Please share our Roadmap for the next Government with your local parliamentary candidates. We have set up an email to send to your local candidates to make it quick and easy for you. 

Don’t worry if you don’t know who your local candidates are, if you just put your postcode in, our system will email all of those standing for election in your area.

Reduce, Revive, Roll-Out

Disabled children deserve a government that is prepared to think big and to build a society where everyone is given their own best chance to be successful. 

That’s why Contact is calling on the next government to:

Contact’s Roadmap for the next government sets out 10 steps create meaningful change for seriously ill and disabled children. Our 10 successful steps include scrapping the carer’s allowance earnings limit, fixing Universal Credit and establishing accountability within the education, health and care system so the rights of disabled children can no longer be ignored without consequences.

Email your local candidates or Tweet your local candidates

Why this matters?

It is very important that as many parliamentary candidates as possible pledge to support the rights of disabled children and commit to pursuing policies that will increase equality for families with disabled children.

The onus should not always be on parents to battle for these services, we have enough on our plates on a daily basis. I want to see the next Government removing barriers to social care and making the process more needs based

Adele, parent carer to Molly

By supporting our action to contact your local parliamentary candidates you are helping to ensure that the rights of disabled children and their families are prioritised by the next government. 

Although the General Election isn’t until the Thursday 4 July, there are a few deadlines that you need to know about sooner.

If you’re voting in person, now is the time to check that you can easily locate your photo ID, as you’ll need it to vote. The list of what is considered acceptable ID can be found here. If you don’t have any of these you can apply for a free Voter Authority Certificate.

All polling stations should be accessible, if you are concerned about any accessibility issues please check with your local council. 

Key dates

Tuesday 18 June by 11:59pm

Wednesday 19 June by 5pm

Wednesday 26 June by 5pm

Thursday 4 July

Polling stations are open from 7am to 10pm

Related Information

Easy read information explaining more about voting and the General Election.

Read our Roadmap for the next Government 

The Disabled Children’s Partnership, led by Contact, has launched a new report This Is My Life: Hear Me, Help Me. The report is based on views shared by more than 600 disabled young people aged 11-25.

To mark the launch of the report, the research featured in an episode of FYI, the weekly news show for young people on Sky Kids and Sky News. The episode focused on disabled young people and highlighted their experiences.

The programme is really powerful as it shows young disabled people talking directly about their lives and the challenges they face.

What did young people shared

The results paint a concerning picture, showing that only one in five (20%) feels that they have the right amount of formal support to achieve the things that they want in life. Satisfaction with levels of support appears to decline as children get older with only 17% of 19-25 year olds happy with support levels, compared to 29% in 11-15 year olds.

When it comes to having their voices heard, just one in five (20%) disabled young people feel that their views and opinions are taken into account by health and social care workers and a further 90% feel their parents are not getting the right amount of support from the social care system – with only one in ten claiming to be satisfied with the assistance they receive.

Read the Easy Read format of the report

Enough is enough

Anna Bird CEO of Contact and chair of the Disabled Children’s Partnership said:

“The results of this report are deeply concerning and show that sadly, the system in England continues to fail to meet the needs of disabled young people who are left feeling invisible, that they just don’t matter and that their futures do not count. This is placing many of them and their families under enormous strain trying to battle against a system that has borne the brunt of spending cuts and is increasingly difficult to navigate.  

“Enough is enough – we are imploring the next government to put the needs of young disabled people front and centre. They have the right to pursue their life goals, feel safe and secure in their home, get an education and undertake activities they enjoy. With the right support they can develop essential life skills, grow in confidence and look forward to a promising future. This is the least they deserve”.

You can now translate the information, advice and support on our website into the language of your choice and simplify content into bite-sized chunks to make it easier to understand.

The new ‘translation’ and ‘page summariser’ tools can be found in the Recite Me Accessibility Toolbar, which we launched last year to provide a more digitally inclusive experience for everyone visiting our website.

Where can I find the Recite Me Accessibility Toolbar?

It’s quick and simple to access the toolbar:

Once you’ve opened the toolbar, you can click on the different options to customise your experience. For more information on what each tool does, take a look at the Recite Me features page.

Try the translation tool

To change language using the translation tool, click the translate icon.

Select a language from the list, and the whole website will be translated into the language of your choice; some languages also have an audio option. Languages available include Arabic, Polish, Punjabi, Somali, Urdu and Welsh. To see the full list of languages, click the “Accessibility toolbar” link in the top navigation bar, and select the translation icon.

Please note: The Recite Me assistive translation tool, which uses third-party providers including Google, Microsoft and Amazon, offers an approximate translation of our online information, advice and support. We provide this tool for your convenience only, and we do not warrant the accuracy of, nor are we liable for any action taken as a result of, any translation generated by the tool.

Summarise a page

Click the summariser icon and the webpage content will automictically be simplified into digestible summaries, making information more accessible and reducing reading time.

Using this icon will also spell out acronyms, such as ‘DLA’ or ‘PIP’ and can be read aloud by the screen reader.

We hope you find these new accessibility tools helpful.

Ministers are considering cutting back funding for the long-awaited roll of out NHS eye testing for pupils in all English special schools due to be launched this year.

According to the Association of Optometrists (AOP), reported in Optometry Today, the government wants to slash funding for the service by up to 30%.

The AOP described a proposal to cut the per pupil provider fee from £116 to £81 as “an act of sabotage” to a “lifesaving” scheme.

Contact’s Chief Executive Anna Bird, along with 12 other charities, last week signed a letter to public health minister Andrea Leadsom urging the minister to not water down the scheme.

The charities are seeking an urgent meeting with the minister to air their concerns before any funding decision is made.

Contact, with SeeAbility and Mencap, have long argued that the new service must be adequately funded and delivered by autism and learning disability trained optical practitioners to ensure our most vulnerable children are ability to access sight tests.

The letter states: “Concerns are increasing over the quality of what might be commissioned in the future and successful elements of the [existing] service being removed in a full national rollout…”

Ministers promised to extend NHS in-school eye tests to 165,000 special school pupils this year via a new service. Integrated care boards (ICBs) will get funding to commission services for schools in their local area.

Currently only 9% of special school pupils receive the eye testing service even though children with a learning disability are 28 times more likely to have a problem with their eyes and/or sight.

Contact’s information and advice about eye care

Find out more about how to care for you disabled child’s eyesight and read out Contact’s parent guide to eye care for children with autism and learning disabilities.

If you are autistic or the parent or carer of an autistic person would you like to help others understand more about autism? We’ll give you training and all the support you need to help other families.

We’re looking for autism peer educators in London and the following regions:

If you live in London and this opportunity is of interest to you please visit our Peer Educator London Expression of Interest page.

OR if you live in one of the other regions listed please apply using one of the areas listed below visit our Peer Educator Expression of Interest page.

Please note applicants must be willing to travel to facilitate face-to-face workshops.

Peer recruitment is part of our work with Autism Central to offer families and carers of autistic people high-quality and easily accessible autism education, training, and support through peer educators, alongside our dedicated website.

New research from the End Child Poverty Coalition (ECPC) shows that the government’s current two-child limit on benefits policy is pushing families with disabled children even further into poverty.

The two-child limit policy introduced in 2017, restricts means-tested benefits like universal credit and child tax credits to the first two children in most households. As a result, affected families miss out on benefits worth over £3,000 a year per extra child after the second.

The policy formed part of the government’s drive to reduce welfare spending and its belief that removing eligibility for benefits for a family’s third and subsequent children would encourage parents to move into work, or work more hours. However, the new research from the ECPC reveals that the policy is hitting many parents with at least one disabled child most severely with 20 per cent of all households affected by the two-child limit having at least one disabled child and impacting 87,500 families with a disabled child.

The ECPC says removing the two-child limit on benefits would result in lifting 300,000 children out of poverty overall and mean 800,000 would be in less deep poverty.

Una Summerson, Contact’s head of policy said: “As well as scrapping the two-child limit on benefits there are other changes that would help families with disabled children avoid being pushed further into poverty. For example, scrapping the Carer’s Allowance earnings limit. This would allow carers to earn more without losing their entitlement and avoid the risk of overpayments.  

“We also know that more than100,000 disabled children would be better off by around £2,290 a year if the 50% cut to the lower child disability addition under universal credit was scrapped. This, and other quick fixes to Universal Credit such as making it easier for disabled young people in education to claim, could put more than £200 million back into their pockets.”

If you have a disabled child, or you are on a low-income or not working, you may be entitled to certain benefits and tax credits to help with the extra costs you face. Visit our webpage for more information.

Find out more about our Carer’s Allowance campaign.

Today, Friday 26 April is Undiagnosed Children’s Day – an important campaign organised by SWAN UK (Syndromes Without a Name), to help raise awareness of undiagnosed genetic conditions.

Approximately 6,000 children are born in the UK each year with a syndrome without a name – a genetic condition so rare that is likely to remain undiagnosed and around a third of families who get in touch with our rare conditions officer at Contact have a child with an undiagnosed condition.

Children living without a diagnosis often have lots of medical appointments, and their parents can worry that they won’t get the support they’re entitled to.

If you don’t have a diagnosis for your child, we have lots of information on our website, including:

Did you know that your child doesn’t need a diagnosis to access care and support?

This includes support from social services, benefits such as Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and support in education.

Meeting other parent carers

If your child is living without a diagnosis, you’re not alone! Other parents with disabled children can be a great source of companionship and support. And even if your children don’t share a condition, many parents find that the issues they face are the same.

One way of meeting other families is by joining a local support group, many of which are not based around a single condition.

You can also find parents across the UK in our private Facebook group, a safe space to talk to other families about a whole host of topics, from behaviour, eating and sleeping to education, health and social care.

We’ve been working in partnership with the National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTi) since 2021 to support to young disabled people aged 16-25 in England to help them build confidence and make plans for the future.

Funded by the National Lottery Community Fund, our Time to Talk project also helps families, carers and professionals to raise aspirations and encourage independence for the young people they support.

Join us online and celebrate!

As we come to the end of the Time to Talk project, we’d like to invite you to a series of online sessions taking place from 10-13 June, to celebrate this work and share learning.

Join us and discover ideas and evidence of how personalised strengths-based approaches enable young people to build confidence, set their own goals, prepare for adulthood and have their voices heard. You’ll also hear from young people about their lived experiences, journeys and achievements.

All sessions are free and open to all including young people, family members, those working in youth and community sector, careers, participation, advocacy, education, social care and health sector. You can join as many sessions as you choose.

Find out more about what’s happening and when and register to join, by looking the full programme of sessions over the 3 day celebration.

Contact’s information about preparing for adulthood

For advice on supporting your disabled youngster through this important transition into adult life, check out our Preparing for Adulthood webpages. 

Rachel Ramsden from Teignmouth in Devon and Sophie Morris from Bushey, Hertfordshire are 2 of 18 runners getting ready to get, set go on 21 April at this year’s London Marathon.

An amazing commitment, we caught up with them to find out what inspired them to take part in the London Marathon for Contact.

39 year old Sophie, a chartered tax consultant, was inspired to run and raise vital funds for Contact after hearing about her friend’s experience caring for a child with complex needs.

Marathon runner Sophie

Sophie says: “Contact seemed like the perfect charity for me to support by running the London Marathon. I took up running two years ago and through it met my good friend Angela whose son Thomas has complex needs. Angela’s family has been supported by Contact for many years and on our runs she told me more about the challenges she faces as the parent of a disabled child – and the support Contact has given her to help overcome them.

“Talking to Angela really inspired me to take this challenge on. I know that thinking of Thomas’ smiley face will easily get me across the finishing line!”

If you’d like to donate and help Sophie smash her fundraising target please visit her JustGiving page.

Third marathon run for Rachel

43 year old medical secretary Rachel who is from Teignmouth told us:

“I’m a working mum with two children. My youngest son, Harvey, is 8 years old and is autistic. He is also non-verbal and has learning and developmental disabilities and needs help with all aspects of self-care. He is my world!

Marathon runner Rachel and her son Harvey

“I wanted to raise money and run this year’s London marathon for a charity that understands the challenges families like mine face when their child has additional support. This will be my third marathon and I am determined to come in under 5 hours so have been training really hard.”

You can donate to help Rachel’s fundraising efforts by visiting her JustGiving page.

Kaya Korablina from Contact’s fundraising team says: “Running 26 miles is a monumental challenge and we’re incredibly proud and humbled by Rachel and Sophie’s dedication, hard work, training and fundraising to support our work. It really does make a difference and helps us to continue to provide vital support to families with disabled children up and down the country. That’s why we will be there on the day cheering and congratulating all of those running the London Marathon for us this year and their efforts to help us help more families with disabled children.”

Best of luck to you both from all of us at Contact!