Dear All An extra SENDspeak; mainly to highlight the important piece of work in Item 1. Please contribute if you can… And details of a few new events too! 1. The Social Care Legal Framework – what say you? 2. ‘Can a new Parliamentary Group keep the pressure on to #fixSEND?’ 3. Kingston SEND Parent Carer Forum - Free Family Fun Day 4. Dramatize – Film Screening 5. March to May activities- Richmond Mencap 6. If you haven’t done so already… 7. Should all children learn sign lang

Dear All This newsletter has been a week in the making… power lines blew down last weekend, so no electricity. And another storm this weekend! Welcome too to all new subscribers to SENDspeak! 😊 1. Council news relating to SEND 2. SEND Futures 2020 - 30th June 3. SEND Local Offer newsletter 4. Meanwhile, in the wider world of SEND 5. Health – Access all Areas 6. Express Autism Conference 2020 7. NCB podcast #1 - growing up with autism 8. Sensory Rooms at Heathrow Airport 9. A

Dear All Published today, the title sums it up really. Myself, as a parent/carer of (now) young adults, I still believe these reforms are the right reforms, but oh what a mess! And unfair on everyone at the front line; from the children to their parents, to the teachers to the authorities tasked with delivering the reforms. Here’s a brief round-up from this morning. More to come over the weekend (with the more usual variety of articles). 1. The SEND Inquiry's starting point 2

Dear All This issue of SENDspeak starts with news of the Kingston Parent Consortium. The national SEND Crisis takes items 2–6, and then onto Post-16 news items. There is Good News at the end. There is no shortage of news and events locally, so another SENDspeak will follow mid-week’ish (which I hope is better than a 12-page SENDspeak today!!). And Thank You to those individuals and organisations who send items to include in SENDspeak; these make for a much richer newsletter.

Dear All So… there is some good news in here, as well as a round up on the education funding crisis… 1 The SEND Carers Coffee and Chat 2 SENDIASS - Come and meet the team! 3 Reasonable Adjustments, Inclusion and Exclusion 4 School funding - Westminster Hall debate 5 #education funding - 8th March 2019 6 It was never a dress – International Women’s Day 7 #SENDNationalCrisis - march in London 8 Stress and Teachers 9 Hunrosa - zzzzzzzzz 10 The Creativity of A

Dear All Given the recent debate and news this week, here is a short update on the title subjects…. 1. School funding - Westminster Hall debate 2. Demand Action for SEND Funding 3. @SEND_Action 1 School funding - Westminster Hall debate “That this House has considered e-petition 232220 relating to school funding” This debate took place yesterday afternoon – and ran for a full 3 hours! I haven’t watched it, but have skimmed it (the transcript, when published, will be easier to

Dear All Last week included lists of events this week coming and a ‘who to call’ on Mental Health. You can read it here: www.sendspeak.org/blog dated 25th February 2019. This week, a focus on the crisis in funding, including What You Can Do (items 1-6). Followed by a look at some of the more positive news out there…. (items 7 to 14) 1 Increase SEND funding for schools – petition (and debate) 2 School funding Westminster Hall debate 3 Demand Action for SEND Funding 4 #

Dear All Plenty of activity in government this week, both local and national… 1. "...tell the Government to adequately fund special needs education" 2. “Councils, Schools and Parents are reduced to fighting each other, blaming each other, for what is actually a collective problem” [Vince Cable MP] 3. #SENDNationalCrisis 4. The SEND Inquiry – Tuesday 12th February (morning) 5. Mandatory training in learning disabilities and autism 6. Express Autism Conference 2019 7. SEND Hour