Special Needs E-Petition

For my UK friends only (sorry) but PLEASE pass this around.

Number 10 Downing Street has a website.

They accept petitions.

The following petition will be live until 20 February 2007.

Helen Green, the Petition Creator, writes:

SENDIST POWERS

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Give SENDIST more powers to act when an LEA is at fault.

SENDIST hearings mean they are witnesses to many Local Education Authorities not acting in the best interests of children with Special Educational Needs, for example using possible "Blanket policies" when deciding whether to undertake statutory assessments and statements. We feel SENDIST should be able to act when witness to possible maladministration rather than parents having to go through hearings and then also having to contact the Ombudsman.

I never knew that! I mean to say my own Local Education Authority made a great fuss about how stressful and bad for everybody it would be to go to tribunal and I almost felt guilted out of it. Then when we got there the LEA representative was warmly welcomed by a member of staff and I overheard her commenting that she was up there to represent the County about once every six weeks.

Perhaps it was a joke.

I still assumed that a SENDIST tribunal would have the power to at least pressure an LEA into following the rules.

HERES THE LINK. If you are a UK resident, please use it and sign. A corporate body that gets away with cutting one corner will by and by cut more; just because they can.

Tags: SENDIST, Tribunal, Special Needs, Downing Street, Petition