News
Lacey, a parent of a child with special educational needs and disabilities (Send), spoke to Socialist Worker
By Thomas Foster
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Sunday 26 October 2025
Issue
Strike at Whitefield School in east London, primarily a Send school (Photo: Guy Smallman)
Parents of disabled children plan protests across Britain on Monday of next week to demand the Labour government tackles the funding crisis.
Children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) are paying the price after more than a decade of austerity.
Labour promised to publish a series of reforms this autumn, but the document is yet to appear.
Lacey, a parent of a child with Send, told Socialist Worker, “We need to be pushing the government. We don’t know what the hold-up is.
“I don’t have any faith we will get the reform we have asked for and desperately need.
“It should be bigger news that we can’t protect the most vulnerable children, who are being let down.”
Cash-strapped councils are delaying giving out education, health and care plans (EHCPs).
These plans lay out the provision that a child with Send needs, and councils are legally obligated to meet their requirements. But, even when local authorities give out EHCPs, they often don’t meet them.
And councils are also not expanding school capacity—currently two in three specialist schools are oversubscribed.
Lacey’s son Spencer has a rare genetic condition that affects every bone and organ in his body. He needs to go to a specialist school that can adequately meet his medical needs.
But Derbyshire council said there were no Send school places available in the county.
Spencer has already spent a year out of education, and is likely to spend another year too.
‘Broken system denied my disabled son education’
Lacey said that the time out of school is starting to affect Spencer badly. “It is not healthy to spend this much time out of school,” she said. “He needs to be with people his own age.”
Lacey added, “No one is being held accountable. I’m sick of the excuses and being put on the back burner—enough is enough.”
Lacey can’t get full-time work because of the Send crisis. “How can I do a 40 hour week when I have no childcare for my child?” she asks.
“I am trying to get a nursing degree and have to defer my course for a second year.
“I’m behind on every single bill. I’m having to rely on benefits that aren’t enough to live off. There is nothing that works properly. Every Send parent I meet has a bad experience with a local authority. It is the norm.
“You have mainstream schools not equipped to deal with children and that is dangerous.”
Often parents have to take a council to a tribunal just to ensure their child’s educational needs are met. In 2023, 95 percent of complaints against local authorities were upheld.
But it can take years to reach a tribunal review. Education solicitors are backlogged with very few taking on legal aid, which can mean parents end up paying expensive fees.
Lacey blasted Labour’s claim that there is no money to fund Send when the super-rich are hoarding wealth. “There is money, it is just in the wrong hands,” she said.
“Enough is enough—we aren’t going to shut up without change.”
