Wigan parents joined a campaign calling for changes in education for children with special needs
Wigan parents left children’s shoes outside a council building as part of a powerful national movement.
Families across 92 local authority areas in England and Scotland took part in Every Pair Tells a Story, a campaign organised by The SEND Sanctuary UK in partnership with Let Us Learn Too and Let’s Make a Difference.
At exactly the same time, people up and down the country placed children’s shoes outside local authority buildings.
Each pair represented a child who they claimed had been “failed” by the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system, whether that was by never being given a school place or leaving school due to problems they faced.
Outside Wigan Life Centre, Lisa McMullen said: “There are children that are out of school because their needs are not being met. There are children that haven’t got a place in school because they are either too SEND for mainstream or not SEND enough for a SEND school. We stand here today in unity to ask for change.”
Angela Flaherty, who attended with volunteers from Wigan borough-based My SENsability, spoke about her eight-year-old daughter, who struggled in a mainstream school but was “not extreme enough” for a special school.
She said: “As parent, to be told your child doesn’t fit in anywhere, I didn’t know what to do with that, so I have taken her out of school and now home educate.
"There needs to be a change. These children need help and they deserve to be in a school where they can have lots of friends and learn just as much as everybody else.”
The national event followed a major rally named The Fight For Ordinary, which was held in London earlier this year and attended by more than 800 parents and young people, as well as Sir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, and Helen Hayes, chairman of the education select committee.
Aimee Bradley, founder of The SEND Sanctuary UK, said: “The Government must listen to parents. We are not the problem. We are the evidence of the problem. Our children deserve more than words. They deserve action, fairness and a future.”