As part of the upcoming Schools White Paper, the Government has set out their five principles for SEND reform (Early, Local, Fair, Effective and Shared). You can read more about these principles in the Secretary of State for Education's recent letter to the Education Select Committee.

Two critical principles, however, are missing:

• legal entitlement, and
• enforceable accountability. 

Without these, children and young people could be left with no legally enforceable right to an accessible education that meets their needs.  

The Department for Education is now running a 'national conversation on SEND', inviting parents, carers and professionals to attend a series of SEND engagement events. These events are described as "an opportunity to discuss and understand views on the core principles for SEND reform". 

We are asking for your support to ensure legal rights are a key part of this conversation. 

Take part in a SEND engagement event

You can register for an online or in-person engagement event using the links below. 

• Sign up to attend a regional engagement event
• Sign up to attend an online event

Download our campaign toolkit

To help you prepare for and take part in the SEND engagement events, we've created a downloadable campaign toolkit containing:

• Key messages on why legal rights matter
• Suggested questions you may like to ask at engagement events
• Further ways you can support our joint campaign to Save Our Children's Rights

Help us track what isn't being answered in the SEND engagement events

We know that during the online SEND engagement events, many attendees are submitting important questions - but not all of them are being published or answered. We want to understand what's being missed.

If you've already attended a SEND engagement event and asked a question that hasn't been addressed, or you plan to attend an upcoming event, please share your unpublished and unanswered questions with us using our short online form. 

Share your questions