SEND children want to be seen and heard, understood, and benefit from their education. Yet, the learning environments we provide can maintain or prevent their progress. As a parent carer of a SEND or SEN child, this could mean advocating for additional support in their education.
Our charity has created this understanding advocacy guide for parent carers starting or already on their journey. Here, we explain advocacy, offer suggestions, and acknowledge your struggles. Although this guide concentrates on advocating for your child in their education, many of the points are relevant for advocating in other environments.
Why We Advocate
As parents, we all advocate for our children at various times in their lives. Yet, as a SEND parent carer, you may have to do so more frequently and with greater emphasis. For instance, with family and friends, out in public and in our child’s education. Advocacy is necessary when your child is misunderstood or needs additional support to equal their peers. Indeed, without advocacy, children especially are powerless over their environment. Often it is up to us adults to understand and speak up for our children’s best interests on their behalf. Altogether, advocacy has many benefits for your child, including:
- Supporting them to express their needs and identify their challenges.
- Enabling them to understand and uphold their rights.
- Allowing them to participate in decision-making.
- Empowering them to influence their environment.
- Ensuring their views and opinions are seen and heard.
What Makes a Good Advocate?
To be a good advocate, you must understand your child’s challenges. Then, you can communicate these with your child’s school, preschool or further education on their behalf. Working together, you can ease the challenges to better enable your child’s development.
Equally, young children learn from and model the adults around them. Perhaps no more so than from their parent carers. As they continue to grow, understand themselves and become more independent, they may start to speak up for themselves. Advocacy can help older children explore options. Strictly speaking, advocacy is about acting as a guide, not giving advice. Likewise, advocacy isn’t about making choices for your child. Instead, advocacy allows your child to make choices. However, this ignores the wide range of abilities and developmental levels of children with SEND. Ultimately, every child is unique and this should be considered. No one knows and understands your child like you. For this reason, you are their best advocate.
When To Advocate
Your child especially needs an advocate when their needs/rights are not being met or there is a potential for harm. However, advocacy also includes communicating your child’s experience in general. Sometimes, you may see the need to advocate and take action. When you have a concern involving a third party, for example. On the other hand, you may be called on as an advocate. For instance, if a concern is raised by a third party.
The amount of advocacy children need will vary from child to child. To illustrate, your child may find transitioning (e.g., moving between schools) very challenging, but other children with SEND may not.
Your child will spend most of their time in school, where they face most of their challenges. As you are not present, communication between you/your child and their school is vital. In practice, this could mean writing emails, sending letters, having phone conversations, and talking with individual staff or attending meetings.
How to Advocate for Your Child
Note: For simplicity, we focus on schools. However, many suggestions could be applied to children in their early years and further education.
To be an effective advocate for your child, it’s useful to consider the three parties involved; your child’s school, your child, and you. Although we can’t cover every reader’s individual scenario, we can offer suggestions to help you:
- Navigate the SEND journey by understanding the system.
- Ensure your child is seen and heard by understanding your child’s challenges.
- Advocate more effectively by understanding your challenges.
Useful Links
- The SEND Code of Practice
- Independent Provider of Special Education Advice (IPSEA). A great source of information, resources and support. They have lots of useful letter templates and advice lines, and they provide training for parents and carers.
- SENDIASS – Special Educational Needs and Disability Information, Advice and Support Service. This is a statutory service providing free, impartial and confidential advice for young people with SEND and their parents:
- Carers in Bedfordshire. This is a great place to get support, information and advice. They support parents carers, and have an online support hub covering a variety of issues, from financial, physical health and emotional support. They hold events where you can meet together with other carers.
- Contact. A charity for families with disabled children. They provide information, advice and support on a wide range of subjects. They also have support lines, online communities, and listening ear (an emotional support service).