Latest News for Parents & Carers

Disabled passengers using the UK railways have described the “demeaning” experiences that leave them feeling they are not being treated equally – as groups call for rail renationalisation to be a moment for change. Becca Jackaman, a full-time wheelchair user, regularly travels from Ipswich to London on the train, and can only get on and off if staff deploy ramps.

A woman said she was left “shocked” and felt “unfairly penalised” after she was told her disabled children could not eat in a restaurant. Kate Sicolo, from Truro, said she visited a Whitbread Premier Inn restaurant in London Paddington with her partner Emma and their two children.

Contact CEO Anna Bird has appeared on Sky Breakfast to call on the government to ensure all children in England who need it have a legal guarantee of support for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Anna also called for teachers to receive a comprehensive package of training to teach children with SEND. And she said that schools must have access to specialist support like education psychologists and speech and language therapists.

More than a thousand disabled children across the UK are waiting for wheelchairs and mobility equipment that could transform their lives, Whizz Kidz say. The charity, external, which helps wheelchair users up to 25 years old, has been forced to close its specialist wheelchairs waitlist for the first time in its 35-year history.

There are more than 1.7 million children and young people in England’s schools who are recognised as having special educational needs and disabilities (or Send). When you factor in their parents and carers, it highlights the huge number of people who anxiously watch this area of policy.