"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win”  Mahatma Gandhi.

The Difficult Parent • February 12, 2020

The bullying of SEND parents - the outcome of our Twitter Vox Pop (all of these comments are from the Difficult Parent Twitter feed) Thank you to #SENDParents fighting the #SENDCrisis on Twitter and #EmpoweringParents ***Additional comments from Twitter at the end***

Additional comments from Twitter on this blog

Wow. Thought provoking blog...brilliantly presented and now needs to be presented to LAs & schools so voices are heard. Well done you & thank you for sharing!

Who do we report the bullying to? The reach of a local authority is massive. They have a badge they can’t possibly be a bully. My send officer always emails me on Friday @5pm . It’s intimidation.It’s become so predictable now. Then [they] puts out of office on.

All complaints can be put in the threshold bundle for Family Court. My own experience. When the case was being made to put my [child] in Care, the school's contribution was all the complaints that I had put in and about poor attendance (because [child] was ill and the consultant said [child] could attend part-time). Parents shouldn't phone unless they can record the conversation. Retaining every scrap of evidence and documentation is vital. I was being accused of FII for having a child with [diagnosed condition].
I use a pseudonym [... ...]. My [child] was put in Care and returned very sick and disabled [more than a year] later. Have since successfully sued the hospital who started the accusations. Yes please put it on. People must watch their backs.

An apology: SEND is nowhere near as bad as NHS-funded Continuing Health Care

By Brian Leveson • March 25, 2025
If you thought SEND was bad - the NHS is seemingly prepared to throw away money to private companies

Vindictive bullying when a child dies

By Brian Leveson • September 28, 2023
About 3 or 4 times a year we get the euphemistic message 'Parents please note we have put a letter in your child's bag' - its a world away from how a child's death was handled in my child's first school

10 stages of exponentially increasing incompetence

By Brian Leveson • September 27, 2023
More of a trial by ordeal than a well organised clearly set out administrative process for moving the care of vulnerable young adults from Haringey's Children's Services to Adult Services. We have been failed at every stage of the process.

Active travel does not work if you are paraplegic and Transport for London seem to make the rules up as you (try to) go along...

By Brian Leveson • September 24, 2023
Never EVER get on the bus without a camera running if you need the priority wheelchair space

Move your f-cking buggies from the wheelchair spaces on buses

By Brian Leveson • September 17, 2023
The reality of using a London Bus in the teeming rain on a Sunday afternoon is no joke when the parents of a paraplegic person in a wheelchair clash with the self-entitled buggy-pushing parents of toddlers.

Haringey SEND Transport: 17 year old obnoxious diesel fume spewing death trap on wheels - and Haringey knows it

By Brian Leveson • June 22, 2023
Haringey SEND Transport are insisting that a 17 year old minibus with no air conditioning is a suitable vehicle to transport my paraplegic son in this heatwave. The appalling conditions inside the minibus inside the bus is something they knew about last summer, yet they have to date done nothing whatsoever provide a suitable minibus this year nor appropriately mitigate the temperatures inside the minibus.The conditions inside the minibus are so bad that they triggered multiple seizures during the heatwave as my son has epilepsy, which they SEND transport department know about and they also know that they are triggered by heat.It is not just son who is impacted: last year we know of one child who died on Haringey SEND Transport in the summer heatwave and another who had seizures.

Is this really NECESSARY?

By Brian Leveson • January 3, 2023
I am simply asking a question - are we all absolutely certain that the road closure / travel restrictions (commonly know as LTNs) placed on some of the most severely disabled people who are wholly reliant on cars are absolutely necessary

Disabled people need permission to travel for every single trip!

By Brian Leveson • January 2, 2023
Haringey's road closures exemptions policy for disabled people is not fit for purpose, unduly burdensome and intrusive - it's time to stand up against the pro-LTN lycra-clad cycling bullies

2 Wheels GOOD, Blue Badge Holders EVIL?

By Brian Leveson • January 1, 2023
Is the argument for and against exemptions for disabled people in Low Traffic Neighbourhoods really a case of GOOD versus EVIL?

Should Peray Ahmet resign as Leader of Haringey Council and take her pro-LTN bullies with her?

By Brian Leveson • December 31, 2022
Letters from Labour Grandees and survey results from Haringey Council show people who opposed LTNs are women, elderly and disabled. Yet Peray Ahmet has described anti-LTN people as homophobic, islamophobic, sexist, racist and xenophobic.