Haringey SEND - still NOT a safe space to share your story
- By Brian Leveson
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- 06 Jul, 2021
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It doesn't happen in Parks, Scrutiny Panel, at Whittington Health or HealthWatch, but once again, we went to a Haringey SEND meeting and found ourselves under attack: parent blaming and unfounded allegations made against parents in a meeting about the new SEND strategy. We asked for a safe space. We were told 'we are all consenting adults'.
It takes courage for traumatised parents to tell their stories of 16 years of struggle
We have been struggling for 16 years to get services in Haringey to meet the needs of our severely disabled child and our family: we want a less 'adversarial atmosphere'; parents not to be blamed for the councils failings; a place to tell our story without being subjected to attack.
Unfounded accusations against us and other parents
After telling our story we were accused by another parent at the meeting, who wanted to 'shed some light' on what we were saying, of running the previous parent carer forum, which they described as being aggressive and that they felt 'too intimidated to join'.
We have not ever run the parent carer forum - and stop with the parent blaming
We have NEVER run the parent carer forum in Haringey.
The 'AMAZE' report found that Haringey Involve was chronically under funded
Not only was Haringey Involve chronically under funded, set up in 2012, at time of closure in March 2019 it still lacked a constitution, governance structure, policy documents, transparency and accountability.
The Local Authority are responsible for commissioning the support organisation for the parent carer forum
And although this time, and only this time, parents have been involved in that process, the responsibility for ensuring that appropriate governance structures are place does not lie with parents.
Parent may write the policies - but the oversight cones from the charity Contact and the Local Authority.
Parent may write the policies - but the oversight cones from the charity Contact and the Local Authority.
Meetings need to be safe spaces for parents to share without being attacked
And when we made that challenge yesterday, we were told that 'We are all consenting adults'.
The system here in Haringey is broken and will remain so if we cannot tell our stories safely.
But vulnerable people cannot support other vulnerable people.
People managing their own crisis at home cannot be allowed to dismiss the crisis in other people's homes.
Unaccountable 'representatives', who are permitted to make wild and unfounded defamatory allegations about people cannot censor what is and is not appropriate to say.
People managing their own crisis at home cannot be allowed to dismiss the crisis in other people's homes.
Unaccountable 'representatives', who are permitted to make wild and unfounded defamatory allegations about people cannot censor what is and is not appropriate to say.
STOP PARENT BLAMING
IF WE DO NOT STOP THIS CYCLE OF PARENT BLAMING - OF THE LAST PARENT WHO RAN A FORUM OR CHALLENGED THE LOCAL AUTHORITY OR THE MOST VOCAL PARENTS WHO TRY TO BRING ABOUT CHANGE WE ARE NEVER GOING TO GET ANYWHERE.
If you thought SEND was bad - the NHS is seemingly prepared to throw away money to private companies
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
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.
Never EVER get on the bus without a camera running if you need the priority wheelchair space
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.
At 3pm today I received some barefaced lies from Haringey Council Adult Social Care in response to a photograph I published online yesterday and the media interest it generated
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.
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
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
Is the argument for and against exemptions for disabled people in Low Traffic Neighbourhoods really a case of GOOD versus EVIL?
