IWD 2022: Michelle Simmons Safo - a Haringey SEND parent standing for election as a councillor
- By Brian Leveson
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- 07 Mar, 2022
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International Women's Day 2022: Difficult Parent is celebrating Michelle Simmons Safo who is standing as a Labour Party candidate in the upcoming May 2022 local council elections. Michelle has proposed motion regarding a commitment about SEND to go into the local manifesto.
So Michelle, you are a mother of 4, a parent of a child with a disability, a manager in the local CAHMs service and you are thinking of standing as a Labour Councillor. Why would you want to do that? Too much free time?
Michelle's motion for the Haringey Labour Party Manifesto 2022
Conference notes that: the joint OFSTED/CQC report (July 2021) was highly critical of Haringey Children's Service's implementation of the 2014 SEND Reforms and identified 3 areas of significant weakness requiring a Written Statement Of Action (WSOA):
1. Poor quality of Education Health and Care Plans.
2. Poor communication and co-production with SEND families.
3. Unacceptable waiting times for Autistic Spectrum Disorder assessments.
Also that:
- Haringey Councillors had previously identified these weaknesses, following the 2019 Children and Young Peoples (CYP) Scrutiny Panel investigation and report into Haringey SEND Services;
- the Amaze Report (2020) identified parents’ dissatisfaction with SEND services;
- the SEND department’s slow implementation of recommendations in CYP Scrutiny Panel, Amaze and OFSTED reports.
Conference resolves that Haringey Labour should commit the next Haringey Council administration to:
Conference resolves that Haringey Labour should commit the next Haringey Council administration to:
1. All SEND parents to be given three weeks’ minimum notice before engagement meetings and six weeks before consultations, (as recommended in the Amaze Report)
2. The co-production of the new Parent Carer Forum contract to be re-opened to ensure all parents can fully participate (as recommended in the Amaze Report)
3. All co-production and engagement meetings with Haringey SEND families to be subject to scrutiny and transparency; minutes should be online, available to all within a week of meetings.
4. To implement SEND parents’ request for an independent Truth and Reconciliation Process.
5. To apologise to parents for SEND service failings;
6. To monitor Haringey SEND department’s performance, with regular updates to families of SEND children.
I second this motion!
