Think on this Haringey SEND
- By Brian Leveson
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- 10 Nov, 2021
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The stakes are for parents high in a daily battle to keep alive their disabled child; to give them the best possible quality of life and frequently, SEND parents suffer from PTSD: nightmares; endless worrying; hyper-vigilance and self blame. In Haringey this has happened in a culture that did not want to listen and communicated badly and cruelly whilst denying services and putting in place unfair barriers. Endless report after report has told us so. We argue that to move on Parents might need Truth and Reconciliation.
There is a need for Truth and Reconciliation in Haringey - stop blaming the parents
Given report after report of Haringey's troubled SEND system, it's time to think about what parents have been going through for the best part of the last decade.
We've have the Judgement from Mr Justice Hayden about the lack of robust social work practice and a defence from the department that did not stand up to examination; we've had the SEND transport report and the AMAZE Report and now the OFSTED report that added nothing but an authoritative confirmation of what we've always known - that there is neither a culture nor practical systems in place for coproduction to occur.
We've have the Judgement from Mr Justice Hayden about the lack of robust social work practice and a defence from the department that did not stand up to examination; we've had the SEND transport report and the AMAZE Report and now the OFSTED report that added nothing but an authoritative confirmation of what we've always known - that there is neither a culture nor practical systems in place for coproduction to occur.
The Loudest Voices were dismissed before the inspection and are being shunned now
The local authority give the impression that they simply want to move on, but this is not being accepted by the vast majority of parents who are concerned that Haringey are brushing the past under the carpet as quickly as they possibly can.
Minutes of meetings with the new Parent Carer Forum suggest that parents have been criticised for having 'the loudest voices' and accused of 'drowning out' the voices of others.
Minutes of meetings with the new Parent Carer Forum suggest that parents have been criticised for having 'the loudest voices' and accused of 'drowning out' the voices of others.
Enough with the whispering campaigns
And I am quite sure that a fair few of the readers of this blog will have been pulled aside for a quiet word warning then to keep aware from so-and-so parent.
Time for the playground behaviour to stop
It is simply time for this sort of divisive conduct to end.
It is time for The Truth.
The time for Reconciliation may follow, once parents feel that they have been heard.
After all, it is the parents who have suffered the 'poor communication' from the professionals.
It is time for The Truth.
The time for Reconciliation may follow, once parents feel that they have been heard.
After all, it is the parents who have suffered the 'poor communication' from the professionals.
This is the sort of thing that families with children with life limiting conditions go though every day - THINK ON THIS HARINGEY
Today, read a judgement by Mr Justice Hayden from 11th October 2021. The Judge said in his judgement that the analysis in a report shown to him needed to be shared more widely. Happy to oblige your Honour.
The case before the Judge was of the parents of a very sick and vulnerable disabled child who were in conflict with professionals
The professionals found the parents to be 'difficult parents' and the Judge instructed a psychological assessment
The psychologist is very well respected
The psychologist's assessment
Normal people in very challenging circumstances
Summary of daily life in extraordinary circumstances
Take a look yourself
Now check yourself Haringey SEND
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?
