Extend the specialist support for SEN students to allow for the current gap in Education

Please sign this petition to the Minister for Education and feel free to make your own to send to your MP.

Dear Minister for Education,

The Covid19 pandemic is affecting us all. For those with special needs vital time may be lost by schools and colleges closing and for those with complex needs their critical access to learning resources restricted. Whilst we appreciate during a health care crisis there is little more that may be done now, there is much more that can be done to plan for the future for our special needs children and young people

A special needs lawyer highlighted the issue on Facebook recently. The points raised are poignant and true. Time has and will be lost. This will manifest into skills being lost and later greater reliance on the state for support through our social care services.. That is not desirable for so many reasons not least the fact that the loss of critical skills will be devastating for the individual involved.

We the people call upon our Government to help those who are most vulnerable in a similar way to the support offered to business in light of the Covid19 pandemic. To support them for what they may have lost. In the special needs world this is valuable time. Time to build skills , time to look forward to a life of greater independence and happiness. That is why we need your support.

Our Government is called upon to extend the age range defined in law for those entitled to specialist educational support during this pandemic to 26. To amend guidance to define the covid19 episode as an exceptional circumstance entitling those harmed by its consequences to be given another chance . A chance for an opportunity not to be missed. For many it is a difference between a life of dependence and independence.

We ask for the Children and Families Act 2014 (England) and the Learning and Skills Act 2000 (Wales) to extend the age range from 25 to 26 now not later. We say now as decisions are being made now. We call for the Welsh Government to scrap it's guidance toward learners who require specialist college support to be limited to only two year of study. To define the covid19 pandemic accross the SEN (ALN in Wales) world as an exceptional circumstance warranting additional support when the lock down ends. We call upon the Scottish and Northern Ireland Governments to do likewise.

We remind our Government that how we treat our children and young people defines us as a country. Now is the chance to allow historians to look favourably at a time when those in authority supported it's most vulnerable during an exceptional time.

We ask for action now. Please don't leave it for history to decide.

Yours"