100 signatures reached
To: Damian Hinds - Secretary for State of Education
Make Social and Medical Needs compulsory admission criteria in ALL UK schools
Make children and young peoples Social and Medical needs a compulsory part of the application criteria across all UK schools.
Why is this important?
Our son Harry is 4 years old and due to start school in September. Harry was diagnosed with autism and other co-morbid conditions last year, just weeks after his 4th birthday. Our aim in getting Harry’s diagnosis at such an early age was that going into education with a diagnosis would be his best chance at thriving in school. We have worked so hard over the last two years to integrate Harry into his big sisters primary school to get him ready for the incredibly hard transition he will face in September 2018 when he starts in reception. Harry has specific medical and social needs for needing to be at this specific school, this was stated on his primary application form and supported with multiple letters from his paediatrician.
Harry will now have to go to a completely different school, with no friendly faces, an unfamiliar building and hallways and playgrounds. He won’t recognise the uniform or the reception staff. He won’t be surrounded by the professionals who have been involved in his care for two years. He will be a lost little four year old, who already faces daily battles to understand the world around him, thrown into a completely unknown situation, all on his own because his medical and social needs have been disregarded.
Harry won’t be the first or last child to be let down by the school admissions system in such a way but please help me try to ensure that children’s social and medical needs are made a compulsory part of the admissions criteria for our schools.
