Monday 12th August 2019
At the end of last month, the RAF Families Federation (RAF FF) joined forces with the Naval and Army Families Federations to make a joint response to the Department for Education’s call for evidence – ‘Provision for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities and for those who need additional provision: how the financial arrangements work.’
Whilst this was a technical set of questions regarding the funding, we know that this is an issue that significantly affects some of our families so we put together a combined response to highlight the key issues and challenges that can arise for Armed Forces families. We highlighted the difficulties the Armed Forces’ mobile lifestyle can cause within the system: Moving across devolved administrations and local authority borders, accessing funds and resources (including EHCPs, specialist places, additional in school-assistance and 1:1 support) needed to support our children and young people given the delays, high burden of proof and complexity so often experienced. You can read our full response here (click below to access the whole document):
Policy Advisor (Childcare and Education), Louise Briggs said:
“Thank you to those who responded to the survey and at short notice – your evidence was invaluable and has been used here, and will continue inform our discussions with the RAF and policy makers in the near future.
“Please keep letting us have evidence of your experiences in this area – good and bad, so that we can continue to influence on your behalf. Use the ‘report an issue’ button at the top of the page or contact me at [email protected]“
Louise Briggs ©Crown Copyright (SAC K Waterson)
