Sussex mother ‘gaslit’ by SEND system in crisis

A mother campaigning for better support for children and young people with special educational needs and disability (SEND) in Sussex has said the system is in “crisis” and she feels “gaslit”.

Kirsti Nicole Hadley, from Brighton, whose son is autistic, said systemic issues put a “huge amount of admin and advocacy” onto parents.

“People don’t get to see [us] managing the emotion of our children’s unmet needs of the schools – that’s falling at the feet of women and mothers,” she said.

The Department for Education (DfE) said: “The evidence is clear that the SEND system has been on its knees for years – with too many children not having their needs met and parents forced to fight for support.”

A DfE spokesperson added that the government was “already making progress” by investing £1bn into SEND and £740m to encourage councils to create more specialist places in mainstream schools.

Ms Hadley said the only way to fix the system was to give SEND parents more power, but added they were being “ignored, gaslit and brushed under the carpet”.

The SEND campaigner claimed she had been given contact information for organisations that she was told would help, but had not yet received any support.

“It would have been far kinder in the long run for somebody to have just been brutally honest with me… that no help was coming and I just had to sort myself out,” she said.

She made her comments at a Sussex SEND summit in Seaford, East Sussex, which was attended by parents, teachers, health experts, charities and Labour MP for Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven Chris Ward.

Mr Ward said at least a third of people in his constituency who had asked for his help needed support with the SEND system.