The parents’ campaign group seeking better care and education for SEND youngsters are collecting signatures for a petition demanding action by Sutton Council.

As Inside Sutton reported this week, families with children, teens and young adults with special educational needs or disability have encountered delays and obstruction in obtaining assessments for education and health care plans – EHCP – which their local authority is supposed to provide by law. Against a background of frustration and mounting anger, they have threatened to take Sutton Council to the High Court through a Judicial Review if it fails to act on their concerns.

The petition was drafted by Hayley Harding, the solicitor who has a five-year-son who has been denied his EHCP. Harding who helped to establish the Sutton EHCP Crisis Campaign Group.

The petition calls on Sutton Council “to commission full independent reviews of the EHCP process for families with SEN children in Sutton from the point that potential special educational needs are noticed by parents to their journey through the education system with an EHCP”.

The petition also calls for the independent review to also look into “every decision made to reject children for EHCP assessments from November 2017 to March 2019 that were made using criteria over and above statute”.

Harding said, “We are having to fight to get our children the education that they deserve. Children with genuine need have been rejected and are missing out on their right to education.”

The petition is open until tomorrow, June 17. Click here to see it.

• Read more: How Sutton has suppressed its own report into its failing SEND provision

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