What we think
The PDA Society’s position is that if changes are to be made to the school system generally and to how people with SEND are supported, then its important those changes make things better not worse for PDAers. To help us understand what children and families want we have sent out a snap questionnaire that was answered by 150 families and held 5 consultation meetings focusing on distinct parts of the consultation document. These meetings have brought together parents and education professionals as well as academics and clinicians to talk about what in the consultation is helpful – and what isn’t.
This short document outlines the headlines of our concerns and hopes around the consultation. Please feel free to share this document in any conversations you have with people who have influence over the process, including MP’s, Ministers and government officials.
Your opportunity to have your say
There are 39 questions in the consultation response form which you can find here.
It is a long document and can feel quite overwhelming, but you don’t have to answer every question, you can choose to just focus on the ones that are important to you. You also don’t need to worry about sounding academic or professionalising your answers – the experiences you have are important and relevant and however you choose to share them is useful. If you want to respond to the consultation and are interested in what our findings from conversations were – and what we have interpreted each question as asking – we have a much longer document here.
The document might be useful as you work your way though a response. In it we have listed all the consultation questions – what you might want to think about in your responses and what we’ve heard from people when preparing our response.
We hope it is helpful.