The Labour MP for East Thanet has launched a new survey to hear directly from parents and carers of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
Polly Billington’s survey will gather first-hand experiences of the local SEND system in Kent, to understand which bits of the system are working, which aren’t, and how parents and carers believe they could be improved.
Polly said she wants to make sure the voices of East Thanet families are heard as the Government prepares new proposals to reform SEND provision, due to be published next year.
The findings will be used to highlight the realities families face, shape national policy discussions, and press for better support and services across the country, including in Kent.
The short online questionnaire is open to all parents and carers of children with SEND in East Thanet. It asks about experiences of assessment, communication with schools and local authorities, access to services, and how well support plans are being implemented.
Residents can fill out the survey at www.pollybillington.org.uk/get-involved until 1 January 2026.
The MP said: “Parents and carers in East Thanet work tirelessly to support children with special educational needs and disabilities, often while navigating a system that can feel designed to obstruct rather than help them. Families shouldn’t have to battle to get the support their children deserve.
“As the Government reviews the SEND system, it’s vital they hear the reality from those who live it every day. By completing my survey, parents and carers can make sure East Thanet’s experiences and voices shape an improved system that truly works for SEND children.”
Last year, Labour invested £740 million to create an additional 10,000 places for SEND pupils in specialist and mainstream schools across the country, but is currently consulting on how to reform the system to make sure every child gets the care they need.
It’s a bit late for a review, should have been done a year ago then maybe something could have been done ,a case of TO LITTLE TO LATE
How right you are. Where has this MP been as only recently raising her head over parapet.
She spent over two hours on Saturday in Beacon Road Ward meeting residents, taking on board issues and advising. Everyone who needed to have a discussion with her on local and national issues had an opportunity to do so.
What a caring, hard-working MP. East Thanet are so lucky.
Well done PC, standing up for the MP.Of course, you might be making an ironic comment,but I doubt it, as they don’t understand irony in Birchington, as that would require understanding and tolerance, which do not feature much in that part of the world.
What about the venerable Roger? Is he doing a SEN survey as well?
Moi? ; )
I assume this is you being sarcastic but having spent a very busy Saturday morning with Polly,her staff, volunteers and residents from Beacon Road Ward,maybe some factual evidence might be appreciated.This was one of a number of Coffee Mornings organised in East Thanet for residents to raise issues in a relaxed environment.
She sounds like a wonderful woman.
Our child has SEN issues all the way through infant and primary we’ve had to fight the schools at every single step.
They say they have put things in to place only for us to find out they haven’t.
We have had to go to Ofsted to complain.
Fill in Polly’s survey, she’ll sort things out for you.
She has to be seen as doing something while actually achieving nothing that’s Labour Policy.
Yes, you have a point.The govt thinks it is doing something, but the trouble is, nobody else can see it.They seem so fixated about the national deficit and debt, that they cannot see that putting off the evil day only makes things worse.
Tax has become a fetish and everybody thinks their cause is the most important and should fe funded in full.
However if we look at the alternatives, such as team Badenoch, all we will receive is more of the same old formula that got us here in the first place.
Meanwhile back in Farage land, all is sweet promises, and internal rows.Calamity Jane Kemkaren has not exactly excelled has she?
Remember the most deprived town in England,Jaywick sands, is in Nigel’s patch.Has he done anything,are his electors seeing positive effects from his beneficence? No? But they all voted for him
There are changes that could be made in terms of SEN, social care,the NHS, and deprivation, but nothing will happen, because too many feel entitled and like things just as they are.
Why are there so many SEN children these days? Is it lack of fresh air and exercise? Mobile phones? Processed food? It’s a genuine question, and not a criticism.
No, better diagnosis. Children who exhibited behaviour that didn’t fit into the relevant boxes were thought to be badly-behaved or mentally subnormal years ago.l spent a summer vacation from university as a psychology intern in a large psychiatric hospital where children were basically incarcerated and labelled ‘abnornmal’. They certainly weren’t ‘abnormal’ but had issues we would now refer to as ‘neurodivergent’. Those children should not have been locked away and denied an education.
Exactly so.
It still doesn’t explain why the UK has had such a dramatic increase in cases compared to the rest of Europe, and why there is such a strong link between socio economic circumstances and SEN children. This would indicate that children aren’t necessarily born “divergent” but factors in their early years upbringing are likely to have a major influence on whether they are likely to become SEN or not.
It’s a serious issue in society which has an enormous cost to the public purse so a review is long overdue.
I haven’t seen figures comparing the UK to elsewhere in Europe, but do know that there’s a huge difference in the coping abilities of neurodivergent people and how well they’re resourced. For instance, a neurodivergent young person who has their own room (as they might in a higher socio-economic bracket) with time to themselves away from noisy siblings is likely to cope better than one who is sharing a room and getting less quiet time. And the one coping better is less likely to be noticed than one who is not coping at all, so they may not be diagnosed.
These kinds of factors can explain at least some of the socio-economic differences.
I suspect covid may be a cause, but we don’t know.
Too many schools are exam factories, with the pointlessly elitist Gove reforms, putting arcane knowledge retention over skills that might actually be useful.The demoralising resits on GCSEs in maths and english, supposedly to enable students to access further education.
Your comments have some validity,but SEN is more than a lack of all these things.
The problem is that “special” educational needs are so widespread and common now they aren’t classed as “special” any more. I know some mainstream schools where around 50% of the children are classed as SEN.
Any review of the SEN scheme should focus funding and resources at only the most disadvantaged children to help them whilst actually acknowledging as a society that some special needs are increasingly “normal” or mainstream and should be treated as such within the school (and benefits) system.
An intelligent kid who was disruptive in classes and didn’t get along with most other kids, yet spent much of his break times obsessively studying alone in the library… I’m sure I’d be regarded as “SEN” these days. Instead, I’m just glad to be a little different from everyone else, and use my “differences” as an advantage.
Though personally looking back, I think I deserved the occasional plimsoll on the backside or ruler on the knuckles!
The local MP is awful ..
… but I like you!