Parents of children with special educational needs are set to protest outside the County Hall in Oxford this morning as councillors and senior managers meet for a full council meeting. 

At 9.30am, SEND Parent Action will place empty school bags displaying messages of their children’s struggles to show elected representatives and council staff their "continuing despair". 

Oxfordshire SEND Parent Action (OxSENDPA) is a community action group formed by Oxon SEND families in 2022.

The group claim that hundreds of Oxfordshire families are still struggling to get the education and healthcare their children are legally entitled to, and without the necessary special school places or at-home tutoring, the group say parents have been trying to reach Oxfordshire County Council SEND officers for help.

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They also claim that many young people have been waiting over five years for NHS diagnostic appointments, with parent and carers being "forced to give up work to meet the shortfalls in education and care".

“We’re making every effort to help make things better, but we’re seeing no improvement on any front,” said spokesperson Dr Claire Brenner.

Ms Brenner claims the council is continuing  to "fail families".

The protest will take place outside the County Hall (Image: Oxford Mail)

In response to this, a spokesperson for Oxfordshire County Council said: "Since the Ofsted inspection in 2023, we have committed an additional £1m to support SEND services.

"There will also be an additional 300 special places available by 2028 as new schools are completed.

"A significant amount of work has taken place to make necessary improvements across the local area partnership."

The council say this includes the production of a priority action plan, which was approved in December 2023 as well as an Enhanced Pathways initiative.

This aims to support mainstream schools to be more inclusive and supporting their special schools to share best practice with mainstream schools through an ‘in-reach/outreach’ programme.

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The spokesperson added: "We are particularly pleased that the early years and key stage two performance indicators show that children with SEND are performing above the national average in some areas."

Oxfordshire SEND Parent Action spokesperson Dr Brenner said: “When we’ve seen OCC drop £51m on a Park & Ride scheme in Eynsham that cannot open, and pay our council taxes into the £161m and counting Botley Road scheme, I struggle to accept that there isn’t the money to support our most vulnerable children.”

However Oxfordshire County Council says that in Oxfordshire they are "prioritising transforming the SEND system so that our children, young people and families are able to fulfil their potential".