Special Needs Education, Experiences Of A Black British Parent (1)

Hello and welcome to this episode of the Diary for Lawyers and today I'm going to be having a brief discussion or conversation with a mother whose child's obsession is and what her experience, lived experiences are in the education system, what are some of the challenges she finds, the support that may be necessary and what she thinks the solutions are and any message she has for other parents, in particular parents from black backgrounds in the United Kingdom. So, I'm going to let her introduce herself and then we have a conversation, obviously. I'm an Ethiopian parent. And how old is your child? So, my first child is three and my second child, both of those, is out on the way to be diagnosed. Yes, at the end of education as well, but he does not need an education to help him with that. And they're all in, are they all in the education system? Yes, they both go to mainstream schools, secondary schools. Okay, and as you know, it's usually a challenge to even identify what the passive issue is. Did you, what was the process or the experience of getting a diagnosis if they're already diagnosed? The process for my system was more, they weren't very, I didn't find it very helpful. I had to write a mission from 2011, I had to review the application forms to pass. And the same goal I found was not very helpful. So, I got an EHT plan, which is called a patient health care plan, without diagnosis. Then I applied for my son to get diagnosed. I was diagnosed in 2015 and lost the paper. Then I did another one in 2015 and the same goal, which was to write completely different marks from the marks I was writing. So, we weren't working in sync. I also found that they had a high turnout for the same goal. So, that's when my son suffered. While trying to get my son diagnosed, I noticed that the school was doing a tactic where they get to call in social services. So, when social services got involved, they never told social services I was a disabled parent and my child had a challenging behaviour issue. And that I was suspecting my child was autistic. So, when social services got involved, and I explained to them that I need my son diagnosed, I also needed help with accommodation for grain and non-vegetable properties. I didn't find them very helpful. I just found them very, very mean. There was only one social worker that originally helped me, which she was very supportive, but she was a step down from social services. She was Red Solution. She helped me with the EHT plan process. Okay. And the justification for calling in social services was behaviour issues, which obviously I didn't know. No. They actually did a slight thing. They actually did an organisation called Corner House. They actually did an organisation called Corner House. The whole time we were there, they were actually watching you, watching you interact with your child. And they didn't refer us to social services. They never specifically referred us to social services. Because I knew they had to use their services for when I got the EHT plan. I called the Green Bay Social Worker. I told her the situation. And she said to me that... So, that was in the 3rd of June, 2017. By 20... 16... 2017 June. June 16th, I think it was. Social services was called again. The people had done the referral. And I asked for the mention of social services. She said no for the phone. I didn't see them straight away. I... No, they never got back to me. Got back... Got to the school one day. And there was social service and police waiting at the school. The social service now got involved. There was a white social worker. He was quite aggressive. Quite rude. 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