Canary SEND

The SEND reforms sound technical.

But there’s a huge difference between a legal right to a plan and a legal right to the support inside it.

I wrote about why that matters for Special Needs Jungle.

“Masking Is a Myth, Late Diagnoses Are Wrong, and Non-Speaking Autistic People May Be Lying” - What Uta Frith Got Wrong — canary SEND Professor Uta Frith said masking isn't real, late diagnoses were mistakes, and non-speaking autistic people may be lying. She had no evidence. Here's the response she didn't get.

Uta Frith said masking isn’t real, late diagnoses were probably wrong, and non-speaking autistic people who write may be lying. She admitted she had no proof. None of it was challenged. I wrote the response she didn’t get: www.canarysend.co.uk/canarysendbl...

A response to Kathleen Stock's Sunday Times piece on PDA — canary SEND A response to Kathleen Stock's Sunday Times piece on PDA - and to the peer-reviewed research, and the report published the same morning, that her argument cannot survive.

Kathleen Stock's piece on PDA didn't intend to land alongside a report on dead children. But arguments do political work whether or not that work is intended.

Her son turned out fine. The children in the MWM investigation did not. www.canarysend.co.uk/canarysendbl...

The System Had The Tools - It Just Chose Not to Use Them — canary SEND A response to the Measure What Matters report and the Schools White Paper - on children's deaths, systems-generated trauma, and what families can still do.

On the morning the Schools White Paper dropped, Measure What Matters published findings on 25 neurodivergent children who died after documented SEND failures.

The same morning, the Government proposed removing the legal rights that should have protected them.

www.canarysend.co.uk/canarysendbl...

Reform or Retreat? A Close Reading of the Schools White Paper — canary SEND The Schools White Paper proposes replacing EHCPs for most children with Individual Support Plans. But what can families actually do when an ISP isn't delivered?

Three arguments about what the White Paper gets wrong - on enforceability, shifting responsibility onto schools without funding to match, and on mainstream environments that were never built for some children’s nervous systems. www.canarysend.co.uk/canarysendbl...

Canary SEND on the Schools White Paper (5/6)

Canary SEND on the Schools White Paper (4/6)

Canary SEND on the Schools White Paper (3/6)

Canary SEND on the Schools White Paper (2/6)

The Schools White Paper was published yesterday. This is a first read- in what it actually proposed, what the funding amounts to when you do the maths, and where the gap is between what the paper says and what families in this system actually need (1/6)

There is an increasing (and necessary) shift away from compliance-driven narratives and toward nervous system safety, relational care and identity. Frameworks that centre lived experience rather than behaviour control are long overdue!

Beyond School Refusal: Autistic Burnout in Children — canary SEND Clinical research reveals non-attending autistic children show burnout, not refusal. Understanding the signs, recovery requirements, and SEND legal framework.

Read @canarysend.bsky.social who did a great job recently on breaking down attendance say, burnout and why the idea of attendance for disabled and neurodivergent kids is problematic. We need system change.

www.canarysend.co.uk/canarysendbl...

Thanks so much for sharing @autisticrealms.bsky.social 💛 Your work on burnout and monotropism has been incredibly influential in my own practice, so it really means a lot.

Thank you also for amplifying it, I hope it reaches those who will most benefit 💛