Rutland Schools Forum have acknowledged parents' concerns about 'generic' approach to teaching children with special education needs.

The members of the Schools Forum of Rutland County Council have acknowledged some parents' concerns for their approach to children with special education needs.

Speaking to members at their meeting on 8 December 2022, Ben Solly, chair of the Schools Forum and principal of Uppingham Community College, said: "I received an email from two parents who had some raised a couple of concerns having watched the online meetings that we've conducted.

"Because it was addressed to me personally, I agreed to meet with them, and they felt that some members [of the Forum] referred to the parents of children with special education needs rather generically, and not always positively was their impression.

"There perception was that sometimes members of the Forum didn't always display empathy for the various challenges that families faced, and the mum described to me this notion of 'othering' that she felt was apparent at some of the meetings. Now, I had to go back and look at the meetings that she was referring to because I couldn't recall anything untoward occurring.

"But it was useful to talk to her face-to-face about these elements of feedback that she provided, and the outcome of the meeting was that we had a discussion about it and I said that I would feed that back to the group because we treat feedback as a gift, whether you agree with it or not.

"One of the key reflections is that we must remember these meeting are in the public domain – they will be scrutinised – and I would just recommend that we all reflect on the perceptions that have been articulated on to us, take these views onboard and realise that when we are referring to parents they're not a homogeneous group, they will always be specific circumstances with each case."

This comes amid an acceptance by RCC of a mixed Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) peer review and the proposed closure of Rutland's only state funded specialist school setting, The Parks School. Read more about this here.

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