The 2019 General Election promises to be one of the most unpredictable in recent years. We want to see tackling the crisis in support for disabled children and their families front and centre of the campaign.
On average there are around 1,700 disabled children living in each of the 650 Parliamentary constituencies. They all have adults who care about them; adults who will be voting in the general election. When 80 MPs were elected in 2017 with majorities under 2,000, can any candidate afford to ignore their concerns?
The Disabled Children’s Partnership is not party political and we are not endorsing any parties or candidates. We want all parties to commit to solving the SEND crisis; and we want candidates to commit to being champions for disabled children in the new Parliament.
Our call to all parties is to commit to implementing our ‘Three Pillars’.
We also want to hear their response to the manifesto from SEND Community Action, a grassroots coalition of parent groups.
NDCS, SEND Community Action and DCP survey of parents
To help inform our election planning, we worked with the National Deaf Children’s Society and SEND Community Action to survey parents of disabled children about their views. Nearly 1,000 parents responded, and the results showed a worrying picture of the state of support for disabled children. Head over to the NDCS website to read more.
Local Hustings
Hustings are meetings where candidates talk to and take questions from members of the public. Lots of local areas will be holding hustings, some general and some covering specific issues. You can go to them and ask candidates what the plan to do to support disabled children and their families.
We are aware of some hustings which will include an SEND focus – details below. If you know of any more, please let us know – disabledchildrens.partnership@mencap.org.uk or @DCPcampaign – and we’ll add them to the list and share them on social media. As well as these, lots of areas will have general hustings – get along to ones in your area if you can and ask questions about SEN and disability. This website has a list of hustings by constituency.
West Dorset, Wednesday, 27 November 27 7pm to 9pm, The Prince of Wales School, Dorchester.
Bournemouth and Poole, Friday 29 November, 7pm to 10pm The Beehive, Poole.
Kingston and Surbiton, Tuesday 3rd December, 7.30pm to 9.30pm, Surbiton Hill Methodist Church
South Dorset, Wednesday 4th December, 6.30pm to 9pm, Wyvern Academy School, Weymouth
Bristol,Wednesday, 4 December 2019, 5pm to 7pm, Bristol University
We will be adding to this page during the election campaign, so please do check back.