In mid-July, the Disabled Children’s Partnership (DCP), which Cerebra is a member of, will be launching the Fight for Ordinary campaign. It will be a big, bold campaign calling for the government’s planned SEND reforms to truly address the failings in the system and put disabled children and those with additional needs at its heart.
At the heart of the campaign is a simple message: SEND families are not asking for anything ‘special’. We just want the very ordinary things that every child should expect.
There’s nothing ‘special’ about getting a school or nursery place. Or about taking part in lessons. Or about wanting to be happy at school. There’s nothing ‘special’ about wanting to combine parenting with work. These are ordinary things.
But if your child is disabled or needs additional support, these ordinary things are somehow considered a privilege. They’re considered ‘special’. They are things you can’t just expect to happen. Instead, they’re things you’ll have to fight for, things you might have to give up work for, and still might not get.
This has to change – and Fight for Ordinary is the rallying cry to unite around serious action.
Call for stories
The DCP are planning to build greater public awareness of the issues SEND families face and engage more people in taking action with stories. Real people’s stories to help bring the campaign to life and help to build that empathy and connection. And that’s where they need your help.
What they need
From a child/young person/parent/carer/sibling’s perspective:
- 2 or 3 photos (if from the parent’s perspective, ideally including the child/children).
- A short paragraph (2-3 sentences) that sets out your hopes for a reformed system.
- A short sentence that starts: “There’s nothing ‘special’ about…” and then describes something ordinary that support enables you to do/or a lack of support means you are unable to do.
- A short sentence that starts: “’Ordinary’ to me means…” and then describes the ordinary things that good support does enable, or would enable.
By sending this content, participants would be agreeing that the DCP can use it on their digital channels (including website, social media and email).
Please also let them know if you would be willing to be contacted as a media case study for the campaign. (If you are, they wouldn’t put your story forward for media without contacting you first and making sure it was something you wanted to do.)
Where and when to send them
Please send these to Natasha Kennedy at the DCP at [email protected].
Deadline is Tuesday 8 July.
