We are a group of 6 parents whose children with autism all attend Bright Futures School in Oldham in the UK. Research has shown that if parents can be supported to work in a particular ‘social communication’ way in the family environment with their children, the severity of their children’s autism can be reduced. 

We are each making the case to Special Educational Needs tribunal that this special type of ‘social communication’ provision in the home is essential to meet some of the needs outlined in our children’s Education Health and Care Plans. 

We are seeking crowdfunding to pay for legal guidance from a solicitor and legal representation from a barrister at these upcoming SEN tribunals.

The core difficulties at the heart of autism mean that our children struggle to lead ‘ordinary lives’.  They struggle to make and keep friendships at the same time as dearly wanting friends; they become easily emotionally overwhelmed and then struggle with low mood; before their placements at Bright Futures School, some have contemplated suicide; they are unable to take part in many/most of the activities and life opportunities that their typically developing peers take for granted (e.g. getting a bus to go somewhere with mates, going to the cinema, going bowling, going out for a meal, going on holiday). 

Social communication provision in the home will give us parents a chance to help our kids develop the abilities to do these things….we just want our kids to have the same opportunities and chances as other kids.

If we win these cases, we will share our legal arguments so that other families can use them to secure similar social communication provision in the home. 

The first case has already gone to tribunal and although the family weren’t successful in securing the social communication provision for their son, they did manage, with the help of a barrister who provided guidance for free,  to win the legal argument that social communication provision qualifies as ‘educational provision’.  

 This is a big first step towards our goals, so now we are working on making our argument for the provision smarter, collecting better supporting evidence and getting ‘expert’ reports to back up our cases.   Having legal support to do that will make an enormous difference.  Our tribunal hearings are scheduled from May onwards, so the sooner we get legal support, the better. We need to raise £3,600 towards the initial cost of legal advice and support for the second of our 6 cases.

If we reach this target, we will be continuing to raise funds for the subsequent cases and if we raise more that we need for this project, any surplus will go into a fund to pay for special expert reports that will help families to secure this social communication input in their children's EHC Plans.

You can have a look via this blog at video footage of the social communication approach 'Relationship Development Intervention' being used with students at Bright Futures School.