Inside the complicated, frustrating world of mums ‘fighting for every single thing’ for their kids

The Local Democracy Reporting Service has spoken to multiple mums to children with SEN, such as autism and ADHD, who claim their applications for more help were met with refusals by the town hall’s children’s services department – forcing them to wait up to a year for an independent tribunal to make a decision.

They add the often convoluted process expects mums to become experts in SEN law, causing ‘anxiety’ and disrupting their family life, sometimes to the detriment of the child.

The mums, who all took part in a protest outside Manchester Town Hall last autumn, claim Manchester council’s children’s services team have:

• Denied an eight-year-old boy an education and health care plan (EHCP) after he was diagnosed with autism, and his school and parents asked for one.
• Refused to assess an nine-year-old girl with autism after she was signed off school for months due to ‘major burnout’.
• Failed to keep a long-standing volunteering placement for a teenage boy, instead offering ‘to take him out for a burger’.
• An eight-year-old girl was out-of-school for 13 months due to delays in sourcing a place – only for new school staff to say ‘they cannot keep her safe’.

Catriona Moore, from IPSEA, the leading charity standing up for SEN families, believes the case studies are examples of a national culture at local authorities where ‘nobody checks what they do’.

She explained: “The same local authority might be taken to the tribunal for the same issue, but nobody says ‘you’ve lost 99pc of appeals on a refusal to assess in the last two years’ there’s a lack of accountability.”

She recognises the mums’ experience of needing to become knowledgeable on the law, wait months for a tribunal, and chase decision-makers.

“It’s all in the law, but we have a situation where the law is widely not applied so parents have to become knowledgeable to find out what their children are entitled to.

“The tribunal appeals have gone up and up. It’s at record levels now, and absurdly high numbers of appeals go in favour of the parents and against local authorities.

“A 12 or 13 month wait has become the norm. The tribunal is absolutely swamped.”

“The council just hopes I will go away”

The first mum to contact the LDRS spoke on the condition of anonymity. She claims her nine-year-old lad was denied an assessment for an EHCP, something Ms Moore says ‘is the only way people can get support in practice’.

After he was diagnosed with autism, mum agreed with school and an educational psychologist to apply for an EHCP needs assessment last October.

“The request for an EHCP went in,” she recalled. “While [he] is on the spectrum he is high functioning, he is very clever, he is academically able. But just because he is academically able does not mean he does not need an EHCP to support him.

“The council came back a day later and told me he was declined from getting an EHCP needs assessment. They have even refused to do a needs assessment. The basis for that was that [he] was academically able.”

The mum said the authority also ‘disregarded professional advice’ from the psychologist, and when she spoke to town hall officers, they offered her mediation sessions about the decision. She rejected mediation because she felt her son had a strong enough case.

That means the council and family are going to an independent tribunal, listed 12 months after the assessment was refused.

She believes ‘the local authority unlawfully refused to assess my child’. She explained: “The local authority has to follow the legal test which is set out in the Children and Families Act 2014.

“Part A says he needs an EHCP if he has SEN needs. He ticks that box.

“Part B says a special educational provision for the child may be required with an EHCP.

“Case law says the authority does not have to work out if specialist provision is needed then. I do not need to show at this stage there may be a need for special education provision to be delivered through an EHCP in the future.

“They have refused to do the initial assessment, so they have unlawfully denied him an EHCP assessment. When I go to the tribunal, this legal test will be applied. The [council] just hopes I will go away, like thousands of other parents go away.”

“It’s a fight for every single thing”

Ashleigh Davies’ eight-year-old daughter, Freya, moved back to Manchester with her family in 2022, after seven years in Northern Ireland.

She didn’t go to school for her first 13 months back in England. Ashleigh had to wait eight months for a learning support budget to be confirmed, worth £22,000 per year, as Freya started specialist provision inside a mainstream primary school in Gorton.

“Even with that, school said they cannot keep her safe,” 34-year-old Ashleigh said. “She has meltdowns and she bites herself.”

Ashleigh then asked for a different setting, and after turning down a place 45 minutes away in May 2024, she says she hasn’t been offered anything new since: “I just got told to go to the tribunal, so that’s what I’ve done. I’ve been told my tribunal will be in December 2026.”

Even with the hope a tribunal can get Ashleigh the support she thinks Freya needs, the experience has been bruising: “It’s all not been nice. You have to fight for their basic needs and rights. In Northern Ireland, her paediatrician knew her severe needs so they got her a special school before she even started.

“Here it’s a fight for every single thing. At 10 o’clock at night I am writing emails and looking at the law, that could be time I learned some sign language to communicate with Freya.

“I’m always thinking about this. I know if she went to a suitable school, I will be able to breathe.”

“The local authority is not listening”

Amelia, the nine-year-old daughter of Emma Pollitt, also spent months off school. She has autism and ADHD, a diagnosis secured by selling their car for a ‘£3,500 private assessment’ because they were on a ‘three-year waiting list’.

After Amelia said ‘if you take me to school, you will not pick me up’ to Emma, she took her to the doctor.

“The GP said she is in major burnout so she was signed out of education,” she said. “After seven months, she just wanted to go back to school.

“She returned after seven months to resource provision which is mainstream school but in a small class so there are eight children to seven staff. But there’s been so many incidents now. She wrote a note that says she does not want to be here anymore.”

Emma said her daughter has lost two-and-a-half stone and would sleep for nearly a day after school, leading her to ask Manchester council for an update to an EHCP, and move her to The Grange school, where her older brothers attend.

“The EHCP team does not want to update her plan since she was signed off,” Emma added. “I spoke to the director of children’s services, and the CEO, and Afzal Khan. He has now raised it for the ninth time.

“I’m going to tribunal but my hearing is not until December 8, 2026. I have got a GP and paediatrics evidence saying specialist provision is needed not mainstream provision. The local authority is not listening.”

“They said we can get someone to take him out for a burger”

Jake Moore is 17, about to enter the adult world. As a ‘complex’ person with SEN, the thing he found most rewarding was volunteering at the Aquatics Centre.

He’s good at it, so good he was ‘shortlisted for junior sport achiever’ at the council’s ‘sports awards’, mum Laura, 40, said. Jake wanted to carry on volunteering after he left school, when SEN support hour funding is cut from 32 to 16 per week.

She said: “We asked social care if they would help with his volunteering and they said no, but they said we can get someone to take him out for a burger.”

The LDRS understands Jake has been given a short break budget to help access leisure activities.

What Manchester council says

A spokesperson for Manchester City Council said thew town hall has rapidly increased places to meet SEN demand in the last few years. A statement read: “Like everywhere Manchester has seen a significant growth in the number of children with special educational needs in the city, which puts pressure on services and the demand for special school places.

“In response to this we have created 973 new specialist places since 2020. This includes a new secondary special school – Orchard House – which opened in September 2025, and also four specialist SEND units in primary schools across the city, as well as expansions of existing special schools. We also have plans to create more SEND places in the next few years.

“Alongside this we have also been working closely with the Department for Education as the north west lead local authority, as part of their national SEND Change programme to test out reform of the SEND system. This has included significant investment in specialist multi agency outreach support for mainstream schools to enable them to better meet the increasing number of additional needs in their local communities.

“We’re constantly reviewing how we can do things better to further improve the experiences of families who have children with special educational needs, including trying new ways of working, and we work closely with our families to do this.”

The Department for Education was contacted for comment.