Soap star Kellie Bright highlights the struggles parents face securing school support for autistic children in a poignant new BBC Panorama documentary
As EastEnders’ Linda Carter, actor Kellie Bright has faced heartbreak, grief and despair. However, no soap storyline could prepare her for the frustration, anxiety and heartache of trying to fight for her Autistic son’s education.
Kellie’s little boy has been diagnosed with Autism, ADHD and Dyslexia but despite this, she has struggled to secure an Education Health Care Plan (EHCP) for him, which would entitle him to extra support.
Now Kellie, 49, has filmed a documentary for Panorama examining the exhausting and expensive fight parents face just to get their children the right help at school.
Kellie tells cameras: “I’ve wanted to make a documentary about special needs for a really long time. I have a son, he is autistic, he has ADHD and he’s dyslexic. To try and get the support you need you have to fight every step of the way.
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“I hear from lots and lots of families how the system is broken, how things need to change so I want to shine a light on it, I want to speak to families who are suffering. I am very fortunate to be in a position because of my job that I do have a voice, I do have a platform and I want to use it.”
The government is in the process of reforming the Special Educational Needs system, which parents say is failing their children, despite it costing £12 billion every year. On Friday (3 Oct 25) The Institute for Fiscal Studies said the figure would rise by £3bn a year by 2029.
One in five pupils (1.7 million) in England get some kind of support for special educational needs in school at the moment, and councils are footing the cost. Many councils blame the rising costs of SEND support for debts that run into hundreds of millions of pounds.
The IFS is predicting that the proportion of pupils with EHCPs will rise even further in the next four years, to 8 per cent of all pupils aged four to 16. However, for many parents, like Kellie, getting an EHCP is a difficult and frustrating task.
Kellie says on the show: “When we tried for an EHCP for my son, we also ended up heading for a tribunal because the council refused to assess him. I have to say that left me feeling really angry. Then I felt frustrate,d and then I felt like I was letting my son down.”
After Kellie and her husband, Paul Stocker, started proceedings to take the local authority to a tribunal, they suddenly agreed to assess her son.
She was so emotional that she recorded her reaction on her Instagram account, telling followers, “I have just received an email to say they have agreed to assess my son. It has been 8 months of such hard work and perseverance and fighting to get to this point.”
Reflecting on the fight to get her son the help he needs in school, Kellie tells the documentary: “One of the main things is that as a parent you feel completely and utterly powerless. Powerless to move things forward, powerless to help your child, and because of that, it’s an extremely frustrating system to have to work with.”
Kellie meets lots of parents in a similar position. Many educate their children at home because local authorities are unable or unwilling to offer them a place that is appropriate for their needs. Parents with children out of school are often forced out of the workplace.
Kellie says: “More than half of parents of autistic children have had to take time off work to support their child.”
From the families Kellie meets, all are exhausted, tearful and feeling hopeless about their situations. Councils often force families to take them to tribunal to get EHCPs – even though 99 per cent of cases that reach tribunal are won by families.
One father, called Lee, tells Kellie he suspects his local council is trying to wear them out to avoid paying for help for their daughter, who is, at the time of the film, not in education.
Lee, whose daughter Charis is autistic, says, “I think there is a deliberate policy of fatigue because they know that not every parent will come back for appeal so they lose some. So now we are fighting against the local authority because we’re fighting for our daughter.
“But in battles people get hurt. So that deliberate and I think it is a deliberate policy of fatigue is hurting families and parents and it’s got to be better than that.”
Kellie goes to meet Georgia Gould who is the Minister of State at the Department of Education, as of last month. She tells Kellie: “I can’t give you all the details of all the different reforms we’re doing because we’ve got a process we’re working on with families.
“We want to honour that what I can tell you is we’re really dedicated to supporting children early to make sure there is accountability in the system.
“Within the reforms we’re not taking support away from families, we’re wanting to put more support in earlier where people have fought for support and that support is in place we want to make sure it continues,” she adds.
When Kellie tells her that parents have “high anxiety” about the reforms, Georgia insists the new system will still have a legal basis for support.
She promises Kellie: “There has to be a legal basis for parents to get support, but what we really want to work with parents on to get right is, where does that accountability happen? How can we get support in at the earliest possible point rather than having the battle?”
Kellie says only time will tell if the reforms, which are intended to save money while delivering the right support, will make things better or worse.
Kellie says, “All eyes are now on the government to see if its reforms can relieve the pressure on so many families.”
Panorama: Kellie Bright – Autism, School and Families on the Edge, Monday 6th October BBC1 at 8pm ( iPlayer from 6am)
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