FAMILIES from across Cornwall held a powerful demonstration outside Lys Kernow / County Hall in Truro on Monday (November 3) to highlight what they say is a special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) crisis in the Duchy and across the whole of the country.

Pairs of children’s shoes were displayed outside Cornwall Council’s head office to represent every child across England who the mums and dads say has been failed by the education system and their local authority.

Every Pair Tells a Story is part of a national movement organised by the SEND Sanctuary UK in partnership with Let Us Learn Too and Let’s Make a Difference. A spokesperson said the movement is not only for children missing from education, it stands for every child whose needs have been “ignored, misunderstood or dismissed”.

The partnership added: “It is for those isolated in classrooms without the right support, pushed into unsuitable mainstream schools, or waiting months and years for Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCP) that are delayed, denied or disregarded. Every pair tells a story of exhaustion, heartbreak and families forced to fight for the very basics that every child deserves: education, inclusion and respect.”

Cornwall, like many parts of the country, continues to face severe pressures in its SEND services. The number of pupils in Cornwall with an EHCP has risen to over 5,000, an increase of more than 40 per cent since 2019.

Many families have reported waiting more than 30 weeks for an EHCP decision, despite the legal 20-week deadline. A recent local council report confirmed that demand for specialist school placements now exceeds capacity, with hundreds of children without suitable provision.

These figures mirror a national crisis, with more than 600,000 children in England now identified as having special educational needs and over 70,000 waiting for EHCPs.

“These shoes tell the stories of children who want to learn, play and be included,” said Aimee Bradley, founder of The SEND Sanctuary UK. “No child should be left behind because the system decided their needs were too complex or too inconvenient. This is about every child failed by broken promises and endless red tape.”

Families are calling for urgent action and accountability from both local authorities and central government. With government SEND reform changes on the horizon, parents are clear that they will not be silenced.

Kirsty Pellow was one of a number of Cornish parents outside Lys Kernow. She said: “I’m guessing that most people who see this will think ‘oh here we go, SEND parents moaning again’, but actually bring the humanity back into this. We are just mum and dads who have turned up because we are desperate for our children.

“We wouldn’t be good parents if we weren’t here. We just want our children to have the basic rights to a good education, a safe education and a suitable education.”

Jade Ullrich, who has three children, one of whom required special education support, said: “I have gone through years and years of challenging the council and schools to support my son. We went through suspensions labelled as bad behaviour, we went through a SEND tribunal which was about 12 months of gruelling, horrible hard work when you have to educate yourself on laws that you have no idea of as a parent.

“His needs were unmet and continued to be unmet until the end of his education. He had barely any GCSEs. The constant phrase we heard was ‘reasonable adjustments’, that they were doing just enough and and that isn’t enough, and that’s why we’re here today.”

She added that the shoes display “represents how many people have been failed – and there will be so many more across the country. It helps amplify the frustrations of parents across the county and the nation who feel that we’ve been let down. There are thousands of children that we are speaking for today because they can’t”.