EastEnders’ Kellie Bright on the challenges of being a Send parent

I was desperate to make a documentary about special education needs and disabled people (send) for long.

You can recognize me as the Linda Carter of Easenders, but I am also a mother for my autistic son. It also has dyslexic and ADHD.

My husband and I tried to get the right education for him for months and he took hard work. Sometimes it sounded like a war.

So I wanted to make this movie for Panorama, so I can meet other families passing the same thing and talk to teachers, councils and the government about how children are educated in England.

In the UK, there are more than 1.7 million children with the union. It is a large group, including autistic children and people struggling with speech and language, it has other conditions as well as ADHD and physical obstacles.

Schools in the UK are already supporting these students, but if parents think that their children need extra help, they can apply to their councils for what is called the Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP).

A EHCP is an important document because it is legally binding, stating that a child should go to school and how much extra support they should get.

My husband and I spent hours filling the forms to ask for a ehcp, and many family processes find the processes very annoying.

Shortly after meeting a 15 -year -old friend, he shows me his favorite toy, Ren’s deer.

Buddy’s autistic, that is, he experiences the brain and reacts to the world in a different way from many people. Meeting people at their own age struggles to understand their feelings and worries. Buddy Ren likes to keep his dog close to him.

After moving from Scotland to London in October 2024, Buddy’s mother Tunde began to apply to schools. Those who have tried at least 11 schools, but many of them haven’t returned to him, and they’re full, or they can’t give extra support to Buddy without EHCP.

At the beginning of this year, more than 638,000 EHCPs were issued to children and young people in the UK, 10.8% increase a year ago and 80% increase in six years.

The increase is partly that parents and schools are better in identifying children with special education needs, especially autism, contrary to being more children.

He applied for the second time for a EHCP in Buddy and Tunde. His first applications were rejected before Buddy was evaluated. According to the Ministry of Education, Councils reject one quarter of the EHCP applications during the evaluation phase.

When they live in Scotland, Tunde says they don’t have to apply for a EHCP equivalent. Buddy’s comprehensive school, although not for his emotional needs, organized support for his learning.

Scotland has a different system to send it to children; The schools there aim to give more support without the need to apply for the equivalent of EHCP.

“This is a madness,” says Tunde. “[Getting extra support] It was made very easily and can be done easily again. “

Although Buddy cannot go to school, the Council teachs him 19 hours a week in the local library.

Tunde takes time to me that the application for a EHCP has to stop working as a midwife and health visitor for a while.

“I can’t be a parent. I can’t get him in these appointments and I can’t work at the same time … I couldn’t see my son’s seen in the right time and other people’s babies in the right amount. And that’s a shot – and my son won,” he says.

After a long speech and language assessment, we catch up with Buddy.

“Drene … This is the only thing I have for you,” says a fence, leaning on a fence, a Ren deer dog stuck under his arm.

When September and millions of children begin, Buddy is still taught in the library. Two months after he first met him, he gets EHCP, but his training is still not settled.

The Council adopted Tunde’s request to go to an independent school working with children struggling in kindergartens.

Before Buddy started, the school already took over the lessons he took in the library. However, Tunde is not sure that the school’s son can offer what he believes he needs to improve his social skills and confidence with children of his own age.

“We’re all prepared for September … And still not at school, still live one -to -one,” he said.

“I think… to prepare to be around other children and then to be one -on -one with adults really pulled him back and did not want to go to school.”

The Southwark Council said Tunde would continue to support his family to enable them to take the concerns very seriously and take the provision they need without any delay.

He says he knows how difficult the families can be to navigate in the system and how difficult the sad delays to secure support can be.

He says that he has invested in an expert information and advice team, and that children are now evaluated by expert teachers at the earliest stage, and that they are open to reviewing the situation when parents are concerned about the educational settlements.

I know that this story is another side.

The major increase in the number of EHCP is to seriously suppress the councils. It is estimated by the department that the British councils will increase a reference deficit of £ 4.9 billion by £ 4.3 billion until March 2026.

The government says that it invests one billion pounds to help the councils pay for EHCPs. NEW SENDING 740 MILLION £ at School Places.

I went to the West Sussex District Council to interview one of the few local governments.

Jacquie Russell is a conservative council member and a cabinet member for children, young people and learning.

“The current system is actually very enemies. Our parents are increasingly tired and worried and tired of fighting … Staff’s levels of illness are now really very high,” he says.

“The current system does not work. He’s broken. It doesn’t give the best results for children.”

EHCPS request is now leaving the financing behind the West Sussex. In 2015, the Council had about 3,400 children of EHCP. Today there are more than 10,000.

As a result, the vulnerability grows from year to year, so that at the end of 2025, it focuses over £ 123 million.

“HE [money] In fact, it needs to be for local services. This would normally go to repair your ways and other local services. ”

“The current position is not sustainable.”

The government accepts. Although the final plans are not yet accepted, they plan the major reforms of the reference system.

School Standards Minister Georgia Gould said that the approaching reforms do not “receive support from families”.

“We want to give more support before,” he said. “We want to make sure that people fight for support and this support continues in this place.”

He also said that he wanted to work with parents to make reforms correctly and get support at the earliest possible point instead of fighting. The Minister added that parents will still have a “legal basis” to get support.

Thousands of other children who apply for me and for a EHCP sound like a war about your child’s future. Who doesn’t want the best possible education for their sons or daughters?

However, there is a council that counts costs for every parent fight.

All eyes are in the government to see if reforms can alleviate the pressure on many families.