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Students with SEND are demanding the chance to make informed choices about FE
For many young learners with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), accessing quality, impartial careers advice and information on available options is by no means straightforward.
According to the Ofsted report Moving Forward? (bit.ly/OfstedMovingForward), published earlier this year, 16 out of 20 local authority websites that were reviewed failed to provide sufficiently detailed information for children, young people and their families.
The report concludes that young people with high needs in schools should have better access to specialist, impartial advice and guidance, and that local authorities should provide "consistently fair" commissioning of FE and skills places for learners with SEND, irrespective of their location or condition.
Last month, more than 100 learners with SEND, along with teachers and staff members, gathered outside Parliament to campaign for better access to careers information. Here is what some of them had to say.
@willmartie
'Students want to be valued'
Sian Punshon, personal tutor at Linkage College, Lincolnshire
All I want is for students to go to the education provision that's best for them. You shouldn't have to fight for it - it shouldn't be all about money. At the end of the day, we should all be treated like equals; we all have rights. Just because you've got a difficulty or disability, that doesn't mean that you can't be educated, integrate into society, gain paid employment and live independently.
I'd like big organisations like Microsoft to get on board by realising that these learners are totally focused on what they're doing. They're dedicated to their work, and any other problems...