Bestwood Village mum goes to Parliament to get more support for school kids with ABI
A Hucknall school pupil and her mum have been to the corridors of power to get their campaign for Acquired Brain Injury support heard at the highest level.
Jen Barron, who lives in Bestwood Village with her daughter Abbie and son Alfie, was invited to Westminster by Gedling MP Michael Payne (Lab) after he spoke to Jen about her campaign.
Abbie, aged 13, is a student at National Academy in Hucknall and was diagnosed with a brain tumour in September 2020.
It was found to be a very rare childhood brain tumour that is inoperable and does not respond to treatment.
As a result of this, Abbie has been left with an acquired brain injury (ABI).
But Jen was shocked to learn, when she tried to get educational support for her daughter, that ABI's are not a recognised SEND category within the Department for Education (DfE).
As as result, the Government has no data on how many young people there are in schools with an ABI and teachers receive no training on how to support these young people.
Jen said: “National Academy have been really supportive, Abbie has an EHCP so she gets lots of help through that, but of course the staff have had no training in ABI so the support she gets is very much learning from her, from me and her medical team.
“And the school are very good at that and Abbie’s very well supported by her school but I can’t say if that’s the same for other children around the country with ABI.
Jen has now been campaigning for several months and her cause was picked up by Mr Payne when Jen spoke to him in March at a coffee morning in Bestwood Village.
And at the start of September, Jen, Abbie and Alfie were all invited to Parliament by Mr Payne to discuss a gap in SEND provisions that affect my Abbie every day of her school life.
Mr Payne is now raising this matter with Education Secretary Lucy Powell MP (Lab) to get this situation changed.
Jen said: "At the moment, the DfE does’t recognise ABI as a special educational need so across the country teachers are not getting any training in ABI so other kids like Abbie are also not getting the support they need.
“So we are campaigning for ABI to be a category on the SEND register so when people with ABI start at school, it’s recorded and staff get the training to get those young people the help they need to get through the education system which is really challenging for a child with an ABI.”
“Michael Payne has been very supportive, he was very struck by our story and he arranged for us to visit Parliament and I handed over a booklet to him outlining our concerns and what we want to achieve with this.
"He has given a copy of that to Education Secretary and he’s invited me back with one of Abbie’s doctors for a follow-up meeting so we can try and progress this to get it on the radar of the DfE.
"He believes it is not difficult to get this implemented, it’s just a case of making this happen."