Harrogate parents join special needs education protest

Last updated Oct 5, 2023

Emily Mitchell (left) and Ashlie Charleton at the protest.

Parents from Harrogate took part in a demonstration yesterday calling for better school provision for children with special educational needs.

SEND Reform England is staging peaceful protests outside town halls across the country this autumn. Parents from Sen Hub Harrogate joined the latest one in Leeds yesterday.

They are campaigning about issues including lack of spaces at special educational schools and unlawful rejections for Education, Health and Care Plans, which set out what additional support is required by young people with additional needs.

Emily Mitchell and Ashlie Charleton, who co-founded Sen Hub Harrogare to help parents of children with special educational needs, were among the Harrogate contingency in Leeds yesterday.

Emily, whose daughter Elsie is autistic and non-verbal, told the Stray Ferret parents should not have to fight for an education for their children. She added:

“I joined the protest due to my own fight with getting my child into education.

“I am currently going through a tribunal process to fight the local authority who aren’t taking my child’s needs into any consideration.”