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Nuala McGovern: [00:00:00] Welcome to SEND In the Spotlight. I'm Nuala McGovern.

Now one of the issues that often comes up when we discuss children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities is transport.听 Councils are required to provide free home to school transport for some children aged five to 16, who cannot walk to their nearest suitable school.听

But here are some figures that have made this such a contentious issue: when it comes to providing for children and young people with SEND, this is according to the Local Government Association, the bill is predicted to reach nearly 2 billion pounds this year, and that represents approximately a 200% increase on the amount that was spent a decade ago. And there's also debate over who should be eligible.

We'll get into it with Councillor Amanda Hopgood, from the Local Government Association, also back with us is Kellie Bright actor and SEND parent. And you'll also meet Ramandeep, a mum who has battled to get transport for her son.

Here to help us understand why SEND transport is such a controversial issue is 麻豆社 political reporter Alex Forsyth - Alex you've been following all the twists and turns of this from Westminster -

Why is it such a contentious topic?

Alex Forsyth: 听Well, I think there are two reasons really. The first is there are so many people who would've had experience of this SEND system and trying to access, in particular, transport who just find it really difficult. And so MPs often get a lot of feedback from the people in their constituencies who raise the problems and the challenges they're having as they're going through this system trying to get support for their children. So MPs tell me all the time that this is one of the issues that's right at the top of their inbox. And the second element to this is that the cost of providing transport, home to school, transport for children with SEND has been going up and up.

Of course the context of that is that we know there are more children who are a requiring support for their special educational needs or disabilities and so local authorities are having bigger bills to fund, in particular, home to school transport. And so there is pressure from them as well saying something has to be done.

Nuala McGovern: We know that Reform have commented on the increasing cost in recent times - Nigel Farage in July, Richard Tice in the autumn 鈥� can you take us through their position?

Alex Forsyth: Yeah. Interestingly, so Richard Tice, he鈥檚 a key figure, a senior figure in the reform party. Now, he said something that was highly controversial, which he has acknowledged to me that was highly controversial. He said that he thought that some parents were abusing the system, particularly when it came to home to school transport for their children. So Reform has suggested that this is something they're going to look at. We don't really know the details of what they are proposing as an alternative system yet.听 But the comments that he made that he stood by and he said he knew that this was going to be controversial, but it was his perspective.

They attracted quite a lot of condemnation from parents who know the system who've been in it, but also other political parties - so the Liberal Democrats were highly critical of Reform UK's position. They recognize too that there is an issue with home to school transport for children with SEND, but they are saying the answer would be better provision for those children closer to home, which in turn would hopefully bring down the transport cost.

The Conservative Party, for example, have acknowledged that the SEND system is under strain, including this issue of home to school transport. The Shadow Education Secretary, Laura Trott was recently asked about this and she admitted her party could or should have done more in this space. So there again, we are not clear on the specifics and the government itself, as we know, is looking at this issue of SEND provision and we're expecting a white paper on that quite soon.

And there are plenty of people who say they hope that's going to include something on home to school transport specifically.

Nuala McGovern: But do we know what might be in that white paper, on transport?

Alex Forsyth: Well, bluntly speaking, no, they're keeping quite a lot of the detail under wraps. There's been this whole exercise of engagement with parents and listening to MPs and lots of Labour MPs, as well as others, have pretty strong views on this issue.

But the areas that perhaps could be looked at, because as we say from a local authority鈥檚 perspective, just taking it in that vein, the costs really are quite extraordinary. It can often cost much more to provide transport for children with SEND than it can for a child who doesn't, because of course, they might have really complex needs.

We know, for example, taxis are increasingly used to get people from home to school. Now, that might be a requirement because of the complexity of a child's need, but of course it costs. Some councils are looking at the ways that they might try and bring those costs down. So whether it's buying a fleet of vehicles or doing sort of in-house provision, the notion perhaps of personal budgets for parents so that they can facilitate or organize their own transport needs.

But then there are more contentious conversations, and that might be around things like eligibility or distance, that would mean that children were eligible for this kind of support and they are potentially contentious because as you know, as you've covered, as you've discussed, many parents who are going through that SEND system already find it difficult to get the support they need.

So when you talk about restriction or changing the support that's on offer clearly comes with a lot of anxiety for people who are involved in it.

Nuala McGovern: Thanks so much, Alex. Now, welcome back to Kellie Bright, and to Ramandeep who is here for the first time to talk about her child's experience of听 SEND and transport - welcome

Ramandeep: Thank you.

Nuala McGovern: Kelly. Let me start with you.

Kellie Bright: Mm-hmm.

Nuala McGovern: Now, you have been, as you often do, looking at the messages that have come into us on this issue.

Kellie Bright: Mm-hmm. Yes I have.

And here's one from Penny. 鈥淪chool transport isn't in place for my child, so I am having to drive him one hour to school. And as I'm on benefits, I'm having to sit in my car the whole day and pick him up at the end of the day.鈥�

听

Nuala McGovern:听 So that's Penny there underlining it would just be too expensive for her to pay for the petrol going back and forth.

Kellie Bright: Yeah. And another mother contacted SEND In The Spotlight to say that 鈥淚 am both a parent and teacher. And have twin girls who are neurodivergent and are now 12 years old. I have been navigating the SEND system since they were three years old, initially fighting for speech and language services I then fought to process them through the EHCP system. We then had to apply and appeal support for travel and meet in front of a very intimidating panel of seven people. Ridiculous scenario and appeal for our right for our girls to attend their school.鈥�

Nuala McGovern: So that is some of the experiences that you've been getting in touch with.听 I want to turn to Ramandeep.听 Those children they are talking about are under 16. There is a statutory requirement to consider providing home to school transport up to that age of 16, but what changes when a child has its 16th birthday?

Ramandeep: 听听So once they reach the age of 16, parents have to reapply for transport. So if they were already having it, it stopped at that point and you go through the process of applying and the wording around the policy looks at exceptional circumstances.听 So it's not a given that you're going to have that transport. So you may have had it from the age of four up until the age of 16, but there's absolutely no guarantee that you're going to get it after that.听 It is down to the panel.

Nuala McGovern: Even though the need may not have changed.

Ramandeep: Absolutely.

Nuala McGovern: Even the school, uh, may not have changed, but indeed the situation or eligibility might, and we're gonna get into your story and that of your son just a little bit later, but I do want to bring in bring in Councillor Amanda Hopgood, from the Local Government Association. 听Good to have you with us.

Amanda Hopgood: Hi.

Nuala McGovern: The LGA represents more than 300 local authorities in England. You chair its Children, Young People and Families Committee听听 You're a Liberal Democrat opposition leader of the Durham County Council. Why is the cost of home to school transport rising? Alex gave us some of the figures there.

Amanda Hopgood: Yeah.

Nuala McGovern: And the outline.

Amanda Hopgood: 听So: the costs rising - for some examples it's gone in six years, from 6 million pounds to 35 million pounds for individual councils. And there's numerous reasons why that's happened. One, the demand is increased dramatically. We had COVID and we have some of the hangover from COVID where people are still in single use transport, and we have increasing costs. So the cost of living has increased for everyone, including the people who provide the transport. So we have some examples of individual transport that can be as much as 25,000 pounds a year for one child.听

We have to consider that this is across the whole of the country so some rural areas - again, we sometimes focus on what's happening where we live as individuals - but in some of our rural counties, we can be talking a 50 or 60 mile round trip.听 Now, if a taxi has to go and pick a child up, the chances are they're not gonna live local to where the child lives and therefore they may also require a chaperone within the car.听 So there are lots and lots of reasons why it's gone up. Funding hasn't come with it.

Nuala McGovern: 听But the funding hasn't come up鈥μ� 听with demand, for example, there's no quick answer I would imagine on why that is, why it's increased?

Amanda Hopgood: No, I mean, what I think is it's really good that people are getting the right resource in terms of the demand is there, so we know that young people need that extra facility, but we also need to look at where it is and we need to have more in mainstream, which is what the LGA are calling for, is more provision in mainstream school that allows young people to not have to travel. That allows them to be educated closer to their communities, but have the same level of education that they should get.

Nuala McGovern: And we'll come to that, uh, as well because you're echoing some of what we think may come from the government. Of course, we still have to get their white paper before we have those details.听 But some might also ask single use taxis, for example, you talk about it as a hangover from COVID in a way that multiple people would've used that taxi previously?

Amanda Hopgood: Yeah.

Nuala McGovern: And why hasn't that gone back?

Amanda Hopgood: Because some people have鈥� it just hasn't changed. So perhaps some of the children who were using it before are no longer in education and there's a single person and there isn't anyone else next to that鈥�

Nuala McGovern: Yeah. Well that's,

Amanda Hopgood: 听鈥�some families don't want to share, they want to keep the single use, but we need to look at that as to what is both deliverable and affordable, but absolutely meets the needs of the child and the family

Nuala McGovern: 听鈥� because there is a legal duty to provide transport for eligible pupils and a duty for the local authority to balance their budget. So how do they do that?

Amanda Hopgood: 听听With great difficulty and they're having to come up with different ways in which to do that, different options. So one of the things that has come out quite recently is that personal budget for families to transport where they can and where it works for them.听 And that kind of changed because of people's lifestyle change.

Nuala McGovern: And people may not be familiar, how would you describe how it works?

Amanda Hopgood: A personal transport budget is where the council, a local authority, offers the family a different alternative. So they would pay them possibly a mileage allowance or a set amount for them to transport their child to school each day. And that, for some people, 听works really well especially now that some people work from home. That might not have been an option for them six or seven years ago that they couldn't do that. But then of course it doesn't fit for everybody.

Nuala McGovern: Does it save the council's money?

Amanda Hopgood: Yeah, it can do it鈥�

Nuala McGovern: 听听听鈥� to the tune of what?听听 I mean is it significant?

Amanda Hopgood: Yes. Potentially thousands of pounds. So if you, for example, in a rural area had a taxi that has to go 20 miles to pick the child up from where they live, that's all built into the contract cost. Then take the child to school and do that as a return trip where the family wouldn't have to do that trip to get to the 20 miles to get to the house in the first place, you would also have the situation where you may not need a chaperone if the family are doing it because they're with people and they're in their own car. So it can reduce costs significantly.

Nuala McGovern: And I suppose bureaucracy with DBS checks, et cetera for drivers. But you know, what do you say to some critics who say it's wrong to pay families to take their children to school when they have a duty to get their children to school anyway?

Amanda Hopgood: Some children need support to get to school, and that is whether you agree with it or you don't agree with it, and it's easy for people to say who don't have that lived experience of having to work within a system, having to work to get children to different places. So most people who might say that might have all their children going to the same school, they're going in one direction, it's on their way to work, but that isn't the case for all families.

Nuala McGovern: 听I want to turn back to an email we received, and this is from a teacher in a specialist school who said: 听鈥淲e need schools available like ours in all boroughs.听 We need to eliminate these enormous costs that are being paid for transport, not to mention the ridiculously early starts for these students who live so far away.鈥� In an ideal world this would be happening. 听听You mentioned more inclusion in mainstream schools. As I said, the government seems to be indicating that could be the way they would go. Is spending on local provision a better use of money?

Amanda Hopgood: It has to be balanced because a local provision isn't always going to be right for every child as well. Some children's needs cannot be met in mainstream school, no matter how many things you put in place. So you've got to have that balance. But it's local authorities who are best placed to look at the needs within their areas of what the requirements are.

So again, I go back to rural areas. So we have some enormous councils across this country that are hundreds of miles from side to side, and you can't have specialist school in every location. So there will always be some travel for some children.

Nuala McGovern: And is that what stops councils building more specialist schools, for example, so that a child would have less distance to travel to school?

Amanda Hopgood: Yeah. Well, it's the cost to build a school. 听I'm a governor of a secondary school and you're looking at 40 million pounds plus that it's just鈥�

Nuala McGovern: for a specialist school?

Amanda Hopgood: No. That's just a normal secondary school. 听And that is, that's costing over 40 million pounds and has been 10 and a half years in the planning. So these things don't happen overnight. Whereas what we could do is look to have that specialist provision where applicable in mainstream school, but it's got to be properly funded and it's got to be resourced properly. You can't just come in and say, all of a sudden you have to provide that with no extra funding and no extra resource.

Nuala McGovern: So it sounds to me like you would like in the white paper, a reform of the way local councils are funded鈥�

Amanda Hopgood: Yeah...

Nuala McGovern: 听鈥� by central government鈥�

Amanda Hopgood: 听And the right amount of funding to provide the correct quality of education that we need for every young person in this country, regardless of their ability or need.

Nuala McGovern: 听I know you have some various efficiencies that you're working on that you think, and you know, that certain councils could do better perhaps - muster points was one. Can you explain that?

Amanda Hopgood: Yeah. So again, part of education is around where we can is developing the child for independence. Once they leave education鈥�

Nuala McGovern: 听鈥� if, if they, if they ever get to that point...

Amanda Hopgood: 听鈥�if they can. And so some examples are where we will get transport to a certain point. And if, and it is a big if, because it has to be in conjunction with the family - we have to do this with families, not to families.

So you do this with the family, with the professionals at school and with the child. So you could take them to a point where they can then get on a service bus, and that's part of the development to independence. So it's not door to door service, school to home - it's to a point where they then can get on the service bus. But again, that doesn't necessarily, that will not work for every child.

Nuala McGovern: I want to bring Ramandeep in here. Would that have worked for you and your son? A muster point?

Ramandeep: No, it wouldn't have worked at all. Um, my son has quite a few challenges with communication. He's got a learning disability, so he struggles to retain information. So if I was to drop him off at a point and say, right, I'm leaving you there, a bus will turn up, off you toddle. He would be very, he'd be in danger of his life because he just wouldn't understand what was going on around him. So it certainly wouldn't work for my family.

Nuala McGovern: Let's learn a little bit more about your son. He is 18 years old now. He has Downs syndrome, I believe, and a learning disability, he has a great love of Bollywood?

Ramandeep: He does. It's his absolute. Passion. He lives and breathes Bollywood music, constantly dancing, much to the despair of my floorboards at home. We're really struggling.听 But yeah, he's a really bubbly, very charming young man.

Nuala McGovern: And you mentioned there with the muster point, why that wouldn't work for him. Can you tell us a little more broadly about whether you could see him travelling independently?

Ramandeep: I don't think we could, while we've been kind of fighting to get transport for him post 16, one of the processes that I asked the local authority to go through was to actually see if they would assess him for independent travel training.

Nuala McGovern: 听After he had to hit 16?

Ramandeep: Yes. After he'd hit 16. 'cause that was one of the options we were given. The option of a personal transport budget, independent travel training, or a bus pass. There were two things that weren't going to work. So when they assessed him I remember the assessor, she told me that within minutes she realized there was absolutely no way that he could travel independently or on his own.

Nuala McGovern: Can you tell me what it was like before he turned 16?

Ramandeep: So he's always had transport. He goes to a specialist school, has done since the age of four, was eligible for transport because his school was over three miles away. I've got two other sons. He's got an older and a younger brother, so I had them all in different schools.

And actually people often mistakenly think that once you've got that transport in place, you know, life's quite easy. You just pop them on the bus and off you go. Because you're relying on a route, and depending at which point your child is going to be picked up on that route, I literally would have something like 10 minutes to get my other two into school.

So I would be that mom who was frantically just parking her car anywhere and just dashing into school. Because the other thing is I couldn't possibly take him and the other two, because they don't have preschool provisions or breakfast clubs. There's nothing after school. So it really depended on me being there and I just couldn't do that, I didn't have that flexibility in the day to do that.

Nuala McGovern: So now to get him to sixth form, as I understand it, it's costing you nearly 200 pounds a week. Can you explain that?

Ramandeep: Yes. So. We were refused transport. I applied twice. We won the first time round because they said, oh, actually the mini bus is going past the house, we have a seat, we'll put him in there. I thought, well, that makes sense. But then they changed the policy at which point I was told, no, we're not offering any transport. You can have a personal transport budget, which I accepted. I had to contribute towards it. But they give me, a mileage allowance which is 45 pence per mile.听

School is 10 miles away, so it's a 20 mile round trip. I accepted the budget because the transport option was not there anymore, and I now pay a private taxi firm. The driver's DBS checked. We have a permanent driver who picks him up and takes him to school, and it's costing me, well, it's.. it's painful, let's say.

Nuala McGovern: Yeah. Yes, I'm, I'm sure. I mean, I just was struck there by the fact that you said the mini bus still goes by your house.

Ramandeep: Yes. We see a number of mini buses going past the house, and I know that they have got spaces on them, and it just doesn't make any sense to me that this is a young person who has a legal entitlement, a legal right to access education, and they're not willing to put him on the bus.

Nuala McGovern: What reason?

Ramandeep: 听I don't think they actually gave me a reason. They just said he's not eligible any longer. And, and I think I always say, when he woke up on his 16th birthday, his needs hadn't changed. He hadn't suddenly discovered this miraculous way of reading a bus timetable or working out how to cross the road.

Nuala McGovern: 听For those that say it's your parental responsibility to get your child to school?听

Ramandeep: Oh, I appreciate that. But I think as a parent of a child who has a disability, I've made a lot of sacrifices over the years, and actually I'm not asking for him to be taken in a chauffeur driven Rolls Royce. I'm just asking for that little bit of support so that he can get that education, which actually will help him to achieve his aspirations and his dreams, just like his non-disabled brothers do.

Nuala McGovern: 听I want to bring in a statement from Ramandeep鈥檚 local authority, which we鈥檙e not naming. Here's what they said. They said:听

We acknowledge that there have been reductions of levels of support for non-statutory travel assistance provision. 听

They also say:听 This is something that is seen nationally due to rising demand and significant financial pressures on local authorities.

Then on personal transport budgets, they say:听 听Our Budgets offer a level of support to cover the expenses of parents taking their children to school using their own vehicle or towards the costs of alternative arrangements at the parent鈥檚 discretion.

And they also say:听 We do consider additional levels of support in cases of exceptional circumstances.

Let me come to you. Kelly. How do you feel this issue of transport home to school impacts the load that many SEND parents are carrying, you know, Ramandeep has illustrated it in, in lots of little snapshots.

Kellie Bright: I, I mean, my, I'm sitting here listening and a couple of things really have struck me. One is how, and this is what I hear all the time from families that contact me, is just how everything is a fight, everything. Nothing comes easily. No one is there saying yes, I can see that this need is here, and let me help you with that.听 Every, everything is a battle, which is why parents, parent-carers of children with SEND are so exhausted. The other thing that I've heard again and again, is that this idea that at 16 everything just falls off and how that support just stops. Now, I'm assuming that your son has an EHCP?

Ramandeep: Yes, he does.

Kellie Bright: Right,

Nuala McGovern: 听鈥�which is an education, health and care plan鈥�

Kellie Bright: 听Health and care plan,

Nuala McGovern: 听鈥�which legally entitles him to getting an education or his needs met in certain situations.

Kellie Bright: Absolutely. It's what exactly what my son has. My son is in a mainstream school with support, but we essentially have the same piece of paper, right?

Ramandeep: Yes.

Kellie Bright: Now, that piece of paper is supposed to support your child through education till they鈥檙e 25, so if you have a child that wants to remain in education and, and let's face it, we are legally required for our children to remain in education till they're 18, whatever that looks like, then why on earth would those provisions be taken away at 16? I just can't get my head around it. I understand, obviously, it's to do with cost and funding, but the fact that there is a minibus that is going past your house that your son could get on is barmy, it's bonkers.

Nuala McGovern: I want to read another email that came in. This is from listener Helen, who has two children with SEND, who has decided the only solution is to move house.

She said: 鈥淲e thought they could remain at their school until they're 18 or 19, but last year we were told their needs aren't severe enough for their sixth form. So they have to attend a mainstream college with a SEND unit that is 40 to 60 minutes away. That will be a massive change for them and I'm so disappointed.听 Hence, we're a moving house so they can attend a school with the sixth form.鈥�

She goes on to say, 鈥淚 would love my children to be able to walk to the local school, but they can't because there isn't a local school. So they need transport, which is funded up to 16.听 Between 16 and 18 years of age, despite having to be legally in education - to Kelly's point - we have to pay at least half the cost of transport. I don't understand the logic of this.鈥�

What do you say to families, and this is for you, Amanda, what do you say to families like Helen who find themselves cut off from home to school transport when their child turns 16, even though absolutely nothing about the child's needs or disability has changed?

Amanda Hopgood: I completely agree. We've got a system that doesn't work. We've got a transport system that's based on legislation from the 1940s when children left school at 15.

Kellie Bright: Yeah.

Amanda Hopgood: So it would've worked then on those levels, but you change the law so that children have to stay in some form of education till 18, but don't change the things that go with it. And this is what we want to see from the white paper. This is what local authorities are challenging the government. It needs to be fit for the 21st century. It needs to be fit for the world we live in now. And people's lifestyle now.

Nuala McGovern: It's, it's quite something it hasn't changed since the 1940s.

Kellie Bright:听 It's crazy, isn't it?听 I mean, I can believe it, but it is, does seem crazy.

Nuala McGovern: But are you concerned and the councils that some children will abandon going to college if their parents can't afford to get them there, for example. And with some, the main aim of the education is to try and get them to have an education to live as independently as they can possibly.

Amanda Hopgood: Yeah, it, it is a really big concern, and I would say that there is no local council across the country who wants to see this happen. We want to be able to provide these services for these young people and families who need it, but ultimately there is no money in the system, and that's what we're asking government to do, is fund a system to the correct level that we can deliver a service and an education that young people deserve.

Nuala McGovern: I mean, I was talking about some of the figures predicted to be 2 billion pounds this year.

Amanda Hopgood: Yeah.

Nuala McGovern: And that's with needs not being met as we're hearing from parents. How long do you think you will continue Ramandeep?

Ramandeep: My pockets are emptying by the day. It's becoming increasingly difficult to do this. I'm having to rely on money that I've got in my savings.

And actually, I was thinking about it the other day and I thought, gosh, I think my mortgage would actually be less than what I'm paying for transport. It's really important for people to understand if my son could have gone to the same school as his brothers, I would've been there within a heartbeat, I would've got him into that school, but his needs just simply could not be met. So we had to look at an option that was further away.听

And it's been tough for him, you know, really early starts.听 I still remember the first day I put him on the school bus. He was four years old, this tiny little dot of a thing where his uniform was just kind of, you know, overwhelming him. Just sobbing that I had to hand this little person over to a stranger to get him to school. And that's really difficult for parents to do. So I think sometimes we have to kind of look at our human values and just understand these are, these are little human beings who just need that little bit of support.

Like I said, I'm, I'm not asking for the world, it's just I want him to be in school. He loves school. He loves his sixth form. He's got great friendships. Why should that stop? Because it's costing too much money for him.

Nuala McGovern: 听听Let me read a statement from the Department for Education. 听They said the Skills White Paper commits to 鈥淚mproving access to education and training for disadvantaged groups, including those with SEND.鈥� And that this will encourage local integration of services, which includes transport planning, as part of wider accessibility strategies.

They also told us that Local authorities have a statutory duty to make sure that no young person in their area is prevented from attending education post-16 because of a lack of transport, or support to access it. Kellie.

Kellie Bright: Uh, I'm just gonna mention the utopia, which is this, right? 听I'm, I'm all for inclusion, 100%. My son attends a mainstream secondary school, state school. There is no special resource unit attached to that school. Do I think that would be of benefit to him? Absolutely. But there were none. In my vicinity, and so therefore I didn't see that as an option.

I also have three children, two other children that I have to get to two different schools. So what I would love to see, and I know it will take time, but I, we need, we, like you say, the demand has increased so much. All secondary schools need to have special resource units attached to them as part of the provision for inclusion.听 And we need more specialist schools for children that have more complex needs.

Nuala McGovern: 听Which I think is kind of echoing what Amanda was saying. I want to just take a minute though, Kelly, because I was looking on your social media and I see you have another project with SEND that is getting underway. Can you tell us a little bit about it? Very exciting.

Kellie Bright: Okay. Well, I'm calling it the 3:00 AM project. Because it was one of those, you know, wide awake in the middle of the night, can't sleep ideas. It's called post SEND. And the idea behind it came from the fact that I had so many people connected to SEND - families, teachers SENDCOs, all sorts of people - who reach out to me regularly, too many for me to respond to and essentially their stories get sort of left in my direct messages on my inbox. And actually what I want to do is create an arts based project. I'm not a hundred percent sure what this is going to be yet because this is the 3:00 AM idea.

Nuala McGovern: Mm-hmm.

Kellie Bright: I've invited people to write to me. I want a snippet of their lives. Perhaps things you might think, but you wouldn't necessarily say. It doesn't have to be something awful, I just want to say that.

Nuala McGovern: Yeah, sure. Yeah.

Kellie Bright: It could be something beautiful or something really lovely that actually people don't necessarily know about. That's part of your life. It's an anonymous project and essentially I want it to reflect. Real families, real people on the frontline, teachers, SENDCOs, anyone that's connected to SEND and their lives. I'm going to turn it into something, something.

Nuala McGovern: And so if people want to get in touch,

Kellie Bright: You need to send a little snippet, or your thoughts to Kellie 听Bright, care of EastEnders help desk at 麻豆社 Elstree Centre. You should find the rest of the address from that.听 But it will be something special. I've invited people to write to me until the 1st of May this year.听 Okay? So there is a bit of a window. Please don't send me your life story. I just gotta get that in quick!

Nuala McGovern: We want a snapshot.

Kellie Bright: A snapshot. Yes.

Nuala McGovern: Well, best of luck with it.听 It sounds really interesting.

It is time to shine a light on someone's achievement, large or small. In the 听spotlight this week is 25-year-old Grace in Leeds.听 She's a young woman who is blind and uses a wheelchair. She's currently a post-grad student. She also writes, acts and directs theatre in her spare time.

TAPE WITH MUSIC

Grace: My name is Grace and I'm currently studying a practice led PhD at the University of Leeds, which incorporates my own original poetry and traditional critical elements of the PhD looking at disability in poetry. I joined a theatre society in university to try and find some sense of community in a really big and intimidating space, and I found that I really, really loved theatre in particular, directing.听

This love of directing actually led me to write my own script, which was then performed in April of 2025. I also acted in this production, which was my first time acting, and was a lot of fun.听 After seeing this play a connection mentioned me to somebody for the role of director for a script that they are currently working on, so I interviewed for the position and I was lucky enough to get it. This production will be performed in Leeds, Bradford, and London in April - May time.

The love of theatre that I nurtured at university, I think I can track it back to going to Leeds Playhouse on days which the RNIB used to run for visually impaired children and their families, where we would get a touch tour of all of the costumes of a current production. We would also be able to meet the actors, have them sign things for us, and all of the performances will be audio described. It was fun for me, but it was also really fun for my sighted sister and my sighted cousin who were able to go on these theatre trips and have these really immersive experiences which they, they wouldn't have otherwise have had.

Sight loss was a really, really difficult thing to go through at the age of 14 when all you want is to fit in and, and suddenly you are not like your peers. Even though I was visually impaired before compared to being totally blind was really, really quite challenging. That led me to poetry specifically because before I was able to learn how to read braille or use assistive technology, I could create poems and memorize them in my head.

I was able to transfer that creativity into things like script writing and creative non-fiction. I think without sight loss, I wouldn't have the burning desire to write and create in the way that I do now. The use of assistive technology and learning to read braille was the thing which enabled me to get to where I am now.听 Without either of those things, I would not have even been able to sit my GCSEs, let alone, you know, start a PhD.

A QTVI is the name for a qualified teacher of the visually impaired, and I completely credit my QTVI Jane with, with that. 听She came in at a time where I really needed significant support to achieve my, my potential in education, and she, along with my specialist learning support assistant Caz, they both just really worked incredibly hard to support me in school and enabled me to access the curriculum, which then enabled me to access further education and then higher education.

And so I completely credit them and their tireless efforts to support me through not only a really challenging time educationally but personally with my success now. 听I'm really excited to be directing a play in a professional capacity. I'm also really excited and invigorated by my research and my creative work that I'm doing, so there's lots of really exciting things coming up.

Nuala McGovern: Grace in the spotlight, also shining a spotlight on the teachers who made it all possible for her. We do want your nominations for someone to put in the spotlight. To do that, email us SEND@bbc.co.uk. It's goodbye from all of us. Goodbye. Goodbye.