Hello, this is Anna Kennedy and we're live in Covent Garden and we're talking all things autism. My guests today are Poppy Rose and Sharon Pratt but before I go over to my guests, just want to let you know that Autumn's Got Talent happened at the weekend and I am so proud of my team. I am proud of the performers. They totally smashed it. I'm still in Autumn's Got Talent mode. My head is buzzing. The messages over the weekend, the messages from the performers saying it was the best weekend of their life. I was just so proud of them. We were going through the technical rehearsals and then once they just I don't know how they do it but once they perform live on stage they step it like 300% up. So already we're getting people asking how can we be in the next Autumn's Got Talent. So if you know someone that's a fantastic singer, a dancer, can play a percussion instrument, a poet, whatever it is that they have, wow factor talent, please contact the charity www.annakennedyonline.com. So I am going to go over to Poppy Rose and Sharon Pratt today and they are from the SEND national crisis. So I've been getting involved in the last few months but it's been happening since last year. So first of all I'm going to go over to Poppy. Poppy's a diagnosis of dyspraxia, hypermobility, severe sensory processing condition, global developmental delay and sleep difficulties. Hello Poppy, welcome to our programme. Hi Anna, thanks for having us here today and thanks for your support for the SEND national crisis campaign. Thank you. So tell me a little bit about your life. I'm a single parent, two boys, 14 and 19 and my son had early diagnosis as you said. It wasn't until he was 12 that we received an autism diagnosis so only a couple of years ago. Once he'd had that diagnosis I found myself in quite a tough lonely place. So I took to social media, navigating the system, looking for support and it became an absolute lifeline. Through those social media groups I've met with another lady called Nadia and we live hundreds of miles apart. She lives in Yorkshire and I live in London and we would speak most evenings, help each other out, offer advice and off the cuff remark from Nadia about taking action resulted in SEND national crisis being formed. Social media can be a negative place but it can be a really positive place and a lifeline for a lot of parents especially like us that have got children with difficulties. For me it definitely was a lifeline and I've self-taught the law, all the information that I've gathered, the knowledge and just the support. We found that families are coming together from across the country. I've made some really good friendships from the group. I've met people all over the country and I've found that it's been an absolute lifeline for me. Thank you. So now I'm going to go over to Sharon. So you're a mother of two children. You have a daughter aged 17 and a son aged 12. Your son was adopted at a year old and although you knew there were differences between raising the boys and girls, you knew that your son was developing differently despite the older Darje from friends that he's just a lively boy. So tell me a little bit about your life Sharon. Thank you. Thank you for having us along Anna. As you just said, Callum was showing sort of certain behaviours that I kind of recognised may be different to usual behaviour in terms of how he reacted with people in play groups. A very affectionate boy but didn't like sharing with other children. Tended to get upset if things were removed from him and so I sought help from the midwife and she sort of helped me into the direction of getting him into a nursery and observing him and I do remember after about a week of him being at preschool the manager who I knew because my daughter had been there came up to me and said oh you know can I just have a word with you about Callum and she sort of looked very embarrassed and I said you know I'm sure you're not going to tell me anything I don't already know because I hadn't really mentioned anything about him and she kind of confirmed my beliefs by saying that she thought there was some developmental delay in certain areas and particularly with his social skills. So yeah so fortunately from a very early age I had a really good preschool and infant school that supported my son and by the time he left infant school he had a statement in place moving into primary school. Okay so a statement or some parent opinion what does that mean? Yeah so a statement is the precursor if you'd like to the education health and care plans. So about two years ago all local authorities had to transfer over from the statement process to the plans. Which is a legal document? Yeah so they were both legal documents it's just they didn't have the social care and the health care aspect involved previously. And so yeah so then it was just a bit of a battle during primary school shall we say so that's where my kind of like poppy sort of kind of self-taught going to bed with the code of practice. Yeah that's like reading isn't it? So you're both here today because you want to talk about the send national crisis and I want to know how did this come about so send special educational needs and national crisis so how did that come about? Well myself and Nadia had been speaking online we decided to put a group together for parents and families to come together to plan a day of action we started the group and within just a few months we had over 3,000 members nationwide so that proved that this was a send national crisis it wasn't just local or you know happening close to us. Send national crisis was formed and the support that we've gathered you know has just been amazing really I don't think we ever expected it to kick off as big as it has at the same time we've got families going to judicial review taking local authorities to court there seems to be a lot of emphasis at the moment on send we're looking at the 2014 reforms and we know that they haven't worked the children and families act isn't being implemented it isn't being followed and children are just desperately being found so send national crisis was there was put about really for families to come together and make the stand really. Okay Sharon in your opinion why do you feel that parents and other supporters have decided to protest like this? Well I think you know we mentioned statements and moving through to EHD plans obviously they're in 2014 and that change was meant to reform the send picture parents have been fighting for years for their children's educational rights as you well know having to set up your own school because you know your son's needs were not being met and there's just a continual lapse of support to families there's tens of thousands of children and young people being left without appropriate education and for some as well actually being in educational establishments that are not suitable for them causing kind of you know a lot of stress to the children or young people and their families so you know that loses trust and confidence issues and the battle if you like between local authorities and parents becomes very adversarial and that's tough enough being a parent of a sent child and having to sort of really fight for for what your child needs at school so you know leading on to what Poppy said really it was just trying to say like enough is enough and let's actually make a noise about this. Because this radio program is about promoting and supporting women's well-being and obviously this is going to have a knock-on effect on parents, on moms, on dads, even on extended family. Have you got any tips for families that might be listening in and their kids have just been diagnosed and they're thinking what have we got to fight ahead of us have you got any tips of how to handle it? It really is important to get yourself out there and get some support it's not something that can be done alone definitely not you do have to take some time for yourself I mean I've always said if I hadn't lived this process I would never believe it it made me seriously ill you know it like you say yeah it is the knock-on effect of the family and it's the worry the worry the sleepless nights yeah you know the am I failing my child yeah leaving no stone on turn and it really really is it's horrific it's a battle and we say battle and it's not a word that we use lightly um and it's the whole family you know siblings get cast aside your attention version to that it becomes your eat sleep and breathe really friends were sick of me it was all I spoke about for ages it really was um so it's important that you get a good network of friends around you and I'd say you will find that within the same community you know you get to events and you'll always find somebody that's just like you or their child is just like you and it's really important to have that and take a bit of time for yourself sometimes I switch my phone off I'm not going to answer any emails and think you know what a fresh head in a few days and go back to it because otherwise you find yourself really bogged down by a system that's no way out really what about you Sharon have you found that it's affected your mental health would you say yeah definitely I think when um I was battling for um the transfer from primary school to get my son into a specialist school for secondary um I think I got to the stage where I've been battling for about five years at that start stage to get Calum's um diagnosis and um I ended up being on antidepressant tablets because I was really kind of feeling very low so so parents listening in any advice any tips you'd give them definitely find a support group local to you and use um Facebook and just um kind of learn how to navigate the system use the um organizations like SOSN and Ipsy out there that have really good websites links yeah um and local groups will help you find those local parents to understand what you're going through and and of accepting of your child yeah I will say now as well pick your battles yeah because you can find yourself fighting everything um so you know pick your battles wisely is it important isn't it important don't get into you know too much arguments and and stress with with professionals um yeah definitely pick your battles yeah and also take someone with you when you go to meetings because sometimes you can get really quite emotionally and when it's your own child I find that when you talk about your own child you can get really emotional but when you're supporting somebody else it's different you can almost like remove yourself yeah so um we're coming um to the end of the first part so if you're interested in asking Poppy or Sharon a you can go through the charity website and I can pass the questions along so it's www.annakennedyonline.com or if you can contact the charity office which is 018 95 5 4 0 1 8 7 you can also um spot the at send crisis on Twitter so um you can see what's going on so we're talking about looking after our well-being and um I've got two moms here who are really battling to try and put the system right so we're going on to the next part welcome to women's radio station I'm Sarah Louise Ryan and welcome to love lessons live on women's radio station hello and welcome to future classic women awards with me stepana pasamante on women's radio station hello and welcome to June May is listening hi this is Anna Kennedy and we're at women's radio station supporting women's well-being and we're talking all things autism women the possibilities are endless that's what makes us different hi I'm Farguni Desai of action coach are you a business owner with more than five employees do you want to grow your business I'm a London-based business coach who helps small and medium-sized businesses to grow and make a profit I will help you identify the strengths and weaknesses in your business and then work with you to improve it using a structured framework to find out more contact me on 0 double 7 2 1 6 5 4 6 4 0 and book your one-hour complimentary one-to-one coaching session thank you hi I'm Tracy Weeden of Brownhill insurance group we are an award-winning family-run insurance broker covering a wide range of insurance products ranging from commercial lines to personal household high net worth and fine art you can contact us on 0208 658 4334 or visit our website www.brownhillgroup.co.uk for your free no obligation quotation at brownhills we've got you covered hi I'm Carolyn van Beers please join me for a brand new show here on women's radio station it's mother's hour if like me you're a mum juggling far too many balls and dropping most of them this is definitely the show for you we'll examine the highs and lows of motherhood and make sure you laugh out loud as we take on this challenging role together with spoonfuls of advice incredible stories it will be refreshing honest and funny look at being a mum hi I'm Valentina Barbachi and I'm the executive director of media matters for women we're a registered charity operating in Sierra Leone and the democratic republic of congo and we produce and share podcasts via bluetooth and mobile phones focusing specifically on women and girls excluded from information due to extreme poverty we empower those living in rural areas with media that transforms how they access own and share information to find out more and be part of this movement come check out our website at media matters for women.org women's radio station can give a voice to your brand with a wide range of sponsorship opportunities including individual programs we can tailor your experience to you for more information on how you can sponsor a show go to women's radio station.com women the possibilities are endless that's what makes us different hello this is Anna Kennedy and we're live at Cobham Garden and my guests today are Poppy Rose and Sharon Pratt and we're talking about the special educational needs crisis I thought you might be interested in some key facts to the funding shortfall so the scope of the problem is nine out of ten of local councils in England are simply unable to provide schools with the adequate resources to provide specialist educational needs and disability support this leads children who have special educational needs marginalized why has this happened since 2015 there are approximately a hundred thousand more education health and care plans the figure is now well over three hundred thousand much more than was envisaged when the conversion from statements of special education and needs was initiated to cover this the only this has only been approximately six percent increase in funding the conclusion is that the new system of EHCP which means funding to 25 years old has not been thought through some additional fallout lack of funding means that parents are having to use their own resources to plug gaps so people are maxing out credit cards some have taken an extra loan out school transport is an area that has been particularly affected parents have initiated judicial reviews proceedings to challenge send funding cuts not good so Poppy what are your own experiences of the special educational needs and disability system I didn't really get involved in the system until my son was about 11 or 12 we was very fortunate that he attended a mainstream school primary school even after having early diagnosis and he was supporting very well within that primary school so he didn't have a statement or an educational health care plan but we knew that the transition to secondary school was going to be difficult so he went onto a mainstream secondary school and it became a power very quickly that it was the wrong environment for my son and his sensory needs so he had sensory processing difficulties couldn't cope with the pace the environment the hustle and bustle the organization organizational skills needed within a mainstream environment it resulted in my son having a severe mental health crisis and an attempt at suicide aged 11 and he was signed up from school from camp by camps child adolescent mental health services and was deemed too unwell to attend school he was at home for 11 months and he had no education provided whatsoever i then found myself in a battle with my local authority to try and get this educational health care plan put into place to ensure that he could attend school and be supported adequately so it took 11 months for us to get that and it wasn't an easy ride it was a very bumpy ride i was going to say that must have affected you yeah mentally you know i was broken i really was um not only was my son broke and i was broken my home then became open to professionals we had no privacy you know my private life was dug you know my background was dug into i had to give up work you know i had a managerial position i had to leave um i was struggling to pay my rent um i was just struggling to keep on top about siblings that the effect of sibling yeah my my oldest son actually um now lives with his grandparents the relationship between us is hasn't broken down but it became difficult you know i had all my attention had to go with my younger son um so we finally got the education health care plan and great that should have been the end of it really we had the option to go to school that we wanted it that became clear that that wasn't going to happen um my son now attends a specialist private school independent school there was no maintained specialist school or mainstream school uh that could be found by the local authority that could meet his needs the local authority didn't want to pay for my son to go to a specialist independent school uh it resulted in that they had to because we was left without a placement my son was left without education what that now means is that he goes out of borough he's now transported out of borough so how long does it take him to get to school he's we're quite fortunate in the sense it's about 25 minutes because you travel within an hour you know some families that we know children traveling up to an hour two hours to get to school um i believe that moral needs to be put into local schools um both mainstream and specialist so my son is what i would school and in between yeah he's not you know low function enough to go to a specialist school um his disabilities are probably not severe enough to warrant our local uh maintained i think the more articulate our kids are the harder it is for the local authority to say that they need support yeah i mean my son is he's he's a high achieving child he has just so many other barriers to his learning um and that's not available we find him maintain specialist schools so we find that we've got a lot of these children that are in the balance and there just isn't any placements well the support isn't there for them um you know i've had my ongoing battle so we've got the specialist placement school we had the hep and great that should be the end of it yeah and then a year later comes annual review and everything's changed yeah so we're back to square one again i'm still battling the system we know forever on my son's being reassessed again this is a never-ending ongoing process um and that's if you're lucky to stay within the system we find that families will have any hep's removed it yeah uh annual review support being taken away and that's because there's no funding so sharon the government response um are saying that the government denies that fund cuts are an issue and point to additional funding that has been made available it is certainly the case that emergency injections of funding has been made available but this does not seem to have been sufficient given the above so what attitudes do you think need to change towards supporting special educational needs and disability children and young people um i think the main thing needs to be that the whole attitude surrounding um education as a whole um needs to be properly funded um i think obviously there are lots of different um types of people um protesting now because it's built up over send cuts um and and obviously um the fact that some schools were not getting perhaps enough funding for the send children that they've had it's had a knock-on effect to what you would might call the mainstream um funding as well with tas being taken around so schools really are feeling pressure so um it's particularly started off or parents have had a very long battle with funding for send children but it's really impacting um the wider education system so i think the whole attitude around um education as a whole but specifically for send children we have had teachers now that are saying actually they refuse them to take send children into their schools because they can't afford it but that's just blatant discrimination oh they're worried about the facts yeah all that yeah then that kind of effect to gcsls schools are very much driven now by results yeah um and that doesn't affect children like ours does it and they're strungulated by paperwork it's not about teaching anymore and they're having to do extra hours to be able to cope with the day-to-day work it's a culture change as well yes you know we found that we hit a lot of brick walls and that there seems to be like Sharon said uh discrimination in a sense so until there is a culture change um all the money in the world is not going to solve these problems yeah i keep on using the word you know when i tweet sometimes or on social media you know this Dickensian attitude it's sort of things that are almost going backwards you know send children are being treated like second-class citizens and actually when you when you go to autism Scott Tallon you see what these children or any send children be it you know autism or you know i have a friend's daughter who's in a wheelchair and she she races and she's aiming for the Paralympic Olympics in four years time and she'll probably get there because she's completely dedicated and um you know when these children or when our children are not fully supported they have just got no way of reaching their full potential um and i think the whole attitude needs to change around that i mean one thing that i did pick up on at the education select committee recently was that um offstead was saying that they're actually changing the framework of their inspections okay and they're starting yeah exactly and not performing all along but they're actually going to be start looking at the quality of education rather than the quantity okay so you know if that comes through that might help you know everything is very academic based now and we've seen over the years that a lot of the other you know the arts and performing um subjects are being moved so there's not enough emphasis now as well on things that that can be done so everything's very much academic for children are not celebrated for what they can do outside their academic skills you know some of these children will be the most talented children with their hands and they can make things or you know dance and yeah and that's the problem is children are not able to express it and show their ability because they are removing the other subjects so and everything is very academic. So you could see Sharon that when Jonathan Sporke our street dance teacher from Helena Manor School he was on to his next group now of children that were coming up for autism with attitude and you could just see the joy that the kids had and then you had the um obviously the dancers that had been dancing for quite some time that were supporting them it was quite emotional watching these kids and you could see they were all on different parts of the spectrum but they were all supporting each other and Jonathan is so passionate he started off um part-time and now he's full-time and I started dancing at the school 20 years ago because I thought I want to see how these kids you know how can they dance together and after spiritual awareness was difficult and you know about and then but they started using their imagination making steps up all that sort of things so I just wanted to um share with people if they wanted to check out um if there's any marches in their area so they're in London Central they're in Berkshire they're in Hertfordshire they're in Derbyshire they're in Buckinghamshire they're in South Gloucestershire Surrey Warwickshire and West Midlands Brighton Hove Sussex Isle of Wight and Hampshire Dorset Liverpool Greater Manchester Suffolk Worcestershire and Hertfordshire Birmingham and Walsall North Wales Yorkshire and Humber Cumbria Cambridge Essex and Norfolk so all in those areas there's going to be marches happening um and just check it out on send national crisis is that on Facebook where they'll be able to find a little bit more information yeah we would just say as well that all of these um events happening across the country on the same day are planned by parent volunteers we haven't said the day it's 30th of May and is there a specific time they're all starting at one o'clock okay 30th of May but these are all planned and put together by parent care of volunteers um so you know we are grateful for that everybody worked really hard yeah passionate yeah she's gonna say passionate and it shows the extent of the problem okay what's the twitter handle again if they want to check it on twitter they can send crisis so it's at send f-e-n-d and then crisis so no gaps it's all wrong word or you can hashtag us hashtag save national crisis hashtag our kids matter okay so if you want to know more information please check out um either on twitter on Facebook if you want to ask more questions about it we'll be putting some information up it will be an article after this event so it'll be on www.annakennedyonline.com or i'll be tweeting about it at Anna Kennedy One. Women's radio station is a fresh new broadcasting platform driven by love and passion connecting women around the world in a global network is all about diversity from the opinions career ethnicity education we aim to show the individuality of every woman everywhere providing opportunities and a platform for your voice women the possibilities are endless that's what makes us different. Hi I'm Liz Van Linden the UK travel consultant for hazelmaid travel people come to me as they want unique experiences and a personalized service this happens from the moment that they inquire till they come back here I work with luxury operators you can contact me on 07825 4412 12 and Liz spelled L I S at hazelmaid travel.co.uk I'm Tamina Zaman founder of empower and enrich when it comes to money do you climb up or get confused do you wish you could save more money or are you hoping you have enough for retirement you are not alone many women want to be smarter with their cash but just don't know where to start at empowerandenriched.org you will find a host of options to help you take charge of your finances and learn how to put your money to work for you in an easy affordable way get in touch with me at empowerandenriched.org and let's change your future together are you struggling with money turn to us as a national charity helping people struggling to make ends meet job loss illness or bereavement can cause a real financial crisis we give practical help to get people back on track whether you're thinking of having a baby trying to get out of an unhappy relationship or just unsure what benefits you may be entitled to we can help visit turn to us.org.uk let me tell you about german street theater this is a secret theater in the heart of the west end once found never forgotten this is where careers ignite where great actors perform just feet away from the audience this is where magic happens we would love you to join our mailing list or become a sponsor or just buy a ticket to one of our shows the website is www.germondstreettheatre.co.uk you're listening to women's radio station supporting women's well-being coming soon will be a host of new shows supporting all areas of your well-being shows that you can get involved in so stay tuned women's radio station.com here for you hello this is anna kennedy and we're talking all things autism we're in coven garden and we're live and my guests today are sharon and poppy before i go over to sharon and poppy before i came here today i actually went to see the press launch of a film called against the tides i was well impressed beth french came to autumn's got talent at the weekend but she has made a film and she's a british marathon swimmer and she has a son on the awesome spectrum and what she's done is to set out to complete the world's most extreme swimming channels ocean seven as her extraordinary extraordinary journey unfolds dangers of the sea prove easier to conquer than upheavals of the heart um she was driven to set an example for her autistic son and by her battle with a lifelong illness which was ma which left her wheelchair bound as a teenager beth travels to far flung corners of the world confronting jellyfish i saw sharks which my heart was jumping out my chest wild weather hypothermia and mind numbing fatigue so if you can get the chance please check out uh the film it's all over the country it will be happening the first premiere is going to be at piccadilly on friday so if you want to check it out it's www.ourscreen.com slash against the tides i'll just say that again it's www.ourscreen.com slash against the tides i can well recommend it your heart will be jumping out your chest okay so i'm going to go over to poppy so we did speak a little bit about the broken system but what do you think needs to change what can we do to change to make life better for families and for our children quite simply the um legislation that is already there needs to be implemented uh and basically a deity it should be and it isn't we found that uh there needs to be some form of accountability as well when it isn't we believe as a group that early intervention is crucial you know and could it's not cost effective in the long run to have these children without having any therapy or um post 16 there's not enough provision there's not enough support so the laws have changed now that you know children stay in education until 18 and the support and the funding hasn't been increased to to match that and we need new inspection frameworks so the schools are not just being inspected to look at their their rates and their targets we need it inspected in what's going on as a whole funding needs to be ring fenced which is where big issue comes into it at the moment we've got you know schools top-slicing and local authorities moving money around at seven funding yeah great it goes into the school it's not going to the seven children so there's a few things that can be done that would really make a difference here and but the biggest thing is just implement the legislation and an idea to the legislation and what's already there yeah i think again it's very much a postcard lottery of which yeah i mean there's not enough health therapists say this is an education health care plan and we find that the plans are very much weighted to education and so social care and health care are not as directly involved as they could be and just a better working relationship between professionals would mean better outcomes for some of our children without a doubt i get a lot of parents that say to me that they get one-to-one support but that one-to-one support is across the school and it's supposed to be for their child especially at their most vulnerable times which is play times and lunch times where then bullying is kicking in and it's just very frustrating all around i think we're putting a lot of pressure as well on school staffs in a sense of you know you have an education health care plan and rather than the the health side being very much involved they are factoring it out to school so okay they you know it is supposed to be that a teaching assistant is trained and they should implement that i mean then that stops that professional from doing the job that they're there for i think and i think that you know we are putting a lot of pressure into schools in saying that okay now you're going to take on the education side of it you're going to be responsible for the social care side of it and now you're going to have to provide the education as well so i do i do feel for schools that are you know head teachers have to become business managers now as well don't they so this and that's where the issues lie as well because it's the one-to-one relationship that families have with the school and that's where the relationship becomes broken rather than everybody working together it's you know you take it out on the first person that you see and that is where the relationships do become full and and the school families do break down and what you do find is that parents become mini experts don't they and they just want to learn everything that it is and then they're speaking to the staff and then they seem to be seen as a bit of a pain so it's just a knock-on effect all around really what's your opinion Sharon um yeah i mean i agree with obviously what puppy said i mean i think you know some of the statistics that are kind of stacking up um at the moment are showing that the system's not working i mean 90 of tribunals which is where parents um can appeal yeah over school placements or or certain sections bnf of the ehcp plan um you know 90 of those are won by parents now the tribunals work on a legal framework that shows that in 90 of cases that go that which is the tip of the iceberg of tribunals um you know 90 of those are unlawful so um it's not just about money going into the system it is also about making sure that um local authorities and their staff are following the correct procedures um as we mentioned earlier on the send code of practice it states you know very clearly what local authorities must do and um certainly from our own experiences and those of parents that we speak to that is just simply not happening um for example tribunals which is um a stage that parents can go to once they've made an official complaint to a local authority and the local government ombudsman um um complaints procedure um can also be carried through once you've finished a tribunal to actually get them to investigate why local authorities are not following the procedures they have um reported recently that there they've got over 150 150 percent of an increase in ehcp investigations and 87 percent of those um they're finding fault with the local authority so again we're five years into the reforms yeah and things are not settling down and that basic thing is not happening 100 million amount 100 million amount testing cases so if parents are looking um saying you know they're starting the system and they're talking about what's this this scnd special needs practice where do i find this so they can find the information online yeah and the children and family that i mean you will be able to download a copy yeah it's free yeah i would recommend that any parent print it off you know have it to hand all the time and if you haven't got the information there like i've said before social media groups you know i'd go back and post a question and i'd have a hundred answers that was all the correct answers to be honest that's a brilliant brilliant advice within five minutes yeah and there's like template letters so you don't have to reinvent the wheel so if you go on ipsia for example or special needs jungle there's lots of information on there so just google special needs jungle or google um ipsia that's i-p-s-e-a there are template letters that are on the website explaining the system so um they're very good so that's you know sometimes it is difficult to try and pay as well so we've got s-l-s-s-e-a and educational equality i mean you know they're not they're not legal professionals yeah um but they they will support so always you know there is there is support there it's difficult to find um but it's there definitely okay so talk to me about nadi turkey so she's got a petition going and i believe she's got about eleven thousand five hundred signatures which i've signed so tell me a little bit about that tell me a little bit so nadia is the founder of the group really um so where does she live she lives in yorkshire so and she is coordinating the yorkshire and hombre march they are marching elite so she was the co-founder of the group and somehow sort of dragged me into it yeah we've snowballed sharon into it as well along the way yeah um and she started the petition we got it out of the group and it's now reached 11 just under 11 and a half thousand signatures so if people wanted to sign it where do they find you can find it it is at change.org or change.org yeah and it is rights and equality with young people with additional needs in education say that again just in case people are writing it down is the rights and equality with young people with additional needs in education okay it is also on our facebook pages okay um and our twitter handles as well it can be found there we're going to have to close it on the 20th of may 25th of may sorry and that gives us time to print it before we get into downage street so that's what you're going to do with the petition it's going to be handed into downage street on the 30th of may at 12 o'clock um and then we do have an MP who is looking to basically raise it at parliament as well brilliant okay so you'll be keeping people posted obviously yeah um along the line to see where it's going and they can follow its progress okay so you've got some speakers as well uh and um i'm going to be speaking in London so can you give some and also Sienna's one of my ambassadors she's going to be speaking um in London so could you share with everybody who's going to be speaking yeah we've um got um a young man who's um a post 16 he's one a son of one of the members in the group called Alfie um he's going to come along and talk about his experience of education and we have Emma Parker who is a teacher and center parent and also a member of the neu who have been helping us with the campaign um we've got Kevin Courtney who's the general secretary of the neu is going to be talking from the educational side of things and we have Dr Carrie Grant who's a broadcast broadcaster and vocal coach is coming along has um autistic um for for children with special needs um Dean Beadle is an autistic speaker a lot of people yeah recognize him we've got Tanya coming from special needs jungle purple Ella who's a blogger and um hopefully Jeanette Arnold OBE who's um part of the London assembly in the education she contacted via Sienna so hopefully she's coming along and so where is everyone going to be speaking so if people want to find and they want to listen to what's going on where can they find us well basically we're going to be in parliament square i think we're gonna there's going to be a few hundred obviously hopefully it'll be quite obvious did you say you meet me the gandy yeah there's um there's a few um kind of statues but we thought the gandy with his famous quote of society is measured by how it treats its market vulnerable people was quite appropriate so we're going to be speaking there so anyone can come yeah anyone can come yeah one o'clock parliament square so one o'clock parliament square so just to reiterate twelve o'clock the petition is going to be handed in at ten down in street so hopefully get signing we'll get more signatures that we can hand in and then one o'clock in London outside parliament square near the gandy statue if you want to come along please come and support us probably be an hour or so of speeches i'd imagine people are traveling from all over the country so hopefully the weather will hold and we won't get wet um and um it's going to be um a great occasion so again if you want to follow what's going on we're going to be writing about this it's going to be on anna kennedy online the charity website which is www.anna kennedy online.com women's radio station is a fresh new broadcasting platform driven by love and passion connecting women around the world in a global network is all about diversity from the opinions career ethnicity education we aim to show the individuality of every woman everywhere providing opportunities and a platform for your voice women the possibilities are endless that's what makes us different hi i'm liz van linden the uk travel consultant for hazel made travel people come to me as they want unique experiences and a personalized service this happens from the enquire until they come back home i work with luxury tour operators you can contact me on 07825 44 12 12 and liz spelled l i s at hazelmadetravel.co.uk i'm tamila zaman founder of empower and enrich when it comes to money do you climb up or get confused do you wish you could save more money or are you hoping you have enough for retirement you are not alone many women want to be smarter with their cash but just don't know where to start at empowerandenriched.org you'll find a host of options to help you take charge of your finances and learn how to put your money to work for you in an easy affordable way get in touch with me at empowerandenriched.org and let's change your future together are you struggling with money turn to us as a national charity helping people struggling to make ends meet job loss illness or bereavement can cause a real financial crisis we give practical help to get people back on track whether you're thinking of having a baby trying to get out of an unhappy relationship or just unsure what benefits you may be entitled to we can help visit turn to us.org.uk let me tell you about german street theater this is a secret theater in the heart of the west end once found never forgotten this is where careers ignite where great actors perform just feet away from the audience this is where magic happens we would love you to join our mailing list or become a sponsor or just buy a ticket to one of our shows the website is www.germondstreettheatre.co.uk you're listening to women's radio station supporting women's well-being coming soon will be a host of new shows supporting all areas of your well-being shows that you can get involved so stay tuned women's radio station.com here for you hello this is anna kennedy and we're talking all things autism we're live in coven garden and my guests today are sharon pratt and poppy rose before i go over to sharon and poppy i just wanted to share a few of the performers that were on autumn's got talent i'm still in autumn's got talent mode my brain is just full of it because i just loved it so much and before i go into sharing about the performers if you're interested and we've got two more shows road show so we've got same ives and we've got them in rice lips so if you're interested and you'd like to apply please message us on www.anna kennedy online.com any age any talent that you have whether it's been a poet you've taught yourself how to play the guitar acoustic electric so some of our performers are going to talk to you about chris chris hansen christian has had a love to drums since he was a baby using chopsticks and pencils until we gave in and bought him his first drum kit at the age of seven music is his passion and we have loved watching him go through from strength to strength to his journey he won first place at the age of 11 at our school in singapore and was the drummer for their first rock band he guest appeared twice with house bands at hard rock cafe singapore after moving to london he has performed at various gigs do you know what autumn's got talent is about what our kids can do because a lot of our kids are always like oh you can't do this you can't do that but it's about showcasing what they can do daniel docketty just blew everyone away daniel traveled all the way from ireland he's 19 years old and he's an aspiring singer and he sang opera he goes to the gym and you could clearly see he goes to the gym three times a week he studies psychology in waterford institute of technology and has an interest in story writing and poetry he sent me a message over the weekend said it was the best weekend of his life and he's never ever going to forget it he's got the most amazing voice the last person i'm going to talk to you about is holly holly 16 years old we invited her last year to play at the harp but she was doing a gcse so she gave us a rain check and i said i promised i would invite her this year which i did and she's now currently studying for her a level she also attends junior guild hall on saturday's and plans to be a musician for her career for her career when not studying or playing her harp holly loves to listen to classical music operas and pop she also loves going to theaters in london to watch musicals on stage just so many performers so we're going to be sharing highlights of the show very very soon so keep checking out on the charity website if you want to see what the children and adults got up to so girls your top three tips for well-being what would you say poppy um it's really important to take a break from everything um just some time out for yourself some socializing with friends a lot of adult time leave the professionals aside for a bit um i actually had a few weekends away oh that's good my friends i was very fortunate i was able to do that it's good with the girls because you can have a good laugh so no it really is important you know just to take that time for yourself a hot bath you know i understand that some families you can't just go off you can't just go and have some time on yourself but when the kids are in bed a bar of chocolate a glass of wine hot bath yeah what's your program that you've put on put off for weeks yeah just take five ten minutes for yourself i've got so many programs i've got to catch on but you have to find a time to dig because if you don't you'll find yourself like really mentally bogged down so as difficult as it is um i always say you know you wouldn't let your phone battery run out would you so you should and the thing is you're the linchpin to the family and if you go down yeah everyone else is going to go down with it it really really is vital as well and children pick up on how you're feeling when i'm stressed and i'm tense my son's sensory issues are an overdrive so it's maintaining the balance you know keep keep things good and keep things calm at home and the only way to do that is by taking five to ten minutes out yeah coffee tea glass of wine yeah a bit of chocolate i know because when i get a headache even though my son angelos non-verbally will just come up to me because he knows and he will just stroke the side of my face and that's almost like him saying are you all right mom yeah okay how about you sharon what's your top tip um top tip well definitely um socialize with your friends i think my my friends many of them are from um sort of kind of primary school um i've been so supportive um you know i've bored them to death over the years with what's going on but they never fail to ask me how things are going or how are you doing um so yeah having a really good friendship group is um is really good and and we do things um together but also just um taking time out of the weekend just to go and get have a walk breath of fresh air i didn't we've taken up geocaching actually well basically you have um the geocache website where you can there's geocache is like little hidden treasures hidden all over the world and you can download this app and it shows you where your local ones on yeah so so my son quite likes and my daughter at 17 likes it we go out and it's a walk with a purpose okay i'll have to look that one up i've never heard of it before uh for me as everyone knows it's dancing i just because i can just lose myself in dancing um i did a bit of tap dancing on autumn's got talent and i only we've only we only rehearsed that finale in the last two weeks but i haven't done tap dancing for like two years and i thought i've really missed it and because i just i just love the rhythms and all that sort of thing when i was a kid because i had quite a strict upbringing i had an italian dad and i was like you know good girls don't own they don't go out and all this sort of thing but um tap dancing was like my get out if you like with things that and i just thought i've missed that i need to go back to my tap dancing so yeah so you need to do something for yourself no matter what it is you know i love talking to our guests because they tell me about all sorts of things i've learned about geocaching now it's almost talked about foraging i didn't really know what that was about some people like to go in charity shops and just look and see what they can pick up so tell me a little bit more about the send national crisis and is there anyone that you would like to thank personally while you're on air now that have really supported you and it's pushed it to the next stage firstly we'd thank the co-alternators nationwide that have put the planning into this and making this happen they really have and they've got you know children with special educational needs and disabilities fighting their own battles working full-time so thank you to all the coordinators to start with especially the ones that have come up quite recently in the stage like in Brighton and Liverpool it's like i'd like to do something yeah i've noticed a few because some of them asked me and i said oh i need to speak easily i mean we have to also as well as cnr gets massive thanks from us i mean the young girl is absolutely amazing 16 years old she's really pushed this campaign and we are you know we probably do in London definitely quite a bit to cnr she's she's been amazing yeah um Anna Kennedy as well we you know we're thanking you you've really pushed it yeah videos you know the social media presence getting people talking we had an article in special needs jungle yeah they've found that we you know had an increase in influx then their members wanting to join the group um so yeah thanks to there is thanks that need to to different people individually we do have quite a few groups though who are um and organizations who are supporting us on the day okay massive wide range of groups really um which varies the disability say we've got the national disabled children society will be joining us every day the national education union will be joining us okay we've got disabled children's partnership century ones worth will be there as well um we've got a fascia which are um speech and language we've got visually impaired charities joining us as well and there really is a massive wide range of we've got parents professionals MPs you know um teachers okay so um organizations it's really blown off quite big just recently the last few weeks and we're going to try and bring a bottom's got talent performers if i can because obviously uh let's see because obviously they'll be at school so oh yeah we want as many children as we can right some areas are not actually doing a march already they've got peaceful picnics um you know it is dependent so we've got a talent show as well i actually heard that bank holiday weekend the weather's going to be quite warm so that might be good for us yeah um but yeah i mean there's a wide range of different events going on across the country there are buses um as well some transports being put on from different areas so if you can't see anything close to you um have a look it might be that you can grab like jump feet on the bus okay um and join us in one of the other locations as well okay um we're trying to make it as accessible for everybody really and hopefully we'll get some media attention as well that will come along we do have some media interest at the moment and i think large groups of people yeah will obviously get yeah definitely hopefully peaceful shall i say it's going to be peaceful i'm hoping it's going to be all over social media so yeah yeah we can try and um sort of have a viral a viral event happening at the same time so that anybody that can't attend yeah would be able to get involved by really as well so just to remind people about the petition so remind me again if somebody's looking for the petition where will they find it it's on the change.org website but it's also on all of the send national crisis facebook groups okay and the twitter handles as well it's the rights and equality with young people with additional needs in education okay and remind me of the twitter handles it's at send crisis yeah and on uh we've got hashtag send national crisis hashtag our kids matter and on facebook if you just search send national crisis march you'll have our main national group but it will also pop up with some local groups as well yeah because i've noticed on twitter there's some separate ones like at send Gloucestershire at send wherever it is so whichever area you're in um so just to remind you there are various different areas so i'll just name a few so obviously there's going to be in London they're going to be in Berkshire they're going to be in Buckinghamshire they're going to be in Surrey Isle of Wights and Hampshire Liverpool Greater Manchester uh North Wales so please check out the send national crisis look at it on facebook look at it on twitter there may be something that's going on in your area if there isn't maybe you could create something yourself you know it doesn't have to be a march as you say it can be a picnic the kids are off school just do something to mark the occasion to showcase and then just share it on social media hashtag the send national crisis and you know i'll be trying to retweet wherever i can and so will everybody else so we need to make our voices heard i just want to say thank you to you Sharon thank you to you Poppy thanks for coming along thanks for doing this thank thanks for raising awareness about um send and um please keep checking out what we're doing if people want to ask questions of you both if they want to either do it on your facebook page or if they want to do it via the charity website it's www.annakennedyonline.com and we'll pass the messages on and as i say um if you want to follow me on twitter i'll be posting stuff so it's at Anna Kennedy One, Anna Kennedy Online on facebook at Anna Kennedy OBA hoodlets on instagram so i just want to say thank you very much girls and um we'll be live again next week thank you thank you thanks thanks take care welcome to women's radio station i'm Sarah Louise Ryan and welcome to love lessons live on women's radio station hello and welcome to future classic women awards with me hello and welcome to June May is listening hi this is Anna Kennedy and we're at women's radio station supporting women's well-being and we're talking all things autism women the possibilities are endless that's what makes us different hi i'm Farguni Desai of action coach are you a business owner with more than five employees do you want to grow your business i'm a london-based business coach who helps small and medium-sized businesses to grow and make a profit i will help you identify the strengths and weaknesses in your business and then work with you to improve it using a structured framework to find out more contact me on 07721-654-640 and book your one-hour complementary one-to-one coaching session thank you hi i'm tracy weeden of brown here insurance group we are an award-winning family run insurance broker covering a wide range of insurance products ranging from commercial lines to personal household high net worth and fine art you can contact us on 0208-658-4334 or visit our website www.brownhillgroup.co.uk for your free no obligation quotation at brown hills we've got you covered hi i'm carolyn van viers please join me for a brand new show here on women's radio station it's mother's hour if like me you're a mum juggling far too many balls and dropping most of them this is definitely the show for you we'll examine the highs and lows of motherhood and make sure you laugh out loud as we take on this challenging role together with spoonfuls of advice incredible stories it will be refreshing honest and funny look at being a mum hi i'm valentina barbachi and i'm the executive director of media matters for women we're registered charity operating in sierra leone and the democratic republic of congo and we produce and share podcasts via bluetooth and mobile phones focusing specifically on women and girls excluded from information due to extreme poverty we empower those living in rural areas with media that transforms how they access own and share information to find out more and be part of this movement come check out our website at media matters for women.org women's radio station can give a voice to your brand with a wide range of sponsorship opportunities including individual programs we can tailor your experience to you for more information on how you can sponsor a show go to women's radio station.com women the possibilities are endless that's what makes us different