Campaign Update — A Little Gratitude Today 💙
One of my campaign “musts” has always been to reduce EHCP inequality. Currently, despite being fully assessed by educational psychology as part of the EHCP needs identification process, EHCPs frequently fail to contain a single provision to support children with selective mutism. Therefore family’s who can afford private reports - achieve better EHCPs at their own expense, other families go into debt to fund the report or; the child misses out on selective mutism support all together.
This is why I’ve been pushing so hard for change: our children deserve assessors who understand their needs, know what provisions help, and feel confident naming them in reports.
Today, I learned something I didn’t know — and I want to share it with everyone supporting this petition.
My local Littlehampton East councillor has quietly been doing far more behind the scenes than I realised. Even though he’s newly elected and incredibly busy, he took the time to:
• contact SMiRA directly
• ask about the practicalities of their Educational Psychology training offer (including expenses)
• escalate the issue to senior West Sussex leadership
He didn’t just forward an email — he actively pushed for answers and made sure the right people saw it. That kind of genuine effort matters.
And a huge thank you to the SMiRA trustee, who has offered to train our West Sussex Educational psychology department for nothing more than her train ticket and a modest hotel room. She is willing to give up her own time to support West Sussex children, free of charge. That’s an incredibly generous offer — and I’ve been told it will form part of the discussions at the 22 July meeting.
I’m really grateful to both of them.
This kind of genuine effort could make a huge difference for SM families in West Sussex. 💙
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⭐ A Little More About the 22 July Meeting
The meeting will bring together exactly the kinds of professionals who need to understand selective mutism better. These include:
• the Principal Educational Psychologist
• leaders from Mental Health Support Teams in Schools
• commissioning managers for children’s mental health
• representatives from the Parent Carer Forum
• health commissioning leads
It’s rare to have all these roles in one room — and they will be discussing selective mutism directly with parents. This is the right group, at the right time, finally looking at the right issue.
And we want to walk into that meeting with as many supporters behind us as possible.
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⭐ One More Push Before 22 July
If you can, please share the petition one more time.
Ask one friend, one colleague, one family member to sign.
Every signature strengthens our voice.
Every signature shows West Sussex that selective mutism cannot be overlooked any longer.
Thank you for standing with us.
Let’s make this final push count. 💛