MORE than 50 pairs of shoes belonging to children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) were laid on the steps of County Hall in a silent protest on Monday, November 3.

It came as part of the national “Every Pair Tells a Story” day of action organised by non-profit The SEND Sanctuary UK, with the footwear meant to symbolise children in education “being failed by the SEND system”.

Tied to each pair at Devon County Council’s headquarters were handwritten tags with the names and stories of local children.

Charly Rhodes, from Colyton, is fighting to get her 11-year-old son into a specialist SEND school.

“The system has failed my child and it's about getting the word out about how bad the system is for each child,” she said.

“I don't want to see any shoes here in the next year. I want the council to start taking responsibility... and to be accountable because they're the ones that are failing our children.”

Holly Long, from Lifton, said her four-year-old son, who has autism and is non-verbal, “can’t cope” in mainstream schools.

Despite him being offered a place at a specialist school, she said the council is “forcing” him to stay in preschool.

“I've had to leave my job in CAMHS so I could take care of my son because he's not able to access education,” she said.

“When they said to me, I'm sorry he can't go to the school you want, it was devastating because that would have been the perfect place for him to thrive.”

A Crediton mother, who wanted to stay anonymous, said she has three children with SEND, one of whom is coping in mainstream schooling, but two who have not been.

“I have two children who are now damaged long-term by their experience in mainstream [schools] as autistic children misunderstood and with their needs not met, and I'm having to pick up the pieces of that, day in, day out.”

Cllr Denise Bickley (Lib Dem, Sidmouth), who is the Devon County Council cabinet member responsible for SEND, went along to the protest and spoke with parents.

“Things have to change. Within a national backdrop of failing system, we can still do a lot better,” she said.

“We need to make our EHCPs [Education, Health and Care Plans] much more transparent, effective and timely, which we're working on.

“We have a new two-fold system of working at the moment. We're trying to look at our backlog of EHCPs and we're also dealing with new ones in a different way.

“We can't solve this on our own. Schools need to have some clear steer from the government about how they can do things differently, because too many children are being failed and parents are going down the EHCP route.

“I have a child with SEND myself who doesn't need an EHCP, the school made adjustments for him.

“That's what we need. Parents and schools working together to ensure that their children get the best outcomes, working from what they can do, not what they can't do.”