The Disabled Children’s Partnership Fight for Ordinary Campaign: call for stories

What is Fight for Ordinary?

In mid-July, the Disabled Children’s Partnership will be launching the Fight for Ordinary campaign.

Fight For Ordinary will be a big, bold campaign calling f

or the government’s planned SEND reforms to truly address the failings in the system and put disabled children and those with additional needs at its heart.

A big part of our campaign strategy is to unite as many organisations as possible behind positive change. The more of us that are speaking with one voice, the more powerful we can be.

At the heart of the campaign is a simple message: SEND families are not asking for anything ‘special’. We just want the very ordinary things that every child should expect.

There’s nothing ‘special’ about getting a school or nursery place. Or about taking part in lessons. Or about wanting to be happy at school. There’s nothing ‘special’ about wanting to combine parenting with work. These are ordinary things.

But if your child is disabled or needs additional support, these ordinary things are somehow considered a privilege. They’re considered ‘special’. They are things you can’t just expect to happen. Instead, they’re things you’ll have to fight for, things you might have to give up work for, and still might not get.

This has to change – and Fight for Ordinary is our rallying cry to unite around serious action.

Our Call for Stories

As we look forward to the campaign launch we are pulling together a content plan to build greater public awareness of the issues SEND families face and engage more people in taking action.

The way we want to do that is with stories. Real people’s stories will help us to bring the campaign to life for people and help to build that empathy and connection we need.

And that’s where we need your help.

We want to tell people’s stories in this kind of style:

What we need

From a children, young people, parents, carers or siblings, we are looking for the following:

1. 2-3 photos. (If from the parent’s perspective, ideally including the child/children.)

2. A short paragraph, 2-3 lines is fine, that set out your hopes for a reformed system.

3. A short sentence that starts: “There’s nothing ‘special’ about…” and then describes something ordinary that support enables you to do / or a lack of support means you are unable to do.

4. A short sentence that starts: “’Ordinary’ to me means…” and then describes the ordinary things that good support does enable, or would enable.

By sending us this content, participants would be agreeing we can use it on our digital channels (including website, social media and email).

Please also let us know if you would be willing to be contacted as a media case study for the campaign. (If you are, we wouldn’t put your story forward for media without contacting you first and making sure it was something you wanted to do.)

Where and when to send them:-

Please send these to Natasha Kennedy at the DCP at natasha.kennedy@mencap.org.uk

Deadline is Tuesday 8 July. (But, the sooner we get them the better!)

Thank you so much!

The Disabled Children’s Partnership Team