Your say / SEND
‘Parent-carer voices should be valued, not treated with suspicion’
In 2022, it emerged that SEND parent carers in Bristol – including myself – attempting to access SEND support for our children, had been monitored by council staff.
Leaked council emails revealed how officers had collated parent-carers’ public social media posts – sometimes cross-referencing anonymous Twitter accounts with private Facebook wedding photos – to compile dossiers on families, including myself and others involved with the Bristol Parent Carers Forum.
As a parent-carer, I know how much courage it takes to speak up for your child. Discovering that families like mine had been watched instead of listened to left many of us questioning whether our voices were truly safe in this city.
is needed now More than ever
Before any of us knew about the surveillance, families came together outside City Hall in March 2022 as part of the Bristol SEND Alliance.
They launched a manifesto calling for accountability and cultural change and set out 250 flags to represent every child without a special school place that September.
This public action reflected longstanding frustration with systemic SEND failings, following years of warnings from parent carers and the 2019 Ofsted/CQC inspection, and highlighted the urgent need for meaningful engagement from the council.
SEND parents have every right to be frustrated by the situation and campaign for change.
Yet, importantly, the surveillance later revealed by the leaked emails targeted parent-carers indiscriminately, including those not involved in campaigning or public protests, showing that the monitoring was not about activism but about monitoring parents raising legitimate concerns through inappropriate means
Despite this breach, the council’s 2022 internal “fact-finding” report concluded there was “no evidence that systematic monitoring took place” – a conclusion many of us saw as a whitewash.
A full council meeting then voted for a motion put forward by the Conservative group and the now-chair of the children & young people committee, councillor Christine Townsend.
Yet, the Green Party have apparently gone cold on plans for an investigation and defended staff’s actions at our last meeting.
In that same meeting, we were told the reason for the delay in starting an investigation was that ongoing legal cases prevented. They’ve now all concluded; there’s no reason for the council to drag its feet.
As well as being a SEND parent, I now sit on the other side of the table too, as an elected councillor. From both perspectives – the parent-carer and the representative – I see the same truth: until this investigation is carried out, trust cannot be rebuilt.
What do we want from it? Above all, assurance. We need to know that parent carers are no longer being monitored – that our social media posts, our advocacy or even cases of mistaken identity will never again influence the decisions made about our children’s education or support.
No family should feel that standing up for their child might somehow count against them.
We also want honesty and change. This isn’t about punishing individuals but about making sure that culture shifts inside the council and holding politicians to their promises.
Families should be seen as partners, not problems. Working with other affected SEND parents, I’ve drafted terms of reference for an investigation to help get the ball rolling. These terms of reference will ensure the investigation is transparent, truly independent and will give the affected families the closure they need.
Our voices should be valued, not treated with suspicion. Since 2022, the Bristol Parent Carers Forum has worked hard to rebuild trust with families, showing that dialogue and collaboration are still possible. That progress is fragile and it must be strengthened, not undermined, by the investigation.
There’s nothing stopping an investigation going ahead. SEND parents need the Green Party to reverse their latest U-turn and carry out an external and truly independent investigation.
This is an opinion piece by Kerry Bailes, Labour councillor for Hartcliffe & Withywood
Main photo: Bristol24/7
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