Congleton is leading the way on a national petition to protect the legal rights of children with special educational needs.

The parliamentary petition, 'Protect legal right to support for children with SEND', is calling on the government to retain the existing legal protections for children with special educational needs and disabilities.

It closes on Wednesday, October 14, and needs 100,000 signatures to be considered for debate in Parliament. It has now passed 53,000.

Congleton has contributed 383 of those signatures, the second highest of any of the 650 constituencies in the country - behind only Hove and Portslade.

The push locally has been led by worried parents and campaigners, including Congleton resident Jo Jeffries, who spoke about the proposed reforms at the Equality Party's national Equality Hour event on Monday evening, September 14.

"When I first looked at the map, Congleton had 53 signatures and I thought we might sneak into the top five if we were lucky," said Jo.

"We're now second in the country. Nobody bought advertising, nobody had a budget. People simply told other people, in WhatsApp groups and at the school gates and in the comments of Facebook posts."

The government's proposed reforms would restrict Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) to children considered to have 'complex needs', with many other children instead receiving Individual Support Plans written by their schools.

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An EHCP is currently legally binding: the support written into it must be delivered, and parents can appeal decisions to an independent tribunal.

"Nobody is defending the current system. It is buckling, and families wait far too long," said Jo.

"But fixing a broken system must not mean taking away children's rights. A school promise is not the same as an enforceable legal right, and standard packages of support cannot reflect the individual needs and ambitions of every child."

Jo raised particular concern about children whose difficulties are not immediately visible.

She said: "The children who mask, the ones whose ADHD gets read as bad behaviour, the ones whose anxiety gets called defiance don't look 'complex' in a classroom on a Tuesday morning. They could too easily fall through the gaps."

The petition can be signed online here.