A National Picture of Harm: Families speak out on SEND

Measure What Matters.

National Database: Indexed Testimony on SEND Maladministration  ·  Volume 3  ·  22 February 2026

---

Volume 3: National Database: Indexed Testimony on SEND Maladministration

The largest published qualitative primary source dataset on the lived experience of families navigating the SEND system in England — now containing 1,253 testimonies from 134 Local Authorities across England.

Note: Volume 3 includes Testimonies submitted up to 00:00:00 8th January 2026

---

1,253 Testimonies

134 Local Authorities Across England

1 in 6 Families Describe impacts that include severe mental health crisis in their child

204 Testimonies Containing explicit suicide or self-harm references

---

Why We Are Publishing Today.

Today, the Government publishes its long awaited Schools White Paper. We are releasing this database at the same moment — not by accident.

For the past year, families across England have submitted detailed testimony to Measure What Matters describing what they believe to be dishonest, unlawful, unethical, or harmful conduct by the public bodies responsible for supporting children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.

Those testimonies are published in full, verbatim, and anonymised — in this database.

This is not a curated selection. It is not a collection of case studies chosen for impact. It is the complete, unfiltered record of over 1,200 families’ experiences, submitted directly to us, and available for any Minister, MP, researcher, or member of the public to examine.

It remains our view that far too little weight is being given to the voices of those who are living this system — and far too much to those who have failed in their duties to administer it.

We intend to change that.

---

Since Our Last Publication: The Database Has Nearly Doubled

When we published Volume 2 in October 2025, this database already represented the most extensive published qualitative record of families’ experiences of statutory SEND administration in England.

In the months since, the number of testimonies has nearly doubled.

That growth is not incidental. It reflects the scale of what families across England are experiencing — and the extent to which existing accountability mechanisms have failed to give them a meaningful voice.

---

The Finding We Cannot Look Away From. 

Also published today is the first of our thematic investigations.

It centres on what is, perhaps, the most harrowing finding in this entire database: more than one in six of the families who submitted testimony — families who came to us specifically to describe maladministration by public bodies — described watching their child reach the point of wanting to end their life.

Of the 1,253 testimonies analysed, 204 explicitly reference serious self-harm, suicidal ideation, or repeated suicide attempts. These accounts do not describe mental health crisis as an isolated clinical event. They describe it as emerging — consistently, repeatedly, in case after case — after prolonged exposure to institutional failure.

The pattern is strikingly consistent.

Difficulties are visible early but not acknowledged, not assessed, not acted on. Requests for support are denied or heavily delayed. As children become increasingly distressed, their behaviour is treated in isolation — not recognised as a warning sign, but responded to with punishment. Exclusions escalate. Attendance collapses. The child’s world shrinks.

By the time crisis services are involved, the child is often already in end-stage distress.

“As a young child our child was perfectly happy, but increasing pressure within education to meet certain statutory requirements crushed his spirit… education made them feel stupid for most of the time and lacking in self-worth. Our child had terrible periods of self harm. Ironically, it was just as things appeared to be going well that our child made a choice to take their own life.

This has been unimaginably devastating.”

— Family testimony, Volume 3

To ground and triangulate these testimonies, Measure What Matters has also reviewed hundreds of official documents: Safeguarding Practice Reviews, Local Authority scrutiny papers, inquest reports, and Prevention of Future Death Reports. We have examined Department for Education statistics, the National Child Mortality Database, and Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman data.

These documents confirm what the testimonies describe.

The first thematic investigation is published in full alongside this database today.

---

What Comes Next: A Series of Thematic Investigations

The Schools White Paper opens a twelve-week consultation on SEND reform.

Over the course of those twelve weeks, Measure What Matters will be publishing a series of thematic investigations built directly on this database.

Each investigation will triangulate and ground the testimony evidence by reviewing it against multiple data sources in the public domain — including official statistics, inspection data, ombudsman findings, and statutory review documentation. This methodology is set out in our accompanying report, published today in Special Needs Jungle.

This is not rhetoric. It is not lobbying. It is evidence — the kind that has been systematically absent from policy discussions about the future of this framework.

We are determined that the voices of those most failed by this system will not be set aside during a consultation that will shape the legal landscape for children with SEND for a generation.

---

About the Database:

This is a public call for evidence, open to families of children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities in England. Testimonies are anonymised and reproduced verbatim, with only light formatting for readability.

Respondents are asked whether they had experienced dishonest, unlawful, unethical, or harmful behaviour at the hands of their Local Authority while trying to secure SEND support for their child.

Each testimony is structured around four questions: the nature of the misconduct described; the family’s experience; the impact on the child and family; and the change they are seeking.

Every testimony has been anonymised, given a unique reference ID, and keyword-flagged for thematic navigation. The full database is published without omission below.

---

How to Access and Use This Database:

The Testimony Card Index allows you to locate a specific testimony by its unique reference ID. Each card displays a header — ID, Local Authority, and submission date — followed by the testimony itself, structured where provided into: Description of Misconduct, Experience, Impact on Child and Family, and Desired Change.

Keyword flags are listed at the end of each card where generated. Empty sections are omitted.

Testimonies are reproduced verbatim from survey responses. They represent contributors’ own words. All allegations are unverified. Entries may be reviewed or removed without warning if specific concerns are raised with us.

Local Authority names are limited to English authorities. Currently entries naming Welsh, Scottish, or Northern Irish Local Authorities are excluded from thematic analysis due to differing legislative frameworks.

---

Measure What Matters  ·  National Database: Testimony on SEND Maladministration · Volume 3  ·  Published 22 February 2026