12/07/2026
One law for parents. No law for the state.
When a court orders a parent to act in a child’s interests and they fail to do so, the state can imprison them.
When a court orders a local authority to act in a child’s interests and it fails to do so… the state does nothing at all.
Worse. This state is *so* comfortable in its impunity that it isn’t even being counted.
Families were not overwhelmed by a feeling.
They were made powerless- in some cases, deliberately, and by design- by authorities acting unlawfully, and by a Department that has watched it happen.
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Today, under increasing pressure about the unlawful, harmful conduct of Local Authorities, this Minister offered platitudes. Then reminded the public how hard this is for Local Authorities.
Minister. System strain and conduct are *not* the same thing. This Department keeps answering the first to avoid the second.
System strain is real. But strain is not what breaks families. What breaks them is conduct… the deliberate use, (and knowing misuse), of power against children who have a legal right to protection from it.
That is where the deepest trauma lives.
That is where trust is destroyed.
This is where children and families are broken.
And it has a name:
Misconduct.
A local authority that knowingly ignores a statutory duty, or worse, a judge-issued, legally binding Tribunal order about that same child? Where continued failure to comply is leading to ongoing and escalating harm? Our state is so confident in its impunity that it isn’t even counted.
We know. We asked.
Local authorities are documented to have systemically… and in some cases knowingly and deliberately, broken the law. Thousands of pages of evidence, submitted to Parliament, show this has caused catastrophic harm to children and to entire families.
Not friction.
Not delay.
Not administrative difficulties.
Harm.
And yet, these reforms still propose to expand those authorities’ powers, while vastly narrowing the judicial oversight that exposed the conduct in the first place.
So Minister, no amount of platitudes, soft lighting or sofa interviews explains that away.
A department that has seen the evidence and still chooses to legislate away the mechanism that surfaced it is not a bystander to the harm that follows.
It is a participant in it.
So our question is this:
Minister, when a parent ignores a court order about their child, they can go to prison. When a local authority wilfully ignores a Tribunal order about that same child, what happens?
We know what the evidence shows.
So does this Government.
The only question left is whether the Department will act… or wait to be compelled. We are ready for either.
Measure What Matters
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In 2024, Measure What Matters first began collecting evidence of what appeared to be serious maladministration and misconduct by local authorities in relation to their SEND duties. When our data analysis aligned with what families were reporting, we knew urgent action was needed.
At 100 testimonies, they were presented to the Secretary of State.
At 600, Chris Coghlan, MP first presented them to Parliament.
At 1,200, they were presented again… and shortly afterwards Parliament debated them.
Our work with ITV has now seen a whistleblower corroborate what families had already made known. And Chris Coghlan MP’s tireless parliamentary representations on these issues mean this record is simply undeniable.
The record now runs to thousands of pages of testimonial evidence, across more than 140 local authorities in England. And it exists solely because thousands of brave, determined, broken families were willing to say, on the record, what was done to them.
If you have not yet shared your experience, you can do so here:
https://survey.yourviewsyourvoice.org/
Finally. You are being heard.
