Chris Bryant hosts Parliamentary Roundtable focusing on Education and Brain Injury

On Wednesday 7th December UKABIF convened a Parliamentary Roundtable at the Houses of Parliament chaired by Chris Bryant, MP. The event aimed to given children and young people, parents and carers, educators and clinicians the chance to talk about their experiences and enable this information to guide the government’s ABI strategy.

Five young people and their families attended to share their first-hand experiences of returning to education after suffering a brain injury. They discussed what was helpful and difficult, and how they felt the education system could be improved to better meet their needs. The children and young people’s brain injuries were caused by Encephalitis, head injury following road traffic accidents, skateboarding accidents and strokes.

Many discussion points were raised, including the importance of consistent awareness training for teaching staff, funding, EHCP plans and access to rehabilitation. A number of actions were agreed to be taken forward for further discussion. The meeting was also attended by a representative from the Department for Health and Social Care and the Department for Education as well as Baroness Morris of Yardley who served a Secretary of State for Education and Skills from 2001-2 and Tonia Antoniazzi, MP for Gower.

After the round table, the young people and professionals went on to take part in two focus groups to discuss their experiences in more detail with the Department for Health and Social Care.

The young people commented that they felt the was a cathartic experience to share their stories in a forum where they felt it would make a positive change and will now form a regulr group to feed into the work of the National Acquired Brain Injury in Learning and Education Syndicate (N-ABLES).