PDA-Advocacy

Supporting awareness and understanding of autistic children and young people with a Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA) profile across the UK.

[PDA-Advocacy @WhenUMatters]

Help us support change: https://t.co/slPvctA8CN

[PDA-Advocacy @WhenUMatters]

🚨 15,427 signatures!
Our petition for national PDA support standards just got the Government response - but it’s not enough yet. Children with PDA need support now.
Please sign & share: https://t.co/slPvctA8CN
#PDA #SEND #AutismUK

[PDA-Advocacy @WhenUMatters]

Please keep signing and sharing this petition.

🔗 https://t.co/slPvctA8CN

[PDA-Advocacy @WhenUMatters]

The Govt has responded to our petition.

“…including for autistic children with a PDA profile.”

Recognition is a step forward. Now let’s ensure it leads to meaningful change across schools, home education, EOTAS, AP, Local Authorities and healthcare.

[PDA-Advocacy @WhenUMatters]

“Killjoy attitude there is enough doom and gloom in the world, enough bad things happening a bit of joy and a bit of fun could do us all a favour.” Says @bphillipsonMP

But this is exactly why SEND families are rightly outraged by the latest @educationgovuk media post involving Gemma Collins.

Do you genuinely think comments like this are acceptable when families have lost children to suicide because their needs were not met in school? Right now, families across the country are supporting children experiencing suicidal ideation, self-harm, anxiety and trauma as a direct result of unmet needs within the education system.

This is not exclusive to SEND, but SEND children are disproportionately affected because support is so often delayed, denied or inadequate.

Your comments show a shocking lack of empathy and accountability for families living through this every single day. As Education Secretary, you are fully aware of the crisis facing children and families. Dismissing legitimate anger and pain in this way is deeply upsetting and frankly unacceptable.

@Keir_Starmer @UKLabour @MattChorley

#sendcrisis #schoolscrisis #send

[Matt Chorley @MattChorley]

On the pod https://t.co/Pugj4CaM0K

[PDA-Advocacy @WhenUMatters]

If you believe this is wrong, please sign and share the petition calling for national support standards for autistic children with PDA.

Families should not have to fight for basic education, safety, and support. Help ensure the voices of children and families like mine are finally heard.

https://t.co/YAGJEYSlEo

[PDA-Advocacy @WhenUMatters]

Perhaps @bphillipsonMP you should actually speak to children to understand how children really feel about school.

[Bridget Phillipson @bphillipsonMP]

Happy to help you out, Saqib. There was no payment, I got Gemma a couple of cans of Red Bull but that was it.

I really enjoyed chatting to her about why school matters for all our children.

[PDA-Advocacy @WhenUMatters]

Before the SEND white paper was released, I submitted an extensive report raising concerns about the risks to vulnerable children of policies pushing mainstream attendance and inclusion without adequate support.
I specifically asked whether the government had assessed the risk of self-harm and suicide in young children, particularly autistic children with a PDA profile.
That was four months ago. I have still received no response.
Silence in SEND reform. Silence from government. Meanwhile, families are left dealing with the consequences.

And the @educationgovuk are on a campaign mission to gloss over the reality many SEND families are facing.

[PDA-Advocacy @WhenUMatters]

Help us support change: https://t.co/slPvctA8CN

[PDA-Advocacy @WhenUMatters]

People think Pathological Demand Avoidance is “just refusing.”
They don’t see the panic behind everyday demands.
The hours of co-regulation.
The explosive meltdowns after masking all day.
The school trauma.
The burnout.
The families surviving crisis behind closed doors.
Many children desperately want to cope.
Their nervous systems simply become overwhelmed.
If this resonates, repost/share so more people understand what PDA families are living through 💛

[PDA-Advocacy @WhenUMatters]

@educationgovuk & @bphillipsonMP
Sorry, but this feels very much like a tick-box exercise and we all know it. You even had to put out a tweet saying “this is not a tick-box exercise” that tells us everything.
We’ve been through this too many times. You announce big changes first (weaker tribunals, harder to get EHCP’s, pushing more complex needs into mainstream without proper support), then ask for our “views”. That’s not a genuine consultation. That’s going through the motions while the decisions are already made..

[Department for Education @educationgovuk]

'This is not a tick box exercise. This is a genuine consultation where we want to make sure that what we set out further, really does work' - @bphillipsonMP

We want your views to help shape the biggest overhaul of the SEND system in over a decade.

Get involved now: https://t.co/HgzpgMJpCm

[PDA-Advocacy @WhenUMatters]

@JamesKoppert_ Amazing thank you.

[PDA-Advocacy @WhenUMatters]

@Bonniepurple @cierzo1 Absolutely. The govt has got this so wrong.

[PDA-Advocacy @WhenUMatters]

#PDAActionWeek2026
The govt’s SEND reforms promise “inclusion for all.”
For PDA children? It’s a red flag.
High-anxiety, autonomy-driven autistic children and young people are already falling through the gaps, too distressed for mainstream, “not severe enough” for specialist.
Without national PDA standards, these White Paper plans will increase trauma, exclusions & exclude far more from education than we’ve seen previously.
Sign the petition: https://t.co/YAGJEYSlEo
#SEND #PDA

[PDA-Advocacy @WhenUMatters]

The voices shaping your SEND “reforms” are clearly not the exhausted families battling daily distress, school trauma, suicide risk and safeguarding failures.
I submitted detailed parliamentary questions four months ago.
Still no answers.
Complete silence.
You say you’re listening to the powerless? Then hear this: your inclusion plans will devastate the most complex children who are too distressed for mainstream but “not severe enough” for specialist schools.
These families are powerless because you are not listening.
Sign the petition: https://t.co/YAGJEYSlEo
#SEND #PDA #Education #InclusionMatters
@Georgia_Gould @bphillipsonMP @educationgovuk @UKLabour @Keir_Starmer

[Georgia Gould @Georgia_Gould]

Up early and heading to Liverpool to talk to parents, teachers and health professionals supporting children with SEND.

Yesterday, @Keir_Starmer spoke about who this government is for and I thought about the parents who have spent years battling for the support their children need, and the teachers and frontline workers who are desperate to help but are held back by a broken system.

I’m proud that this government is taking on the big challenges that matter in every community and I’m determined that the voices of those who have too often felt powerless will shape the future of the SEND system.

[PDA-Advocacy @WhenUMatters]

@cierzo1 The govt’s inclusion push will fail hard because it refuses to understand the reality of uneven cognitive profiles and hidden disabilities.
Our children aren’t “too able” to need support. They’re falling through the gaps because of it.

[PDA-Advocacy @WhenUMatters]

Exactly this. 👏
High-ability + SEND (especially PDA/autism profiles) is one of the most misunderstood and invisible combinations. High intellectual functioning doesn’t cancel out extreme anxiety, demand avoidance, sensory overload or executive dysfunction - it just helps them mask longer… until they can’t.