A silent circle of children’s shoes were laid outside of Sheffield Town Hall today, each pair representing a child with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) whose family say they have been “failed by the system”.

The display formed part of “Every Pair Tells a Story”, a national action organised by SEND Sanctuary held in 97 towns and cities across England and Scotland.

From long waits for assessments to the shortage of suitable school places, the campaign seeks to draw attention to the growing crisis in SEND provision.

360Wire spoke to the organiser, Lauren Jones, a Sheffield volunteer with SEND Sanctuary, who explained that the movement was designed to be peaceful but impactful.

She said: “It’s not a protest where people are shouting or waving banners.”

“It’s a peaceful, silent movement and a visual representation of just how many children are being let down by the system.”

Jones said she knows personally what that struggle feels like, as her son was repeatedly suspended from school from the age of five and began expressing deep distress about his own abilities.

By six years old, he had been permanently excluded from mainstream education and given an “inadequate” Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), as Jones described.

She eventually took the local authority to the tribunal to secure the right support for him.

She said: “The judge ruled he should be in a special school and now he’s thriving, so I’ve seen personally the emotional turmoil of what children and parents have to go through, and it needs changing.”

Throughout the day, families arrived quietly, placing pairs of children’s shoes in the circle and attaching handwritten tags telling their stories.

Many tags included the names and ages of children, along with brief but heartbreaking accounts of exclusion, delayed support, or years of waiting for help.

Some visitors knelt to read the messages left behind and spoke to the families standing around the circle.

The action called for better teaching training, more specialist school places, and increased government funding for local authorities, which campaigners say are struggling to meet statutory SEND duties.

“So I understand that funding isn’t necessarily there for the local councils, but I think the whole awareness and the attitude and the education towards all of this needs to change by the local authorities.” Jones said, “I want them to get behind parents and approach the government and parliament and fight for more funding, more special schools, more understanding, more education, more training for every teacher just to have at least basic knowledge of special educational needs.”

Commenting on the action, Councillor Dawn Dale, Chair of the Education, Children and Families Committee at Sheffield City Council, said: “Having listened to the voices of those the partnership is here to support, Sheffield City Council continues to work in partnership with Sheffield Parent Carer Forum and all other local stakeholders and partners in the LAP to shape and design the services we need now and in the future.”

“The partnership continues to develop the SEND local area offer to improve the opportunities and outcomes for our children and young people with additional needs and look forward to continuing our work alongside parents and carers to improve this further.”

The council also notes that following the SEND inspection carried out earlier this year, an improvement board has been established, with a multi-agency improvement plan, covering all aspects of SEND and that there is recognition improvements needed to be made, in addition to building on improvements that were already being carried out and were recognised within the report

After the demonstration, the shoes will be donated to St Luke’s charity, while the tags will be sent to SEND Sanctuary’s headquarters, where the group plans to present them at a round table in Parliament, using the stories to push for urgent reform of the SEND system.

“When you see a child having a meltdown in a shop, it’s not necessarily bad parenting,” Jones added. ” Just get behind us, really, with awareness and help us fight for it.”