Amanda Elliott, special educational needs campaigner poses for a portrait at home in Hackney, London, UK Friday, Feb. 21, 2020. When Callam was a toddler it was clear he was not like other children. When he was five he was diagnosed with autism. Her husband was later diagnosed with autism too.
In 2008 she helped set up the Hackney parent-carer forum. This group enabled parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) to ask difficult questions of the local authority about provision, and reached out to isolated families. They also ran events on benefits and where to get help, advice and legal support. While working with the Forum Amanda found the council were increasingly calling them in for “co-production meetings” which were basically asking them how they could reduce services. In 2017, when there was another very big round of cuts, they decided to mobilise members against the local authority. They generated hundreds of responses to the consultation and organised a demonstration outside the town hall, with some children acting as delegates. The Council were taken aback by it. Previously the issue was not on their radar and now it was right in their face. Despite this big impact the cuts continued, so they decided to crowdfund to mount a legal case against Hackney Council.(Elizabeth Dalziel)

2018: Hackney SEND parents’ protest

2018: Parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities launch a legal case against Hackney Council over cuts to education provision

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Karpal Kaur Sandu - UNABLE TO TRACK DOWN COPYRIGHT

1974: Karpal Kaur Sandhu dies

1974: Karpal Kaur Sandu, the world’s first Asian woman police officer, is murdered outside her Walthamstow home by her husband

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21st November 1970: The Miss World contest causes a feminist storm as demonstrators invade the Royal Albert Hall where the contest was held. Protestors fired ink at spectators and let off stink bombs in scenes resembling a school assembly. The unruly ladies were eventually expelled from the hall by security guards and policemen. (Photo by Leonard Burt/Central Press/Getty Images)

1970: Miss World Protest

1970: Walthamstow’s Jo Robinson takes part in the Miss World protest at the Royal Albert Hall

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East London Federation of Suffragettes procession from Old Ford to Westminster Abbey

1929: Rego Factory Strike

1929: Sarah Wesker leads 600 young women out on strike at the Rego Factory on Bethnal Green Rd

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