![\"Megan](\"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Megan-with-mum-Emma-and-dad-Richard.jpg\")
Megan Dunwell<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
When Megan is engaged and happy, she loves slapstick humour, is very sociable, and her mum and dad know she can easily stay up until 2 am. When she\u2019s bored, she pretends to be asleep and shuts out the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She is from North-West England, has MSI needs, also known as deafblindness, uses a wheelchair and is non-verbal. <\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n<\/div> \n<\/div>\n\n<\/div> \n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n
In the spring of 2025, we reached out to all 153 local authorities in England to find out how many multi-sensory impairment (MSI) teachers they employ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The number of local authorities that do not employ any MSI teachers has increased by 2% since 2021, when it was 52%. At the same time, there are now 4,630 children with MSI in England, an increase of 21% on 2021. <\/strong>The number of MSI teachers has clearly not risen to meet this demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Emma, 45, says the staff in Megan\u2019s previous secondary special school were \u201creally lovely\u201d, but they were overstretched. Under her education, health and care plan (EHCP), Megan is supposed to receive 27.5 one-on-one hours with an intervenor trained to support deafblind children each week \u2013 but gradually Emma realised this wasn\u2019t happening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When her intervenor wasn\u2019t available and after she\u2019d left her role, Megan couldn\u2019t communicate with the people around her. Emma was frustrated to be frequently told Megan had been asleep when she collected her from school. Emma often stayed up late into the evening, sometimes until 11.30pm, feeling stressed, writing emails and desperately trying to get Megan the consistent support she needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Children\u2019s MSI team at Sense helped Emma to fight for Megan\u2019s educational rights. Eventually, last year it was accepted that Megan\u2019s old school could not meet her needs and in September 2025, she moved to her new school, which is a 45-minute drive from home on a good day and outside her local authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the right specialist support from an MSI teacher and trained intervenors, Megan now uses a symbol-based communication system to say what she wants, she\u2019s alert and engaged at school \u2013 and the staff all know she likes Whitney Houston\u2019s music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For so many years, Megan had input from vision and hearing professionals, but nobody worked together. They didn\u2019t seem to grasp that Megan needed someone trained in MSI to pull it all together and put systems in place so she could communicate at school and learn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In her old school, I believe she was often just lost in her own world. She wasn\u2019t getting the input and interaction she needed. When I was turning up at school to collect her, they were telling me Megan had been asleep. It was frustrating for me because I knew she wasn\u2019t really asleep \u2013 she was just bored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now she\u2019s at her new school and is being given the right MSI support every day, she\u2019s much more settled and alert, and I don\u2019t think she\u2019s ever falling asleep, unless she\u2019s actually tired!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Megan is now in a class of six children. There\u2019s an MSI teacher within the class, who works with other children in the school too and is there to give advice. There are also several one-to-ones who are intervenor trained, which means Megan gets her one-to-one hours, but it\u2019s not always with the same person, and that works well for her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Things are now being put in place so Megan can communicate. She been introduced to a PODD book, which is symbol-based and she uses her eyes to choose things or vocalises if she\u2019s wanting something we\u2019re pointing to. She loves using it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s good that Megan is finally getting the right MSI support at school, but our family had to go through so much stress to get here and I feel she\u2019s missed out on ten years of education that she should have had. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s really hard to just move on when I know she should have developed more.<\/p>\nEmma’s final reflections on Megan’s education<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n The Government is inviting feedback on its SEND proposals.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We have created a simple tool which will help guide you through responding to the consultation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The tool will compile all your answers into one response, and you can then review it before sending it by email to the Department for Education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Megan](\"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Megan-with-mum-Emma-1024x746.jpeg\")
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nEmma spoke to us:<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Have your say<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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