Additional reporting by Abigail Hook

A mum-of-two says she is “blown away” by the support after her plea about Educational Health Care Plans (EHCP) went viral on social media.

Lisa Lloyd, from Aylesford, posted a message after the comments made by KCC councillors about parents of disabled children.

She first posted the video to her 60k TikTok followers on Wednesday and it has since been watched more than 14k times.

The plea was to celebrities and influencers to help shine a light on EHCPs, which allow children and young people to receive more special educational support.

It comes after Conservative councillor for Maidstone, Simon Webb, sparked outrage with his comments suggesting having an EHCP was the “in thing”.

During a recent SEND sub-scrutiny meeting he said: “Where are the gatekeepers?”

“If I am a parent who thinks that their child needs an EHCP, because that’s the in thing to do as a parent these days, who is going to turn around and say no.”

Lisa has two children – Finley, nine, and Poppy, six, – both are autistic and have an EHCP.

“The gatekeepers are everywhere,” the 39-year-old explained.

“There are thousands and thousands of families that are not able to get an EHCP because they cannot get through the gatekeepers. It just showed how little they know.

“They seem to have their own feelings about what type of parents we are.

“There was a lot of parent blame, saying that we don’t work – which is not the case at all.”

She added: “We were absolutely horrified. I think the outrage came from everywhere, not just people from Kent.

“They said what we all thought they were thinking anyway and I believe there was so much discrimination shown within that meeting.

“They are all on the SEN committee and clearly don’t know anything about it.”

Her video that she posted on social media has been watched more than 14k times.

It has also been shared by Stacey Solomon, Christine McGuinness and Sophie Hinchliffe.

Model and TV presenter Christine McGuinness has three children, Leo, Penelope and Felicity, who are all autistic. She was recenty diagnosed to be autistic herself.

She commented: “Sadly we still have a long way to go in changing the system.

“But never give up, never stop fighting for what our children need and deserve.”

“I can’t even tell you what this means to me and all the other mums. I am blown away,” Lisa said in response.

“We have been told it is our parenting that is at fault, and that our children will just have to ‘try and cope’.

“These are our children, they are our lives. We just want them to be happy in an environment that is right for them.

“They should be entitled to an education that is correct for them.”

Parents of children with special needs are joining a protest in London on Wednesday, June 21, organised by Lisa.

It will take place outside the Houses of Parliament between 11am and 3pm.

There will also be protests by the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood, with talks of Wales and Northern Island joining in too.

‘These are our children, they are our lives. We just want them to be happy in an environment that is right for them.’

If you want to sign the petition, please click here.

Lisa adds: “This is a peaceful protest – we want to work with parliament and discuss.

“We also have had more than 25,000 signatures in less than three days.

“We have to look at the bigger picture here, get it right now for these children and the economy will pick up from this.

“This is why we have to fight for this now.”