21/05/2026
“Whatever you’re learning, make sure you concentrate…”
That was the key educational message delivered this week by reality TV personality Gemma Collins in collaboration with the Department for Education, and the backlash from parents, particularly within the SEND community, tells its own story.
This isn’t about attacking Gemma Collins.
She did exactly what influencers are brought in to do: create noise, attention and engagement.
The real issue is what this says about the current disconnect between policy makers and the lived reality of families navigating education.
At a time when:
✨Parents are battling for EHCPs,
✨Schools are overwhelmed,
✨More than 170,000 children are out of education,
✨ Neurodivergent young people are being mislabelled, excluded or criminalised,
✨The SEND system is being described by many families as traumatic…
…the decision to front serious education reform messaging with celebrity skits has understandably landed badly.
Families don’t need performative PR.
They need:
Accessible support,
Earlier intervention,
Specialist understanding,
Properly trained staff,
Flexible pathways and environments,
… and systems that actually understand complexity.
What many people are reacting to is not Gemma Collins herself, it’s the feeling that once again the conversation around education reform is happening about families rather than with them.
The irony is that there is a really important conversation to be had around vocational pathways, alternative education models, neurodiversity and the fact that academic success is not the sole measure of intelligence or future potential.
If government genuinely wants trust from the SEND community, it has to start by showing it understands the seriousness of the crisis families are living through every single day.
For many parents right now, this didn’t feel relatable.
It felt dismissive.
“Tone deaf” is the phrase many used online this week.
And perhaps that reaction should be listened to more carefully than the campaign metrics.
Department for Education