Reform councils to cut SEN spending

What is your fantastic idea for a cheaper alternative, exactly? I'm sure you have one 😏

So why do children without SEN have more of a right to an education than children with SEN and do you want to fund huge number of uneducated kids with SEN unable to get jobs as a result of no education?

I agree . The costs have risen astronomically and just aren’t affordable .

Most of these children are mainstream and absolutely don’t need specialist units which cost a whole lot more than funding TAs who reach many children with interventions that run alongside mainstream education.Are you seriously suggesting that children who need phonic catch up or a speech therapy or physio invention be slung into an expensive specialist units which cost??? Are you suggesting that leaving them to fall further behind is a good option too?

And as for ignoring diagnoses 😱1) a diagnosis does not get you interventions, educational difficulties do and 2) in this country reasonably adjustments are a right by law. You don’t just ignore diagnoses and disabilities. What a truly dreadful thing to suggest .

I'm not at all surprised. I expect SEN funding comes under the heading of 'woke' to Reform, and they'd like to emulated Trump/Musk's DOGE cuts

For context I live in a labour stronghold and the SEN provision by the council is utterly appalling. So I doubt reform could be worse. They are all bad.

How will SEN and social care be provided for in your wonderful new world?

I think there needs to be an overhaul of SEN provision. The number of SEN children have risen and catering for them is in the current format is not working for them , for other children and is not financially viable. I don’t know what the ideal answer is, maybe special provision , maybe ignore diagnoses, maybe specialist units, different curriculum etc. There is something wrong when schools large amounts are being spent on this group and main stream children are underfunded to such a high degree. Yes in an ideal world all funding would rise but that just isn’t possible

Why are people driven to such hysteria before you even know the facts . How’s labour working out for you then .

Disabled children are being discriminated against in schools and many LAs at every step already.

@CherryVanillaPie I'm not sure, I think so just going by the comments on local groups, but of course it could just be protest votes. Local parents of SN children are very angry at the lack of provision.

This!

What so many people forget is that if young people are correctly supported in school to meet their own potential then they are much more likely to become “productive” members of society in adulthood.

Just look at the current mess with prisions and the statistics on how many people in prision had undiagnosed needs at school and as such slipped through the net.

Proper support in place is in everyone’s best interest in the long run!

There isn’t much Reform or any party can do in local government, once all statutory services, salaries and pensions are paid for there isn’t much left to do anything with. Most ‘nice to haves’ have already been cut. What they are likely to do is a review the tiny percentage of the budget put aside for things like grants or culture and make a big fuss about what they think is ‘woke’ spending in this area. But in the grand scheme of things they can’t change much - as the cost of statutory services, salaries and pensions are in lots of LAs almost all of their budget or even bankrupting them. We need to start funding these services centrally.

I know. Why have you quoted me.

I was answering a poster who cited that there are more children with FASD now. Im saying there are not 'more children', its more that there is growing awareness that many children with FASD have not been diagnosed or have been diagnosed with something else, usually ADHD/ASD not exluding other issues either.

I didnt comment on what you get interventions or.

You don’t get interventions for an ADHD or ASC diagnosis, you get interventions for educational struggles and needs.

Autism and ADHD are massively under diagnosed. Wait lists are insane and only 1% of children have an autism diagnosis so let’s quit with the suggestion we take away diagnosis to hide SEN need.

Need is there diagnosis or not.

Oh my what ignorance. Do you know what TAs are actually used for?

It is very rare to get a TA as a 121 for the entire school day( most EHCPs don’t request a 121) and if it is stipulated on an EHCP then independence is encouraged and how they are to be used is listed.

So back to TAs which are crucial to the function of the school day and implementation of SEN provision. Class teachers and SENCOs draw up IEPs and manage EHCPs for a lot of children. In those documents will be many many interventions such as reading,writing and maths interventions, high impact and focused phonics programs as prescribed by the government, speech therapy, physio, mental health programs and an endless list of other bespoke SEN interventions which are vital. TAs also deal with high medical needs such as Stoma bags, insulin, etc sort vomiting, first aid and wet pants etc, etc and in early years you legally need a certain number….

On top of this they run lunchtimes and playtimes alongside sorting the inevitable aftermath of fall outs. They are also the staff lugging furniture around when needed, making resources, displays, organising event and production props, SATs support etc etc- all for a measly minimum wage and little thanks. Many are highly qualified and often ex teachers.

Now if we were going to get rid of TAs who is going to do all this? Class teachers who are already exhausted and don’t have enough hours in the day? How is that going to impact the education of all? Are Reform and you suggesting SEN children don’t get an education or that the normal functioning of schools needs to stop? If they and you are not how do they and you suggest SEN provision is provided?

I think thats because professionals, Im one of them, are becoming more aware that its likely that some diagnoses for ADHD and or ASD have been misdiagnosed. We've had some eye opening training about this last year and now reviewing lots of the children we work with making the appropriate referrals. This is why there is such an explosion.

I sincerely hope none of their children have it now or in the future! My 5yo, whilst I don’t profess to be the best parent, is the kindest, most polite little boy, with impeccable manners, but he’s on the go constantly and is almost surely ADHD! Luckily we live in a staunch labour council and luckily didn’t have the benefit of a local election on Thursday! Poor souls who did are in huge trouble!

Plenty of ableist mumsnetters will be all for this - why should their hard-earned money go towards other people's brats? Until they have a disabled child, that is ...

Well, yes. People don’t want to pay vast sums of money on SEN and social care. They want that budget spent on bin collections, parks, potholes, leisure centres and suchlike. Why is it a surprise that there is such a backlash against the current council spending model?

And that can come from the father as much as the mother.

The other issue I was told of by a GP is that over the last decade or more, foetal drug syndromes are rising.

the hard facts are that there are more children with send, over all.

survival rates for babies who are born early or have particular illnesses or complications have improved thanks to fantastic medical care, but many do have send, adhd, autism. Or are quite severely physically disabled.

in very simple terms there is a greater need for settings for severe learning difficulties. Children in the past with less severe needs who may have still got a place at in these settings are in those designed for more moderate learning difficulties settings. The children who would have been there in the past are in mainstream.

‘According to Lib Dems’

So you don’t actually know this is happening…