Thread 29 Sunak: Borders, Barges and Bacteria

[DuncinToffee]

Thanks pointythings

previous thread
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4853484-thread-28-sunak-lords-ladies-and-lame-ducks?page=1

I completely agree. Richmond will be searching for a new candidate after the election. I imagine selling his palatial house up there won’t be easy.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/home-office-visa-deportation-nigeria-b2407090.html

Well this is awful. I know it’s the Home office so it’s probably normal service, but still. And for the love of God can we change the system back and allow people claiming to work again.

The guy who said he would leave the UK if Corbyn was elected, now wanted to do this under a Tory govenrment

Alan Sugar tried to declare himself non-UK resident for tax purposes — allowing him to avoid £186m payment to HMRC

He didn't know members of the Lords can't do so

He'd have quit had he known + is taking action against advisers

£186 million!
I understand the amount isn't the point - the tax avoidance is - but even so!

Probably doesn't understand why he should pay tax when the Prime Minister and his family mostly don't bother.

Estimated cost of sorting out the RAAC crisis in schools is £150m. It's galling to think that one person's taxes, which he could easily afford to pay, could cover this.

That was my first thought. He could single handedly sort the entire RAAC crisis.

It also makes it very odd that labour want to rule out a wealth tax. From what a remember a one off 1% on assets over £10m would make billions and affect hardly anyone.

Wonder if he could donate that and get a tax break?!

Do you think there was a brief moment between catching the escaped prisoner and a parliamentary researcher with links to Tory MPs being arrested for being a Chinese spy where Rishi might have thought his week was getting better?

Everyone is entitled to a 20 minute break after 6 hours by law.

He only got what he's entitled to because work re commenced

😂

Now who is missing?

https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1700630187421921597?s=20

I'm proud to announce that the U.S., India, Saudi Arabia, UAE, France, Germany, Italy and EU finalized a historic agreement for a new India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor.

This project is about more than just laying tracks.
This is a game-changing regional investment.

Vile

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/sep/10/revealed-covert-deal-to-cut-help-for-pupils-in-england-with-special-needs

I don't get it - there will be fewer EHCPs because they'll target early intervention?

Early support makes a difference but it doesn't magically solve SEN and it doesn't make mainstream a better option for those children particularly when mainstream schools are struggling from 14 years of under funding.

It's such a hard one. Yes, early intervention and good ARPs in schools would reduce the need for ehcps. Because they'd be providing for these pupils and meeting their needs.

But they don't fund education to meet the needs of children without send so how they expect to cut budgets and meet the needs of pupils with send and reduce the number of ehcps needed is beyond me.

If they realised education wasn't a one size fits all - take same exams after 11yrs - system we could have an education system to meet the needs of pupils. They use to be able to do alternatives to GCSEs or duel vocational courses at college at 14.

If they invested in education like they did their mates quick rich schemes we wouldn't be in this mess that they need to solve by cutting services further and we wouldn't need to rely on the private sector (which ironically they love so much re mainstream Ed and health etc )

And given how hard it is to get anyone to fund places in special schools, I’m sceptical that early intervention or mainstream provision will reduce costs there. If anything mainstream probably already has a lot of children who would do better in a special school but can’t get funding.

"If anything mainstream probably already has a lot of children who would do better in a special school but can’t get funding."

Absolutely. My child needed a SN school - local authority agreed - but there was still a 2 year wait for a place. Two years of knowing she was in the wrong environment (albeit the school did their best to meet need). They don't hand out places easily.

Exactly. It's not the EHCP that costs in reality it's the actual funding required to meet needs.

What's costing is the private placements named in echps because there aren't any state funded places available with funds available to meet need or private therapists because the nhs cannot provide them.

The government has quietly signed a contract targeting 20% cuts to the number of new education plans for children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) to bring down costs, the Observer can reveal.
Then junior education minister Claire Coutinho – recently promoted to the cabinet as energy secretary – subsequently told MPs that no targets were in place.
**
Sunak supporter and protegé lying? Who'd have thought?

No doubt that is what convinced him that she deserved to be promoted.

Loving all the EU flags at the Last Night of the Proms!

It's a basic legal principle that the decision whether to issue an EHCP rests totally on the child's needs, not the costs of providing for them, let alone any government or local policy. Therefore this looks suspiciously illegal.

The DfE will no doubt argue that that is not what they are aiming at, because they are going to put in place such a spiffy education system that EHCPs genuinely won't be needed. That might work if they were putting adequate resources both into mainstream education and into current EHCP provision, the latter on the basis that they want to ensure children make such good progress that an EHCP is no longer needed - but they aren't. It also might work if they accepted that this would inevitably have to be a long term programme, but the reality is that via their safety valve agreements they are clearly telling LAs to wave a magic wand and bring about these miraculous improvement within a couple of years.

That twit Harvey Proctor's getting awfully cross about it and demanding a BBC investigation. Does he think they should vet all attendees for properly patriotic sympathies or something? Or are they supposed to conduct strip searches for inappropriate flags?

Maybe they’ll get the Met to arrest people for going equipped with an EU flag.

Absolutely.

The (very experienced) teachers I know are at their wits end trying to manage children who would previously have been in specialist educational settings in their classrooms. There are also far more children with ASN than there used to be. Far more children coming to school in nappies and with motor and language skills less developed than would normally be expected. The covid lockdowns have undoubtedly contributed to the latter.

They have tales of having to evacuate the class to protect the children from SEN children who should be doing well in specialist settings not coping in their classes and as a result having violent, destructive meltdowns.

Not to mention the increase in injuries sustained by teachers and TAs on the wrong end of children's outbursts.

We all know the current government doesn't agree with state provision of education and health services. Forcing people (taxpayers) into private education and healthcare by stealth instead of attempting to debate their ideology is so cowardly and despicable.

This. The EHCP is just the round up of assessments and professional/ parental views of what the child needs. If you cut the funding those needs are still there.

And how are they going to invest in early intervention? By expecting schools and nurseries to do more with no extra money maybe?