Leaks in the press about reduction in send spending

[Perzival]

I haven't seen a thread on this so thought i'd start one.

Over Christmas some newspapers inc the Times and Telegraph have leaked reports that the Government intend to tackle the cost of SEND by only issuing EHCP's to those children with the most severe needs. School's (mainstream) will then be responsible for meeting the needs of those with "moderate" or "minor" (not my wording) needs. Appeals to sendist by parents will be restricted (i'm guessing to those who still have an EHCP) and schools will have to liase with the LA regarding the needs of the other children requiring support.

To avoid drip feeding, my ds has severe/complex needs and attends special school, he'll never be able to live alone....

I have really mixed feelings about this. The current system is causing some LA's to go bankrupt, schools are already massively underfunded, lack of special school places, time it takes for tribunal and don't have the specialisms required but i also see huge waste like the removal of LA owned transport in preference for taxi contracts, the cost of inde provision (not disputing need but wish there was a way for thatto be provided locally by LA's without the profit margin) and the cost to families for professional reports from inde speacialists for tribunal / section f- provision.

If this goes ahead what will happen to the kids who will be failed? What impact will it have on the kids without send in classes with more children with unmet send? If something doesn't change where will the money come from for send with some LA's already blamimg SEND for bankrupsy?

I'm not looking for a discussong rather than an argument. The SEND groups can be an echo chambre so looking for different views.

https://www.specialneedsjungle.com/leaks-denials-fake-conversations-not-inspire-parental-confidence-send/?fbclid=Iwb21leAPInu5jbGNrA8iej2V4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHrItacXo4jijUu3mrF_32165ExI-sVCsVWcUNjc49IsMqP3NOT7kEg3neK8j_aem_AOqVBm2C3Uk7R5u6D-3GIw

It will probably save money on DLA claims too. As an EHCP is the most common form of evidence submitted for DLA applications it will likely become harder to get if kids don't have one.

I have no doubt bed blocking pays a huge part. I'm also aware that some people are put in wards because care in the community is too costly- it's a scandal (thinking of those with ld and or autism).

There is a naritive about send costs and la bankrupcy. I'll post a couple of links:-

https://www.countycouncilsnetwork.org.uk/send-deficits-risk-bankrupting-almost-three-quarters-of-englands-largest-councils-by-2027-with-government-urged-to-take-action/#:~:text=Twenty%2Dsix%20of%20England's%20largest,to%20expire%20in%20March%202026.

https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/send-crisis-threatens-bankrupt-half-biggest-councils-3596158#:~:text=Nearly%20half%20of%20England's%20biggest,the%20deficits%20to%20their%20books.

https://news.sky.com/story/ticking-time-bomb-warning-that-spiralling-spending-on-special-needs-provision-could-push-councils-to-breaking-point-13470153#:~:text='Ticking%20time%20bomb':%20Warning,sheets%20is%20due%20to%20end.

I agree with this as a parent of two "high functioning" ND kids with loads of late diagnosed and undiagnosed people in older generations of the family. Kids like mine were told they were naughty, they became school refusers, they left without qualifications. Or in the case of girls, became very high masking and then developed MH issues in their teens.

It doesn’t directly affect us as in no EHCP here but dc not supported impacts all children.

That said, I don't think it's kids like mine who are costing a lot (I'm not saying that in a smug way. Just that I don't think, in general, it's the previously undiagnosed people causing the cost increase) . They have very minimal and cheap support - basically just things like opting out of stressful subjects, access to a chill out space and extra time in exams.

Children/teens who's funding costs £100ks a year - where were they placed 25+ years ago? And how much did that cost?

I havent fully formed my thoughts on this but I am the parent of a child with high needs at a special school which is expensive so I assume he will keep his ehcp.

I dont think health and social care ever coordinated with the process well.

But my initial view is expensive children will still cost a lot and I cant see how children with mild needs will get support and i dont think children with mild needs cost a lot so it wont save money.

My biggest bug bear is children with mild needs need rapid access to professional assessment as it can stop things escalating (needs arent static). A lot of schools basically are forced to use OT toolkits and SaLT software and I think this often leads to the wrong strategies being applied in the wrong way by well meaning people.

May I ask what the private place was please? I am looking at options.

My dd is similar to your Ds OP. My dd will be leaving education soon (I suspect this year) mainly because LA will refuse to fund any more education. The past 15 years have been really hard work, getting a EHCP in place when she first started school and trying to make sure her needs were met in mainstream and then in a specialist setting. When I first got DD’s EHCP (was a statement back then) in place my dd was only one of 2 children in her small primary with a EHCP, I suspect now there are a lot more.

I think parents feel the need to speak a EHCP because their children’s needs are not being met in mainstream schools. Education just isn’t set up to help those who struggle (those with SEN’s, medical issues or behavioural issues). Class sizes are much bigger than they were 30 years ago, teachers and TA’s are stretched and there are just not enough placements in specialist schools (and there’s not enough money to fund more). More and more children are being diagnosed with SEN’s, especially autism and ADHD. Maybe if schools were more ASD friendly, smaller class sizes, quiet spaces and therapies were available through school, there would be less need for EHCP’s? The educational system is a mess and only really geared up for around 40% of children?

A lot of people are choosing or being forced to home school their children because mainstream schools are just not suitable?

And for those who think there are more SEN children now, I can remember there being many in the 80’s/90’s when I was at school, they just didn’t have a label, they were the children that struggled, those who miss behaved and those who sat at the back chewing on their pencil, not taking in the information given to them. The child that had no friends, the child that hid under the table and the children who were bullied. As someone who was diagnosed with autism and ADHD as an adult I can say my childhood was pretty awful, especially primary school.

Mine has an EHCP, gained age 17. I think under any new criteria she wouldn't get one.
But the only reasons she needed one were:
. to enable flexibility at college wrt re-sitting Maths & English GCSE
. to take a slower route through college
. now doing a Supported Internship
. Ongoing access to post adoption support
I'd have had no massive problem with her having a lesser SEN plan provided she was still allowed the flexibility she needed.

Hi I am SENCO both secondary and primary for many years. I do not say this lightly but there has been an explosive increase in students being diagnosed especially with ASD and ADHD and mainstream are massively struggling to meet the needs of these students. I am in primary at the minute and since last November have applied for and got 9 EHCP . However many many parents demand exclusive support for student's without these and expect a teacher to give 15 min breaks every hour, complete supervision at all times, special resources for one student without a plan and if you don't all he'll breaks loose, complaints etc. There are many more. The government want to put the onus back in the classroom for teachers to manage and the rest. In classes where there used to 1 or 2 students with a plan or specific needs there are now 7 or 8. Teachers cannot do this while trying to meet the needs of all the others as well. Need more specialist places, small classes, lots of specialist support. Can't see that happening any time soon.

Well there’s currently a thread running where the OP is joyfully describing her day in bed with chocolate after she popped her disabled child into a taxi to go off to school, and being applauded for it. The unnecessary overuse of resources means less money to go round. In our area they simply don’t have enough funding so they’ve changed the diagnostic processes and now hardly any child gets a diagnosis, usually after waiting up to three years for their referral to go through at all. It’s a huge mess that’s for sure. I’m glad my children went through it a decade ago, it was bad enough then! But at least we got support and the EHCPs which have ensured relatively decent outcomes for them as young adults.

I agree Sequinsoneverthing. Can I also say an EHCP is also not a magic wand. Everyone parents, professionals need to be involved and the whole process monitored. Sorry too many parents then think right EHCP sorted and then blame the school saying we are not implementing it, demanding 1 to 1 support when the plant does not state that or fund it.

Yes, some parents, for a multitude of reasons, don’t enforce their DC’s rights. That isn’t a criticism of them. That is why I said all parents should be supported to enforce their DC’s rights.

It is shortsighted to fail to fund the support needed now. Failing to meet DC’s needs will increase NHS costs, social care costs, justice system costs, the benefits bill and so much more in the longer term. This is part of the reason more parents are pursuing EHCPs - for many, it is the only way to ensure DC receive the provision they need.

Yes, to taxis and other forms of transport. Not the providing suitable transport. That should happen. That must happen. LAs have a duty. But some of the costs of those taxis when cheaper taxis could be secured. Although this isn’t unique to SEN. A lot of transport is for DC without SEN or who have SEN, but that isn’t the reason for the provision of transport. Not even to education. For example, not that long ago taxis travelling great distances to collect asylum seekers to take them great distances to medical appointments made the news.

@Moonlightfrog lots of LAs try to unlawfully cease to maintain. You could appeal if the LA tries to cease to maintain.

What frustrates me is that they are doing it the wrong way round. Rather than saying we’re going to remove the SEND support and schools will have to adapt to cope, why don’t they support the schools to adapt to cope and then the need for EHCPs will naturally reduce. Many (not all) needs could be met in a mainstream setting, but not in the mainstream settings we have at the moment.
Another thing that needs to be tied into this is the drastic reduction in specialist support for children. In my area, for example, there aren’t enough speech and language therapists, so the eligibility criteria get smaller and smaller. Unmet speech and language needs have a huge impact on all areas of school life, this is well researched and evidenced, speech and language difficulties are the most comment SEN, we know this. So why are there not enough therapists? It’s crazy, and so short sighted.

The Government has to ask: How do you make the same amount of money go further?

Is private provision of 'schools' more expensive than LA schools having suitable provision?
Who's making money from the private provision?

There may be some spending such as this, but the thing that concerns me is more dc entering the state sector including those where parents would have struggled to use private instead and the lack of funding to deal with that.

All dc in state will be impacted by that.

I haven’t seen the thread, but that may be a day following days of 24/7 care without respite. Caring for a disabled child takes a toll, physically and mentally. That can be even more so at Christmas time with the change in routines and everything else associated with it.

Besides, what a parent does while their child is at school has nothing to do with whether the LA has a transport duty or not.

How do you propose her dc gets to the only nearby send school that's not in walking distance when she can't drive due to her own ill health?

My SEN child is 16. When she was in Y2 (in 2015) there was a sudden contraction of the SEN money available in the classroom. Lots of kids like her (no diagnosis at this point but couldn’t handwrite or use a pencil properly) lost their support. The school did what it could and she was one of the students who missed assembly so a TA could give her a bit of extra time. But this was “under the counter” as it were - another school would have offered nothing, and been within its rights to do so.

Fast forward five years, and these children are crashing and burning. But there is nothing offered to them - unless they have an EHCP. So their parents get them one. That’s all there is to the rise, really - all other avenues are blocked. The sting in the tail for local authorities is that for those parents who get through the process, at that stage they have a legal right for their children’s needs to be met and there’s a brace of private providers happy to offer that - for a price. So local authorities are stuck with the only tool they have - to restrict each and every EHCP.

The only long term solution is to offer help for everyone with a diagnosis, and invest hard in state special schools. Also to reduce the barriers to learning in mainstream schools (loud bells, uncomfortable uniforms, lack of movement time, consequences) but that’s unlikely to happen

Fully aware of all this. I am a single parent of two disabled children. Both could have had transport as part of their EHCPs but I took them myself.

Well I drove mine, in my car. Shame she can’t do that but boasting about lying in bed all day eating chocolate doesn’t arouse massive sympathy tbh.

Good for you. That doesn’t make you better than parents who have the LA fulfil their legal duties.

I have looked at that thread. The OP isn’t even in England. Neither does she drive and her DC attends the only additional needs school in the area.

And just because a child is driven by a parent doesn’t mean they aren’t costing the state. Where there is a transport duty, the parent can receive mileage.

The problem is that education has changed significantly so there simply isn’t the time or space for teachers to work in flexible and inclusive ways. There’s constant pressure and measuring (of everything) because DfT are increasingly convinced that they can micromanage and monitor education into delivering what they want.

In previous educational eras, many children wouldn’t have needed a formal plan because the teacher had the flexibility and capacity to teach in ways that suited the children in their classroom. Now the system is just horrendous (for staff and children) and more and more children simply aren’t able to cope.

Rather than solving the actual problem, DfE would like to demonise children with additional needs (and their parents - especially if those parents dare to be middle class) and remove support and funding.

There are lots of questions the government might ask - many of which revolve around why the education system in England at the moment is designed so the 1/5 of kids need additional support to cope (never mind thrive).

they might find that a system that supports and includes everyone and doesn’t haemorrhage burnt out and disillusioned staff is cheaper.

Absolutely MyNattyCrow. I am a teacher as well of many years experience and the micromanaging, meeting targets, incompetent SLT and MATS have all put a nail in the coffin of inclusive teaching. The whole system is completely broken and I have seen is and lived it. The kids are number now to manage success amount of GCSE's passed, SATS . No more holistic teaching. Also no provision nay longer to the non academic children ie coursework, BTEC's etc. You either get your GCSE or you are a "failure" and for the kids who are not academic they just give up. Seen it many times I'm afraid.