To think people just forget about kids with SEN?

[LloydBraun]

Labour Party bollocks about abolishing private schools all over the news.
I haven’t yet heard a single person ask them about impact on independent schools providing SEN education -often, with no equivalent state provision being available.
Seems like the only time our kids feature is when benefits are talked about. When it comes to the education which might help increase independence from the state - they don’t feature.
Makes me puke.

Surely the state should provide quality education to all kids, sen included.

The newspapers are only drip feeding elements of labour policy.

Abolishing private schools is a good thing IMO - look at the complete and utter imbalance we have at the moment.

But it’s just one element of policy.

What about parents with children with SEN who can't afford for them to be educated privately?

@Symptomless but it doesn’t. If private education is abolished then that only lessens the incentive to improve state education.

@Iggly maybe they should just make state schools less shit instead of preventing parents who can afford to pay for a good education doing so?

Do you mean parents paying or LEA paying for private provision? If it’s LEA paying for specialist I wouldn’t consider that private education.

Every child at my child's specialist independent is state funded. Either the school will have to exist as it is or the state will have to take over the running of it because the children will still need to be educated.

God the ignorance. What underhisi said. Proves my point doesn’t it.

“Surely the state should provide quality education to all kids, SEN included.”
What’s the weather like there on planet utopia?
The reason why many of these schools were created was because state provision either didn’t exist or was hopelessly shite.

@peri19 every single child I know in an independent special school is paid for by their LEA.

I work at an independent special school but every child is funded by their local authority. Parents don’t pay. I don’t think these are the schools labour are targeting and of course even if they get into power they’re not going to close all private schools overnight and leave thousands of children out of education.

I don’t think many people would consider children with complex SEN in highly specialist independent schools for children with specific/ low-incidence SEN, social, emotional and behaviour needs or psychiatric disorders to be privately educated. Labour want to close private schools to equal the playing field and I can’t see anybody arguing that vulnerable children in independent SEN schools are advantages over students in mainstream state schools.

Every child at my child's specialist independent is state funded.

Sorry if I’m being dense, but if every child is state funded, what makes it different to a state school?

“I don’t think these are the schools labour are targeting” then they need to say so, and say how this can be implemented without unintended consequences.
The fact they aren’t - and no one is asking them- is the point. I wonder if they even know these schools exist.

Abolishing private education is a ridiculous idea.
A quick google tells me there are approx 615,000 pupils who are currently in private schools. Where do you think the school places or the funding for an extra 615,000 pupils is coming from?

I don't think it's that people forget, more that they don't know in the first place, look at the replies above. People aren't asking what the impact on SEN will be because most people don't realise there isn't the state provision available, or that LEA's pay for independent school places.

We were very close to pulling our dd from state school because it was so chaotic, she's autistic and couldn't cope with the constant drama and pupils yelling at the teachers, several fires were started in her 2 years there before she managed to get into another school. She missed over 6 months of lessons at least and I lost two jobs having to pick her up.

They also need to articulate how kids in mainstream independents with provision specified in EHCP’s which local state facilities can’t meet will have their needs met.
Or revert to only bothering about people with SN when they are useful as sticks to beat the tories with. Which has been the MO to date.

Meant to add on that post I imagine that independent special schools where pupils are funded by their LEA will be exempt from this policy because there genuinely is nowhere else that can provide education for them. The same can’t be said for your typical child at a non-SEN private school who could be educated at their local state school.

I have no concerns that this policy would effect the independent special school I work at and am confident independent specialist settings have been overlooked in the wording of the policy but wouldn’t be targeted. I just don’t see how that would be justifiable and feel it would go against labours ethos of ensuring nobody has an educational advantage due to their parents ability to pay.

So blind faith, in other words.
Doesn’t the absence of specificity on this tell you something about where it sits on the scale of priorities? You are very naive indeed, in my opinion.

This is nanny state nonsense. I hate the idea of not being able to choose the exact school I want for my child. Waiting for the local authority to allocate a school for my child. No thanks. As long as I can afford it, I will pay to choose my child’s school depending on what I as their parent think is best for them.

What next? Abolish private healthcare?

"Sorry if I’m being dense, but if every child is state funded, what makes it different to a state school?"

It's a business. Each child gets a certain amount of funding from their local authority to fund their place there. The local authority doesn't run it or own the buildings. Children come from different local authorities and some of the children have residential places funded as well.

There a letter in the times yesterday from
Lord lester, who reviewed compatibility of abolishing private schools with the ECHR when labour last went through one of its sporadic paroxysms of class hatred. Unsurprisingly he is of the view it is not compatible with Convention rights.

As pp said how would labour educate the 100's of thousands of children who are currently in private school. The education system is crumbling as it is without the added pressure of even more children to educate. Totally bonkers!

This isn't an area I have a huge amount of experience of, but surely, and from what I understand, there is a huge gap in the criteria between children with additional needs who qualify for LA assistance, and those who don't but benefit hugely from private school with strong sen provision which the parents fund and would struggle to access meaningful education otherwise?

The reason why many of these schools were created was because state provision either didn’t exist or was hopelessly shite

Because the provision was massively under funded.

Labour brought in teaching assistants, they oversaw the huge increase provision in support for SEND. They did a lot for state education and I’m amazed (or not) that people have forgotten.

All of that has been ripped away under the Tories - all so that the public sector could channel billions billions into banks.

Banks which were effectively gambling and were allowed to keep paying out huge bonuses while they were propped up by state funds. They could and should have been made to pay it back and we’d have more money for the state.

It’s not utopian to believe that we could have a better provision.

It’s utopian to believe that the private sector holds the answer. I personally believe it’s a mix of both.