to be a bit gutted that Sajid Javid has resigned

[Matchingcollarandcuffs]

I am by no means a Tory and am not particulary a fan of Sajid either but not only does it smell of rats leaving a sinking ship butt also who on earth is left to take that brief?

Anyone with half a brain cell (so Nadine could still be in with a shout) won't take it so they have more credibility for when Boris finally goes and they hopefully get suggestions with at least decency and a moral compass

@SpidersAreShitheads
He is our local MP. He is never, ever seen in the constituency.

He is incredibly ambitious.

@the80sweregreat here you go:
www.specialneedsjungle.com/schools-white-paper-implications-send/

And the SEND review which is even more disastrous:

www.specialneedsjungle.com/sendreview-everything-you-need-to-respond-to-the-green-paper/

@Lingoflaming provide some great links which highlight the huge issues for SEN kids. There's two things ongoing at the moment, the Green Paper which is purely for SEN and also the School Bill which affects everyone.

Essentially the proposed school bill is a power grab which transfers rights to the authorities. Parents lose the right to make decisions about their children, if they have issues at a school with bullying for example, and they want to just pull them out. Mental health, chronic illness. Greater fines, and no autonomy for parents. There are also issues for children who remain in the school. The school can record a vast swathe of information about them and the authorities have the rights to pass it on to whomever they see fit. Bollocks to GDPR and consent. No consent needed.

In particular there are issues about this as there may be children whose address shouldn't be divulged to other parties - such as domestic violence. In the home educating community, we have many, many examples of the authorities fucking up and providing info to parties at the wrong address/when they've been told not to do so. Giving them more data and the right to pass it on to whoever they see fit could put some families in danger.

There's a really good post somewhere that sums it all up. There's an action group which has been set up to fight this - the implications are so vast, it's a big protest. My DC were in school for 10 years, and I was a school governor for 5 years +. Although we home educate now, the reasons are complicated, and I believe that schools do a great job for many children. But this bill is dangerous and should concern parents of both schooled children and home educated, and those both with and without SEN. Parents are losing their rights to decide what's best for their child, and losing their rights to control their information. It'll be too late once it's given away.....

Sorry, forgot to add the post that I found just now with some info. This might help explain a bit (not my words or post - copied and pasted with permission):

Did you know they're going to give each child a number at birth and use that to track them through their education, monitoring their attendance in real time?

They're going to share that data, which is personally identifiable, with a board of different agencies that includes the police and social services? That they're going to hold that data about your children for 66 years after they finish schooling? That there is no opt out clause or consent required for this to happen?

Did you know that 5 ex secretary of state for educations have come out to say this is a blatant power grab from the current secretary of state? That the bill will give power to change practically anything about education to the SoS without parliamentary scrutiny, such that if he/she decided that school would now be mandatory on Saturdays there's nothing anyone can do about it?

Did you know that the bill gives Ofsted the powers to enter any private home? A power that currently only the police and social services have, if they have paperwork to support them?

Did you know that the bill means any school can be forced to become an academy, regardless of the wishes of the head or governors?

Did you know that schools are being considered as "corporate parents" for every child (a phrase usually reserved for those who care for children removed from their families)? That the school, not the parent, will have the authority to decide if the child is fit to attend a setting (ie well enough to attend school, in terms of either mental or physical health), rather than the parents?

Did you know that nearly half of children with special educational needs are wrongly referred to social services? Often because their behaviour is complex or attendance difficulties. This looks set to get worse.

Did you know that you can get put in prison if your child can't go to school? That there are hundreds of parents - mostly mothers - in prison right now because they couldn't get their teenager into school? How does that help their child? This bill tightens the screws on attendance even more, and the more you tighten the screws, the more people cry out in pain.

This bill has implications for everyone. It's so badly and quickly written, that the DfE who wrote the bill have already proposed 16 amendments. It withdraws authority from every parent and gives it to the State and we'll never get it back.

Nadim Zahawi ... solid career in business

Best not say that to all those Gulf Keystone who lost so much ...

www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-3823849/How-Tory-MP-s-370k-oil-firm-debts-470m-small-investors-suffer-share-price-crash.html

Thank you , interesting reading

@the80sweregreat

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1063602/Opportunity_for_all_strong_schools_with_great_teachers_for_your_child__print_version_.pdf

I am surprised that on a parenting forum such as this, there isn’t more discussion and unrest about the removal of democratic authority over our schools. The end of the duration system as we know it.

Duration…🤔 education

I completely agree @Andifin ! I think the issue is that these huge long documents are released which unless you delve very carefully into the detail, just look like more investment and focus on schools - and who can argue with that, right?

Bloody website!

What I was going to say was that if you look very carefully at the wording, there's oblique references to "strengthening attendance policy" and phrases like "we will introduce a range of measures to improve the sharing of information between organisations working with vulnerable children, including data and intelligence about attendance, exclusions and those removed from school rolls."

Parents will be forced to send their child to school, no matter what. The school will determine what is ill enough not to attend. Parents will lose their rights to withdraw their children for being bullied, or mental health reasons. Data can be shared with anyone they deem necessary, with no consent.

Anyone who has had anything to do with their LA Education Dept will know how heavy handed and poorly informed they are. Giving them greater powers to control children's school attendance and admission is terrifying.

But it's not easy to spot all of that in that giant word salad. The Tories are going to slide this through and then it will be too late.

And I am by no means a conspiracy theorist. I normally am fairly level and rational about these things but this bill is truly shocking and many parents will deeply come to regret they didn't do more to stop this when they had the chance.