Sensationalist reporting - whipping up resentment towards education bills for complex SEN placements

[SoFuckingTired]

AIBU to say that the purpose of articles such as this is to foster resentment towards disabled children/young people? Clearly I'm naive but I'm surprised and disappointed that the BBC would report in this way. Yes £2.5m is a lot, but when you actually read further this is a placement for very complex SEN/behaviour spanning several years

Council billed £2.5m for pupil with special needs.

Compared to the UK, it's heaven there, but that's easy since standards in the UK are appallingly low. I can see though how the government in the UK gets away with things. It's awful how ableist folks are. Same with healthcare. Nevermind I won't change what people think. It's easy to see how the idea of lebensunwertes Leben took hold in 1930s Germany. And those folks didn't have all the enlightenment we have today or social media. People ought to look at themselves and think what if it was them? Nevermind.

I cannot afford to do more, as I had to give up work!

Although severe prematurity is one contributory factor to disability, it's not the only one. Severe early illness of any sort, and genetic disorders, are also less likely to lead to early death than was the case 30 or 40 years ago. Which means that quite a lot of children who would have died in infancy now survive long-term, in some cases with disability.

But also there's something else: until (I think) the 70s, and to some extent beyond, children with severe intellectual disabilities were deemed 'ineducable' and whatever provision was made for them, did not come under the Department of Education or local education authorities, but usually under what was then called the Department of Health and Social Security. They stayed at home and attended 'training centres', or very often were placed early in institutions which made no claim to be residential schools but were referred to as 'subnormality hospitals'. Thus, often such children were not known to the general public at all, and at any rate not in terms of their need for educational provision.

In any case, there is a very upsetting tendency in some of the media for people with mild/ moderate disabilities to be viewed as scroungers and people with severe disabilities to be viewed as a poor economic investment (shades of the Nazis, with their 'useless eaters'). Spending on educational provision for them is viewed negatively. And if a parent, usually a mother, can't or won't send her severely disabled child to a school, and instead stays at home to care for them, then she gets viewed as a scrounger for not going out to work. You can't win.

A humane society looks after those who need it.

Just because it's "the cold hard reality of life" doesnt means we just have to accept poverty and a lower standard of living. The UK can do better.

And where do you think it stops? Let's stop funding specialist provisions and then what? What do you think happens to the support non disabled people get?

I mean, if we refuse to help out with SEN, then why should we support anybody else?

What's the justification?

Here's the rub - my daughter very much has the potential to live with a relative degree of independence IF she got the support now.

As has already been said, it costs more in the long run to not invest.

Why is no one questioning the profit made by these companies providing the placements? Or the money wasted by councils on tribunals, etc?

"The transport costs of providing taxis alone is enormous. I think it’s perfectly valid to look at if there’s another way to do it e.g more minibuses instead, for the children who could manage with that."

If a child can manage with a minibus they will already be transported by minibus. Children don't get individual transport unless there is a reason for it. I take it you have never had to involve yourself in the shitshow that is SEND transport.

"The parents need to do more themselves."
What more are you suggesting given that parents of severely disabled children generally already do far more for their children than parents of non disabled children do.

I deliberately posted this on AIBU rather than the education or special needs boards to get a wider audience. It is human nature to care about issues that affect you or your loved ones and its clear on the replies here which posters don't have experience of complex SEND.

Whilst I am deeply disappointed with some of the more ablist posts I am sadly not surprised- and they rather prove the point I made in the OP - I knew some people would read that article and their response would be along the lines of 'what a huge amount of money on one child, could it not be spent 'better' somewhere else? I am though heartened to read the condemnation of such views, a lot of the time expressed far more eloquently than I could put it myself.

There is something to be said for 'knowing thine enemy' - and people with these views do walk amongst us, and they are the enemy in the sense of either outright saying or implying that disabled children should not have the rights to education that every child is entitled to.

So whilst I disagree with some of the comments on this thread, I'm happy that these views are seemingly (hopefully) in the minority. I guess in allowing them to stand MNHQ has had this thread demonstrate that.

You aren't a lawyer I assume (I hope dearly).

What are you advocating for please?

Is Karl Binding your spirit animal?

This is the pertinent issue, and had the article been written in that context this would have been a whole other thread!

You do realize that you will be one of the needy minority yourself one day, if you live long enough?

When the NHS was set up, the average life expectancy was 69. If this were still the case, we wouldn't need to spend so much on adult social care. But is that really what you'd want?

If a child can manage with a minibus they will already be transported by minibus. Children don't get individual transport unless there is a reason for it. I take it you have never had to involve yourself in the shitshow that is SEND transport.

Er no. Some are transported by taxi due to distance.That’s certainly the case in the local authority I work in. Not because they can’t travel by mini bus. It’s valid to consider if there are ways to reduce the costs while ensuring that the children can still access their schools, including providing more smaller schools which could benefit many families But no, let’s all bury our heads in the sand and pretend that cost isn’t an issue because it might hurt someone’s feelings.

Some really struggle sharing a taxi/bus with others. It honestly depends on the child.

I'll clarify - I get that the cost is a big factor. Perhaps I haven't been clear enough on that. But there ARE people who have been advocating for SEN children to not have a right to education at all. And there ARE people who resent having them in mainstream with their Lucy and Tarquin.

I think the cold hard reality is that no matter which way it slices in the end, care/education is going to cost a pretty figure.

EastYorkshirebeast
Your rhetoric is concerning given you openly say it's acceptable to write off some sections of society, despite children having a right to a suitable education.

Let's be charitable and assume you're not being goady and trying to stir up ableism, what would your criteria be for writing off children? Given it's fine in your eyes to write some of them off, which children are you going to refuse their right to an education?

*Just because it's "the cold hard reality of life" doesnt means we just have to accept poverty and a lower standard of living. The UK can do better.

And where do you think it stops? Let's stop funding specialist provisions and then what? What do you think happens to the support non disabled people get?

I mean, if we refuse to help out with SEN, then why should we support anybody else?

Did you actually read my posts? I’m not in favour of cutting SEN/SN services or refusing to support people with SN/SEN but I am in favour of making sure that services are as efficient and effective as possible. It’s only fair to review and discuss these issues and yes whether it’s the NHS or SEN education or mainstream education lines have to be drawn somewhere because funds are not unlimited. We’re not going to improve anything by pretending that they are.

Some really struggle sharing a taxi/bus with others. It honestly depends on the child.

i know that not all can access minibuses hence why I said for the children who could manage with that.

@EastYorkshirebeast I really hope you receive more compassion in your time of need than you have for disabled people.

As @SpudleyLass points out, so many kids with disabilities could live independently. Many of those could make society a better place, precisely because they view the world differently. And it goes beyond the kids - @SpudleyLass like many others has had to stop working. I'm likely to join her in the new year. How many family members is it ok to write off? What about their contributions to society?

"Er no. Some are transported by taxi due to distance.That’scertainly the case in the local authority I work in."

Yes that is my point. People cannot talk about using a minibus as the single solution when some children are already travelling for 60 - 90 mins in a taxi on their own. Although there will be some of these like my son who cannot share ( unless transport is specialist and specialist staff are used).

I didn’t talk about it as a single solution. I think I also mentioned that providing more smaller schools would help. Also I acknowledged that not all children can access minibuses. But no let’s not do anything to try to minimises costs or improve things because there’s no one size fits all solution.

It’s not about compassion it’s about economic realities.
Im disabled through work but I’m not expecting the UK tax payer to treat me to 24/7 care.
I make the best of life and know there’s a lot of things I can’t ever do.
These are the cards we are dealt. You have to be realistic.

This thread has been badly misrepresented on Twitter. You'd think people wanted to deny all disabled children an education. But this is about one child who cost the council £2.5 million? It's... not what I expected.

"I think I also mentioned that providing more smaller schools would help"

A lot of children who have individual transport already attend small schools, generally independent special schools because the LA doesn't have schools that meet the needs of those children. I do think that all children should be able to be provided for in state schools rather than by schools run by businesses but the government doesn't seem to want that.

When it comes down to it @WaspsofWinter, its difficult to hear of people enthusiastically support even further budgets cuts for SEN children when there are those of us who are already living through the hell of trying to get access to this ''Rolls Royce'' - basic support - in the first place.

LA's aren't trying to give us ''Minis'' - they're suggesting a Robin Reliant and we should be grateful even for that.

For example, my daughter has been out of school for over a year through no fault of hers or ours in a country where such children are being told that mainstream schools are ''inclusive'' and the reality is quite something different. Or that I referred her to speech therapy 6 months ago and the NHS never actually processed the referral until I contacted them today, only to be told there will be no support anyway as she now actually has a specialist place.

The issue isn't about looking at how the money could be spent more effectively - its that there is no parallel discussions of how that support will actually be better alongside that.

I don't hear any suggestions of how to actually help SEN children after the funding reassessments - as this thread has demonstrated, we're unfortunately just being told that or children are too expensive. Hence the OP's post.