Reform councils to cut SEN spending

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.. according to the Lib Dem’s. Can they even do this? My DC isn’t SEN but her class has 5 TAs mainly as 121s and I dread what would happen if their funding is removed. Our council isn’t Reform led but they’re pretty neck on neck in no overall control.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2025/apr/24/ed-miliband-energy-pricing-keir-starmer-nigel-farage-latest-live-uk-politics-news

30k a year from age 4-11 is 210k over ten years.

10 years imprisonment when they don't get the support they need is on average 520k.

10 years of PIP for them due to needing to be babysat is 96k.

10 years of UC at the benefit cap, when they are unemployable is 156k.

10 years of full-time 1-1 carers for an adult once they turn 18 £1.3million

If I had to quit my job to stay home with DD my UC award would be £2472 per month. That is 30k a year and leaves me not paying taxes. I would also be eligible for free dental care, free council tax. Free council tax makes my 30k a year 32k a year. It is actually cheaper to fund my DD to be in school on a 30k a year package than me to stay home with her. My job that i can keep due to her being in school means I pay NI, I pay full council tax, I pay towards my pension.

My child’s EHCP outcome aim is level 3. She wants to go uni. EHCPs can last until 25 or when students start uni. She has several diagnosis and disabilities. She wants to be independent and to support herself. To do that she needs an education and qualifications which her EHCP facilitates.

My godson is blind. Had an ehcp throughout his schooling to cover specialist equipment, braille teacher, transport to a specialist unit. He took an apprentiship at 16 and by 18 is earning the national average wage.

Without that initial investment he wouldn't be doing this and a parent at home wouldn't have the skills to teach braille, or how to use a cane, let alone the academic skills he has (very bright, lots of 8s and 9s at gcse)

Whatever the antecedents, it’s hardly a ringing endorsement to say they will be any good at running a council though, is it? Arguably, no party is, but to suggest they might do a decent job and care about people’s needs knowing their rhetoric is laughable. They’re a one policy party and they don’t give a shit for anything else. They’ll have their snouts in the trough just like when Farage was an MEP for very little work and then bog off, blaming central government.

They care for nobody, else they wouldn’t even suggest that we don’t need ergonomic chairs to help disabled employees, or we don’t need equality. Scrapping these things will make things worse in the long run. WFH, for instance, saves money in utility bills for companies, and reasonable adjustments prevent time off sick. I suppose if they ever get to remove our rights if they get elected into government, none of that will matter, I guess.

You say the parents should stay home. Another poster says they should work more to pay for their children's education.

Can't do both at once 🤷🏻‍♀️

How can someone who thinks they have such wonderful insight be so bad at reading previous posts and doing some very basic googling? Spiky profiles are a good place to start. Disability stereotypes (since you fell for them wholeheartedly) another.

Obviously the solution is that when we realise our babies have extra needs we pay to clone ourselves so we can do both.

I could really do with another of me 😂

Ours has definitely invested more in SEN provision, it's has doubled the number of special school places through a combination of building new special schools and increasing capacity in current ones. However, all this was prior to the change of government, and Labour has dramatically reduced the amount of money coming into education. So councils are now having to make difficult decisions - where does the money come from to fund this? From children's social care? Mainstream schools? Adult learning disabilities?
They tried increasing rates and council tax on businesses, and 2 in our area closed down as a result, 2 which were providing a non profit social support for vulnerable children. So now the council have to pay for this support themselves, plus aren't getting the rates.
I don't know how we square this circle of ever increasing demand with no more money available. Our team is so overstretched and getting it from both ends - managers hounding us to cut budgets and families asking for more, many are at breaking point and considering moving into private practice - our ex colleagues who have are happier, less stressed, earn more.

Yes, let's imagine it's YOUR family!

School education is free in this country (unless you opt for an independence placement). Why would you remove this right of free education from disabled children? And what legislation do you recon could possibly enable the government to do this. You also realise that most families with severely disabled children will have to have at least one parent at home full time to facilitate the complete lack of wrap around child care, school holiday childcare, frequent hospital appointments and long periods of not being able to access school for various reasons. there are not many jobs going which are school time/term time with of additional leave (appointment etc) to enable parents of these children to stay in employment. Often, carers allowance is their only income - paid at £83/week in exchange for caring a Minimum of 35h (often far more) so about £2 per hour. families with disabled children are disproportionately affected by high levels of poverty. Where do you recon the money to pay for school is coming from and what legislation would you propose to chance? It would contravene the Equality Act 2010 and loads more laws. You sound completely clueless about the reality of having a child with SEN. I guess it's something you only know from hearsay.

But families with children in mainstream schools don't have to pay, so why should families of children with disabilities have to pay. This would only be fair if every family had to pay towards their childs education. Which would be completely counter productive - the most vunerable children are likely to have parents who can't or won't pay, and what happens then - they don't go to school, the poverty gap deepens/widens, crime increases and the cost to the country is greater.

And 30k s fairly cheap for a special school place, the one I go into as an NHS therapist is up to 60k per place, and others up to 100k

Yes the costs are spiralling, and mainstream is taking a hit as money is being diverted from there to SEN, and I can't see how as a country they are sustainable, but every child has a right to an education which meets their needs. So some really smart person needs to think of a more effective way - as the system currently isn't working for many children either with SEN or without, or for schools, or families or budgets, or taxpayers.

30k is the entire tax total from 3 full time workers. So the issue isn’t so much the 30k, it’s the number of children who need 30k places is too high. I don’t want cuts either hence this thread, but how do you square the circle of too many children with needs and not enough money? Council tax can’t keep going up and up without the average person seeing an improvement in pot holes, services, bin collection etc as it all goes on social care

EHCPs are to support children with additional needs to access education. My DD has one. She is academically able and was predicted high target grades at GCSE when she started secondary school. She is diagnosed with autism, severe anxiety and selective mutism and can no longer attend school. She has the EHCP so that she can access the education she is entitled to outside of the school environment. I pay privately for therapy for her.

In the future, in the right environment and maybe with a few adjustments there is no reason she shouldn't be able to work and earn a decent salary. School is an awful environment for many ND children (a whole other topic) but workplaces come in so many different forms that they are more options available to her. However, if my DD isn't supported at this stage she won't get any GCSEs and is more likely to end up not being able to work in the future.

But you could say that about anything- how come you’re so focused on the cost of children with SEND getting an education?🤔

In our LA education services accounted for £9.9/£100 public expenditure. Adults social care accounted for £39.90/£100.

Perhaps we should start putting old people down?

At least by investing in children we give them the best possible chance of being contributing adults and not in the prison system.

I know, and I’m aware it’s tough. Our council is selling buildings now to raise funds.

But if it’s a legal requirement to provide a service, councils are leaving themselves open to being sued. Presumably this is why the Badenoch et al bang on about dropping the Equality act etc. So they can cut funding without financial penalties. Depressing stuff.

"What I’ve said, repeatedly, is that there should be a contribution made by the families receiving those services. Whether that’s means tested or a sliding scale."

And if the parent won't or can't pay what are you going to do?

I think it could be implemented in a similar manner to CMS. A contribution based on income, where the families earning less pay less.

This could be taken directly from wages, like a salary sacrifice scheme, so the parent isn’t being taxed on that amount.

However you try to dress it up making people pay to be able to access education is discrimination.

We’ll have to agree to disagree.

The core framework for schooling should always be free, but if you want/need add-ons or extras, you should be willing to pay towards that provision.

Perhaps a portion of that could come out of DLA/PIP if awarded?

Why on earth would you want to put a financial penalty on people who have disabled children? Do you not think that they might have enough on their plates already?

I honestly don't know what's wrong with some people.

No because it is discrimination. All children are entitled to an education, not some ALL.

"This could be taken directly from wages, like a salary sacrifice scheme, so the parent isn’t being taxed on that amount."

So you want families with a disabled child to have a worse quality of life. Yes it is discriminatory.
It's also for no purpose as the amount you would get back is very small or nothing to compared to what families could actually pay and the admin costs of doing this.

Ok so can we have it for all sorts of other things then- medical conditions people are also born with. Maybe we should test at birth and anybody with less than perfect genes gets taxed extra? 🤔