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

Yes.

Unpaid carers in the UK provide care valued at an estimated £184.3 billion annually.

No - parents looking after their children.

Who else’s responsibility is it to look after your own children?

So you’re saying we don’t have unpaid carers in this country now!😱

There are plenty of disabled children who are looked after elsewhere.

That completely minimises how much care some disabled children need to the point a parent can't work because they have to provide that care.

However, you still haven't linked to anything to back up your claim that UKIP 'completely bankrupted a council in 6-7 months' - or indeed that Thanet Council has ever been bankrupt. The financial mishaps listed in my BBC link occurred under previous administrations.

To be blunt, I don't want extras or add ons , I just want my child to access an education to a similar level as her peers.

Nice dodge re the adult social care stuff by the way

Some state placements do cost that much. At a PMLD school places would generally cost anywhere between 40k and 80k, with some very high needs ones where a child needs 2 to 1 TA support, support from health care to access education costing way over 100k.

The H bit of an EHCP is health. Section G I think?

Heath care provision which educates or trains, as therapies, which the pp mentioned, mostly do, is deemed special educational provision and thus belongs in F rather than G.

This is right out of Trump's playbook, isn't he doing similar over in America. God they're both so obnoxious.

Yes, section F for healthcare that educates or trains, but section G is for other health things and I dont think the LA pays for that bit, so I dont think it was clear to say charge a family for it as its education with extras and bolt ons.

The whole point of ehcps was to integrate health and education a bit more.

But actually this isn't proving to be the case.

Despite the vast increases in spending on SEN over the last 10-15 years, more young people than ever aren't working or aren't managing full time work.

So actually despite the increased support, they aren't going on to be more productive, for some reason.

@Fearfulsaints the pp specifically mentioned therapies, which is why I mentioned them.

It doesn't go against any grain. A lot of autistic people are very bright, but shutdown in the wrong environments, so in crowded schools with little support they don't thrive, when they could with the right support in place. How are you not aware of this?

Yes, that’s where he’s getting it from. He’s a proper Trump fanboy, isn’t he? He’s over there celebrating him more than he’s in his own constituency.

That’s why he keeps saying he wants insurance based health care here as well, as Trump is interested in the NHS. Trump even asked Teresa May years back on tv if the NHS was on the table!!

Try telling reform supporters that though and they just can’t put two and two together. They’re convinced we’ll have a system like France and all will be rosey 🤣. Most of the voters saying that seem to be older, working class folk who couldn’t afford insurance. Beggars belief how gullible people are.

They’re not necessarily the same group of kids. Many of those not working will probably have some MH involved and have had zero SEND provision.

And to be equally blunt, large parts of society are saying that if it costs £30k+ a year for your child to access that education, they don’t think it’s worth doing.

I think the bespoke nature of EHCPs is not sustainable - the overhead in administration alone is huge. It can’t be carte blanche to a designer education, and I think the quality of many interventions is dubious.

Yep, there will be no NHS and he'll bring in National Service. Unfortunately it will be too late once all the 'get rid of immigration' knuckleheads have voted him in.

The problem that needs solving is what is the right action to take for SEN /disability that over the long term reduces the cost of supporting them for the state.

Ultimately there simply isn't enough money /not enough people currently are contributors to the state, so a way has to be found to support these groups to be able to work/contribute more than they are doing now, even if it's not at the same level as the rest of society.

The idea is supposed to be that increased funding during the educational years would result in some of these individuals then becoming more able to take on paid employment, or able to live in a more independent way that costs the state less in support.

But it's not working. Despite spending loads more money, fewer and fewer of these individuals with SEN or disabilities are coming out of the education system able to take a paid employment, and costs to the state for people's living /care arrangements (eg via PIP) are only increasing.

So then you necessarily have to question if it's the right use for all that money to spend it on SEN support etc in schools if it is not improving outcomes?

Could it be better spent on money in the healthcare system perhaps, for treatments, therapies etc?

That's the problem governments trying to solve, how best to spend what money is available to deliver the best outcome

Sadly I'm afraid this is the point - will 30k per year (or in the case of some children, twice that) result in these young people being able to support themselves independently as adults?

£30k is a drop in the ocean compared to the cost of increased resources DC who are not supported as children and young people will cost in adult life. Something those people who resent funding SEN support fail to realise.

Even if a child will never be independent, failing to provide support as a child/young person can result in increased costs across several areas when they are an adult. For example, such early support can be the difference between needing 2:1 care and 1:1. Another example is it can be the difference between someone being supported in the community or needing specialist residential services.

EHCPs don’t entitled anyone to the best possible education or a designer education. Legally it is about what is reasonably required and appropriate.

The only reason my son can access mainstream education is because he has a EHCP and 2:1 care at school. Due to this, he's far more likely to be able to support himself independently as an adult.

It obviously wouldn't be the case if he couldn't access any education.

Trying to get councils to recognise this is a huge challenge. Ours wont fund physio provision of any sort in either special or mainstream schools. So after meetings and requests and quoting statutory guidance got us nowhere, we tried stopping providing it, to try to force their hand. All that hapenned was the children we saw lost out, the families struggled more as they then had to bring their children out if school for all appointments rather than receiving some of their support in school, and stress levels of already stretched parents went up, which was not in keeping with our aim of supporting both children and families. So we returned to doing it, stretching limited nhs funding even further. What should happen and what does happen is 2 very different things unfortunately

Some children will not grow up to be able to support themselves independently as adults.

However the right support when young could significantly reduce thier long term care costs and could significantly increase the chances of semi independent living or part time work or volunteer eprk)

(and whilst I know a few posters are focused on care being a parents job, parents get too old and then die)

It's also fair to point out that many a person without sen does not achieve independence. Many rely on top up benefits.

"£30k is a drop in the ocean compared to the cost of increased resources DC who are not supported as children and young people will cost in adult life. Something those people who resent funding SEN support fail to realise"

This.