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

They'll be in favour of some Nazi scheme no doubt.

That’s not what will happen. The interventions just won’t happen, and either SEN children just won’t be in school or schools will act to remove them -which will be easier if your LA is more supportive of removal. And most parents will be just fine with that.

I suspect first on their hitlistbwill be support for children for whom English is not their first language.

And the longer you leave SEN the more expensive it is to deal with.

🤣

Errr how will they not be in school? You get fined for taking a child out on a day trip. How are you going to remove children who simply find some parts of education and the curriculum hard? On what basis?

I meant that school refusal will rise, and be met with a collective shrug.

If they cut it even marginally, small schools will be forced to make TA’s redundant. 1-1 or otherwise. There are talks of pay rises for support staff yet if it’s unfunded we will have to look at redundancy as the budget is so tight.

What has school refusal got to do with SEn?

A lot. Many children who are school refusers have unmet needs. They simply can’t cope in the setting they are in without support.

I too am 'lucky' enough to be in a reform led area. Thankfully dd is now 23 but the fights I had with every aspect of her education, health, wellbeing under the conservatives left me on my final nerve and I virtually had a breakdown. I feel so much for parents of SEN children under Reform councils to get their children's needs met. I once told an Ed psych that his suggestion that my child would eventually fall into an EHCP (so essentially had to fall so behind her peers) was abhorrent and sadly I feel under Reform that this is the future is SEN children.

It makes me sad and furious in equal parts

If a certain proportion of the children who no longer receive the required specialist services end up in residential care, that will be way more costly to the taxpayer in the long term. It is cheaper to support parents in caring for their kids in a home setting, plus there are fewer social costs associated with that.

In addition, there would likely be significant disruption in classrooms, as teachers struggle to manage with undiagnosed children who are not getting the targeted help they need. This in turn affects the education of children without special education needs as well. For that reason, you would probably have greater trouble recruiting good teachers willing to teach in Reform councils too.

We call it emotionally based school avoidance or anxiety related non-attendance now, not school refusal. The vast majority of students who struggle to attend school have SEND - upwards of 80% are ND. My own autistic teen has an EHCP funding online learning as she can't attend school.

I'm sure the Reform manifesto at the next election will contain many wonderful ideas for education.....

Also SEND provision such as EHCP is appealable by tribunal at a national level so naff all Reform-run councils can do about that.

And many kids with Sen aren’t school refusers.

It's unsurprising. The people that voted reform just don't care about other people

Ofsted do look at progress levels for SEN it is part of their remit. True it is not the only measure but there is a tendency to work to the middle. I met an inspector a few years ago who told me that the fall in standards across schools was for the most part was the closing of the special schools and inclusion. We have to have a system which favours the majority and then look at how to cater for those who don’t in. People feel unhappy as it seems minorities are those that are seen as a priority and that goes across the board .

I mean you can say all that until you are blue in the face but this country’s electorate and politicians have shown time and time again that they are not capable of the long term view and necessary actions.

Many parents will be thinking “how much worse can it get” tbh.

It's so odd to me that people look at a party full of privately educated millionaires and think they are 'men of the people' and 'on the side of the working person'. Reform are great at tapping into anger and disillusionment by shouting "broken britain", without offering any solutions. I have no doubt the new reform councillors will look to enrich their own bank balances through contracts they set up for local councils. Fortunately my area didn't have an election but it's coming for us next year and I suspect reform will do well

It does favour the majority. SEN is massively underfunded. You mean you’re against levelling the playing field. Interested as to what you mean by minorities.🤔

@R0ckl0bsterfunding per child for a child without Sen is less than that for a child without Sen which is totally understandable. It is the number of Sen which has led to this crisis in funding and that is the underlying issue - the funding is unsustainable

So how are they going to function in the work place or even general adulting

That’s why support needs to be put in place as early as possible.

too often people are left to reach crisis point before any support is considered.

Well they probably won't be able to. Hence why many neurodivergent people are considered too disabled to work because society can't be arsed to consider the needs of anyone outside the tiny, narrow minded little neurotypical bubble.

I’m not in favour of these potential cuts but are you being serious? The PIP and unemployment bill is enormous, asking the taxpayer to fund yet more for ND non working adults would NOT go down well and why would it !!

But it’s those people you’ve just insulted who are expected to pay for it all.