Ruth Kelly axed 2700 SEN places in a year

[Blandmum]

Thought this might interest people. The Times has an article on Ruth Kelly. While she was in charge of education she closed more sen school places than anyone in the last 10 years. In 2005, her only full year in place, she closed 2600 school places. 2770 places in special school were closed in 2005 and a further 1041 in 2006. Some of these were repaved in small units attached to MS schools.

Food for thought

changing my mind now about her motivations fro sending child to public school

sorry that should be a further 2041 places.

The woman angers me.

and me the more I think bout it all

these were places in special schools, so for the children with the greatest SEN. Small numbers of places were created in small units.

So these kids will have to be'included', in MS schools. An option she did not feel suited her own son when it came to decision point

SEN provision constantly causes concern with me and I am aware of teh need for inclusion but there is a need for proviing the best education for SEN students of all ages without limiting choices availableRK's decision seems very dubious in light of her public/personal choices

i was told point blank by the CAS that my son would never thrive in a MS school. when i asked how i go about getting him into a SEN school i was told "you can't there aren't any"

but its ok for Rk as she can afford private.

every parent has the right to choose whichever educational path they feel is right for their children but when that person has spent years telling us all that inclusion is the best she has NO RIGHT to go private. especialy when, in the grand scheme of things, her own childs difficulty is relativly mild.

Someone mentioned this to me and I wondered if it was actually her who had the final say and I read that it was

Tis not right.

She should have eggs thrown at her wherever she goes.

Vile woman.
There are mutterings about shutting SLD places locally in favour of uints- utterly ridiculous. It is almost impossible for children with severe learning difficulties to be included in any meaningful way, or in any way that benefits them. DS1 doesn;t need to learn about the tudors, he needs to learn how to walk round the supermarket without dashing into the storeroon, or the meaning of yes or no. He needs intensive sensory work to stop his muscles going rigid and overloading. He;d lose all of that in a unit- and staff who work in these units ime often find themselves quite isolated, not really part of the ms school, not really part of a special school. Keep open special schools where we can celebrate the children for being who they are, not try to f normalise* them (which is what they do as soon as they start going near mainstream), and let them achieve and learn in ways that are meaningful and helpful to them.

Personally I am on the side that thinks the closure of special schools is a badthing.

However, I do not believe that a person who genuinely believes that they are better off in mainstream schools is necessarily a bad person.
The evidence I've seen (albeit carefully chose by the government) supports their policy (well that's a surprise).
But the flow of this government is that they really hate administration. They love policy, and consensus and of course initiatives and targets, but the hard grind of making it work isas alient ot them as poiloting the Starship Enterprise.

What I see is a repaeat of the Tory "care in the community" which had genuinely good hymane reasons behind it, and saved money.
But in thr short term, the transition required more money, which was denied, with a lot of suffering as a result.
Same with adjusting the resources applied to children wirth special needs, but this time the screwup is Blairite failute of attention to detail, such as having the processes and poeple ready to effect the transition.
New Labour party discipline means that there is no interal feedback mechanism at all.

It is undoubtibly true that some children with SEN can be usefully included into MS, but there are many, as JJ so eloquently explained, for whom this will never be possible. Given that by 2005 getting places in a special school was already limited to those whith quite profound needs, she was harming those who would never sucessfully integrate.

Interetingly Warnock has since spoken out against her original ideas on inclusion with one noable excpetion....children with Dylexia, the condition that Kelly's son has.

I agree that believing in inclusion doesn't make you a bad person.
There is some research that shows children with MLD can integrate very well in MS if given the right support.

BUT For a woman to close school after school, reduce funding by (i think) a third all the time telling us it is the best for outr chidlren just for her to then go and send her own child to a private SN school makes my blood boil.

she clearly does not beleive in the inclusion system and so how dare she force it upon our children.

Someone who thinks that all children with SN is better of in mainstream school has very limited understanding of SN. Of course some children, given the right support can thrive, and they should be in ms school, but many many children with SN cannot begin to access even a vaguely adequate education in ms.

Warnock is on record as saying that inclusion for all doesn't work. The only group of SEN that she feels have benefited are children with dyslexia. Kelly closes SEN schools. Her son has dyslexia, one of the group still thought to be helped by inclusion (a moot point I feel), and yet she decides that he will not cope with MS!

then I feel

I remember reading that about Warnock.

I know so many children who suffer through inclusion. They should be expanding places not shutting them.

anyone who thinks that all children with SN are better off in mainstream is either a bluesky idealist with only a passing acquaintance with the real world, or a hardnosed beancounter thinking only about the ££££££.
sadly, I have met quite a few of both of those over the years.
(both dnieces now in a specialised secondary school, praise be)

don't even get me fkn started on RK.
hypocritical bitch.

It's not just SN provision she's f*cked up either, she's blocking laws to end discrimination on the grounds of sexuality. Thing is I met her when she was still a treasury minister and was reasonably impressed. Have revised my opinion since, though.

Of course Ruth Kelly is fighting against rights for gays. The only homosexuality Opus Dei are in favour is a priest on top of little boys.

But of course I'm wrong.
Her conduct is nothing to do with er Catholic faith. Oh no.

Message withdrawn

Outrageous.

Ruth Kelly's role included giving permission for paedophiles to work in schools. In something as vast as her department,you can't blame her for every single screwup, except of course she wrote a letter to one saying what a loss he was to the teaching porfession.

Bizarrely, the paedophile in question was heterosexual. Not something you'd expect a member of Opus Dei to be in favour of at all.