Heartless words of Warwick County Council

[Verbena17]

Hi,
Ive been reading and watching the videos on the Twitter thread showing Councillors from Warwickshire County Council, discussing SEND provision in schools.
I’m totally shocked (as are many others) at the phrases and ideas these inept people have been spouting! I say shocked, but maybe I shouldn’t be but in all my years advocating for my DS, I don’t think I’ve ever seen or heard anything so awful from supposed ‘professional’ services.

No wonder parents have fight after endless fight to get the support their children need 😢
If you’re on Twitter, the thread has other councillors discussing in similar ways….in fact one lady councillor names Facebook and other social media sites where ‘…parents are even helping each other get their children diagnosed!’ (Sic).

[TomeTome]

It’s a fairly common idea though isn’t it? I often wonder why schools are so far from what’s needed for so many of their pupils.

[SearchingForSolitude]

Sadly they aren’t the first and won’t be the last. It is part of the ongoing sharp elbowed parents rhetoric.

[Verbena17]

I just think their words are so heartless!
Reading the comments wasn't as awful as watching them on video - they really seemed as if they didn’t have a schoolboy about a single they spoke about.
They were so ignorant!

[Jigglypuff87]

Unfortunately this is what happens when people get to have a significant public opinion on a topic they are totally uneducated in.

The send system is the mess it is because individuals such as these are involved in decision making. We have removed ourselves as much as possible from the system and my child is far better off because of it. The discrimination that many send children have to deal with has in my opinion become far worse over the last 10 years. Ideas are so fixed among schools/social care/ local authorities and children are not treated as individuals. Ehcps are not followed, needs aren't correctly understood, unqualified staff on minimum wage often with very little experience are left to deal with children with very specialist complex needs, children who require salt, ot etc dont get access to it thus often making the situation far worse.

[Verbena17]

Yes you’re completely right @Jigglypuff87 . Taking just secondary mainstreams as an example, the amount of undiagnosed children who should be is growing and has been for years.

There’s not enough trained staff and teachers (every single teacher during their training) sadly just don’t get enough SEND training to cope and best support children with additional needs in mainstreams.

[Morph22010]

Where is video on twitter i can’t find

[Morph22010]

Found it! Part of what he is saying is true, imo part of the reason it’s escalating so much is because everything is now done not to help a child early on, so things like cuts in childrens centres, making it so hard to get Sen funding or an ehcp, so things escalate and then are more costly. I bet he doesn’t understand his own point fully enough though to be supporting putting this early intervention in place

[Verbena17]

I think many people saw it as him saying why are there so many school children with SEND….as opposed to why aren’t they helped soon in early years.

To begin with, I did wonder if they were implying there was a reason for why there are so many children with SEND and that he was actually empathising but the more I watch him and others at that same meeting, I just think they’re all just ignorant.

Because surely if he was implying more should be done to support in Early Years, that would still be council funding so that would ‘solve’ his problem of budgets etc.