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ENGLAND: SPED system 'broken'




Oct 24, 2024, News Channel 4: Inside ‘broken’ SEND school system ‘in urgent need of reform’

VIDEO:


A therapist describes the costs parents of a dyslexic child face getting a diagnosis ($800 to $900).

Many children aren’t getting the help they need. A report by the National Audit Office today warns that the children with SEND, Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, the system often falls short and is failing to improve children’s outcomes.


At this school, 36 percent of the children are SEND, and thanks to a Catch 22 of how funding is allocated, striving to deliver for them is a stretch.


The principal is shown describing how difficult it is to get funding. Last year the school was $48,000 in the red due to the cost of special needs students.


Despite all they’re doing here at this school, demand is far outstripping supply.

She admitted that there are students at the school who have special needs plans but they’ve been waiting two or more years to have them implemented. Autism is centered on as a major disability.

Despite funding rising by 58 percent over the last decade to 10.7 billion [$13.9B] pounds, the system is financially unsustainable and in urgent need of reform.

Channel 4 that local governments that have to fund education are facing bankruptcy over the cost of special education.

Change will need to come from the top.


National Assessment Agency:  Local authorities that go bankrupt will provide even less services, so we need to forgive that debt pretty quickly.


We’re then going to have to find about an extra 4.6 billion pounds [$6B] to fill the gap.

But then what follows after that immediate relief is a fundamental assessment of how we look after children with extra needs going forward for the longer term.


Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, MP: Whilst there’s no magic wand to fix the problem, we are committed to working with parents and with teachers to deliver the right reforms for children, including focusing on focusing on mainstream provision and ensuring that the mainstream provision is fit for children who’ve got special educational needs.

The principal explained that if change doesn’t come soon everything is over.

Ultimately the whole system breaks. You can only put up with so much.


If you have children throwing chairs around a classroom, and they can’t teach because of those children’s needs and things, then staff will leave.


A parent advocate described how the special needs system is failing so many students.  The new Labor Government is expected to provide the services children need. Next week’s budget meeting needs to fully fund special education. This is their legal right.

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