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(UK) Leeds: SPED expected to increase from 1500 to 2500 in 2 years

Jan 23, 2021,Yorkshire Evening Post: Mum left a "crumbling wreck" by home schooling her autistic twins says she is one of the lucky ones as demand for special needs provision increases https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/education/mum-left-crumbling-wreck-home-schooling-her-autistic-twins-says-she-one-lucky-ones-demand-special-needs-provision-increases-3110050 Northeast England While mainstream schools are closed and only open to vulnerable or key worker children, special needs units such as Rainbow Base, which is part of the Richmond Hill school, have fought to stay open full-time over concerns for the well-being of parents as well as pupils. There are currently around 1500 pupils in Leeds who are classed as having special educational needs but that figure is projected to have increased by at least a thousand by 2023. It is leaving a deficit in places available and Nicola Mclean, who has autistic eight-year-old twins says she is one of the lucky ones. The children are in their fourth year at Rainbow Base, where there are 33 places, but now it is much harder to find provision. Both of them have sensory needs and her daughter has higher level needs than her son. For example, she finds it hard to wear shoes because she needs to feel the ground so it makes being outdoors difficult, she climbs furniture, eats non-edible items and instead of the painting she does at school she pours liquids from shampoo to milk….

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