As if trying to secure SEND (special educational needs & disability) funding for your child wasn't already difficult enough, the new system proposed by Labour may now involve a cliff edge at the end of primary school when eligibility for support will be reviewed....
Given shifts in eligibility criteria & the inevitable paperwork such a review will involve, it will add one more punishing aspect of parents fight to get support for their children.
Given the long waiting lists for assessment this will mean they will probably start secondary school with no support.
We used to see many pupils turning up with no formal statement or funding because primary schools managed it with support staff. It could take over a year for that support to be put in place in secondary schools.
Then as budget pressures increased primaries put through EHCP applications.
Now all of them will be in that position. A saving on SEND sending at the cost of the pupils being able to engage with education.
But also a cost on the overstretched assessment service, which doesn't have enough specialists already.
And more permanent exclusions as we fail our most vulnerable children.