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.
@ChrisMayLA6 this will increase administrative costs (the reviews), or make getting an EHCP even harder (system capacity constraints) with no guarantee of reducing SEND costs. All it does is reinforce the feeling that this country doesn't care about education, other than the ability to do it on the cheap. It's an austerity mindset that sucks.
agree; management by spreadsheet (again)
@ChrisMayLA6 given that it is common for send needs in girls to not be identified until senior school, does this system not even further disadvantage neurodivergent girls?
Quite possibly, although I suppose one might also argue that adding in a review point at the transition between schools allows later identifications to be given weight?
Most likely the review to see if the child qualifies for disability funding will not save any taxpayer money because employees are hired to review the documents and the taxpayer money goes to the employees instead of to helping disabled children
