News
25th July 2010
Special Education Needs labels doubled in 20 years while the financial support is dropping
Every fifth child is labeled with a Special Needs statement, which is double the number from 20 years ago, the latest Department for Education statistics show.
The Release figures show that in 2010 more than 30 000 children between the age of two and four were assessed by schools or nurseries as having special needs. This is a 19 per cent raise from two years ago.
An additional 8,280 were diagnosed by a multi-agency team as requiring a formal 'statement' of need. This is a legal document that outlines the support they are entitled to, marking an 8 per cent rise on 7,700 in 2008.
Daily Mail reported a warning from senior Government adviser and expert on special needs, Philippa Stobbs, that: “Schools are over-labeling special needs to cheat league tables and attract more funding”.
The number of the schools affected by the recent budget cuts which cancelled the Building Schools for the Future programme, has been specified.
A Partnerships for Schools’ spokesperson said:
“145 Special Education Needs schools and 60 Pupil Referral Units have been affected by the announcement to review the BSF programme.”
Responding to the concerns, Department for Education spokesman said:
"The review of capital will look at how we can offer better value-for-money; make school building cost-efficient and quicker; and ensure money is targeted at schools with the greatest need, including special schools and those with provision for Special Education Needs."
20th July 2010
A “pale green” future for Special Education in Britain's Big Society
No mention has been made yet on the position of Special Education in the Tories’ “Big Society” plan launched this week.
David Cameron announced establishment of a “Big Society Bank” to finance charities and voluntary groups, but days later British charity Barnardo's still has no information on how the plan will deliver.
“The plans will need to develop further before individual organisations can comment on their involvement or the likely effect the plans will have on them,” said Barnardo’s media officer Kate McGown.
UK charity for families with disabled children, Contact a Family, are reluctant to make assumptions, as they find themselves in the unknown ground within Big Society. They remain patient to learn about the application process for the Bank, which to their opinion is just an idea at this point.
A hint of optimism appears as Contact a Family’s spokeswoman said: “Our chief executive had a meeting with Sarah Teather about the Green Paper that will focus on SEN children and I do think the government is listening to the people working in the sector for disabled children and their families, but I think we’re in early in the early stages still.”
During last week’s debate in the House of Lords supporters of Special Education raised concern if the expected Green Paper will provide ease for schools to obtain funding for structural alterations, in order that children with special educational needs can attend and play a full part in the life of those schools.
Lord Hill of Oareford said: “The Green Paper to which I referred is a very pale shade of green at the moment.”
12th July 2010
Another blow for special schools as spending “clean up” scratched off School building programme
Special schools across the country are reeling from the impact of Michael Gove’s decision to cut £1bn from the schools budget, causing a serious compromising blow to the improvement building plans of many affected school communities.
“For years we have been struggling with inadequate accommodation and facilities. For a society which claims to care for the disadvantaged, this is not good enough,” stated Head Teacher of Winchelsea Special School, Mr Steve Cook.
Labour’s Building Schools for the Future programme was cancelled abandoning 715 schools’ promised building or refurbishing plans.
The BSF scheme has been ended at Montacute Special School in Poole.
“We have the most vulnerable population of children in the Borough and our children are being educated in the Borough’s worst building,” says the Head Teacher Andrew Mears.
“Poole has not been able to find any capital money to assist Montacute’s case in the past,” Mr Mears continued, “and I have no reason to believe that the Borough will able to find any in future in these constrained times, so our best bet still rests with central government.”
Announcing Green Paper review which is to be launched in autumn, Children’s Minister Sarah Teather said at Every Disabled Child Matters event that she will look at a wide range of issues for children with SEN and disabilities.
“Schools building programme which we stopped only counts for a third of capital spending,” said Matt Hopkinson from the Department for Education, adding “We cannot guarantee that all special schools will get all the repairs and development that they need”.
8th June 2010
UK's new Education Bill provokes new heed for the children with Special Educational Needs
After years of policies, acts, debates and disappointment, disabled children may be victims of the new Government’s rush to create more academy schools. This is a warning from director of Alliance for Inclusive Education, Tara Flood.
“The new Academy Bill will certainly reverse inclusive practice” she said, pledging that her organization will be prepared to challenge the forthcoming Academy Bill.
“It doesn’t talk specifically about the disabled children and young people. It talks about more than a thousand state schools becoming academies, and what we know about academies is that they have a very poor track record on the inclusion of the disabled and children with Special Education Needs labels.”
Academies are state schools that move out of the local authority control and can benefit from private investments. About 200 of existing ones were not directly required to comply with the Special Education Needs (SEN) Tribunal Order so far, though the Secretary of State could direct that they are.
The SEN Tribunal system allows parents to seek legal redress if their disabled child is not getting into the school that they want their child to be in, or if the child is not getting the right level of support.
When asked about the issue, the Department of Education would not supply any more information other than unofficial background claiming the academies will from now have to comply with orders issued by the SEN Tribunal and they will have to follow the Admissions Code.
But what they teach within the Curriculum and how they teach will be very much up to the schools, meaning that a lesser number of people will be responsible for these decisions.
DfE’s Business Improvement Manager Cait Mellow claimed they still haven’t set up plans for SEN under the new coalition government and did not have further comment on when it will be on their agenda.
The Alliance’s director’s interpretation of the situation is different.
“What they’re using is what was in the Conservative Party Election Manifesto, so that has become the new coalition government’s Policy. And that Policy is to reverse the bias in favour of the inclusion of disabled children in mainstream schools. Which is a disaster. Their policy is anti inclusion.”
Figures show that almost 1.7 million children suffer some form of learning difficulty, behavioral problem or physical disability.
