Labour’s special educational needs reforms don’t add up
Today’s big announcement about SEND reform reveals Labour’s impoverished vision for schools
Does Bridget Phillipson think that every child has learning difficulties? The government’s long-overdue overhaul of provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) has now been unveiled, revealing a deeply troubling vision of schools.
Announced this morning is an additional £4 billion of funding, spread over three years, to support SEND pupils in mainstream schools. Matt Wrack, general secretary of the NASUWT teaching union, was quick off the blocks in condemning this amount as ‘barely a drop in the bucket of the investment necessary to drive real improvement in schools.’ Indeed, sums of around £20,000-£40,000 a year for primary schools and £50,000-£70,000 for secondary schools are hardly likely to be transformative.
But forget the headline figures. Keeping costs under control is one of the key factors motivating reform. In recent years, the number of pupils in receipt of legally-binding education, health and care plans (EHCPs), which are key to unlocking significant extra support, has increased precipitously. Over 1.7 million pupils in England are now identified as having SEND, almost one in five of all school-age children.
One reason for the increase is the expansion of the definition of ‘special educational need’. Autism, for example, was once recognised as a condition that made it impossible for some children to endure the sensory chaos of a mainstream school; they might struggle to communicate, learn, or behave appropriately. But that was before ‘neurodiversity’ and the idea that we are all a little bit ‘on the spectrum’. Now, autism is defined so broadly that the label can apparently be embraced by anyone who is a bit clumsy or socially awkward.
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