If you are one of those millions of citizens with a disabled or neurodivergent child in your family, be afraid. Be very afraid. And if you care at all about living in a decent society, you should share that fear. For our Labour Government, elected to restore faith in public services, seems intent on shredding the rights of vulnerable young people to secure a decent start in life, and shattering the hopes of parents.
Any day now we will see ministers finally unveil reforms of the special educational needs (SEND) system, driven by Treasury demands to slash rising costs. And just as with their bungled Budget last year, they are preparing the ground by dripping a stream of stories into the media to soften up voters in advance of their announcement.
Last week, this newspaper disclosed that many parents wanting an education, health and care plan (EHCP) for their child might be blocked from appealing to a tribunal if rebuffed by local authorities. This is a shocking proposal. These crucial, legally-binding documents set out needs, annual targets and provision – and in 99 percent of cases, tribunals rule in favour of the family. This exposes the giant scale of systemic failure in a horribly adversarial, bureaucratic system that grinds down tired and frightened families. I know this from the experience of confronting it while struggling to cope with our daughter’s profound disabilities.
Yet the solution, declared one macho Westminster source, is to “cut the tribunal off at the knees” by only allowing appeals if the correct process has not been followed.
Think about this: a Labour Government headed by a human rights lawyer wants to protect councils that fail to meet their legal responsibilities to some of the nation’s most vulnerable young people. It wants to do so by ending the statutory right of parents to challenge wrongful decisions made by faceless officials. Is this really what all those Labour MPs think they were elected to do?
A string of similar kite-flying stories have been rattling nerves in run-up to release of this seismic white paper, which Downing Street fears will provoke another serious backbench rebellion. Often they quote anonymous sources talking in bullish terms about stripping legal rights from families to reduce fiscal pressures, proposing the imposition of a complex multi-tiered system, and forcing many more children into mainstream schools. One key adviser has openly discussed stripping out the health and care components, then applying plans only to far smaller numbers allowed to attend special schools.
The ideas being floated are fanned with the depressingly familiar tactic of inflaming hostility to citizens in need, seen also in the benefits fiasco and Motability saga. So a spate of stories have been cropping up also about overdiagnosis, pushy parents, riding and skiing lessons at taxpayer expense or private equity firms ripping off the state by running expensive special schools.
Yet again, this weak Labour Government seems in unholy alliance with its political foes, some of whom see an EHCP as a “golden ticket” for families. Reform UK has sniped at autistic kids wearing headphones in class, and costly use of taxis, and has claimed SEND provision has been “hijacked by parents who are abusing the system”.
Conservative critics pontificate about overdiagnosis, implying an expertise on neurodiversity despite never having discussed such issues in the past (except possibly as weapons in their war against transgender citizens). No wonder Tressa Burke, one of Scotland’s foremost disability campaigners, rejected her New Year Honour on basis that Downing Street was “fuelling hatred, blame and scapegoating of people with disabilities”.
This is not to deny the need for fair reform. Costs have almost doubled in a decade. And the number of plans has risen post-Covid from 294,758 in 2020 to 434,354 in 2024. Yet as the Education Select Committee stated five months ago, the current system leaves “exhausted parents fighting for basic support, teachers stretched beyond capacity and committed professionals working within services buckling under pressure.”
The key, said MPs, is not just more money, but restoring the trust among SEND families that has been broken by “inconsistent provision, delays in support, lack of transparency in decision-making and a failure to deliver on legal duties”.
Instead, the Government – seemingly intent on restricting ECHPs – stokes fear about the one part of the system that delivers some accountability and security. It has launched a cosmetic consultation on its proposals, although parents participating express dismay over a lack of information. And it is pushing its favoured ideology of inclusion in mainstream education at all costs – regardless of any ability to deliver specialist facilities, staff and therapies so crucial for SEND pupils to achieve their potential, let alone the recent dark history of inadequate provision that helped fuel the soaring demand for private special schools.
Britain is far from alone in seeing this rising demand due to improvements in diagnosis and awareness of neurodiversity – especially among girls – along with medical advances. Yet the rise is sharper in Britain since also a symptom of wider Westminster failures. These include a stumbling health service – with lengthy waiting times for autism and ADHD diagnosis or access to mental health services – and a care system allowed to decay while politicians spewed platitudes about the NHS.
It touches also on the shameful failure to regulate technology harming young people – or to restrain the financial sharks feasting on too much of the public sector.
The cost of getting this reform wrong again will be huge, leading to many more young people missing school or ending up jobless, on benefits, even inside prison. It is grossly insulting to suggest lots of parents are gaming the system when – far from winning a golden ticket – kids with disabilities are more likely to live in poverty, come from broken homes due to stresses of care or live in families forced into welfare through having to give up work.
Politicians should listen carefully to these families, stop throwing insults, and tread warily before throwing away the life raft for citizens who feel like they are drowning in battles against the state.
Hence then, the article about parents of send children should fear what starmer is planning was published today ( ) and is available on inews ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Parents of SEND children should fear what Starmer is planning )
Also on site :