My thoughts and review of the Education White Paper
www.linkedin.com/pulse/educat...
#sen #send #education
23.02.2026 16:04
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My thoughts and review of the Education White Paper
www.linkedin.com/pulse/educat...
#sen #send #education
Superb reporting from @estheraddley.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
Actual and forecast special educational needs provision (SEND) spending and funding in 2025-26 prices - the chart shows an £8 billion gap in funding.
A key risk for the Government is that it has not yet set out how it plans to plug the £8 billion gap in SEND funding.
There's a choice to be made between cutting SEND spending or topping up its funding.
Read more➡️ buff.ly/iLGrs9j
At long last, we’re launching in Leeds! Ever since I started The Mill, people have asked us to create a publication across the Pennines.
If 500 people pledge to become members, we’re going to hire two journalists and do it. Please share with Leeds friends.
leeds.ghost.io
Latest from me on Substack (it's free!)
maybeimamazed.substack.com/p/what-does-...
The photo is subject to copyright. Did they get permission front the copyright holder?
The majority of children with EHCPs (education, health and care plans) receive child disability allowance, but this is not the case across all children with Send (special educational needs and disabilities) support, as we wrongly said (News, Jan 24). The same article referred to research suggesting 83 per cent of the adult population could be classified as having a mental health condition at any one time: in fact the figure represents those who will have such a condition at some point in their lives.
The Times has now published a correction of some of the multiple errors in its front-page splash interview of Alan Milburn on NEETs/SEN.
Of course, having published Milburn's invented numbers, they don't bother to give their readers the actual ones.
Original article here: archive.ph/I0f49
These figures expose a lethal scandal taking place in plain sight but ignored due to societal prejudice: four in ten deaths of people with learning disabilities are avoidable, double the number of other citizens.
www.itv.com/news/2026-01...
If they curb rights to statutory SEND provision, then curbing legal appeal rights 👇 will be part of the policy package too - they’ll want to choke off ‘perverse incentives’
OTOH, the source here doesn’t understand SENDIST’s remit & approach: the decision-making process is precisely what it examines
NEW: Planned welfare reform could see big benefit cuts for disabled people who can't work, Citizens Advice has warned
The government wants to replace long-term ESA disability benefits with a new, much more time-limited benefit called Unemployment Insurance (UI) www.bigissue.com/news/social-...
If any journalists are covering the mounting controversy/briefing war about SEND changes, pls remember that the current system goes up to the age of 25. Abs no mention of this so far, which terrifies many people (inc me)
Former New Labour guy Alan Milburn here in today's Times. Joins Farage in citing 'SEND diagnoses' which don't actually exist. Would love to see data on the bigger claim. Anyway, this is how "overdiagnosis" is being woven through govt policy. Getting support at school = on the fast-track to the dole
Three errors here. First, in confusing some kind of SEND classification (20%) with EHCPs (5.5%).
Secondly in assuming it gives automatic right to DLA. Though there is a strong ECHP/DLA overlap.
Third in assuming that those moving to DLA to PIP never work (it's not an out of work benefit).
This is a rehash of the 80s trope that the unemployed didn't want to work. It's blaming the victim. "There's nothing wrong with the system; it's just that the working class aren't good enough for it."
@captaink77.bsky.social
Image of Chris Coghlan MP in the Commons with a quote saying What I have encountered repeatedly is not simply a system under pressure, but one that has too often abandoned its legal, moral and ethical obligations to some of the most vulnerable children in the country.
On SNJ Today: Will your school speak out on what @chriscoghlanmp.bsky.social calls councils’ "systematic, moral, and ethical” abuse of #SEND law? He commits to defending children's rights—ask your MP do the same! www.specialneedsjungle.com/m...
image shows graphics from the article — text is in the post
NEW POST: How teachers are providing the missing evidence illustrating systemic SEND maladministration by councils. Accountability investigators, Measure What Matters, are urging schools and educators to share their experiences anonymously: www.specialneedsjungle.com/t...
Running the numbers, looks like ~2,500 planned special school places have definitely been axed, with a further ~6,900 places subject to an undefined CeX-style trade-in
Over the last year, myths about the Motability scheme have spread online and in the right wing media. Now, some of it is government policy.
In today’s Guardian, I set about finding the facts and why the idea of “free cars for the disabled” has taken hold. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
📈 #IFSSatStat: The number of children in the UK is expected to decline by about 7% or 800,000 between 2025 and 2035.
These declines are expected to be fastest in Scotland (8%), Wales (10%) and Northern Ireland (15%).
THREAD: SEND costs to hit central government budgets
The cost of SEND support will shift entirely onto central government from 2028, and the OBR warns the DfE has no plan for how to pay for it, according to the OBR's Economic and fiscal outlook, published in error.
🎉The Department is delighted to announce the second public seminar of Michaelmas term:
Solving the SEND Crisis: a public seminar about the Education Select Committee report.
Speaker: Helen Hayes MP
📅3 Dec
⌚5pm – 6.30pm
🏢Dept of Education and MS Teams
Register now 👉 shorturl.at/eJnJR
"Despite widespread claims linking gut health to autism spectrum disorder, a comprehensive analysis published in the journal Neuron has found no scientific evidence supporting the hypothesis that the gut microbiome causally contributes to autism."
In other news look at councils projected cumulative deficit just on special needs costs over the next few years. Yikes.
Open justice is supposed to enhance public trust + confidence in the justice system - but in this case it had the opposite effect.
What does the Supreme Court need to do differently to make sure COP observers have a better experience next time?
openjusticecourtofprotection.org/2025/11/10/w...
I'm glad you have managed to sort transport for your child, even though there is a significant financial cost to you. I'm sure you are aware, the rules change for post-19 learners and the rules do get somewhat easier in order to qualify: www.ipsea.org.uk/young-people...
Until the 1970 Education (Handicapped Children) Act came into being, some disabled children were deemed 'uneducable' and didn't attend school. Shall we go back to that?
image shows an orange colourised montage of transport and the disabled sign used on roads
NEW POST: @catrionamoore.bsky.social dissects a new report from the @nao.org.uk that tells the Government to improve its data on schools and SEND transport—and ensure any coming changes don't make it harder for disabled children to attend: www.specialneedsjungle.com/n...
New transport survey for 16-19 year olds has launched! 📝
Complete the survey here 👉 https://f.mtr.cool/zioiykibzm
Read more here 👉 https://f.mtr.cool/zzekogukbq
