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Tony Blair's thoughts on Special Educational Needs

Comments

1. At 05:28 PM on 14 May 2007, stephen mckenzie wrote:

   My son was diagnosed within the austistic spectrum when he was 2-3 years old. We tried to place him in a main stream school but it failed. Although the school was willing to take him, they had nothing in place to cope with him. He was constantly being taken out of class and held in another room while the class continued. We applied to get a helper to supervise him, and after 10 months got someone, but she failed to take up the job for unspecified reasons. Eventually i had to send my son overseas for his education because this country had closed down every other avenue for his special needs education.

2. At 05:29 PM on 14 May 2007, JOHN GITTOS wrote:

   I have worked in SEN departments for many years during which time support for pupils has been taken from qualified teachers and redisributed to Learning Support Assistants. Although many of them do an excellent job they remain non qualified and are paid accordingly. I have witnessed these LSA 'S arrive in school and given some of the most demanding pupils to work with. Unfortunately in my experience its league tables that count and SEN departments are often are relegated to the sidelines. There are no tables published showing how SEN pupils improve levels of basic literacy and numeracy, or how staff work with an individual to address emotional and beahavoral difficulties.

3. At 05:30 PM on 14 May 2007, Jane Coffey wrote:

   I cannot believe that even as he closes the door and turns out the lights on his years as Prime Minister Tony Blair still believes he is doing a good job for children with SEN. The training given to teachers in recognising SEN early is woeful in my experience, my sons years at primary school were an utterly miserable experience for both him and me as his mum. He is now at an excellent secondary school, with very supportive staff; however, the lack of investment in all areas of SEN is a national scandal, with children like my son waiting 6-9 months here in Cambridge for an occupational therapy/physiotherapy assessment. The lack of money available to help children in mainstream education with SEN is something he should be truly ashamed of as he leaves office.

4. At 06:10 PM on 14 May 2007, wrote:

   To be honest, I don't think the piece addressed one of the main issues that came to light from all the postings that people made last week. A lot of the people who took exception to Lord Adonis' comments detailed how they were forced to spend exorbitant amounts of their own money in order to get representation for the appeals process, often placing what must be unbearable strain on the family finances. This is unacceptable. I'm single, have no kids, and can't begin to imagine what affect this sort of situation can have on a family. People in this situation have my admiration for all they go through.

   I think there is still a need for this to be further investigated & reported on. Forget what Tony has (not) said. In six/seven weeks, someone else *cough* Gordon Brown *cough* will be in charge. Let's get his comments on it...

5. At 06:17 PM on 14 May 2007, Sue Gerrard wrote:

   Clearly, there weren't enough 'educations' in TB's famous mantra. He needed one more for the 25% which he completely overlooked.

6. At 06:21 PM on 14 May 2007, wrote:

   Please can I add my voice to those asking for a special report on the whole issue. It was perfectly clear that all TB wanted to do in the interview was tell us how wonderful his legacy is rather than to address the issue.

   It is obvious from all the correspondence you've received that parents and children are having a very hard time getting the help that is needed and TB's image of all children being diagnosed and statemented soon after birth was pure fantasy.

7. At 06:44 PM on 14 May 2007, Cathy Williams wrote:

   It is true that resources have increased vastly in scchools in the last ten years. By 1979 there was no paint in my son's primary school and one TA shared by 7 classes which were all over 35.

   However there are problems with SEN. These are huge in the counties. The money is concentrated on inner cities and most of it in Wilthshire seems to go on transport.

   It is true that there has to be a conflict of interest for people in County Hall and I feel very sorry for the position they are put in.

   As a school SENCO I have to work hard to get
   children the help they need.

8. At 06:48 PM on 14 May 2007, Rachel wrote:

   Just to remind froggers that people are still contributing to the other blog entries on this subject, notably here:

   /blogs/pm/2007/05/lord_adonis_update.shtml

   and here:

   /blogs/pm/2007/05/children_with_special_needs.shtml

   I didn't hear any of the prog tonight sadly, due to too much geography homework (son's, not mine, but I swear it would take up less of my time if I did it myself!)
   

9. At 08:41 PM on 14 May 2007, Liz Weston wrote:

   I am a teacher working in a Special School, (teaching year 1 at present). Inclusion will never truly work unless the government look at the problem from a different perspective. We need to change education drastically-forget about league tables and a restricted curriculum and change the mainstream schools radically to accomodate those with special needs. At the moment it is the child with special needs who is expected to 'fit in' with the mainstream school-until the reverse is true the system will fail and special schools will remain the only places to truly meet their needs.
   A good compromise would be to co-locate special schools with mainstream primary and secondary schools enabling facilities to be shared and friendships to be made.
   Nothing much has changed during Tony Blair's 'reign'but at least SEN has been given a bit of limelight!

10. At 09:25 AM on 15 May 2007, wrote:

    Has Ruth Kelly been fired? No?
    Then he's still a lying hypocrite.

11. At 10:03 AM on 15 May 2007, Yvonne wrote:

    Thank you for all of your contributions on this subject. I am keeping across the different threads and we are in discussion here about how and when we will come back to the subject on PM.
    Thanks again,
    Yvonne.

12. At 10:58 AM on 15 May 2007, Big Sister wrote:

    Just received the following email:

    "Your message has been displayed to the user.
    There is no guarantee that the message was read or understood."

    Should we be wondering about educational standards more generally? ;o)
    

13. At 11:05 AM on 15 May 2007, wrote:

    Yvonne;
    Thanks for letting us know that you are taking this further. I'm not personally affected by this story, but have been profoundly touched by the many harrowing stories which people have left in their comments, which seem to number around 200 on the Blog alone, never mind the e-mail and phone calls you have surely been receiving.

    There seem to be a few main themes; The LEA being both assessor and holder of the purse-strings; The remoteness of Milord Adonis from the reality on the ground; The enormous expense incurred by parents desperate to do the best for their children; the posture of LEA's in rejecting many cases out of hand in the hope that the parents will give up the fight; of offering a settlement just pre-Tribunal, often hoping to buy parents off for less than the legal requirement.

    One also has to question the costs incurred by the LEA's in retaining solicitors and barristers to fight their cases, and wonder whether the money wouldn't be better spent simply doing their leaglly mandated duty and giving these kids a good education. I wonder just how much is spent in this fashion?

    There is also the question of Adonis' credentials for the job. Nothing in his background as an academic or journalist seems to indicate that raising him to the Lords was justified in terms of his suitability for the role. Why was he ennobled and given this particular job to do? Was there no-one better qualified? Preferably an elected and accountable MP.

    Si.

    P.S. can you come up with a distinctive Blog I.d.? Hugh Sykes is 'Hugh the Hack', Lissa Cook was the 'PM Blogmistress', Rupert and Roger have identified themselves as '****, PM Editor', etc. It helps to make you distinctive as one of the PM team to us ordinary Froggers. Being just 'Yvonne' could cause us to miss out on your importance here in this debate.

14. At 11:12 AM on 15 May 2007, Tricia wrote:

    Yvonne, you must pick up my thread from the main UPDATE ON SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS. Whenever the media cover this subject they are inundated with responses, enough to break the coldest heart. So get the nation talking - I want parliament to take action.

15. At 12:05 PM on 15 May 2007, Yvonne, PM Reporter wrote:

    Hi Simon,
    I've given myself a proper identity so hope that will do the trick. And Tricia, your comments have been noted on all threads. Do continue to flag things up if you think I need to be aware of certain elements of this debate.

16. At 03:12 PM on 15 May 2007, wrote:

    Thanks Yvonne.

    Si.

17. At 05:05 PM on 15 May 2007, Tricia wrote:

    Yvonne - Good. I had a quick look at the other main news channels no coverage there - yet, so ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ it's a scoop!

18. At 05:09 PM on 15 May 2007, Hugo Ferguson wrote:

    Message for Yvonne

    Details of my own case are on the "Children with Special Needs" thread (no.135) but I think there is a more general point. I believe that the statementing processes operated by the LEAs are actually breaking the law.

    The process (Children's Act, and SEN Code of Practice 2001) is intended to be simple in principle:
    1) Assess the childs condition
    2) Describe what help the child needs to give them the best chance of a level educational playing field, and
    3) Specify how this help should be delivered
    4) Deliver it!

    I think it is at the third of these steps that everything seems to be falling down (although I would certainly accept that there are also difficulties with the first two), not because it is impossible, or even difficult, to do, but because the people whose job it is to do it know that there are limited resources available for the fourth step. (Incidentally, I am not clear how separating the functions of specification and delivery, as has been suggested, would help unless the resources suddenly became unlimited.)

    In fact the restricted resources drive the whole process of statementing, so that despite the SEN Code of Practice being very clear about the LEA's responsibility to be specific about provision, in practice many, probably most, LEAs operate an unwritten policy of avoiding any quantification in statements so that they can't subsequently be accused of failing to deliver.

    Furthermore, where the LEAs depend on advice from Health Authority specialists in the local PCTs, the health professionals appear to be willingly colluding in this process.

    The principle of non-quantification has been challenged at SEN tribunals and in the courts many times and has consistently been overturned. LEAs, however, keep their heads firmly in the sand and carry on regardless. They should be held to account for this blatant disregard for the law. Not only does it result in children receiving unsatisfactory support, it also masks the fact that there is a huge gap between what the government thinks it is doing, and what is actually happening.

    I'm afraid that this will seem to many to be rather an arcane point to make such a fuss about, but in my view it is at the root of what should be regarded as a national scandal; the government has introduced a law which the LEAs are required to follow, but because the LEAs have insufficient resources they are tying themselves, and as a result countless desperately needy children, in knots trying to pretend that they are abiding by it, rather than simply saying to government "we don't have enough money to comply with the law - what are you going to do about it?"

    Individual parents try to take on individual LEAs to make their own cases. It needs an organisation like the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ, though, to look at the issue on a national basis.
    

19. At 05:22 PM on 15 May 2007, Tricia wrote:

    Yvonne - Good. I had a quick look at the other main news channels no coverage there - yet, so ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ it's a scoop!

    Have a word with your colleagues on the News Night team it would be great to get a live interview with Lord Adonis when confronted with these comments/stories.

    Air a debate including Baroness Warnock, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, the chairman of the LEA's, spokespeople from charities, such as NAS, the BDA, Downs Syndrome Association ...

20. At 09:06 AM on 19 May 2007, Pat wrote:

    Re: Post 2.

    Here is the another issue - of education on the cheap - but at a big cost to Teaching Assistants / Learning Support Assistants, whose pay is usually pretty appalling. No one is helping them either.

    They are usually women who need the school hours. This is exploited by the education system / government.

    Could this whole thing be a discrimination issue too, because many carers are women?