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Parents of special educational needs children could get care budgets

Ming

I don't know if anyone else has seen this article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/mar/08/special-needs-children-budgets

I just wondered what everyone thought.  My initial reaction is it could be a good thing and are they finally admitting that SEN children should not be in mainstream school.  OR is this actually something to worry about.

  • Is it just me - or is this country getting worse?!?!?! we mustn't be racist, equal opportunities for all, blah blah blah...(i hasten to add, i am not racist in any way and agree with these points) and yet, they are seemingly suggesting 'our children' are now segregrated from mainstream school, or giving us money and leaving us to 'get on with it'.

    I can see how it would help some people, but it's stinking of discrimination.....

  • I've just posted about this and unfortunately hadn't spotted your post first, Ming. The Green paper doesn't mention what will be available to spend the budget on so I fear it may be like the Direct Payments (throwing money at you with no service actually available to meet your needs). The other thing that worries me is the continuous mention in the consultation questions, of Voluntary and Private funding. Our children are not charity cases, they have a right to have their needs met by the local authority, are non disabled children going to have volunteers teaching them in the classroom?!!

  • My son is 11 and attends mainstream school. His support needs are assessed as School Action Plus. He copes well, but I think being on the SEN list gives the school staff greater awareness that he has particular needs. I would be concerned that he would receive less effective support if he wasn't classed as SEN. One of the reasons for going through the painful process of diagnosis and having a 'label' is to hopefully gain better access to support and services. We have asked all of the agencies that we come into contact with, about social skills input for our son. We help him as much as we can, but I think that  structured opportunities for learning about self awareness and awareness of other people is as vital for children wiith ASD as everything else they learn at school. There is an inclusive resource in the area which offers outreach support in schools, but he doesn't apparently meet the criteria - not causing the school enough problems?! He has needs that aren't being supported consistently at the moment, so I fear that removal of some SEN categories would lead to even less support.

  • I've just downloaded the actual green paper on SEN and Disability - will let you know when I have read it...