Dec 13, 2024, (Ulster) Irish News: Lack of support for Send children is ‘timebomb’ for public services, MPs told
A lack of support for children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) is a “timebomb” for public services, MPs have been told.
In a debate on Send provision for children with autism and ADHD, Liberal Democrat MP Pippa Heylings read the words of a teacher in her constituency of South Cambridgeshire who said students with special needs were being educated in corridors due to a lack of space and resources.
Ms Heylings referred to Lord Darzi’s review of the NHS which found demand for ADHD and autism assessments have grown exponentially in recent years.
She also said 200,000 children in the UK are waiting for a diagnosis: “That is 200,000 families left in uncertainty, desperate for help, struggling without the support they need.”
In an adjournment debate she told MPs: “What we’ve seen is, over this last decade or more, chronic underinvestment from the Conservative government, despite the fact that statutory needs were recognised.
“We don’t have a special unit for them. We’re just accommodating them as best we can in quieter areas of the school, including corridors, because they’re not able to work in the noise and busyness of a primary classroom.’”
Ms Heylings added: “She saw one of those children that she’d been working with, who, a few days after starting secondary school, was excluded because their behaviour was not manageable. . . .
The MP continued: “What I now understand is that the broken system means that a child has to fail in a very distressing way before they’re given the provision they need.”
Education minister Catherine McKinnell said the Government was aware the Send system is not working for children or parents.
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