Heads in warning over special needs
Immigration rules need relaxing
EDUCATION: Current levels of support for pupils with special educational needs are holding them back, headteachers have warned. Support for vulnerable children at the top of the agenda at their annual conference.
CURRENT LEVELS of support for pupils with special educational needs are holding them back, headteachers have warned.
Today school leaders from across the country will gather for the National Association of Headteachers (NAHT) annual conference, putting support for vulnerable children at the top of their agenda.
The union has also published a new analysis of the factors behind the current crisis in high needs funding. It comes after The Yorkshire
Post revealed on Saturday that vulnerable young people are bearing the brunt of austerity cuts as a raft of measures are brought in to limit services for children with special needs in the region.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT, said: “Our analysis provides clear evidence that there is both increased pressure on the costs per pupil and increased demand for support for children and young people with the most complex special educational needs.
“The Chancellor must recognise the growing shortfall if we are to avoid our most vulnerable pupils missing out on the education that can allow them to realise their potential.”
The analysis reveals that realterms cuts to education funding since April 2015 have had significant impact on the education of pupils with high needs, meaning that funding has to be stretched much further to cover unfunded pay increases for teachers and support staff and employer costs, according to the association.
It also found that the raft of reforms to curriculum and assessment have resulted in a less accessible curriculum for those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in main- stream primary and secondary schools. And there has been a significant 19 per cent increase in the number of pupils with SEND attending independent schools between 2010 and 2017, the union said, leading to higher costs.
NAHT’s head of policy Valentine Mulholland said: “Children with the highest levels of need are paying the biggest price for the Government’s real terms cuts to education. High needs funding is used by local authorities to meet their legal obligations to disabled children and young people, those with special educational needs, and those in alternative provision.
“However, the system is now under unsustainable pressure; this makes it harder for mainstream settings to be inclusive.”
Seven of the 34 motions at NAHT’s conference in Liverpool will be about specific funding for children with high needs.
THE IMPORTANCE of the joint letter sent by health leaders to Sajid Javid, the newly-appointed Home Secretary, can’t be overestimated. In the wake of the Windrush scandal, and now the IT blunder over breast screening checks, the warnings of Britain’s top doctors need to be heeded.
For years, they have been stating how the NHS is totally dependent on medical practitioners from overseas – and that this has been compromised by immigration controls put in place by Theresa May when Home Secretary. The consequence? Doctors becoming more overstretched, 100,000 posts unfilled, longer waiting times and some NHS trusts warning that patient safety will be put at risk unless the Prime Minister sees sense and relaxes the rules.
And, with new reports revealing the extent to which Mrs May has ignored requests from Cabinet colleagues to lift restrictions barring skilled doctors from overseas working in NHS hospitals, they hope Mr Javid – the son of immigrants – will be more amenable. He needs to be. After all, it’s going to take a major effort to undertake the screening tests after a blunder meant that more than 300,000 women were not invited for a check that could detect cancer – and fears that up to 270 individuals died prematurely as a result of this error.
If these are to be done promptly, and efficiently, the NHS will need more staff. And there’s another point at the end of a politically tumultuous week. In contrast to many of his colleagues, Mr Javid is, in fact, a self-made man. As such, he should realise the folly of Britain shutting its doors to talented people from overseas whose experience, expertise and enthusiasm can only enrich this country – whether it be the NHS or the world of business. He can begin by prescribing the remedies advocated by the British Medical Association and many others.