Mental Health / Special Needs

[Workingman]

Apologies in advance to Shell, Kaz, myself and anyone else directly affected by this.

EHCP stands for Education, Health and Care Plan and SEND for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.

Since 2014 there has been an overall rise of 48% in the number of plans for EHCPs and SEND and these have been the cause of a £123m overspend in such budgets in the last year.

The numbers, the rises in such a short space of time, worry me. They cannot be true - can they?

Have we, as a nation, really become more mentally ill and disabled? If we have then what has caused it and what is being done to reverse it. Where is the research? What do the authorities know, and what are they hiding?

Or is it that the definition has been moved nearer to the Y axis?

The second really does worry me. Why? If we have moved the goal posts to include what in earlier times people who would have been called 'simple' or 'spoilt' pupils we do the genuinely needy ones a massive disservice.

Those, like my brother, really did need to go to "Special Schools" when their individual needs, desperate needs, would never have been met in mainstream schools. And yet their evangelical "inclusion" in mainstream education has done sweet FA, sod all, for their wider inclusion is society and has also damaged the 'normal' in the process.

I give up. PC wins.

[TheOstrich]

I'll let Mrs O have a look at this thread tomorrow because she was very much involved with SEN in the latter part of her employment in Birmingham.

I may be wrong, but I think I recall her saying that once parents realised that by having their child classified as SEN, it unlocked so much extra financial and educational support, there was little incentive to oppose it.

Those, like my brother, really did need to go to "Special Schools" when their individual needs, desperate needs, would never have been met in mainstream schools. And yet their evangelical "inclusion" in mainstream education has done sweet FA, sod all, for their wider inclusion is society and has also damaged the 'normal' in the process.

I'm pretty sure she would agree with this 120%, but it was heresy to even think it in the politically-correct climate surrounding Education.

[cromwell]

I do worry that we are creating unnecessarily troubled children. All this focus on self in schools can't be good.
When you see a perfectly healthy teenager on the tv claiming that he needs a blue badge for his car because he has a "hidden disability", because he's anxious, I am left totally baffled. Was that anxiety helped, hindered or caused by policies n education?

[Workingman]

When you see a perfectly healthy teenager on the tv claiming that he needs a blue badge for his car because he has a "hidden disability", because he's anxious, I am left totally baffled. Was that anxiety helped, hindered or caused by policies n education?

This really does worry me. When you see people self-assessing or "identifying" as mentally ill it does make you wonder what the hell is going on. These people are taking away funds, manpower and resources from those who really do need them.

A big problem is that these people have a voice and can express themselves in ever so many ways such as the Internet and social media. The genuinely needy do not have, or access to, those pathways and so are not heard. They have become the forgotten ones.

[TheOstrich]

Well, I referred the OP to Mrs O. By gum, that's 3/4 of an hour of my life I won't get back …..

Have we, as a nation, really become more mentally ill and disabled? If we have then what has caused it and what is being done to reverse it. Where is the research? What do the authorities know, and what are they hiding?
Or is it that the definition has been moved nearer to the Y axis?

To a certain extent, both. The increase in mental health and special needs problems with children can be attributable to a number of factors, including the breakdown of stable family life - i.e. divorce, single-parenting, poor parenting - poverty, ethnic inbreeding as a cultural norm (especially in urban areas), lack of community cohesion, so on.

The definition has not necessarily moved closer to the Y axis - child developmental goals are relatively unchangeable, despite many Education departments producing shiny new charts and tickboxes, which are only really reinventing the wheel. What has changed is there is now far better and earlier diagnosis of problems, and that has no doubt led to an increase in identified cases.

With regard to getting a SEN assessment / Individual Education Plan, it's true that many parents would be devastated and fight against any spectrum diagnosis, but it's also true that many parents would see it as a necessary first step to unlock resources - for example, more one-to-one time with teaching assistants, placement in a "progress class" or a "rainbow class" (what in the old days we used to call remedial), so on. Not all children get a SEN/IEP - there are many borderline cases and clinicians tend to be loathe to diagnose these as on the spectrum. As an aside, It has been mooted that if you train a teacher in a particular targeted way how to teach language, or a song, or whatever to the one SEN child in their class, you'll probably find half-a-dozen kids in that class - the borderline cases - will benefit as well.

Yes, in the old days there were special schools, but they were very much a mixed bag in themselves - some like Mary Hare, a residential school for the deaf in Newbury, were excellent; others, however were just dumping grounds, not far off a borstal. Today, it's the same, some very good Alternative or Special Needs schools exist alongside some not quite so good. But getting into them these days, it's no doubt the SEN/IEP that's the key to the door.

[Kaz]

I may be wrong, but I think I recall her saying that once parents realised that by having their child classified as SEN, it unlocked so much extra financial and educational support, there was little incentive to oppose it.

.

Absolutely! Harry was "Statemented" as it was then called aged three and it unlocked SO much help for him. He wouldn't now be holding down a job and learning to drive without it. He had a place at a terrific SEN nursery, in Chertsey, a place at a special school until he was deemed ok to go to a local mainstream Primary with an SEN unit, with a one to one TA, then a fantastic SEN school at 11.

He also had places at a Disability Sports club, and Brightlights, where they played games, made friends and went on day trips and holidays. Getting that Statement was vital.