Labour has been accused of taking its class warfare into schools with plans to means-test funding based on parental income, in a move that could punish hard-working families.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson will publish a schools white paper aimed at revamping special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision and halving the attainment gap.
A central aspect of the proposals would involve reforms to how £8 billion in funding is targeted, with household income rather than whether a child receives free school meals used to allocate it.
Labour’s new disadvantage funding formula would also consider where a child lives, as well as how low parental income is and how long this has been the case.
Following a punitive tax assault on private schools, the Conservatives have denounced the ideas as being a part of Labour’s class warfare.
Tory shadow education secretary Laura Trott said: ‘Every child deserves to receive the support they need. But it is wrong to narrow the disadvantage gap by dragging everyone down.’
Yesterday, Ms Phillipson was forced to deny she was a ‘class warrior’ as she promised to ‘come down hard on those who are profiting from the system’.
Speaking to Times Radio, she said: ‘We’ve seen a big expansion, for example, in private equity, in specialist schools, where the quality is often very, very variable, where the costs are high.’
Asked if she sees herself as a ‘class warrior’, she responded: ‘No, I don’t. I’m really ambitious for every child in our country, regardless of background.’
Ms Phillipson has claimed the new funding formula is a ‘golden opportunity’ to cut the link between background and success. She will outline reforms that will see mild special needs cases dealt with in school after the spiralling number of children with behavioural conditions such as ADHD nearly bankrupted councils.
The SEND reforms will also see education, health and care plans (EHCPs) reassessed once children reach the end of primary school from 2029.
Under the proposals, students with less complicated and serious needs, such as autism and ADHD, will reportedly no longer be considered suitable for EHCPs after the number of children with a SEND plan skyrocketed from 240,000 to 639,000 in a decade.
All teachers will be trained to teach SEND children, and mainstream schools will receive a percentage of £4 billion in funding to help them support children with special needs in the classroom.
Numerous children have to go to specialist schools, and some of them are a long way away, and the parents of those children would be devastated if their children lost their places at their school, but this means testing will hurt hard-working people who work but just cannot afford to self-fund.
Sadly, it appears to be that there are so many so called ‘able people’ who don’t seem to have the capacity to learn and understand about ‘diagnosis’, and about the amazing SEN children who learn differently and would also like to achieve in life – but if it’s not happening to them it doesn’t exist, until it does happen to them, then it does!
There are people out there who are peddling myths about this children, and they have no idea. To be honest, it would be more cost-effective to heighten people’s awareness of SEN support and learning because, clearly, some people are not that smart, and what we need in the classroom is well-trained teaching staff and adequate support for children with a diagnosis.
It seems that there is a specific group of people who are jealous that another group can get support for their diagnosis. If a child or person has been diagnosed with a condition by a professional, then they have been diagnosed; it’s as straightforward as that – I just don’t comprehend why ‘able-bodied’ people are so envious of disabled people, because if the shoe were on the other foot, they wouldn’t be so quick to judge.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 