Kim Leadbeater MP has raised the plight of local families unable to get support for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities during an emotional debate in Parliament.
Kim spoke of parents in tears in her office “feeling they have failed” while trying to secure SEND provision for their children.
In a packed-out parliamentary debate on Thursday 5 September the MP for Spen Valley described to her fellow MPs the experiences of a local mother who had been trying to get an educational and healthcare support package.
“Laura Riach, a mum of two recently got in touch. Her children are both academically bright but cannot cope with sensory overload and cannot be in mainstream school setting which is noisy and bright.
“The parents are getting very little support to home educate the children and the situation got so severe that one of the children has tried to commit suicide. After battling with the SEND system, they are only getting six hours of support each week when they should be getting 25.”
Kim went on to say: “I have had countless conversations and emails, held round tables and had meetings with families, headteachers, teachers, teaching assistants, counsellors and charities, about the anger, frustration and in many cases deep trauma they have experienced trying to navigate the broken system which is SEND.
“All any of them want to do is get our children and young people the help and support they need and deserve. This is just not right. So, like so many other issues, this government is having to pick up the pieces of a broken system, which is the result of years of schools and local councils being chronically underfunded and under resourced. The previous government did not give our education system the care and attention it needed”.
The Local Government Association (LGA) says councils are projected to be spending £12bn on these services by 2026, up from £4bn a decade ago. This comes amid a funding crisis for local government after 14 years of Conservative cuts.
More than 1.6 million children and young people in England have special education needs and disabilities (SEND).
The schools minister, Catherine McKinnell, has said the government was determined to reform the special-needs system. “We are working at pace and acutely aware of the funding pressures local authorities are facing”, she said.
