David Blunkett joins the fight to help special education children in emotional video
BLOWING with confidence, nine-year-old Blake grins at the camera and says, “If I could go to school… I might discover some hidden talents.”
But the cheerful youngster, who dreams of becoming a sound engineer, is one of thousands of children with special educational needs who are not getting a good education – and many have no school place at all.
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Now Lord David Blunkett has teamed up with Blake and other children for a heartwarming video urging the government to get them back into the classroom.
The moving film shows children sharing their dreams for the future, while new research shows that almost eight in ten parents of young people with special educational needs and disabilities do not believe their children will have the support they need at school.
The figures, released by the Partnership for Disabled Children and SEND Reform England also found that 39 percent of parents needed to do this give up work because they don’t get enough help for their offspring.
More than one in four said they had to spend money on lawyers or private reports to help their children, while almost 60 percent said their relationship had suffered due to the stress.
And 86 percent said the struggle for support had caused their mental health to suffer.
Former Labor Education Secretary Lord David Blunkett said: “Anyone concerned with providing the right support in the right way to young people with special educational needs will be painfully aware of the extraordinary difficulties in getting the help they need. need.
“Parents are often desperate and more investments in special schools do not provide the practical support that is needed on a daily basis in regular education or special units.”
He said local government is “in crisis” and that, with less money from the government, access to EHCPs – education health and care plans that legally set out what help children need – is even more limited.
Lord Blunkett, blind from birth, said: ‘Urgent action is needed.’
Around 1.5 million pupils in England have special educational needs.
Research by ITV last month found that 8,660 SEN children in England, Wales and Scotland with an EHCP still do not have access to formal education.
School refusal
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Mother Victoria Feneley struggles to get both her son Blake and 10-year-old stepson Ruben the help they need.
Victoria, 30, from Surreywas forced to give up her career as a professional Latin and American dancer when Blake first showed signs of learning disabilities.
When he was two years old, he was diagnosed with global developmental delay autism on three.
Victoria had to go to a tribunal to get individual support for Blake so he could spend 15 hours a week in a mainstream part of the school to help him develop further.
His school is fighting for a laptop so he can write faster.
Victoria wants him to go to a secondary school with an autism unit where students can move into mainstream education, but there are only FOUR places.
Her stepson Ruben has been diagnosed with autism ADHD but she and his mechanic father Pedro are still there fighting for an EHCP.
She says the school SENCo (special education coordinator) has repeatedly said Ruben is not autistic – despite a diagnosis in 2022.
Lack of self-esteem
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She said: “We felt so frustrated. It was there in black and white from a doctor, but we got the feeling that we had made it up.
“The process to get Ruben an EHCP has started, but we had to wait seven months for an educational psychological assessment.
“He needs one-to-one support but since the start of year four he has had to share the one-to-one support of another student. In his class there are two teaching assistants supporting seven SEND children.
“Reuben’s self-esteem dropped due to a lack of support, he knows he doesn’t belong.
“He falls between groups, he is verbal enough to socialize but not destructive enough to get support in the classroom. He struggles in silence.
Our guys know we’re fighting for them – it’s exhausting
Mother Victoria Feneley
“He is a nice boy but has a low mood. If he got the right support he could be a better version of himself. He could gain qualifications and eventually get a job. The transition to secondary school will be very be difficult for him without an EHCP installed. We are very concerned about his future.
“Our guys know we are fighting for them. They see that there is no headroom for anything else. Meetings and doctor appointments and therapists. It’s tiring, but we’ll keep fighting.”
Both Blake and Ruben play a role in the heartbreaking film in which SEND children talk about what they want to do when they grow up.
The Sun’s Give It Back campaigntogether with the Disabled Children’s Partnership (DCP), is calling for the return of £573 million of cut health and social care funding for children with special educational needs.