SEND with Daulby: Supporting Oral Language difficulties
Oral language is a term I became familiar with in my later years of teaching. Partly because I worked with speech and language therapists as head of a speech and …
Category: SEND
It is a mistake to assume all vulnerable children are ‘at risk of harm’
Coronavirus has divided Britain into those who are vulnerable and those who are not. But vulnerable means different things to different groups of people, and it’s important to still differentiate between vulnerable because of need and vulnerable because of risk, especially when talking about children with SEND
Public Accounts Committee Inquiry report adds pressure to #fixSEND. SEND Review MUST NOT delay further
It seems like a lifetime ago, but for most of last year, you couldn’t move for official inquiries into the state of SEND in England. Parliament’s Education Select Committee started …
Coronavirus: EHCP laws temporarily “relaxed” as LAs told to just do their best
and SEN Lawyer, Hayley Mason, SNJ Legal Columnist The Government yesterday announced temporary amendments to the SEND regulations around legal duties and timescales for Education, Health and Care Plans. They …
Why the Coronavirus lockdown adjustment for people with disabilities and mental health conditions was the right thing to do
and Alice Irving, barrister, research assistant to Steve Broach. The current public health crisis has affected us all. But for disabled people and those with mental health conditions, or those …
Could remote hearings be the new normal at the SEND Tribunal?
SEND legal practitioners attend a periodic Tribunal User Group session – no surprises for guessing the latest was a remote session because of the #CoronavirusLockdown Tribunal hearings are also now …
SEND with Daulby: Keeping it loose for home learning
As I write this about being relaxed while home learning, I am aware of the irony that yesterday I screamed at my 14-year-old daughter that she was ruining her education …
How has special education needs evolved in the 40 years since the Warnock Report?
with Professor Geoff Lindsay, Centre for Educational Development, Appraisal and Research (CEDAR), University of Warwick Everyone in the SEND sector should recognise the significance of the 1978 report on special …
Care in a time of coronavirus (ii): Using health direct payments to pay family members for care
Some children and adults receiving direct payments for complex health needs will be avoiding all non-essential face-to-face contact during the Coronavirus pandemic, including minimising the number of carers coming in and out of their home. One potential solution to these challenges is for ‘direct payments’ to be used to allow family members to be paid to provide care.
Coronavirus and SEND law: Part 4 What does my child’s EHCP still provide?
This is the last group of The the 200+ questions we received. These answers will be the most important for the next weeks or months ahead. What does your child’s …
Coronavirus and SEND law: Your Questions Answered (part two – Timescales)
On Tuesday it was all about how the SEND Tribunal is affected by the Coronavirus outbreak and temporary changes to the law on Education, Health and Care plans (EHCPs). Today, …
Coronavirus and SEND law: Your questions answered (part one – Tribunals)
I received more than 200 questions in the last week, sent by the wonderful parents reading Special Needs Jungle. Everyone is obviously very worried about what is going to happen …
Celebrating neurodiversity: Now, more than ever, we must support one another, whatever our differences
As we enter into a dark time full of danger and uncertainty, it seems almost perverse to write an article about Neurodiversity Celebration Week. As I sit down to write, …
The curious decision to keep disabled children at school despite the Coronavirus crisis
As you will have heard, yesterday the Government finally announced it was closing all schools as the Coronavirus crisis spreads. However, schools will remain open for children of key workers …
#Coronavirus, EHCPs and the law: ask education lawyer Hayley Mason
In these unprecedented days, there is a lot of uncertainty, not least about education. What happens to legally-backed provision when schools are closed? If schools arrange online working, what are …
Savage cuts to support staff leave deaf children in England fighting for their futures
So far, the SEND reforms have not been kind to deaf children and young people. Despite a series of ground-breaking advances in deaf educational research, practice and technology over the …
The one where the SEND system is a success: The astonishing views of the DfE
As we reported yesterday, the inquiry by the Commons Public Accounts Committee on funding for special educational needs and disabilities has restarted, after it broke last December for the election. …
Budget 2020: Show us the money for SEND!
with Matt Keer, SNJ columnist & SEND funding guru It’s budget day this week and we think it’s imperative the Government flashes the cash for SEND. While it repeatedly trumpets …
Can a new Parliamentary Group keep the pressure on to #fixSEND?
As a limping, wounded SEND system drags itself into the third month of the new decade, we are still waiting for the outcome of the DfE’s SEND Review to discover …
The Government’s proposals for SEND funding could be disastrous for vulnerable children
Parents of SEND children know all too well how the cuts to SEND and children’s services have decimated crucial provision. In many cases, it’s led to disabled children having little …