More than £100m was spent last year by local authorities and the government on failed efforts to block support for children and young people with special educational needs in England, according to analysis by the Guardian. The enormous cost in legal fees and staff resources came after councils won just 136 out of more than 10,000 tribunals in 2022-23, a success rate of 1.2%, as record numbers of families took to the courts to challenge councils over agreements known as education, health and care plans (EHCPs).
Why is the cost rising? Well, believe it or not, the cause isn't the litigation, that's just a symptom...
Experts said the surging numbers of appeals and mounting costs were evidence that special education provision was becoming an adversarial battle between cash-strapped councils and desperate families...
And are we having more of these cases? Reader, we are.
The number of children applying for and being granted EHCPs has shot up in recent years as school and council budgets have dwindled, leaving EHCPs as the only way for families to get extra funding and support for a child and their place of education.
In fact, the number has risen to almost unbelievable levels:
Department for Education (DfE) figures show that nearly one in 19 children aged between five and 15 in England now have an EHCP...
Why is no-one looking into this? Why is the legal battles it causes the focus instead?
2 comments:
So what is the root cause of the rise in the prevalence of mental illness in children. A certain demographic marrying their cousins? More mental illness among illegal immigrants? The results of decades of climate doom brainwashing? A general tendency towards being a snowflake and having a meltdown when faced with any of life's challenges? An inability of some parents to do actual parenting and expecting local authorities to do it for them? Or is it something else?
Stonyground.
In the Islamic Republic of Bradistan it's a combination of generational 1st cousin and parents wanting a "label" so more bennies and less responsibility.
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