Families plead for urgent reform after damning National Audit Office report into SEND provision
Rosie Dowsing visited families grappling with the failing SEND system
Families of children with special educational needs and disabilities have opened up on their daily struggle as they joined calls for major reform to ensure children are better supported.
The call comes after the National Audit Office (NAO) published a damning report on Thursday saying the overall system was not delivering better outcomes for young people in the SEND community.
It said families and children lacked confidence in the special educational needs system due to "insufficient capacity" within schools and longer waiting times to support children.
Thursday's report comes after research shared exclusively with ITV News revealed that councils had already amassed SEND deficits of £4bn nationwide.
The NAO's findings revealed council budgets for SEND provision had risen 58% in the past decade but there are now 1.9 million children in the system who need supporting.
And the report warned that 40% of councils are at risk of going bankrupt if the system is not changed.
Mother-of-three Victoria Heddle, 42, from Colchester in Essex, spoke about the "uphill struggle" for her and her 10-year-old son Byron who was diagnosed with ADHD and autism when he was six.
He has not been in school for the past few months and currently receives private tuition at home.
Miss Heddle, who was not surprised at the report, said: "We are challenged every day. We are now home all the time. It's not an ideal situation for anyone to live like this.
"It's very hard and trying to battle when you know what is right for your child and it is falling on deaf ears. You are fighting against the establishment.
"There's millions of us out there. Lots of mums - some of us single mums trying to fight for our children for what they deserve.
"They deserve an education and just because they don't fit into that blanket, normal setting it doesn't mean they don't deserve to thrive. They do deserve an education."
She added: "Byron is incredible. He copes with so much on a daily basis. He is kind and empathetic and just a lovely boy to be around."
The mother-of-three said there should be more SEND support funding for mainstream schools adding: "I think all TAs and teachers new and old need really profound training to work with children with SEND. I don't believe they have enough understanding."
Elena Miles, from Two Mile Ash in Milton Keynes, whose nine-year-old son Max has not been able to attend school for more than hour a day for the past two years because of his social and emotional challenges.
She said: "There are very few provisions to those children who don't fit into particular classifications. The biggest frustrations we've had with Max's personal situation is where does he fit in? Mainstream has been really challenging.
"It's not from a lack of trying from schools in the mainstream. It's they are not equipped to deal with children with these particular needs. They cannot function in these particular environments."
She added her son was desperate to play with his friends.
Max, who wants to be a computer programmer and help others when he is older, said school made him have "a lot of different feelings" but said it was hard to explain why.
He added: "My brain doesn't like school really - it says no."
Commenting on the NAO report, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said: "The NAO’s report exposes a system that has been neglected to the point of crisis, with children and families with SEND quite simply being failed on every measure.
"Every child and young person deserves the best life chances and the opportunity to achieve and thrive.
"But at the moment far too few are being given that chance in a system that is too skewed towards specialist provision and over-reliant on EHC plans – often only to the benefit of families who have the resources to fight for support.
"I am determined to rebuild families’ confidence in a system so many rely on – so, there will be no more sticking plaster politics and short-termism when it comes to the life chances of some of our most vulnerable children."
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