'It's nowhere near enough': Parents of SEND children in the Midlands react to Budget

Ruth Northey and Sabiha Aziz react to the Chancellor's Budget. Credit: ITV News Central

Parents of young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in the Midlands have reacted to the Chancellor's Budget, in which she pledged to provide funding boosts to many areas - including education.

Rachel Reeves said there would be a “tripling” of investment in breakfast clubs to fund the service in thousands of schools.

The Chancellor also told the Commons: “I am increasing the core schools’ budget by £2.3 billion next year to support our pledge to hire thousands more teachers into key subjects.

“So our young people can develop the skills that they need for the future, I am providing an additional £300 million for further education.”

On the need to reform special educational needs provision, Ms Reeves said: “To support that work, I am today providing a £1 billion uplift in funding, a 6% real-terms increase from this year.”

Ruth Northey, from Leicester, has been battling to find appropriate education for her autistic daughter for more than ten years.

Ruth said: "Every single step of the way it's been a battle to have her needs recognised. The message I kept getting back from the school was 'there's no resource'.

"It was just barrier after barrier after barrier until I started to think am I going a bit crazy here?"

Ruth has questions about how the money pledged will be used. Credit: ITV News Central

She finally found a specialist school in Derby that suited her daughter's needs, but she has to travel one hour to get there.

Reacting to today's budget, Ruth said: "£1 billion sounds like a lot of money but actually there are half a million children with EHCPs (Educational Health and Care Plan) in this country and that's only about £2000 a year per child extra.

"Where is that money going to go? How is it going to make a real impact?

"When you look into the cost of the provision it's like pennies."

Sabiha says the budget does not go far enough for young people with SEND, like her son Adam. Credit: ITV News Central

Sabiha Aziz's son Adam has special educational needs. She says her family, from Birmingham, has suffered due to a lack of funding and care.

As Rachel Reeves revealed the extent of investment into SEND, Sabiha said: "There's no detail in it. It's nowhere near enough.

"The scale of the problem is huge and SEND is massive and it sits across so many different areas. Welcome though that announcement is, it's not going to touch the sides of the issues that we have in SEN across the country as a whole."

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