Latest news with #HealthandCarePlans
ITV News
02-06-2025
- Health
- ITV News
Rise in school absence among autistic kids leaves Wirral family at breaking point
A growing number of children with special educational needs are missing out on school across the North West, with many families reporting long waits for support and diagnoses. Among them is 15-year-old Charlie Jones from Wallasey, who hasn't attended school in two months. He's one of thousands of autistic pupils struggling to access mainstream education, a trend experts say reflects broader challenges in the system, not just individual cases. 'I love learning,' Charlie says. 'I just want to do it in the right environment.' Charlie has been waiting more than two years for an autism diagnosis. His parents, Michelle and Dave, say school became overwhelming, and the lack of timely support left them with no choice but to remove him. 'We've had to work it all out ourselves - what he needs, how to apply for help, how to keep him learning while holding down jobs,' says Michelle. 'It's felt like a constant uphill climb.' Charlie's Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP), which outlines additional support for his education, was only issued this year, after the legal deadline had passed. While it's a vital step, his parents feel it came too late to prevent disruption. Wirral City Council have since apologised for the late entry of the EHCP, which it says was caused by an error in Charlie's date of birth on the form. Figures suggest Charlie's situation is not unique. In the 2023–24 academic year, 8,090 autistic pupils in the North West were persistently absent from school, up from 2,534 in 2017–18. That's a 219% increase over five years. Wirral Council currently has the highest rate of persistent absence among autistic pupils in the region. A recent Ofsted report acknowledged 'longstanding failings' in provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). In a statement, Wirral Council said: 'In September 2024, Wirral Council committed to an additional £2.8m in recurrent funding to increase the size of its statutory SEND service, doubling the size of the team of caseworkers. The new service, SENDSTART, has been fully staffed since January 2025 and whilst this has yet to have an impact of 20-week compliance rates, the number of Education, Health and Care Plans being finalised has increased significantly. In both months March and April this year, more children had their EHCPs finalised than the totality of the sixth months previous. 'The Local Area Partnership understands there is much more remaining to be done until it is providing consistently good support and services to children and young people with SEND but is committed to doing so. A new SEND and Alternative Provision Strategy and Joint Commissioning Plan are about to be launched, outlining priorities and improvements to be made over the next three years. It is through the partnerships across agencies, and mostimportantly, with dynamic parent carer groups that we will make this change for the benefit of our children and their futures.' Charities agree that the system is under strain. Danae Leaman-Hill from Ambitious About Autism says: 'There are more children needing support than ever before. Services are stretched, but that doesn't change the fact that these are formative years, and delays can have long-term consequences.' A spokesperson for NHS Cheshire and Merseyside said:" Responding to feedback from parents, families, and children and young people, we are launching a new neurodevelopmental pathway and vision for neurodiversity services across Cheshire and Merseyside in June 2025. Schools will be supported by the NHS and Local Authorities to be trained in the use of the 'This Is Me' profiling tool to better understand the child's needs - leading to a targeted early support offer in response to those needs. "This work is part of our 'Partnerships for the Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools' (PINS) programme, which builds schools' capacity to support the needs of neurodiverse children. "This is an important step forward, but we know that there is still plenty of work to be done.' For Charlie, the hope is that the system will catch up with him and others. He's currently waiting to hear if he's been accepted into a new school that may better suit his needs. 'We're hopeful,' says Dave. 'We just want him to have the chance to thrive.'
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Council to be asked to approve changes to home to school travel service
COUNCILLORS will next week get an update on the changes that have been made to transform Cumberland Council's home to school travel service. Members of the council's people overview and scrutiny committee are due to meet at the Civic Centre in Carlisle next Friday (May 23). According to the report – Update: Home to School Travel Transformation – the programme has achieved 'significant cost avoidance' during 2024/25 of more than £1.9 million through a robust review of existing high-cost routes. The report states that new policy elements were agreed by members of the executive committee in February 2025 and it outlines the work being undertaken to reduce costs and next steps. It is recommended that members endorse the principles underpinning the new elements of policy being introduced, welcome the cost-avoidance achieved to date and seek an update next summer on the operation of the policy and team once the new elements have had a chance to become embedded. The matter was last discussed at scrutiny in November and demand from children accessing special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) transport has increased since June 2023. According to the report there were 572 children using the service in June 2023, 615 in March 2024, and 690 in March this year. It states: 'Home to school transport services remain the largest and most financially challenging area of educational responsibility for councils outside of SEND, with these challenges frequently more acute in county areas and for rural councils. 'Over the past few years, home to school travel has become one of the largest spending pressures on local authority budgets. 'Recent County Council Network (CCN) research, published in November 2024, estimated that councils in England will need to spend £2.3 billion on home to school transport services this year to meet rising costs and demand – a 23 per cent increase in just two years. 'Much of this rise has been interwoven with the rapid growth in Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs). This SEND dynamic is important as many EHCPs explicitly give rise to the need for costly, bespoke transport arrangements. 'Cumberland has seen a considerable rise in demand for transport as the number of students with EHCPs has significantly increased in recent years.' The report describes the council's transformation programme as 'a bold and ambitious initiative' that seeks to fundamentally improve the quality, efficiency, and sustainability of the service. It states: 'By focusing on managing demand, optimising processes, strengthening supply, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement, the council can create a service that is resilient, responsive, and aligned with its strategic priorities.' The report adds: 'This review work will become 'business as usual' in the future to ensure that we are continually driving efficiencies. 'SEND demand, however, is forecast to continue to increase, and the price of new tenders issued from April 2025 onwards will reflect the increase in employers' national insurance contributions as well as other inflationary factors; achieving significant savings against current costs will continue to be challenging.' The report outlines a number of policy changes which have been implemented including: Independent Travel Training (ITT); Personal Travel Budgets (PTBs); and an Enhanced Spare Seats Scheme.
BBC News
01-04-2025
- General
- BBC News
120 new SEND Somerset specialist school places to be created
A total of 120 specialist school places are set to be created in Somerset's mainstream schools in an effort to tackle rising demand for special educational needs and disabilities (Send) move aims to reduce waiting times for children needing specialist support and to cut the cost of independent specialist school number of children in Somerset with Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) has risen sharply, increasing by 124% in the past four years, from 2,535 in 2020 to 5,672 in 2024. To address this, the council will create new Send units in mainstream schools, each catering for six to eight children, with the first places expected to be available in September. Councillor Heather Shearer, lead member for children, families and education at the council, said the authority intended to bring "the best aspects of special schools", like trained staff, specialist facilities and a tailored curriculum, into mainstream schools. "If children can't access a special school place, we want to ensure they still receive the right level of education, closer to home with their friends around them, " Ms Shearer said. Somerset Council has identified up to 15 schools for the first phase of the programme from council is using funding from the government's High Needs Provision Capital Allocation (HNPCA), with £16.8m available for this and future Send investment projects. It estimates the expansion could save up to £17m over five years, compared to the cost of independent Send placements. Parents' concerns However, some parents of children with Send believe the plan does not go far enough. Andrea, from Bridgwater, fought for years to secure a place at a special school for her son, John, who has autism and is non-verbal, and has a condition that causes him to eat non-edible initially attended Westover Green Community School and Autism Centre, a mainstream school with an autism base. But his mum says it was not equipped to meet his high level of need."They did everything they could, but it was not suitable. They told the council John needed an urgent placement at a special school, but nothing happened."Eventually, after a long struggle, John secured a place at Polden Bower Special School, where Andrea said he was now believes the council's plan will help some children but it will not address the wider crisis in Send provision."There will be a minority of children who would be more suitable for these placements but I think the majority of Send children need a much higher level of support and need proper special needs schools, which we simply do not have," she said. At present, more than 500 children with EHCPs in Somerset are being educated in independent specialist schools because of a lack of places in council-run special ease the pressure, the council is working with local school leaders to develop new Send provision, but acknowledges that building full special schools takes years."We have some really good special schools, like Polden Bower, but we just do not have enough spaces," Ms Shearer added. "We have expanded all the ones we can. These new units won't solve everything, but they will help reduce waiting times and ensure more children get the right support sooner."Some parent and carer organisations have cautiously welcomed the plans but stress the right children must be placed in the right Hobbs, chief executive of Somerset Parent Carer Forum, said: "For some children, being in a class of 30 is overwhelming. "Having a smaller setting of six to eight children will make school more accessible. But we need to make sure these places go to the right children - this model won't work for everyone."With demand for Send support continuing to grow, Somerset Council said it would review its plans regularly to ensure the right level of provision was available.
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Children miss extra 4.7m school days as pandemic triggers attendance crisis
Schoolchildren across Britain are missing an extra 4.7m days every term after the pandemic triggered a national attendance crisis, new analysis shows. Children missed 11.5m days of school in the autumn term of 2023 – 67pc more than the 6.8m days lost in the same period before Covid hit in 2019, according to a new report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) think tank and The Difference, an education charity. The numbers represent a 'fundamental fracturing of society' which is hammering productivity and driving spiralling costs to the public purse, the report warned. Children have increasingly missed school since the pandemic lockdowns, which disrupted the education system and reduced parental support for full-time schooling. Alongside kids skipping school, expulsions have also surged by a third in a single year while the number of children in home education has jumped by more than a fifth. Lost learning is a major threat to the UK economy as children lose the ability to build the skills needed to join the workforce at the same time Britain's economic inactivity crisis spirals out of control. Previous analysis shows each child who is expelled from school costs the taxpayer an estimated £170,000 over their lifetime. The number of young people who are not in education, employment or training (Neets) has jumped by nearly a quarter since the pandemic began to just under one million – the highest level since the end of 2013. Britain's attendance crisis is closely interconnected with a boom in special educational needs that is crippling local authorities' finances. Since 2015, the number of children with the highest level of special educational needs support plans has increased by 140pc. Kiran Gill, an associate fellow at IPPR and the founder of The Difference, warned that the attendance crisis threatens Rachel Reeves's promises to grow the economy. Ms Gill said: 'Our education system is failing the children who need it most. The consequences – rising mental health issues, youth violence and risks to national growth – should concern us all. 'This is the new frontier in education. Without more children in front of their teachers, we cannot raise attainment, improve employment, or give more children the safe, healthy childhood they deserve.' For every child that is permanently excluded, IPPR calculates there are 10 more who are making 'invisible' exits from school, which includes being illegally banned from the school without a formal expulsion. A third of these children go on to an 'unknown destination', meaning the Department for Education has no idea where or whether they are still being schooled. The report's authors urged the Chancellor to invest £850m over the next five years to tackle school absence. This would help half a million children and would pay for itself by 2030 by reducing the need for 35,000 costly Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCP), which help kids with learning difficulties get through school. They also called for new laws to make sure children are monitored when they leave school. School admissions policies should also be changed so that institutions take on more children from disadvantaged backgrounds, they added. Efua Poku-Amanfo, a research fellow at IPPR, called for urgent action to tackle lost learning. 'Children can't learn if they are not in school or are in some other way lost from the classroom or unaccounted for. Since the pandemic, huge swathes of children have never returned, are being excluded or are mysteriously absent,' she said. The Department for Education was contacted for comment. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
18-03-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Children miss extra 4.7m school days as pandemic triggers attendance crisis
Schoolchildren across Britain are missing an extra 4.7m days every term after the pandemic triggered a national attendance crisis, new analysis shows. Children missed 11.5m days of school in the autumn term of 2023 – 67pc more than the 6.8m days lost in the same period before Covid hit in 2019, according to a new report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) think tank and The Difference, an education charity. The numbers represent a 'fundamental fracturing of society' which is hammering productivity and driving spiralling costs to the public purse, the report warned. Children have increasingly missed school since the pandemic lockdowns, which disrupted the education system and reduced parental support for full-time schooling. Alongside kids skipping school, expulsions have also surged by a third in a single year while the number of children in home education has jumped by more than a fifth. Lost learning is a major threat to the UK economy as children lose the ability to build the skills needed to join the workforce at the same time Britain's economic inactivity crisis spirals out of control. Previous analysis shows each child who is expelled from school costs the taxpayer an estimated £170,000 over their lifetime. The number of young people who are not in education, employment or training (Neets) has jumped by nearly a quarter since the pandemic began to just under one million – the highest level since the end of 2013. Britain's attendance crisis is closely interconnected with a boom in special educational needs that is crippling local authorities' finances. Since 2015, the number of children with the highest level of special educational needs support plans has increased by 140pc. Kiran Gill, an associate fellow at IPPR and the founder of The Difference, warned that the attendance crisis threatens Rachel Reeves's promises to grow the economy. Ms Gill said: 'Our education system is failing the children who need it most. The consequences – rising mental health issues, youth violence and risks to national growth – should concern us all. 'This is the new frontier in education. Without more children in front of their teachers, we cannot raise attainment, improve employment, or give more children the safe, healthy childhood they deserve.' For every child that is permanently excluded, IPPR calculates there are 10 more who are making 'invisible' exits from school, which includes being illegally banned from the school without a formal expulsion. A third of these children go on to an 'unknown destination', meaning the Department for Education has no idea where or whether they are still being schooled. The report's authors urged the Chancellor to invest £850m over the next five years to tackle school absence. This would help half a million children and would pay for itself by 2030 by reducing the need for 35,000 costly Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCP), which help kids with learning difficulties get through school. They also called for new laws to make sure children are monitored when they leave school. School admissions policies should also be changed so that institutions take on more children from disadvantaged backgrounds, they added. Efua Poku-Amanfo, a research fellow at IPPR, called for urgent action to tackle lost learning. 'Children can't learn if they are not in school or are in some other way lost from the classroom or unaccounted for. Since the pandemic, huge swathes of children have never returned, are being excluded or are mysteriously absent,' she said. A Department for Education spokesan said:'This Government inherited a school system with a wide range of baked-in inequalities, and its clear absence is having a detrimental impact on children's learning and their future success. 'Through our landmark Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill, we will improve data sharing across services and strengthen the safeguards around home education to stop children falling through the cracks in the system. 'Our Plan for Change sets out our relentless focus on making sure every child gets the best life chances, no matter their background, which is why we're establishing free breakfast clubs in every primary school, providing access to mental health support and making attendance one of the four core priorities of our school improvement teams.'
