One of the most serious but least appreciated burdens the now thankfully defunct Tory government has left the country, concerns its failure to adequately fund education provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
The Sunak administration and its predecessors claimed to be supporting additional resources for such pupils. But in fact the available funding almost never covers the extent of need.
In many cases where pupils for instance need one-to-one support, the required resources for additional staffing have simply not been made available.
The consequence is that school budgets, already under pressure due to cost of living increases exacerbated by the farcical Truss administration, have been further burdened.
As these burdens affect the wider communities in our schools, the losers from government policy have been a whole generation of children.
There is only one consolation. After the outgoing government’s abdication of responsibility over such “one-to-one” arrangements, fittingly “121” is exactly the pathetically low number of MPs the useless Tories are now left with in parliament.
G Kent
Pinchbeck
