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You and Yours - Transcript 大象传媒 Radio 4 |
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TX: 16.12.09 - Specialist Needs Education PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON |
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THE ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT. BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF MISHEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE 大象传媒 CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS COMPLETE ACCURACY. ROBINSON Parents who have children with special educational needs are to be offered more support. A report, commissioned by the government, found that the current system, where children are given a statement of special needs, is difficult to understand with too many regional variations. A national helpline is going to be set up to offer advice, teachers are to be given more training, a pilot scheme will look at how children's needs are being assessed and codes of practice are going to be reviewed to try to make sure that children's needs are always put first, rather than the availability of resources. It's estimated that one in five children has some form of special educational needs, that can be anything from mild dyslexia to a complex medical condition. But only a small percentage has a statement of special needs. Alex Thompson is the chief news correspondent for Channel 4 news, his son has autism; Lesley Campbell is the national policy officer for MENCAP, the charity for people with learning disabilities and their families. Alex, I know that you have been battling the system for some time, can you tell us a bit about your son and the problems you've had? THOMPSON Yes indeed. Good afternoon. I mean our son was diagnosed, as you say, as being on the autistic spectrum and I think like many families we naturally assumed well we'll have our needs assessed, a statement will be provided to meet his needs - that his legal right - what could possibly go wrong? And then we found out what the reality of the situation was, which was quite simply a long extremely stressful, extremely painful and extremely expensive £26,000 fight effectively through the tribunal system to force the local authority - in this case Essex - to fulfil their legal obligations and meet my son's needs. I mean the very simple problem is this - that local authorities are both the providers and the procurers of resources to meet a child's needs. Well if you're having to provide something and then fund it you're going to tend to want to do it as cheaply as you possibly can. And until that is broken this situation will not be fixed and Brian Lamb has completely ducked that issue in his report today. ROBINSON He's completely what - sorry? He's completely .... THOMPSON He ducked it. ROBINSON He's ducked it. THOMPSON He's refused to address that. He simply thinks this is not an issue. Ask any parent, who's gone through this system, they will say absolutely that is staringly obviously the problem. Two select committees have said that's the problem, both Conservatives and Labour backbenchers agree that's the problem. As a prominent MP in this field said recently: it's time for Ed Balls to act, not appoint further commissions of inquiry and so forth, along the lines of Brian Lamb - it needs action. ROBINSON The point about the statement of special needs is that that triggers the legal entitlement and that's why in some cases local authorities are unwilling to give you that statement. THOMPSON Why would any local authority be unwilling to meet a child's needs which are enshrined in law? ROBINSON I suppose because of lack of resources. THOMPSON Well I suppose it's because - I would suggest it's to save money. I mean the argument is not about the lack of resources - a child's right is to have his needs met. I mean it's extraordinary that one even has to have this debate - that is enshrined in law. It's not a question of how much money there is - that is a local authority's duty to meet those needs. In our case we have had the Department of Education going in and banging heads at Essex saying you have a genuine and long running problem with this, you are not meeting children's needs, you are not fulfilling your responsibility in a meaningful way. So the department - central government - aren't saying oh it's a problem with resources, they're saying do your job. ROBINSON Though in this statement today of how things are going to improve one of the points is they'll be codes of practice for professionals and the advice should always be to put the needs of the child first rather than the availability of resources. THOMPSON Yes and you won't find a local authority the length and breadth of England who will say anything different, they all spout on about how we put the needs of the child first, it's not about money. You see how far your career's going to go in local authorities and local education authorities if you really put the needs of children first as an educational psychologist or as an education officer, if you really put the children's needs first and you don't think about the bottom line, you're going nowhere, that's the reality. ROBINSON What about the helpline? THOMPSON We've already got helplines - the National Autistic Society run a fantastic - and we've got helplines coming out of our ears - helpline is just a cheap headline grabby thing which does nothing, serves no purpose, helps nobody for the simple reason that it's already there. ROBINSON Lesley Campbell from MENCAP what are your thoughts then about what has been announced this morning? CAMPBELL Thank you. There's been some very kind of good positive announcements in the - from the Lamb inquiry and certainly we welcome those but we do think there is an urgent need, as Alex said, to sort out the SEN system. The issue of parental confidence, how parents feel about both the schools and the local council services they receive for their children, is in urgent need of reform. One of the issues that I just wanted to pick up from this inquiry has been the issue of using special schools as the leaders for improving practice in local areas and although that's fine in principle and we would definitely support that, what we do know, from survey work that's been carried out quite recently, is that only four in 10 teachers in special schools have got a qualification in special educational needs. So that the children with the most complex needs, that are in those schools, need those teachers in those schools and how they're going to help mainstream schools in their areas with their practice - there's still answers - still questions to be asked about that. ROBINSON Alex Thompson, what did you want for your son and what have you had to settle for then? THOMPSON Well I wanted to have - I want to have his legal rights met which doesn't seem to me to be a huge request in life. I wanted an authority which would address those in a straightforward manner. In terms of provision I would like special schools which meet my child's needs. I'm now looking at two schools - I live in north Essex - I'm looking at two possible schools for my son, both special schools, one's in the Peak district in Derbyshire, the other's on the south side of the island of the Isle of Wight. Both delightful places but that's what I [indistinct words] someone living in Essex to even find a school which can meet my child's needs such is the wider provision. And it's all very well to say Brian Lamb's made some interesting announcements, Brian Lamb hasn't made any announcements, it's not Brian Lamb's job to make announcements, all he can do is make gentle suggestions, it's government to make announcements. ROBINSON Alex, we must leave it there. Alex Thompson, Lesley Campbell thank you both. Back to the You and Yours homepage The 大象传媒 is not responsible for external websites |
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