Locations for 16 new special needs schools in England announced

It's a challenge faced by families up and down the country - finding a school that provides support for children with additional needs. Today the government has announced 16 locations for new special schools across England to help meet some of the rapidly-growing demand. (Subscribe: bit.ly/C4_News...)
In the latest of our series looking at the crisis in special educational needs, We joined Education Secretary Gillian Keegan last week, as she visited places that are helping pupils not only cope but thrive in school.
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[@TheBurdenOfHope]

I do not understand how Keegan, who clearly does care here about these kids, doesn’t speak up against the cuts her party has inflicted on local authorities to support SEND kids. My son literally cannot attend mainstream school and he’s at home with us now. We are happy to have him safe and settled at home but he wants to learn and have friends at school too. But his needs cannot be met in a mainstream classroom

[@AP-pm9qy]

Obviously, I'm not an MP but I work for the council in a position that is funded by the local government and in the couple of months I've been here I'm surprised that we have running water. The amount of miscommunication, things that get lost in translation because of the many layers of bureaucracy. You have an initial plan but by the time it gets through the 7 people that need to sign it off it is almost unrecognisable to your original intention. You have internal metrics and external metrics. The structure is a hierarchal web minefield. I'm grateful for my background in coding / software engineering because it helped me to be really technical when it comes to breaking down and understanding problems.

[@ROSE-mq3qd]

@@AP-pm9qywell said and in amongst that process ‘consultants & specialists’ are making so much money, money that would be better spent on teachers and in schools in the first place…

[@Gracie765]

Ok are you homeschooling him then? You could take him to free activities to socialise with other homeschooled kids or contact other parents who also homeschool

[@eliakimjosephsophia4542]

Where I live there is a mass of opportunities for them. A friend's son is 36 years old, his mum is his full-time carer, they go to different activities every day with different groups and different age groups. Everything from song writing to cooking. They also volunteer at a local Hospice, and help out with the gardening.

[@TheBurdenOfHope]

@@Gracie765 hi. Yes homeschool is very much on the cards for us. School are giving us the space for now at least to let him stay home with us. But it would mean either my wife and/or I giving up at least part of working arrangements. Which we’re prepared to do of course but financially it could put us in a really perilous position. Thank you for your response ❤️

[@ROSE-mq3qd]

More money, staff, facilities and support provision in mainstream schools is essential! The time it takes in setting up new SEN schools takes so long, and in that time many children are lost. Our schools and school staff need more help & support now

[@SpiritDestiny]

The right educational setting with decent, caring & trained staff for a child can make a lifetime difference.

[@simioanaanuta9162]

Well said, there are people who post irrelevant comments without having any knowledge of autism by their ignorance. There is not enough awareness, unfortunately.

[@SunshineSupportUK]

Absolutely spot on - this is what we fight for on a daily basis for desperate parents. The differences we see after a child has been given the right support and provision is enormous, worth every penny.

[@RabiasHarry]

Brilliant news. Everyone deserves the best education 🇬🇧

[@Katies_bracelets]

As someone who went to a SEN school we must remember not all are amazing and do there job right. I was severely nit treated right by adults and students and they always ignored my needs 0:12

[@SunshineSupportUK]

Sadly something we hear too often here at Sunshine Support. We hope you're doing well now, despite not being treated very well as a child! That should never have happened to you and we're so sorry that it did 💛

[@marcverbeke2970]

This despicable woman is unfortunately our MP and she can't even ensure adequate funding for special needs school on our area, our disabled daughter still has not been allocated a place. If this government had not wasted so much money on the Rwanda scam, just think how better our schools would be.

[@piddlydiddly]

It's a nightmare. My child has severe learning disabilities which was diagnosed very early on and even then it took absolutely years to sort a placement out and I still had to defer for a year as it wasn't fast enough. Nothing in this country works.

[@Gracie765]

I don’t know why you think sending illegal immigrants to Rwanda is a scam? There are long term savings to that. It costs more to keep them here. There are then more funds to go around?

[@piddlydiddly]

@@Gracie765 nobody is going to be sent to Rwanda, and if they are, it will never be as many as arrive every day.

[@marcverbeke2970]

@@Gracie765 it would be cheaper for the tax payer to give each asylum seeker £100,000 that it is costing for this ridiculous Rwanda scam. We could them perhaps have money left over for well funded education.

[@TaxingIsThieving]

That’s right, blame the government and not the gimmegrants.

[@simioanaanuta9162]

I have an autistic child in mainstream school. The school keeps telling me that they can't meet his needs. I applied for a special needs place. This school had 150 applications! They never answered to me. Then I found about a new SSC unit opened near us with only 4 places! Mainstream schools don't want to include children because of the money, but special needs schools are overwhelmed. No win for some....

[@pint5266]

Mainstream classes have 2 teachers taking care of 30 children...Its difficult for 2 staff that is the class teacher and TA to be around 1 sen child who sometimes acts out and shouts and throws chairs when they are 29 other kids in the class,so in my school I see the frustration and they wish the sen child went to a special needs school and not mainstream.

[@SpiritDestiny]

Nice to see someone involved that has had direct experience with this issue. She can obviously bring a lot of realistic insight to the table. "After primary school, he would not cope in a mainstream setting"

[@susanwright1999]

They shouldn't have got rid of them in the first place !!!!

[@headlesschicken99]

Undoing damage after years of neglect elsewhere isn't necessarily "the right provision". I've visited a few special schools with quite reduces demands and expectations, so, no, the best outcome isn't guaranteed.

[@MummaBear]

Despicable, this should be 16 per county. I know of many children stuck at home or in schools not meeting their needs that have been stuck there for years waiting for a school place.

[@SunshineSupportUK]

Us too, the number is pretty abysmal. We've helped thousands of parents to get their children the right provision but it feels like the tip of the iceberg!

[@aidenalamo6262]

With O levels and A levels on top of classes, mainstream education would have threw me into a cycle of mental anguish. I would have thrived at a school like this, because it would have helped me.

[@unicorntomboy9736]

The 'mental anguish' is necessary in order to get the qualifications needed for university and later adult life It is important to be in mainstream schools for proper socialisation and learning how to fit in too

[@ALADDIN22091978]

I am a part of a lost generation, I would have got support for dyspraxia, possibly ADHD. I got my degree, pgdip , statistics qualification. I am self employed . It is hard to find and maintain employment. There is little for me , very little support. I am part of a lost generation.

[@aidenalamo6262]

I was born and raised in the states and having exams on top of school work would be daunting I am sure. Not that I am against placement learning, more power to you if you can do it. I just know if I were a British student, I would need a year off from school to study O levels and A levels because too much school work is overwhelming when you are quite young. A slower paced school is helpful for a while and it can help you prepare for university if a degree is what you are seeking.

[@unicorntomboy9736]

@@aidenalamo6262 Are you talking to me

[@ALADDIN22091978]

@@aidenalamo6262 it is exam Based system . In The USA, more awareness of ADHD, I have also have autistic traits. The dyspraxia charity has shut down , a few weeks ago , due to the difficult financial climate , it had existed over 37 years .

[@RealUlrichLeland]

In the entirety of the UK there are only 22 schools for the deaf. Between 2011 and 2022 the number of specialist teachers for the deaf fell by 16.5%, despite the UK population growing by 5.9% during that period.

[@VgggGtg-bw4zx]

I was new student and moved to England. I was bullied beating being foreign and culture things. Teachers failed stop bullying. This is racism in uk. I witnessed another students bullying with disabled students. What wrong’s England’s schools?

[@decoyfox]

Home education is always an option, don't force your kids to suffer a bad school if it ruins their mental health

[@ApexJnr]

Happy they have a good space for them to grow!

[@dannicolborn3720]

I left school 29 years ago now and my whole school life I was failed by the system, my parents asked for extra support and always got told the same thing, your daughter is just lazy. (How could i have been lazy when they never tested me) so how is it she's saying it's only been 14 years.

[@marcoose777]

14 years and ministers mostly decline or are too busy for C4 News ... with 7 months before an election deadline, facing historic electoral defeat and now they suddenly have time for C4 news.

[@TecOneself]

This is fantastic. I love it! It might be difficult for kids whom are in the middle, there are so many ranges.

[@headlesschicken99]

Not that there is not money for sen support but that many schools use that TA/1:1 for other jobs and therefore neglecting the child that she's been recruted specifically to support. The reality is that favourism, conflict of interests, lack of commitment to the job fail neurotypical and atypical students. If you're personally close friends with a senco and teachers lots of attention and effort happens even without a budget.

[@SunshineSupportUK]

We see this too often at Sunshine Support too - EHCP funding being misused, EHCP provision inadequately stated, the list of failures is endless. We've helped thousands of parents in this situation but there's still so many fighting the system!

[@fionascheibel977]

Oh i wish we were going this way where i live. We are planning the opposite. Special schools are being closed to move kids into mainstream schools with the aim of mainstream for everyone so everyone gets used to differences.

[@bunglejoy3645]

Dosent work though ,the kids will bully sneaky and more dangerously when staff arnt around and after school on way home ,the special needs kids will hate school ive no memories of high school much but they must have been there I've got massive social situation formal situation anxity I've got something I've to attend on Monday but my care Co ftom mental health teams going to be there

[@mathgoodison8096]

There’s a lot more special schools in this country or a lot more in need for them, mainly because of COVID changing patterns in young people, but also since the new national curriculum was introduced in 2014 it has made learning things more harder, and the SATS tests nowadays at age 11 is just as hard as GCSE. We are heading back to the 1960s education system where it is becoming a mainstream/ secondary modern split. Special schools are becoming like modern day secondary moderns but with better opportunities.

[@kellymorrison5092]

Mainstream schools are accepting SEN children, but don't have the adequate funding to provide the resources these children so desperately need. They need sensory equipment, extra learning resources, staff 1-to-1 but there just isn't the ability to do so. And as a result of this, mainstream classes are struggling/failing due to the disruption and the teachers attention being focused elsewhere

[@bunglejoy3645]

I went to a special needs unit in a high schoo, there wass often only me vin class so i got one to one help but education authofity medical people just wanted to stigmitise, me and mum which was wrong and then they had just started closing special needs schools ,teacher i had in unit was brilliant but that didnt stop bullying vand stigma from one or two stFf, college was better but its only in last few years ive discovered im proberly autistic not formally diagnosed ,so as well as mental health issues being in a normal school didnt really work, high xchool was about 400 kids, a send school would have been better for me.

[@RowanDarcy-v1e]

I'd lefted St.Christoher's school 42 years ago was in speical needs school i was very lucky unfortunley i didn't had no exams due to wasn't suitable to standard

[@kimcydlingh1944]

Great I am a social skills facilitator and am struggling to get a grant to work in school

[@Coolguyman-LOL]

Yay

[@kevinwilliams1768]

insightful

[@TheBigThinker944]

16 only??? Wow these tories are doing it a bit light. Sorry but I'd say maybe we should be talking about numbers north of 60

[@TecOneself]

Arts and less psychologist, methodical games and meditations with sports. Different brains not that they need the same than the average. Art therapy, yes as a form of mediating not that is a therapy to express inwardly and or outwardly.

[@thomasanders1314]

It's such a great news! But please don't teach them that telling the truth is wrong.:)

[@mazybee9149]

Keegan cannot blame the Labour government when they've been in power for14 yrs! What has she done?

[@alastairhopkins245]

More staff??? What if you need to spend their salary mowing the grass???

[@beckiarmstrong103]

But they are not here now and we have children struggling now.

[@2010Wilde]

What manipulative, one sided trite. Special schools do not help kids overcome their barriers. It does the exact opposite. It hinders their development, it hinders their independence and it leaves them falling further and further through the cracks. It has been well documented that special schools lead to very few success stories and are often ran by people whose knowledge on conditions like autism and Down's syndrome are based on outdated information. And as I former special school student myself, I can tell you from first hand experience that special needs are not the solution people like Channel 4 make them out to be. I was sent to special school because it was thought it would help my autism. But it didn't. Because of being in a special school environment, I nearly fell through the cracks. My ability to communicate to people and socialise didn't improve. I wasn't able to read and write until I was 13, and that was only because I had no choice by to teach myself how to do that because the teachers made little effort actually teach me how to do it. I didn't understand how money worked until I was 14 -- and again that self taught. The only reason why I still manage to stay above the surface was because my parents eventually decided to send me to a mainstream school, and surprise, surprise, I actually improved greatly. Those who say special schools give kids the support they need are telling furphies.

[@Aleakwe]

😞

[@Millennial1993]

Schools don't get you ready for the real world

[@Dungshoveleux]

But is this an admission that abolishing special needs schools was a waste of time?

[@samanthasmith1885]

I think that keegan should be sacked because she doesn't care about children and understand them.

[@elaine8417]

About time

[@evarichardson2381]

Election year promise woop woop!! 🎉 Watch them win the election and quietly not deliver..😢

[@eliakimjosephsophia4542]

What research is being done to find out what is causing these children to have special needs? A neighbour had three autistic children, it's not natural for there to be so many of them.

[@athenarose9084]

Your ignorance is showing. Your neighbour has three autistic children because it is a genetic condition one or both of the parents will also be neurodivergent.

[@arcan762]

1) it often runs in families, and autism is particularly often passed on by autistic parents 2) autism is just more visible and less stigmatised now, with more people being diagnosed and at an earlier age

[@Gracie765]

The criteria to be diagnosed with autism changed. Autism is recognised as a spectrum now, so people who are only affected by for example social anxiety can be diagnosed. You don’t need to have ever problem to be diagnosed with autism now, and your symptoms don’t need to be severe or limiting. People are being diagnosed as autistic because they display traits that, if explored properly, could be explained by other things. There are also a lot of people being diagnosed as autistic who are socially anxious for other reasons, like because they were born during the pandemic and didn’t learn social skills. Autism can be seen on a brain scan, and I think it should be diagnosed that way.

[@simioanaanuta9162]

They used to be marginalized or called naughty. Now there's more awareness, there are more people on the planet. Simple as that. Also, for your information there are 3 levels: the ones that can cope in life on their own and some are actually geniuses, middle level where autistic people need some support and level 3 are the ones that need nonstop support.

[@eliakimjosephsophia4542]

@@simioanaanuta9162 Has there ever been a report on what their mothers were consuming during pregnancy? Nutritional deficiencies and pharmaceuticals can cause a lot of harm to the developing child in the womb. There is also some evidence of vaccine damage, the vaccines they gave children increased substantially, on the curve with the rise in autistic children.

[@lervish1966]

Don't eat sugar or poisonous additives.

[@simioanaanuta9162]

Make some research before you post something irrelevant to the subject. There are people that really want to make a difference to people who were born like that. No one's fault. There is no cause, but there are solutions.

[@lervish1966]

@@simioanaanuta9162 Does food affect mind?

[@bruisedviolets]

Bozo

[@CookieBlue1646]

Just not enough money given by Gov. Simple as that.