The Dept of Education - lorded over by SF has decided that the legal protection that enforces the requirements that children with special needs must receive is to be removed irrespective of what people want.
The vulnerable children will have to rely on the good will of civil servants, may God help them.
BBC News - Education department special needs review due
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That is just plain sick.
First Sinn Fein Ministers decide that having railway stations at airports is a big no no, now they attack the most vulnerable in society.
They are a Republican party all right, in the same vein as the US Republican party.
O'Dowd, on the radio now and refusing to take callers questions, is claiming that he is just overhauling it, he claims he is not removing any legal entitlement, he says it is too lengthy, so he is going to remove statementing. It is statements that establish the legal entitlement, he is taking about educational plans and such. This is waffle. I have been involved in this and the last bunch who tried to prevent this failed - (the passing of the Autism Bill) - and so will they. In reply to it being pointed out only 10% of the 3000 responses to this agreed to it he says that he is concerned about the speed of processing.
He claims that IEP's provide legal protection. I can assure you they do not. They are open to interpretation by the Social Services. This is hogwash. Do not allow this to go ahead. If his beef is the length of time to get a statement then fix that and I would support it as early intervention is essential but do not use that to save you money.
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They are facing the same constraints that they would if in power in the Republic, and taking the same kinds of actions that they would in that situation.Originally Posted by ArtyisBack
Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured. - Mark Twain
Yay! A stick to beat them with - Go Blueshirts, Go!
Last edited by Humbert; 1st February 2012 at 12:58 PM.
To beguile the time, look like the time. Macbeth Act I Scene V
Never mind the political opportunism - we are talking about peoples futures here
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Yeah. Right.
We sure are - and pointing out kettle and pot situations will help people in deciding their futures.
To beguile the time, look like the time. Macbeth Act I Scene V
From the same BBC page there is this article It is a question and answer script on why a review was undertaken. While dealing with England it is applicable to the 6 counties. It reveal that;
"Parents have long complained that they had to battle hard to get statements of SEN for the children facing the most severe difficulties."
"Special needs campaigners have said some local councils are unwilling to "statement" pupils because of the legal entitlement and possible extra costs that brings."
"At the other end of the spectrum, Ofsted said as many as half of the pupils listed on "school action" would not actually have required that designation if teaching in schools was better.
This was partly because schools were not picking up problems that could be solved through normal teaching methods early enough, and partly because they were inappropriately labelling pupils' problems, Ofsted said."
"A Commons education committee report in 2006 found the system "not fit for purpose".
And despite attempts to improve matters, Ofsted in 2010 still concluded that the system is complex and widely perceived as "unfair", with parents who are able to make sense of it having quicker and greater access to resources and support."
Clearly the system as it stood was not working.
As O'Dowd pointed out;
"Thirty-eight per cent of post primary schools were judged to fall short in their provision for special needs."
"In the future, the department plans to have only two stages on the way to getting the CSP replacement for a statement, which at the moment has five stages and is said to be too bureaucratic. The process will be speeded up with a time limit of 20 weeks, instead of 26 weeks."
"At present the statements must be reviewed every year, and that is said to be too bureaucratic and time consuming. In future, there would simply be a meeting between parent and school principal and a formal review only where one of them requests it."
These are hardly measures that would be viewed as an attack on vulnerable children.
The faults of the burglar are the qualities of the financier. - George Bernard Shaw.
That really is bizarre - as one of the good things about the DFM is that he has been very supportive of the needs and rights of these children.
"We hold that no power, not even the British Parliament, has the right to deprive us of our heritage of British citizenship".
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