MP Pippa Heylings is urging the Government to allocate South Cambridgeshire schools the funding “they so desperately need” following the announcement of extra funding to support pupils with special needs. Her comments came after a visit today to Bassingbourn Community Primary School to hear from local head teachers about the crisis in SEND education.
Whilst the South Cambridgeshire MP says she welcomes the Education Secretary’s latest announcement of extra funding for mainstream schools to improve provision for SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) students, her visits to local schools have shown her that much more needs to be done to “fix the crisis at its root”.
“Local schools are finding themselves picking up the pieces of the broken systems in health and social care, family support and mental health provision,” she said. “But I was inspired by the example of The Hub and the SEND team at Bassingbourn Community Primary School.
“They are doing inspiring work to integrate some of the highest need children into mainstream education whilst providing safe, high quality education for all.
“Yet they are not being funded to do so and there’s a risk of a high burnout rate, with unimaginable consequences for our children, families and communities if these staff leave.”
MP Pippa Heylings visits Bassingbourn Community Primary School to hear from local head teachers about the crisis in SEND educationMs Heylings said: “I do not use the word ‘crisis’ lightly. It’s not just about school funding: it’s also the lack of educational psychologists to meet increased demand, the underinvestment in our local authorities leading to inability to meet statutory deadlines (for example ECHPs and special needs assessments) and the lack of specialist school provision.”
She said that historically South Cambridgeshire has had the lowest per pupil funding in the country.
With plans for how the new £740 million for SEND will be allocated yet to be published, the Liberal Democrat MP says she is calling on the Government to make sure South Cambridgeshire schools receive a fair slice of the new funding and to recognise the real scope of the crisis.
“Years of neglect under the previous Conservative Government have left too many families across South Cambridgeshire struggling desperately to get their children the support they need,” she said.
“Cash-strapped schools are doing their best to provide complex SEND support, but too many vulnerable children in South Cambridgeshire are being failed.”
The MP said that many of the letters and emails received from parents “highlight the distress and stress they are facing as a result of huge delays of months to years awaiting diagnoses, ECHPs and allocation of provision once diagnosed – often having no choice but to resort to tribunals, a costly process for everyone involved”.
She wants the Education Secretary to make sure that local schools are allocated a fair slice of the new funding and is advocating what she terms a rescue plan for SEND provision in South Cambridgeshire and across the country.
