Category Archives: special needs

Government announces £4m funding for special educational needs in Norfolk and Suffolk

 

Lauren Cope

The government has announced it will give £2.7m to Norfolk County Council and £1.3m to Suffolk County Council to improve special educational needs and disability (SEND) facilities.

Facilities for some of the most vulnerable children in Norfolk and Suffolk could be bolstered by a £4m investment in special needs education.

The government will, over three years, give Norfolk County Council £2.7m and Suffolk County Council £1.3m to increase school capacity and improve provision for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

It comes as part of a nationwide investment, worth £215m, to local councils, which can be spent on infrastructure and facilities.

Though councils will be free to invest the funding as they wish, they will be expected to consult with parents, carers and schools and put together a plan on how the money will be spent.

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The scandal of common mental illnesses left untreated

Would we tolerate a situation in which the majority of those suffering from diabetes, heart disease, or arthritis were left to fend for themselves, or asked to make do with inferior therapies?

Imagine you are the campaigns manager of a political party. You are aware of a public health crisis that, at any one time, affects a third of the population, reduces life expectancy as drastically as smoking, is more disabling than angina, asthma, or diabetes, and reduces GDP by around 4% each year. You know this crisis can be substantially – and cheaply – alleviated. Wouldn’t you make the issue a central theme in your election campaign?

Disabled girl ‘lost in the system’ by Birmingham City Council for four years

Birmingham City Council “singularly failed” a disabled child “lost in the system” for more than four years, the Local Government Ombudsman has ruled.

A report said the authority failed to contact the girl’s mother from November 2006 to March 2011 to assess support payments.

It added social workers had not identified the girl’s “complex needs” and left her mother to raise her alone.

The council has agreed to pay £5,000 following the ombudsman’s report.