Lack of support for Send children is ‘timebomb’ for public services, MPs told

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. She also said 200,000 children in the UK are waiting for a diagnosis: “That is 200,000 families left in uncertainty, desperate for help, struggling without the support they need.” In an adjournment debate she told MPs: “What we’ve seen is, over this last decade or more, chronic underinvestment from the Conservative government, despite the fact that statutory needs were recognised. “We will see the impacts of this on future quality of life, opportunities, NHS and social services – all services, really, if we don’t deal with this situation.” The broken system means that a child has to fail in a very distressing way before they're given the provision they need Pippa Heylings, Liberal Democrat MP The House heard stories of what neurodivergent children had to cope with being educated in mainstream schools that did not have the resources to accommodate their needs. We’re just accommodating them as best we can in quieter areas of the school, including corridors, because they’re not able to work in the noise and busyness of a primary classroom.’” Our message to families is that we are committed to improving the Send system and we are committed to regaining their confidence Catherine McKinnell, education minister Ms Heylings added: “She saw one of those children that she’d been working with, who, a few days after starting secondary school, was excluded because their behaviour was not manageable. “In her words: ‘It broke my heart to hear from her mum what she’d gone through in such a short time in mainstream secondary and I knew at once she must have been so frightened to have behaved as she did.’ The MP continued: “What I now understand is that the broken system means that a child has to fail in a very distressing way before they’re given the provision they need.” Education minister Catherine McKinnell said the Government was aware the Send system is not working for children or parents.