“Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see.”
Neil Postman, 1931-2003, American educator, media theorist, and social critic
It was reported on 7 July that Stephen Morgan, the early education minister, had that morning been giving interviews. It was said that while he was really supposed to be talking about the government’s Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life strategy being announced later that day, he had instead he mostly taken questions on Educational Health Care Plans. These are given to pupils with Special Educational Needs to ensure that they are legally given extra, appropriate support in education, up to the age of 25.
It was further reported that Morgan had been asked on Times Radio, if he could guarantee that every child who currently has an EHCP would continue to keep the same provisions. It was noted that Morgan would not confirm that. Instead, he replied:
“We absolutely want to make sure that we deliver better support for vulnerable children and their parents and we’re committed to absolutely getting that right. So it’s a real priority for us”.
It was then put to him that he was not saying yes, to which Morgan replied:
“Well of course we want to make sure that every child gets the support that they need. That’s why we’re doing the wider reform and we’re publishing the white paper later this year”.
On the same day, 7 July, Helen Hayes, Labour MP for Dulwich and West Norwood and chair of the cross-party Commons education select committee, was reported to have said that mistrust among many families with Send children was so apparent that ministers should commit to keeping EHCPs.
Hayes commented: “I think at this stage that would be the right thing to do,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “We have been looking, as the education select committee, at the Send system for the last several months. We have heard extensive evidence from parents, from organisations that represent parents, from professionals and from others who are deeply involved in the system, which is failing so many children and families at the moment”.
Is Labour planning to target special needs children?
It might seem hard to believe, given the problems that Labour has run into already in decisions about pensioners and the disabled, but the response from Stephen Morgan would seem to fit the fears that many people have, that now Labour is indeed planning to target special needs children.
These fears were neatly summed up on the same day, 7 July, by journalist John Harris, himself the father of an autistic son:
“After disability benefits, is Labour really about to target the educational rights of special needs children? Noise has been building about restricting help for kids who badly need it. As a special needs parent, I can tell you: it’s terrifying
“One policy area in particular is about to return the political conversation to the subject that defined last week’s fiasco: disability. Once again, Labour MPs from all wings of the party are feeling anxious and restless. Campaign groups and charities – not to mention the huge numbers of people who will be directly affected – fear the worst. With the wounds from the welfare bill fiasco still raw, there is a grim sense of a possible reprisal of the same story.
“And this is why. The education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, wants to reform England’s system of provision for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities, or Send. Long years of Conservative failure – not least, reforms introduced a decade ago that were lamentably underfunded, and an exodus of children from mainstream to specialist schools – have resulted in ballooning costs amid disappointing outcomes. The councils that administer everything are crying out for help. The Treasury, meanwhile, surveys the mess and demands action.”
Comment
If the government does go ahead and try to scrap Educational Health Care Plans and with them, the support that children desperately need, then they will deserve to encounter as much trouble as they have already done, with their misguided and badly thought-out attempts to cut Winter Fuel Allowances and Personal Independence Payments.
The reality is that since the Covid-19 pandemic there has been an explosion of mental health issues among young people and more and more children are not at school. Any government that doesn’t want to face up to this ticking timebomb and instead stick their head in the sand, is merely kicking the can down the street and storing up even greater problems for the future.
The situation demonstrates clearly so much of what is wrong with the shallow neo-liberal philosophy which has dominated our politics for 45 long years and done so much damage in that time.
There are two main reasons for me saying this:
Firstly, every child deserves to be given the best education that is reasonably possible. Anything else is simply grossly unfair and leads to a two-tier education system and indeed a two-tier society.
Secondly, even of government ministers don’t care about the futures of individual children, not to mention their families both now and in the future. then surely even the coldest, most technocratic of politicians can see that an investment in children is an investment in the future of the country. We are often told that we suffer from low productivity in this country. Let is be clear; it is no wonder productivity is so low if successive governments are not prepared to invest in the futures of our greatest assets – our young people.
If cash-strapped councils need more financial support to run their SEND systems efficiently and appropriately then that money must be found. There are numerous ways to acquire the required funding. It has been noted recently on North East Bylines that, shockingly, the people in Times’ Rich list have 18 000 times more money on average than the average British worker.Surely then, a wealth tax, or a mansion tax or a windfall tax on the utilities companies that have made such huge profits in recent years, or a combination of them, could be introduced. After all it has been claimed by Patriotic Millionaires that as many as 80% of millionaires in the UK support a wealth tax of 2% on anything over £10 million.
Similarly, Council Tax could be reformed and the receipts from this distributed fairly around the country.
As noted earlier, John Harris’ son is autistic, and I have taught many autistic children and have generally found them to be a delight to work with. They are often extremely gifted and talented in certain areas and consequently have much that is special, to offer our nation. Not giving autistic and other special needs children the support they need, is both unfair to the children and potentially a huge waste of human potential. It must not be allowed to happen.
Neil Postman
I will leave the last words to the man quoted at the beginning, Neil Postman. The government, and in particular education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, MP for Houghton and Sunderland South, might do well to remember his words. Postman was, a social critic, educator and media theorist, who “made contributions to the discipline of media studies, the critical analysis of technology, and the philosophy of education”.
The full quote from Postman about children being messages to the future is as follows: “Children truly are the messengers of the future, and it is up to us to ensure that the messages we give them are ones of truth, peace, hope and tolerance. If we give children only images of hate and war, we give them a future of hate and war. Let us not forget the power of youth, and the impact of our example upon their minds and future. Children have the power to shape the future, but it is our generation who give them the tools in which to shape that future.”
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