Lawyers have been accused of exploiting parents of children with special needs by the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, who claimed their criticisms of the government’s policy changes were motivated by profit.
Speaking at the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) annual conference, Phillipson said the special educational needs overhaul outlined last month would “move the system away from the very adversarial system that we have, where parents have had to fight so hard for support”.
Lawyers who offer services for families have criticised elements of Phillipson’s package, which aims for more children with special needs such as autism or ADHD to be educated in mainstream schools rather than special schools.
Phillipson said: “It’s been little surprise to me that there’s been such vociferous criticism from lawyers about the changes that we’re bringing. You know, they’ve got a vested interest in maintaining the failed status quo. There’s profit to be made.
“They want the system to remain as it is, because they make a profit often out of exploiting parents. And I don’t, for one second, blame parents [who] are pushing really hard for what their children need. Who wouldn’t? But it’s a fundamentally unfair system if parents who’ve got the money to hire lawyers end up getting a better deal than those who don’t.
“Our support to tilt the system towards much earlier support, a fairer system of support for all children, is absolutely the right approach, backed up by the evidence [and] supported by the profession.”
The changes outlined in last month’s schools white paper will also limit council spending on private special school fees, leading to claims that some will be forced to close and increase shortages of places elsewhere.
But Phillipson rejected this, saying: “We do have to clamp down on the wholly unacceptable income increase that we’ve seen in private-equity backed, independent specialist provision. It’s sucking money out of the education system in profits, which should be focused on delivering outcomes for children, and where the quality of the provision is highly variable and doesn’t always deliver good outcomes for children.”
Earlier, the ASCL president, Jo Rowley, a deputy headteacher from Stafford, said members welcomed schools being given more responsibility for providing extra support to pupils with special needs. But she said some were “slightly anxious” it could bring them into conflict with parents.
Rowley said: “We work with parents at the moment – parents will be in a battle with the local authority over [education, health and care plans] and we will be working with those parents … I wouldn’t like to see that battle then become a battle between the family and the school because that is definitely not helpful – and it shouldn’t be teachers who are making those decisions, and that’s something that we’re all very agreed on at the moment.”
Asked if schools could avoid becoming the new battleground over special needs, Phillipson said: “Parents do and should have every, right to air concerns with their child’s school about where things aren’t working well but it’s about how that is responded to collectively.” She added that “parents have a responsibility to support their child’s school”.
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