Heads they win, tails we lose

Heads they win, tails we lose

Ideology cannot let profiteers off the hook and continue to damage children's lives

Having moved from Rome to Troy in my ramblings, I'm beginning to feel the pain of Cassandra with the added heat of a system that could be referred to, at this time of Thanksgiving, as a dumpster fire.

John Dickens at Schools Week has been banging this drum for a long time, I've had my say here: https://bit.ly/3CRBMUP and here, for what it's worth: https://bit.ly/4fT4gft

My concern is meaningful change is sacrificed on the alter of ideology. In February of this year I met with the then schools minister. I presented evidence from a Safety Valve LA that showed among other things:

  1. A lot of independent schools provide education, care and costs comparable with the 'state' sector. Of course it's all state funded in one way or another.
  2. A number of the organisations profiteering from the lack of specialist places may ring some bells with those looking at Children's Social Care. You just need to follow the money...
  3. Establishing new independent provision via MATs (or indeed anyone with a soul) would restart a market in SEND that has been broken for too long. I demonstrated savings of £1.2m for 60 SEMH students who would also enjoy being educated nearer their home, removing the social, financial and environmental cost of transporting our most vulnerable kids hither and thither for hours a day.
  4. Independent schools can be established in six months as many are. Set the right ones up and it will staunch the bleeding out of HNBs and give LA's, DfE and the government room to consider solutions in conjunction with the sector as a whole.

I'm unsure whether the DfE's nascent Market Interventions Group survived the election. If it did, those I spoke with will hopefully remember the data and solutions I put forward; solutions that came from a schools sector wanting to answer a call to arms but terrified about the repercussions.

Who would want to be labelled as novel, contentious and/or repercussive? Count me in because what we have at the moment is a source of national shame.

If you're going to curb profiteering (not profit) in Children's Social care, you must do so in SEND education. Otherwise, those organisations with a foot in both the SEND Education and Children's Social Care camps can simply refocus into areas where they can continue to maximise their profits. Heads, SEND kids lose. Tails kids in Children's homes lose. Either way, the taxpayer, the LA, community and society loses.

Clamp down on both and maybe the profiteers will realise that the gravy train, while not being nationalised, is more Stockwell than Bisto.

Is this such a difficult concept to grasp or are the most vulnerable in society going to be made to suffer for a plate of red meat that felt like a good idea at the time but is quickly going rotten.

Left unchecked, the tsunami of kids entering a mainstream sector currently ill-equipped to cater for them will be a disaster. Will commissioners recognise this or will they be complicit? It's a toss up as to who should be most worried, mainstream schools, parents or kids. Then answer is all, because all will lose out.

I hope Dame Rachel de Souza is prepared to speak truth to power and I hope that this is heard.

Lisa Sarikaya

Chief Executive Officer at ST BART'S MULTI ACADEMY TRUST

1mo

Delyth M. George Barlow - Tom is the MD of PAG that we are working with.

Kevin Rodger

A leader in education, employment and citizen services.

1mo

The way to solve this is through cultivating a competitive market place and giving MATs and charities access to the capital they need to invest.

Mohamed Mohamed

Education Research | EdTech | Social Impact and Philanthropy | Strategy

1mo

Very informative piece. It seems to me that policy is too often playing catch-up on these issues, leading to exploitation of the system. Hopefully, this won't go on for too much longer.

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