I’m a school teacher: SEND provision changes lives

In the foreword to a report by the centre-right think tank Policy Exchange, the former health secretary Jeremy Hunt argues that children are being overdiagnosed with mental health and neurodivergent conditions. In England, one in five children has been identified with additional needs, and Hunt says that the rise in Send spending “risks the financial sustainability of local government.” The idea of this claimed “overdiagnosis” is baffling to me because, as a secondary school teacher, I've seen firsthand how labyrinthine and difficult the process is.

- Charlotte Harrison, The Independent

Some students never get a diagnosis and so will never get to thrive in the way they should. Often, too, there is a generational impact. Wary parents, with similar needs that they never received support for in school, are sceptical that schools would provide it for their children.

Hunt claims that the answer to some difficulties isn’t a diagnosis but “the importance of good work, physical activity, social connection.” Naive would be a compliment here, but ill-informed is probably more effective. With some additional educational needs, you cannot form a social connection easily. You probably can't access your work because you find it difficult to read or write. As for physical activity, are we just completely ignoring the spectrum of difficulties that come with any form of disability?