Why cutting SEN Services and EHCPs is a false economy

The government’s recent proposals to scale back Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) services — including reducing access to Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) — pose serious risks. What might appear as cost‐cuts now will likely lead to greater losses in opportunities, wellbeing, and public finances in the long run. Evidence & key data Here are some of the latest statistics and findings that underline why maintaining, not cutting, these services is crucial: • Rising numbers of EHCPs: Since 2018 the number of EHCPs has increased by about 80%. As of the latest reports, around 1 in 20 school‐age children in England have an EHCP. (The Guardian) • Requests for assessments denied or delayed: In 2024, 15.2% of decisions on requests for EHC needs assessments were not communicated within the statutory six weeks. Of the requests, about 65.4% proceeded to full assessment, meaning over one quarter were refused initially. (Explore Education Statistics) • Tribunal & appeal outcomes: o For the 2023-24 academic year, there were ~21,000 registered SEN appeals — up 55% from the previous year. (GOV.UK) o Of those appeals, 27% were over refusal to secure an EHC assessment; 59% concerned the content of EHCPs. (Schools Week) o When cases proceed to decision, an overwhelming majority of appeals are decided in favour of the families/claimants. (GOV.UK) • Appeal rates & “missed” opportunities: The official appeal rate (actual appeals filed vs all appealable decisions) in 2024 is reported around 5.3%, though some estimates suggest the real rate could be considerably higher, due to many opportunities being lost (e.g. through procedural issues or failure to inform families of rights) in annual EHCP review processes. (Research Briefings) Why these cuts are harmful Using this data, here are concrete reasons why cutting EHCPs/SEN services is counterproductive: 1. Legal risks & costs The number of appeals is already rising dramatically. When local authorities refuse EHCP assessments or produce EHCPs that don’t meet needs, they frequently lose in tribunal. That not only causes delays for children but means authorities incur legal costs, administrative burdens, and are legally compelled to rectify deficits. 2. Delayed intervention = more costly support later Evidence shows that early intervention and proper support reduce later need for crisis services (mental health, social care, more intensive schooling or special settings). When EHCPs are delayed or denied, children are more likely to disengage or develop secondary difficulties, increasing costs to the state in the form of remedial education, health interventions, or social services. 3. Educational & wellbeing losses Without EHCPs or adequate support, children risk falling behind academically, experiencing anxiety, exclusion, or other negative outcomes. These are not just “soft” harms — they often translate into poorer life chances, increased health/mental health burden, and lower productivity over time. 4. System pressure & backlog The surge in appeals and increasing number of children with unmet needs puts strain on both families and the tribunal system. Delays, backlogs, and rising conflict saps resources and trust. For example, many parents are now waiting much longer for assessments or for tribunal outcomes. (Special Needs Jungle) 5. Equity & inclusion Denying or reducing access disproportionately affects the most vulnerable children — those with more complex needs, younger children who may have fewer voices, and families with less capacity to navigate bureaucratic or legal processes. Cuts tend to exacerbate existing inequalities. Conclusion The statistics show that: • A large number of assessment requests are being refused or delayed. • Appeals are increasing, and families win the vast majority of them. • Legal obligations are being stretched — and failures carry costs, both financial and moral. Cutting EHCPs and SEN services may appear to reduce spending in the short term, but the evidence points to greater costs later — in legal fees, crisis interventions, lost potential, inequality, and societal wellbeing.

The Words We Don’t Say: Why the quietest gestures can be the loudest form of communication

Communication Is So Much More Than Talking: This week in a group session, something happened that really struck me. One of the children I support had recently been in hospital. He still had an NG tube in place, and when it was his turn to share, he spoke about how awful it had been — the endless injections, the procedures, the sheer exhaustion of it all. As he spoke, another boy in the group quietly reached out. This boy always carries three special objects in his left hand. Without a word, he pushed them across so my client could hold them. My client kept those objects with him for the rest of the session. It was such a simple act, but so deeply significant. That gesture said: *I care. I see you. I want to help you feel better.* It was empathy and connection, communicated without speech. What stayed with me even more was that when I spoke afterwards with the two TAs in the room, they hadn’t noticed what had happened. For them, the moment passed by. But to me, it was the very heart of the session. This is the reminder I took away: **communication is so much more than talking.** * For parents, it’s encouragement to notice those quiet acts between children — the way they share a toy, sit a little closer, or offer something meaningful. These are powerful ways of expressing care and belonging, even when words are hard to find. * For professionals, it’s a call to slow down and watch closely. Not every child will communicate in ways that are loud, verbal, or obvious. Sometimes, the deepest messages are in the small gestures we might otherwise miss. Sometimes, the most powerful things said are the things that never need words.

When Language Blooms: The Everyday Magic of Speech and Play

As a speech and language therapist, I spend much of my time thinking about what happens when communication is hard work. I spend hours analysing why words don’t come, why sentences don’t form, why interactions stall. But every now and then, I’m reminded of just how miraculous – and frankly astonishing – language development is when it all goes to plan. This week my 23-month-old granddaughter gave me one of those moments. While deep in imaginative play with a train set and some toy animals, she came out with: “This teddy too big put zebra in.” At first glance it might sound like a jumble of words, but look more closely and you’ll see all the ingredients of early grammar bubbling up beautifully: She’s working with size concepts (“too big”). She’s problem-solving in real time, narrating her play as she works it out. She’s stringing together four-plus words in a sequence that has logic, flow and intent. For a child not yet two years old, this is nothing short of amazing. It’s her brain showing that the building blocks of grammar – subject, size/quality, action, solution – are falling into place through play, not drills or flashcards. Why this matters Language isn’t something analytical language processors learn by rote; it grows out of real experiences, meaningful relationships, and playful problem-solving. When a toddler is surrounded by responsive adults, stories, songs, and conversation, their brain soaks it up and begins weaving words into ideas. What my granddaughter did in that moment was more than just talking – it was thinking out loud, using language to organise the world. The professional and the grandmother collide As a professional, I could break her utterance down into developmental milestones, sentence complexity, semantic categories and syntax. As a grandmother, I just sat in awe. Both parts of me agreed on one thing: this is a small miracle. A reminder We sometimes forget how extraordinary it is that humans learn to talk at all. In less than two years, a child moves from cooing and babbling to making themselves understood with strings of words that capture ideas, jokes, and stories. So when it all comes together like this – a toddler, some animals, and an unprompted sentence that captures a whole scene – I can’t help but celebrate. Language development is a marvel. And every now and then, the children in our lives gift us a moment that reminds us why.

When should you worry about your little one?

'Oh don't worry he's fine!' Just wait and see!' Parents often have an instinct when something isn't quite right but are fobbed off by well meaning family or friends. Let's have a look at when should you seek help? We strongly recommend that you seek help from a speech-language therapist if your child: By 12 months • doesn’t babble with changes in tone – e.g. dadadadadadadadada • doesn’t use gestures like waving “bye bye” or shaking head for “no” • doesn’t respond to her/his name • doesn’t communicate in some way when s/he needs help with something By 15 months • doesn't understand and respond to words like "no" and "up" • says no words • doesn't point to objects or pictures when asked “Where’s the...? • doesn’t point to things of interest as if to say “Look at that!” and then look right at you By 18 months • doesn’t understand simple commands like "Don't touch" • isn’t using at least 20 single words like "Mommy" or "up" • doesn’t respond with a word or gesture to a question such as “What’s that? or “Where’s your shoe?” • can’t point to two or three major body parts such as head, nose, eyes, feet By 24 months • says fewer than 100 words • isn’t consistently joining two words together like "Daddy go" or “ shoes on” • doesn’t imitate actions or words • doesn’t pretend with toys, such as feeding doll or making toy man drive toy car By 30 months • says fewer than 300 words • isn’t using action words like “run”, “eat”, “fall” • isn’t using some adult grammar, such as “two babies” and “doggie sleeping” 3-4 years • doesn’t ask questions by 3 years • isn’t using sentences (e.g., "I don't want that" or "My truck is broken") by three years • isn’t able to tell a simple story by four or five years If you’ve noticed one or more of these warning signs in your child, it’s important that you ignore hose well meaning people and seek help. Many NHS areas have a drop-in session. We have sessions with the Speech and language Therapy assistant to screen to see if further assessment is needed.

When Words Aren’t Needed: How hand squeezes, half-smiles, and song clips can carry the strongest messages.

When people think about communication, the first thing that usually comes to mind is *talking*. We place so much importance on spoken words that it can feel as though communication hasn’t really happened unless something has been said out loud. But that’s not true. Communication is so much more than words. I’ve been reminded of this very personally in recent weeks. My father has had a stroke. He can’t speak, and he has no use of the right side of his body. And yet yesterday, he still communicated powerfully. A look, a half-smile, and the gentle squeeze of my hand said far more than any words could. I knew what he meant, and I felt his love and reassurance in that simple moment. This same lesson is clear in my everyday work with children. Many of the children we see at Small Talk don’t use “mouth words” much—or at all—but that doesn’t mean they aren’t communicating. Quite the opposite! One young man I work with doesn’t use speech, but he plays song clips to show people what he wants and how he is feeling. A burst of a favourite tune is his way of saying, *“That’s me. That’s how I feel right now.”* Other children use their eyes, their faces, their hands, their movements, or their laughter to make themselves understood. Parents often tell me their biggest wish is to hear their child *say* words, and I completely understand that. Spoken language is valuable, and we will always support children to develop it if it’s possible for them. But it’s also important to notice and celebrate all the other ways they are already communicating. Research shows that most of what we understand in communication comes from non-verbal signals—things like facial expressions, gestures, body language, tone, and eye contact. Words are just one part of the picture. So, the next time your child looks at you with a twinkle in their eye, hands you a toy, shares a sound clip, or pulls you towards what they want—see that for what it is: real, powerful communication. Responding to these signals not only strengthens your connection with your child, it also lays the foundation for any spoken language that may develop later. Sometimes the deepest messages are spoken without words at all.

Why do some children lie?

Ive just had a very familiar conversation with a parent about their potentially autistic child. He lies about small things like what he has at home but also big things such as his father hitting him. Safe-guarding concerns are always flagged. But why does this happen? Understanding the Behaviour Autistic children can display complex stress responses when overwhelmed, distressed, confused, or when communication breaks down. These responses can include: 1. Fight • May appear argumentative, accusatory, or defensive • Can present as firm insistence on a version of events to regain control 2. Flight • Avoidance of questioning or shifting into an alternate “reality” to escape distress • Storytelling can act as emotional escape when real-life stressors feel intolerable 3. Freeze • Shutdown, flat affect, or lack of reaction when asked about the allegation • May appear "unbothered" or robotic – often a dissociative response, not deception 4. Fawn • Saying what they think adults want to hear • Highly compliant with leading or suggestive questioning, even if inaccurate 5. Fibster Response (Confabulation as Coping) • Narrative may be inconsistent or fictional, yet genuinely believed by the child • Can arise from communication impairments, poor episodic memory, or unmet emotional needs 6. Funster Response (Fantasy as Self-Protection) • Uses humour or storytelling to deflect distress • Allegations may symbolise emotional hurt or relational fear, not literal events Why This Happens: A Neurodevelopmental & Trauma-Informed Lens • Language and communication difficulties (e.g. delayed echolalia, literal thinking) • Poor memory coherence (autistic children may struggle to sequence or recall personal events reliably) • Alexithymia (difficulty identifying or explaining internal emotional states) • High anxiety and prior invalidation (can fuel internal distress that is externalised as a fixed story) • Co-occurring demand avoidance or trauma (some stories may be an expression of fear, loss of control, or relational rupture) This does not mean the child is “lying” in the deliberate sense. It reflects a protective, stress-related survival response. Safeguarding Considerations 1. Take all allegations seriously. Even when stories appear implausible, always begin with appropriate safeguarding procedures. 2. Ensure the child is safe and regulated. Avoid confrontation. Use calm, validating language: “Thank you for telling us. You were right to speak up. We’re going to help you feel safe.” 3. Do not lead or overload the child with questions. Use trauma-informed communication. Where needed, seek support from a speech and language therapist (SLT) or clinical psychologist trained in autism. 4. Document factually. Record the child’s words verbatim, without interpretation or assumption. Note context, emotional state, and any communication differences. 5. Consider the child’s neurodevelopmental profile. Assess with input from autism and communication specialists before making judgements on credibility. 6. Use reflective supervision. For staff involved, explore emotional responses and unconscious bias to ensure safeguarding responses remain child-centred and non-punitive. Recommended Actions • Ensure the child is given a safe adult relationship where their voice is heard without pressure. • Involve SLT and/or clinical psychology to support narrative formation, memory reliability, and emotional literacy. • Review previous safeguarding records for patterns of distress, exclusion, or misinterpretation. • Plan ongoing support, particularly around emotional regulation, communication, and safe expression of concerns. Reference Framework • Department for Education (2023). Working Together to Safeguard Children • NICE Guidelines NG93 (2018). Autism spectrum disorder in under 19s: Support and management • Porges, S. W. (2011). The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological Foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, and Self-regulation • Bruce, S., & Thorne, K. (2021). Trauma-informed Practice for Children and Young People with DLD We talk talk about this enough!

‘A PDAer will not accept anything on face value, not even themself.’

Guest blog post Listening to Harry Thompson on his Facebook live today asking for contributions to the essence of PDA has inspired me to offer my personal musings on what PDA is. It’s definitely not pathological demand avoidance. No demands are avoided when the world is on its axis but the problem is that the world has a tendency to keep tipping off! If anything, PDA would be better explained as an extreme intolerance of uncertainty. The only way for a PDAer to survive is in a state of complete freedom and autonomy. Every other state detracts from the PDAers life force, to varying degrees. The external world can feel like a prison with torture chambers. The internal standards can also demand ‘correctness’ or suffering if correctness is not achieved. Life is lived as a participant observer because the evidence about how to be human comes from living life first hand. This can lead to ending up in situations where the ‘participant’ part of the experiment can lead to precarious and even life threatening situations. The boundary for what is good, true, safe, healthy, wise, educational, fulfilling, interesting, useful and all of the opposites can only be identified by stepping up close to or across the boundary. Other people’s views can be trusted and used as a guide, but the PDAer has to have evaluated that persons credibility first and agreed that they are someone who can be trusted and respected, they do this not by judging a persons acts or words, necessarily, but by knowing their heart. This process can be instinctive and immediate or can require evidence and develop over time. Sometimes the PDAer, especially during the most treacherous of developmental periods in the lives of many: childhood and adolescence, can give the impression to parents, teachers and professionals that they ‘just don’t care,’ or ‘make bad choices and cannot be trusted.’ Their need for experimentation can frighten those that don’t understand that the PDAer wants to survive, and this is their way of going about it. What actually threatens the PDAers life is attempts by people to limit their freedom to explore the world and find their own answers, which can, ironically lead to the PDAer contemplating suicide or setting themselves on a steady course of annihilation. That is not to say that the existential angst experienced by the PDAer in their search for truth and meaning doesn’t also threaten their life but aiming to catch the PDAer and trap them within a set of rules imposed by people who the PDAer sees as unqualified to lead will promote utter devastation, often expressed using the 5fs. There will be no lengths that the PDAer will not go to, to ensure their freedom. Don’t push the PDAer, support them in their journey and you will see that they love life. Listen to what they tell you. If they tell you that they want to do X or Y, then allow them to do it, if you can, because they will know best what is right for them and will cease to engage in the activity if they find that it wasn’t right for them after all, or that it isn’t right for them at the moment, for any number of reasons, even if they desperately want to do whatever it is. In one respect it’s the extreme need for absolute rectitude and justice. Things need to be just, correct, evidence based and open to constant evaluation and revision to ensure that these standards are upheld. No-one has any more authority to deicide what is true and real than any other. That is not to say that there are no people who have, indeed, contributed a great deal to the exploration of human ‘being’ but there are an awful lot of people who merely reach a certain age or professional status and believe that they’ve therefore gained a superior insight into what it is to ‘be’ and how life should be lived. This can include teachers, parents and people within various professions and institutions. The PDAer cannot accept this fundamental injustice and will do everything to escape from the snare of liars and cheats. If you can tell the PDAer why they should be doing, thinking, saying something and they are in agreement with it, then you will not see any objection. However, if you explain why and they do not agree with you but you then aim to force them to follow your rules, ideas, plans etc… then you will see them react in any number of ways to protect their freedom. If there is too much injustice in a given situation then this can lead to non-verbal communication in the form of explosive and / or destructive meltdown. However, essentially, the PDAer is one of the most reasonable people you will ever meet if they are in their optimum state, because for them it’s all about reason and logic. Also on the matter of things being correct, the PDAer and autistic, will not accept mistakes or misrepresentation. That is not to say that they don’t tolerate or expect anyone, including themselves, to make any mistakes, it’s more that the mistakes, once identified need to be corrected. For example, if the PDAer is described by someone in a way that definitely does not represent the what they believe or intend to say then this can cause the PDAer to seek to correct that person. Stereotyping, pidgeon-holing, assumptions based on race, age, gender, accent or whatever are something that the PDAer rejects. Generalisations and not welcome unless there is enough evidence to make a generalisation. Ideas need to be specific and precise and you will find the PDAer and autistic spending time seeking clarity on matters small and large, which can come across as pedantic or overly critical to those who do not understand the reasons behind the outward expression. They tolerate mistakes in themselves even less well. Lots has been written on this under the banner of ‘perfectionism’ and ‘rejection sensitive dysphoria’ (which, are two of the areas where ADHD and PDA overlap, in my opinion). The most extreme way of managing this can be excessive people pleasing or not taking any kind of risk, whatsoever, and living a very restricted life. The PDAer may seem harsh or caustic at times but in reality they suffer deeply at the idea of the suffering of others, man or beast. They are essentially humanitarian, which is why hierarchy is abhorrent to them as it requires the subordination of one being to another, and that is a kind of enslavement. However, you will often find the PDAer at the service of others, often those who are in vulnerable positions, in order to protect and ensure their humanity. The self. It is difficult for the PDAer to develop a sense of self. This is not to be confused with a sense of justice. While the PDAer can have a strong affinity with certain causes, which may appear to be ‘who they are,’ they often have an elusive sense of self. They self is part of the PDAers exploration. They will often not commit to a given identity because they are not sure yet, without having all the evidence, which their true self is. How can they decide and commit to who they are without having explored all that there is to explore about human existence, and that takes a lifetime, doesn’t it? So the self can feel elusive to the PDAer who will try out different selves at different times and will wear different masks when interacting with others, until they have a better idea of who they are and whether they are prepared to share that intimate and private journey with anyone else. This will often lead people to see the PDAer as a ‘social chameleon,’ or ‘not sure of themselves.’ For the PDAer this can cause them to feel uncomfortable with uniting the different ‘selves’ or ‘characters’ that they play out in public, so mixing different groups of friends is often an excruciating and nerve wracking prospect. As they develop the PDAer can learn to become more ‘authentic’ but this process can take some time and is unlikely to be wholly complete while there is still more to learn, which, for the PDAer will be when they take their last breath. Despite this often tentative grasp on self-identity the PDAer will not accept outsiders defining who they are based on preconceived ideas, such as diagnostic criteria, race, gender, class, age etc… as mentioned before. Worthy of note, and ironically, there is the potential for the PDAer to dissociate and be open to influence and drawn into situations in search of this development of the self. This area of exploration for the PDAer can be the most profound and the most dangerous, but once they have enough experience to have a firmer grasp on the ‘self’ they can be a great source of knowledge and wisdom, mainly because their (re)search will have been so thorough. It will have combined lived experience, book and multi-media learning and will generally not venture into areas where they are unable to have lived the experience. That is not to say that they do not have an opinion on almost everything, they often do, as they are typically very contemplative individuals, but they will usually not claim to be a commentator, nevermind an authority, on that which they do not have first hand experience. Expectation and praise. This is so complex in the PDAer. It is rooted in perfectionism and RSD, on which there is lots written. The PDAer sees the need to meet the expectations of others and a direct threat to their freedom. They don’t want to commit to being the same way all the time or feeling s certain way in advance. If you say to the PDAer, ‘you are such an amazing friend,’ they will feel suffocated by the need to maintain that standard of behaviour. The question in the PDAers mind will be ‘so if I behave in a way that is crap and let you down, will I disappoint you and will you reject me?’ Sometimes it’s easier for the PDAer to keep people at a distance in order to manage the onslaught of demands to act a certain way or maintain friendship exchanges, even when they don’t feel like it. Often people see this as not being a good friend, when for the PDAer things like frequency of contact have no bearing on how they feel about a person. Often the PDAer will end up with very few people who are able to understand this about them, i.e. people who know their heart. This processing of expectation and praise can be applied to any relationship or setting and can be crippling to the PDAer. The need for structure and routine but defiance of the very notion. Because the PDAer often has an elusive or changeable sense of self or direction, in their life search and journey, structure and routine can help them to feel grounded. Ironically though, they abhor boring, stuffy, conventional, ways of being because they offer very little in the way of personal growth. Not only that the PDAer is quirky and queer by nature. However, there is often a misconception about being quirky or queer. Often ‘followers’ are found wearing outrageous clothing or belonging to alternative groups. You may find the PDAer lurking among them but you may also find the PDAer in very mainstream settings or with no outward expression of their quirks, such as piercings or tattoos. The quirky and queerness is more of a proclivity or propensity. They need to fulfil the need to laugh and get excited, and this will almost certainly be expressed through something extreme or outrageous. They have an innate understanding (or at least a very early understanding) that nobody knows why we are here. The enormity of the universe and existence makes for an overwhelming desire to just ‘go crazy,’ lighten things up and have a laugh to get through it all. Things which the PDAer will undoubtedly struggle with are romantic relationships, conventional employment, friendships, familial relationships, nonsensical and illogical rules or laws, sensory overload (as they are hyper-sensitive) and self (loving/loathing). That’s all for now and that’s my personal view informed by lived experience. There’s so much more to say on independence, control, need for certainty, shame, drive, ambition, creativity, performance, attention and much, much more. I don’t even know if it has anything to do with PDA but I seem to be nodding my head a lot when other people who call themselves PDA are talking their truth. Many of these ideas and observations have been made by me for many years now, certainly long before I ever heard of PDA, others much more recently and have been influenced by the literature and discourse on PDA, ADHD and autism, but only in as much as it relates to what I have lived. I realised I was ‘Aspergers’ in the 90s, but only because that was the closest definition of what I was (what was wrong with me, in the view of me and many others at the time) that was available. I have a diagnosis of ADHD and a diagnostic opinion of autism (basically, the DISCO without informant reports), which mentions PDA in the report, so I have decided to share my views on this basis alone. Also because my son is his own brand of neurodivergent too, but probably not essentially PDA  Nikola Duncan.