Kent autism charity criticises councils special schools proposal
Autism South East are 'worried' about the potential changes.
An autism charity from Kent has criticised Kent County Council's proposals for the counties special needs schools.
The local authority is planning to change the admissions criteria, reducing the number of children eligible for SEN school places.
Instead, they will focus on giving future place to those with the most severe and complex needs.
As a result, they will likely send the children who don't meet the criteria and Tim Cook, director of Autism South East has expressed his worry about this.
He said: "Obviously there are financial constraint linked to this decision and those who are most in need support are going to be the ones who are the recipient of places in special schools, which is good.
"However, we are concerned that those who aren't offered special schools are supported as well as possible to ensure they thrive in mainstream environments.
"There are a number of autistic children who feel they aren't understood or supported in the mainstream environment.
"That leads to a huge increase in anxiety, mental health issues, self esteem issues and the ultimate consequence of that is very often they will become school refusers.
"This is when children will have such extreme anxiety and such an extreme aversion to school that they are physically and mentally unable to attend.
"It's not that they are just lying in bed refusing to get out, it's a real profound issue."
The plans would take effect from September 2026, if agreed, and from that date, apply to all pupils seeking a special school placement.
The consultation paper explain: “Special school places should be planned to provide education for children with the most complex levels of special educational need. However, over time Kent has become over-reliant on special school placements, both state-funded and private.
“This has led to the placement of some children in a special school, whose educational attainment levels are similar to or above that of children in mainstream schools, and whose needs could be met in mainstream schools.
“This also means that in Kent, we have more special schools and more children in special schools (private and statefunded) than other comparable local authorities.”.