So what’s happening with ADHD in the UK these days? Yesterday I read an article in the Daily Mail – the headline was ‘A nation of Bad Parents’ According to the report from the organisation for economic co-operation and development, they had compared data from 30 different European countries and ranked Britain amongst the worst for health, lifestyles and school standards relative to public spending levels. Although the public spending on children is well above the average at more than £90,000 from birth to 18, the outcomes in terms of ‘risky behaviour’, (that is drinking, smoking and teenage pregnancy), in the UK performance are worse than other countries.

Now when we fit that profile to children with challenging needs like ADHD, then the picture becomes very bleak indeed…. Let’s go back that headline for a moment:

‘A nation of bad Parents’????

What neat sleight of hand is this? Public spending is not delivering the level of support necessary to support young people today – look around at our schools and social services for the evidence of this. The system is NOT supporting young people and their families in a productive and positive way that enables them to even succeed in society and  so what do they do….?

Print headlines that blame parents?

Isn’t it the parent’s money that is being put into a system that is failing their children here???

Shouldn’t ‘the system’ that is blaming parents be accountable to parents for misusing funding?

I actually feel that parents blame themselves for children’s behaviour unnecessarily, without the rest of society jumping on the bandwagon and pointing the finger.

Isn’t it about time  that the £10k per year, available to support a  ‘statemented’ child with ADHD in the UK, with behavioural issues in secondary schools was addressed? These are school environments that fail to provide the necessary therapeutic and appropriate learning environment for these children to succeed, and need to be held  more accountable for the level of support that they put in to support families coping with ADHD in the UK, not to mention the escalating percentage of other behavioural conditions?

Tags: ADHD ADHD UK

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