With Credit Crunch, recession and society gripped in a mindset of fear, most families are feeling the impact. Children are the ones who are picking up the tab on this one – and guess what?

The very schools that we rely on to provide the level of support hat help children work their way through crisis times in their lives are laying off staff and local authorities are forced in to dissolving specialist teams and services that provide support for those most in need.

Many consultant specialists like myself, providing valuable services are no longer available as all funding has now gone into schools to pay for the services

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The trouble is schools have had to use that funding to cover other costs. Take for an example one quote I had earlier this year from a behaviour unit for specialist provision from a lady who was training with me as a HET therapist:

“By the way ‘A’ has had no night terrors since starting the programme.”

The results with this lady’s case studies were very encouraging and later this year I had an  email from her manager:

“Sorry I have not got back to you sooner. As you can see under enormous pressure at moment with staffing but also with the LA cutting budget dramatically. Am in meetings most of time at moment. Bottom line is Im not sure if I will be able to continue training as they are making such cutbacks. Its a shame but I know you will understand how radically things can change in our lives and we have to rethink and prioritise. The idea of ‘L’ and I doing this training was always a luxury which was great, but now with ‘L’ gone, budget down, short staffed, I have no time to give attention to the programme to do it justice.

Well I guess ‘A’ is starting to have night terrors again!

This is the tip of the ice berg!

Did you know that if your child has special behavioural needs and is on ‘Action Plus’ programmes in a secondary school in the UK – then that school is paid £10k a year to provide appropriate support for that child?

How is that being spent?

How much say do you have as a parent into how what that provision should be?

Where does that leave you when your child is excluded from school which impinges on your working life and more to the point – the schools who refuse admission to their school unless your child is on medication?

YOU have choice and YOU have a right to choose what you want!

Tags: ADHD Exclusion