Ashton encourages enterprising thinking for SEN

Released 12/09/2011

Entrepreneur Robert Ashton states that he believes that enterprising fund-raising strategies will be crucial in the mainstream sustainability of SEN students

Recently, special needs provision has largely fallen on the shoulders of charities, voluntary organisations and councils

Robert Ashton, one of the UK’s most successful social entrepreneurs, has stated that enterprising thinking is crucial for the continuation of Special Educational Needs (SEN) students within mainstream education, if current funding policy continues.

Ashton highlighted the need for parents and professionals to think more innovatively in order to acquire the funding to sustain SEN students in schools – criticising the system’s current perception which funds SEN students.

“Big Society is about equality of opportunity and fairness.” Said Ashton, “Youngsters with special educational needs deserve the help they need to reach their potential in life – Bureaucrats need to understand that the better the support a child gets at school, the less they’re likely to cost to support when they grow up.”

As a co-founder of the “Towards a positive Future” conference, Ashton plans to increase the delegates’ debate concerning the challenge in ensuring that SEN students do not get lost in mainstream education and that the funding vital for the additional classroom support (speech therapy, physiotherapy etc) they require is not lost.

“Only bullies hit weak kids; surely funders of SEN provision don’t want to be seen as bullies, do they?” Said Ashton.

Presently, SEN funding is not ring-fenced, meaning that special needs provision has largely fallen on the shoulders of charities, voluntary organisations and councils.

These issues have been extenuated by the recent figures released by Kent County Council, following a freedom of information request by head teacher Peter Read, who argues that children with learning difficulties are far more likely to be excluded from school than those without.

The figures released demonstrate that out of the 168 excluded students last academic year, 22 were SEN students and an additional 68 had learning difficulties – meaning that more than half of all students excluded last year had some form of learning difficulty.

See more news stories like this