Tories gain another excuse to abuse the weakest and most vulnerable!

Breaking the chain already with a current news story but I think its worth pointing out. Essentially Ofsted (national school inspection body) has very conveniently for the government published a report today that lots of schools are stating that schools claim more children have special needs than actually do. That is entirely possible but it also means that funding for special needs children (which is higher than for other pupils) can be cut. In the aftermath of the cancellation of a lot of school building and repairs and the creation of "free" schools, all of which undermine the state school system one has to greet this latest possibility for cuts with some scepticism.

In addition I am reminded of the piece that I know I linked before but was probably back when I was on Buzz. It is Johann Hari's report from before the general election in which he looked at a Tory controlled council which was held up during the Tory election campaign as a model for what they wanted to do to the country. One of the things the council did to save money was find every possible excuse to cut funding for services to the needy and disabled for instance:

Each year since the Conservative council was elected, the pressure on the housebound has increased. Meals on Wheels brings one good, hot meal a day to people who can't get out. The council jacked up the charges for it by £527 a year – so half of the recipients had to cancel it. A local Labour councillor documented that the council rang up a 79-year-old woman with dementia, and when she seemed to say she didn't need any food, they cut off her meals.

Which does make me rather dubious about this sudden discovery that schools are getting more money than they should to help children with special needs.