Letter published in The Guardian
- 1 day ago
- 1 min read
Stephen's letter in response to the media coverage surrounding the Government's SEND White Paper was published in The Guardian on 27th February.
Sir/Madam,
The notion that independent Special Educational Needs (SEN) schools are merely profit-driven ventures exploiting local authorities is a simplistic and inaccurate political narrative.
Our SEN provision, structured as a not-for-profit Community Interest Company (CIC), was founded directly from my personal experience as a parent navigating a failing system. Our motivation was not "profit before children"; in fact, our pricing is significantly below the anticipated government-set fee cap.
We opened to fill a critical gap: families were exhausted, and children with complex Social, Emotional, and Mental Health (SEMH) needs were being left without options.
While our placements are necessarily more costly than those in maintained schools, this is directly tied to the reality of the young person's requirements. High adult-to-child ratios and essential specialist therapeutic input are not optional extras, they are non-negotiable requirements for effective care. There is simply no cheap alternative for quality specialist support that yields positive outcomes.
If the maintained sector received appropriate funding, we would welcome the redundancy of our own services. Until that time, grouping all independent providers with purely commercial operators serves only to conceal the true crisis: a surging demand for services coupled with chronic underinvestment. If policymakers genuinely want to reduce the reliance on independent schools like ours, they must move past the rhetoric and adequately fund the mainstream system so that families and local councils are not forced to seek support elsewhere.
Stephen Simpson
Head, Forest Schooling UK CIC
