Three out of four parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) have been forced to give up work, or cut their hours, Sky News has learned.
In a survey of more than 500 people, two out of five (40%) had to leave their jobs, and more than one in three (33%) reduced their hours.
Most said it was because there was a lack of local authority help, and a large proportion blamed not enough school support.
Some also said it was down to a lack of flexibility from their employer.
The survey, specially commissioned by Sky News with the charity Support Send Kids, found that mostly women were affected.
Abigail Bates had to give up her job when she found that the nursery her daughter Harriet was in “couldn’t meet her needs”.
Harriet, who is two years old, has autism, global development delay, and sensory processing disorder.
Abigail said leaving her job has affected her family financially but “…with nurseries not having the knowledge or training in special educational needs I can’t work”.
“That leaves me with no choice but to meet her needs myself.”
Harriet has autism, global development delay, and sensory processing disorder
She adds that it would be “lovely” to go to work which would be “a break in itself” but without the support available children are being “failed by the system”.
The number of special schools in England does not meet the rising demand of children with special educational needs and disabilities.
It means often children have to attend mainstream schools on reduced timetables, while others are waiting months, sometimes years, for special school places.
Harriet has been offered a special school place but it is only for three hours a day.
“Where can I get a job that’s going to take me for less than three hours because I have to go pick her up again?” she asks.
‘Withholding more places from children’
Caroline Withers, trustee of charity Support Send Kids, says access to special educational needs provision is being “gate kept” by local authorities.
“Budgets have been cut,” she says, “and then local authorities have entered into agreements with central government about the funding deficit they hold, and as part of those funding packages they’ve agreed to withhold more places from children”.
She adds that “the adversarial nature and withholding of support” in the system is “at the core of any reform”.
Caroline Withers says access to special educational needs provision is being ‘gate kept’ by local authorities
‘Huge social and economic effects’
Hannah Peaker, director of policy and advocacy for the New Economics Foundation, says the number of parents leaving work, because of a lack of specialist provision, is detrimental to the economy.
“We’ve been in a period of economic stagnation”, she says “…so to not take advantage of one of the highest returning investments you can make [in early years education] where all the evidence suggests you would get that back and more for an investment that would have huge social and economic effects, including for the families involved, it just seems odd not to pursue that.”
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She also states that not investing in early years education, considering the benefits to future job prospects and the economy, would be an act of “self-harm”.
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A Department for Education spokesperson described a “system unable to cope with the level of need” following “years of increasing pressure”.
In a statement, they said: “We want every child to have the best start in life and to give flexibility to parents, which is why we’re rolling out more government-funded early years places, breakfast clubs in every primary school and wraparound childcare before and after primary school.
“We are also committed to putting inclusion and early intervention for children with SEND at the heart of the education system, and have already started that work by providing new online training to early educators to help them identify and support children with SEND.”