Re John Harris’s article (The culture wars are coming for children with special needs – Labour must tread carefully, 29 December), the special educational needs and disabilities (Send) problem does not lie in the legal framework, which from the 1981 Education Act on, through several iterations in law, has provided a legal entitlement for children with Send to receive the provision required to meet those needs.
The problem is that the body assessing children’s needs and responsible for specifying needs in contracts (ie education, health and care plans) – contracts that must also specify the kind and amount of provision required to meet those needs – is one and the same body that is going to have to pay for the provision.
