The report, Learning the Hard Way: A Strategy for Special EducationalNeeds, issued by the think-tanks Policy Exchange and CentreForum lastweek, advocated putting parents at the centre of policy and educationdecisions. Suggestions included giving them personal budgets to managetheir child's SEN provision and replacing the current schools' admissionpolicy with a first come, first served method.
But Steve Broach, campaign manager at Every Disabled Child Matters, saidthe report over-prioritised parents and under-prioritised the directviews of children. He also urged caution over the proposal to turn SENstatements into personal budgets for parents.
"If you devolve funding to parents it creates a huge commissioningchallenge and puts a lot of pressure on parents to make difficultdecisions," he said.
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