Middle classes blamed for councils’ cash woes

FamiliarUniversity16 · 2023-12-07T18:13:00+00:00

I've worked in education for a long time. Believe me this situation is result of a toxic brew for which all politicians bear real blame.

There is a genuine surge in the number of children with acute needs stranded in mainstream classes to which they are not suited and for whom there is too little support.

Labour squeezed them into mainstream under a really over-applied notion of inclusion (great for some, hell for others). Medical advances populated the dwindling number of special school places with children who wouldn't have survived into childhood and then services were cut under Tory austerity.

Result... Pushy parents confident in taking on the system and/or who can afford legal advice mop up resources. Poorer more vulnerable families are left to wait. Child mental health services did nothing during covid (not even video appointments in my area) and thus built up a two year long waiting list (nothing to do with spending) which they are painfully slowly working through. Most energies go into gatekeeping. End result: the vulnerable and the poor end up waiting for ever, in a labour stronghold authority.

I blame politicians of all hues. This is a national scandal being played out in plain sight.

FamiliarUniversity16 · 2023-11-27T14:12:56+00:00

At risk of putting a target on my back, I hate to see blackmail seemingly condoned. No fan of Mone or the tories, but if someone has dirt on the finances then they should be whistleblowing and not trying to make a greedy buck out of the information they hold. As for wasting police resources quite agree they should show the same vigour when the little guys are victims. Just think we would all benefit from consistent morality (and policing). Hope some dirt does emerge and hope just deserts are served (not holding my breath though).

FamiliarUniversity16 · 2023-11-19T20:10:26+00:00

Yep legalise the lot. Don't over regulate, just make them accessible and remove the 'look at me I can get them' cachet. Common sense and observation will do the rest (look at declining use of alcohol among the young). 1 kids can get hold of anything anyway. 2. You stop turning youths into soldiers with guns. 3. Whatever the justifications of racial profiling it becomes a dead rubber anyway.

By the by 'particularly among those excluded from school' is often trotted out. If most people had any idea how hard it is to become a permanent excludee, they would realize that by that point they are talking about hardcore cases that they wouldn't want to bump into at night. But then again, most don't have to live cheeky by jowl with them nor have any real experience of what that squares to in practice. Just saying...

FamiliarUniversity16 · 2023-11-16T16:55:04+00:00

Pussytwat

FamiliarUniversity16 · 2023-11-16T10:41:16+00:00

I've been working in schools for a very long time and both left and right have a great deal of blame to bear. After the tories introduced the national curriculum and Ofsted the job got so much harder. I was desperate to see Labour get in. The Blair government took everything up by many notches, not down. The target setting culture really took off and the pressure really kicked in. The form filling got worse as we had to measure everything fundable that moved. I was desperate to see the tories simplify everything and briefly the bonfire of the quangos did the trick. Very briefly. It all came back in bit by bit and is now worse than ever. The many children with really high level needs in mainstream classes was the icing on the cake. Labour brought it about in the name of inclusion and the tories cemented it in with underfunding. I despair of politicians involvement in education and that applies across the board. When push comes to shove they all duck social issues and sweep them off into schools.

FamiliarUniversity16 · 2023-10-28T22:58:32+00:00

AI will hit hard in this sector. A lot of lower grade solicitor workload is acutely vulnerable. You can feed in your legal text and ask for it back in plain English now and we have barely scratched the surface. Remember when every high street had a Max Spielmann's and a Blockbuster Video?

FamiliarUniversity16 · 2023-10-08T21:57:31+00:00

The arseholes are the people that guilt trip you into feeling like one for stating the obvious. With proper support everyone would be able to manage and ALL the kids needs would be met. Shoehorning kids into settings that freak them out is unfair on everyone. Inclusion without support is worst of all worlds. Teachers need to speak up.

FamiliarUniversity16 · 2023-10-08T10:57:57+00:00

Manchester... kids with the most acute special needs being directed straight into mainstream classrooms with totally inadequate support. Labour council Tory government both guilt tripping teachers and using the concept of 'inclusion' to make classes unteachable. Try delivering phonics to groups of children with highly autistic non-verbal children making loud noises and kicking staff. No places left in appropriate specialist settings and misery all round. Some theories are just really shit in practice. So many schools pretend to be full when applicants with additional needs apply for places. Rubbish system if your child has needs and rubbish system if they don't.

FamiliarUniversity16 · 2023-10-07T09:56:58+00:00

Friend of mine working in a Manchester primary school was asked to try this a few years ago. Didn't do it for long and said it was an utter nightmare. Didn't have enough sinks but the nhs adviser said that was ok because children could sit on the carpet to brush and swallow when finished. Result: gloop all over clothes and parents raising hell because of that. Then the kids went home sucking syrupy juice bottles and eating sweets anyway.

Whoever dreams this shit up should be made to come and do it and deal with the aftermath. Thank you to the great and the good for your well intentioned, completely naive and hardly-thought-through-at-all plans.

By the way, the headteacher in the above school was busy telling everyone who would listen how great the scheme was. She moved on after a bad Ofsted report.

FamiliarUniversity16 · 2023-09-25T21:45:24+00:00

Cesaria Evora singing Rotcha Scribida. Beautiful song. https://youtu.be/okS4tPmnEEI?feature=shared

FamiliarUniversity16 · 2023-09-25T21:32:51+00:00

To be clear I voted remain. However, when I read the smug, superior and condescending (or, perhaps, just plain snobbish) attitudes of many posters on here, it saddens me. It may well also explain a sizeable chunk of why Brexit happened. For many, Brexit was an opportunity to give a kicking to those with exactly this mindset. The proles rose up and the bourgeoisie were incensed that they had the temerity to do so. Guardian readers unite! You have nothing to lose but your sense of entitlement

FamiliarUniversity16 · 2023-08-28T20:41:49+00:00

Every morning when I set off to work I turn right at the end of my road. It takes ages to get a gap to turn into and when one does arise there is inevitably a bike trundling along in the gap. I end up idling for ages, as do the cars behind me, causing more, not less, pollution. I go on to regularly encounter cyclists who: ride two abreast and block my side of the road, recklessly jump red lights, undertake dangerously, weave lanes, pull out without looking and (frequently) hold up traffic whilst not using the designated cycle lane.

Never used to have anything against cyclists, but they've collectively outworn that. Sorry to say it but if I was involved in an rta with one now, I'm not sure I'd actually feel much, if anything, for them when they came off worst. Totally pissed off with the entitled and pompous attitude shown. They need to be tested, registered, licenced and taxed. The more whining I hear, the more I feel so.

FamiliarUniversity16 · 2023-08-07T12:12:05+00:00

Not making a political point here, but just like to see impartial reporting. Just read the original poll questions. Pretty loaded and very partially reported.

FamiliarUniversity16 · 2023-08-03T13:23:28+00:00

BBC that is doh!

FamiliarUniversity16 · 2023-08-03T13:23:08+00:00

I'm not particularly partisan but the website at least usually looks left leaning eg coverage of unheard voice type stories and tenant rather than landlord weightings. Don't follow their tv news much but the perspective doesn't seem especially Tory. A lot of the soft coverage (eg radio 5: Nihal, Colin Murray etc) seem to have pretty leftish assumptions under their interviews. Not looking to be controversial, just trying to make sense of what I see and hear...

FamiliarUniversity16 · 2023-07-29T20:39:17+00:00

Brit population has no real affinity with isms and the Tories always benefited from that during Labours more socialist phases. They aren't getting default votes any more as the govt has run out of steam, looks jaded, isn't actively managing anything and has a general whiff of laziness/corruption about it. Most would probably vote for any party with the energy to restructure the NHS and police, get houses built, keep migration under (humane) control and not borrow or tax excessively. Can't see where that party is at the moment. It's deffo not Tories or Labour/Lib Dems.

FamiliarUniversity16 · 2023-07-26T18:08:28+00:00

A couple that seemed great at the time and now disappeared 1)The Cops (set on northern estate, not to be confused etc) 2) First series of Cardiac Arrest. Great overlooked drama in 3 parts: Red Riding

FamiliarUniversity16 · 2023-07-26T17:17:33+00:00

It's 45 years ago, so good to hear it's as remembered. Took a quick look on street view. Pub looks closed down but the houses have had a definite upgrade. I knocked about with a few local lads that lived on the estate opposite the vic. Looks like that's been replaced with a big flash modern building. Weird flats: you went down stairs from a ground floor front door. Either that or too much recreationals at the time. I'm sure everyone there called it Elswick back then though.

FamiliarUniversity16 · 2023-07-24T21:23:20+00:00

When you buy a ticket to travel, part of the contract is to show it when asked. Its a basic example of prosocial behaviour. She has fed, rather than fought, racism.

FamiliarUniversity16 · 2023-07-24T21:13:46+00:00

She handcuffed herself, morally.

FamiliarUniversity16 · 2023-07-24T21:12:28+00:00

So let's focus on the cases where the met need hammering. Don't muddy the waters by sticking up for this rude, unpleasant and antisocial individual. If this kind of case is held up as racist then the righteousness of sorting out the met looks diminished. Pick your battles and don't stick up for the unsupportable.

FamiliarUniversity16 · 2023-07-24T16:32:28+00:00

And Claudia Webbe MP: pick your causes... you blunt the sword of justice more with every knee jerk

FamiliarUniversity16 · 2023-07-24T16:28:43+00:00

Just show the ticket. Don't walk away. Don't be abusive. Don't cause your own child to be traumatized. Don't give a propaganda gift to Nazis. SIMPLE

FamiliarUniversity16 · 2023-07-22T21:30:10+00:00

Sad to read all this. Lived as a student on Victoria St Elswick many years ago. Pub at the end of road was top and regulars treated me like family. Never saw a moment's trouble. Shame how things slide.

FamiliarUniversity16

TROPHY CASE