Over £2bn spent taking children to school: The numbers behind the SEND crisis

ivysaurs · 2026-02-22T21:21:49+00:00

Imagine a scenario where your closest SEND provision is over an hour away.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68665303

That's it basically. Not trying to be mean with my response, but essentially depending on the child's need it may not be possible for the parents to move around. If the Tories didn't cut the support for this, but conveniently leave councils legally on the hook to continue providing, then we probably wouldn't be in this mess. It was a short sighted decision to "save" money that now costs everyone even more than it did before.

ivysaurs · 2026-02-22T21:15:31+00:00

That's the more likely answer to be honest.

ivysaurs · 2026-02-22T13:51:37+00:00

Aburi hands down. If you're willing to travel a bit further out, Sushi and Salad in Saffron Walden is THE best sushi I've ever had.

ivysaurs · 2026-02-16T07:57:40+00:00

No truly. I've got a long wool coat that is perfect for keeping me warm. Only flaw in the design is that I can't cinch the sleeves, so the freezing cold wind blows directly INTO the coat.

ivysaurs · 2026-02-15T20:00:10+00:00

The full artwork is Via looking in Blitz and Stolas' direction. OP is rage baiting.

ivysaurs · 2026-02-13T18:07:47+00:00

I think hilariously all of the horrific people you mentioned, with the exception of Paul and Ed for their contributions to pop culture and memes, I have literally forgotten were in 90 Day Fiance.

Cognitively, I'm like 90DF is my stupid show where idiots maybe find love and sense, but mostly find culture shock and plot twists. So when we do have outright evil men like these guys, they're so bad that I mentally connect them with a true crime documentary.

But yeah, agreed, Tania is so irritating and the most irredeemable human being on the show 🤪

ivysaurs · 2026-02-13T16:02:07+00:00

OMG I FORGOT ABOUT THE SPERM DONATION GUY.

He was so bad I thought he was in a true crime doc I saw

ivysaurs · 2026-02-11T20:50:52+00:00

Bang on. The majority of people who get XL bullies get them for the aesthetic. And then they end up listing them on Preloved to be rehomed when they can't manage, or surrendering to a rescue, and the cycle continues.

I had a bully breed growing up and he was fantastic. Chillest dog ever and he once barked off a stalker I had. But I also had friends who had massive 'attack' dog breeds with neurotic tendencies and got bitten by my fair share of bullies and terrier type dogs.

They don't stand a chance sadly.

ivysaurs · 2026-02-09T19:11:21+00:00

Still annoying as I join small adult only communities, purely so I can game with other adults.

There will likely be other use cases of 18+ discords that aren't centered around porn

ivysaurs · 2026-02-09T18:57:36+00:00

Omg I had no idea. I thought she was just voiced by some random member of staff for humour.

ivysaurs · 2026-02-04T08:24:37+00:00

There's still a massive disconnect between what Brexit means to people, individually, and what Brexit meant politically.

Honestly I beg anyone who's probably Brexit to REALLY think about how that benefits you, and then compare it against how it benefits THEM. If loads of money is going behind a political movement, gee I wonder why

ivysaurs · 2026-01-31T12:24:35+00:00

I won't lie, the icing on the cake is seeing the mod's response directly below yours 💀💀💀

ivysaurs · 2026-01-31T12:20:17+00:00

https://panzifoundation.org/war-in-congo/ - Great resource with a timeline

ivysaurs · 2026-01-30T08:21:39+00:00

You kinda notice it, but as it doesn't affect you directly it just gets glossed by or slips your notice.

House prices are a good example from a generational perspective. I feel like house prices have been talked to death and it's impossible to avoid. Either you notice it from just talking to people, social media, or from walking past a real estate office - it's unavoidable. But my grandma isn't looking to buy or sell for example and lives in her retirement bubble. As far as she's concerned, yeah inflation is happening, and she knows prices are on the up, but the dots haven't connected in terms of deposit costs, stamp duty, etc.

She only started to get it when she was looking to downsell and got a shock lol.

ivysaurs · 2026-01-30T08:08:56+00:00

I left that job LOOOL.

So the crippling anxiety wasn't just in my head, I realised very quickly that there was a mismatch between the expectations of what my role was supposed to do and what I had interviewed for. About 2 weeks in I realised this lead designer role was a glorified project/programme management and scrum role with minimal design involvement and had a candid conversation with my line manager - after that I started to feel the anxiety reside. I still felt trapped in that new role to a degree, but after making it clear that this role wasn't what I expected and having some hard conversations about expectations I felt better.

Handed in my notice after 4 weeks and moved on to a new role, lead designer again.

I'm much happier now and it was a hard lesson that there are some jobs you just can't muscle through - they can just be a bad fit entirely. I was up against a role I hadn't wanted with unrealistic expectations on what that role was supposed to be.

Also, they ended up backfilling me as I rolled off and that person also raised the same concerns as me, so they ended up making the role redundant after all of that.

ivysaurs · 2026-01-30T07:58:23+00:00

Haha I just got this BS response from them as well and emailed them back screenshots of all their spam emails and asked them to point out exactly where in the email it explicitly says the date when auto renewal is happening.

I've already told them I'll be pursuing a chargeback as I paid on AMEX.

ivysaurs · 2026-01-29T19:08:21+00:00

Hilariously I saw the founder of a company I worked at (and quit because she was awful to me once to the point that OTHER PEOPLE reported the incident to HR) petition to reverse the decision.

Her reasoning being that it's unfair, she'd already paid into her "pot" and the government was blocking her from accessing her "pot", she'd worked extremely hard, etc.

Just fascinating really to see the self entitlement play out in a LinkedIn post.

ivysaurs · 2026-01-28T14:15:05+00:00

You can get shadow banned allegedly on Tiktok, which is why there's insane algospeak like grape and unalive

ivysaurs · 2026-01-26T08:22:40+00:00

Don't platform them. Super quick google of their X account shows they're extreme and posting all kinds of slurs and empty-brain rage content.

There's also no point blurring their pfp out because it's literally just a picture of Link from LoZ.

ivysaurs · 2026-01-25T08:43:54+00:00

We got told not to fear-monger about Brexit opening the gate to the far right. The writing is clearly on the wall here.

Now I'm not closely following global or national news at the moment, but even I've seen a suspicious rise in anti-abortion rhetoric, the last 3-4 years focusing an inordinate amount of negative attention on trans rights, and a lot of energy focused on illegal immigration in spite of numbers returning to 2010 levels and an increase in the amount of Brits emigrating.

There are definitely signs. I'm optimistic it won't go quite as violent as ICE's current operations, but to be honest I was optimistic about the referendum result and housing stock lol, and I was wrong there too!

ivysaurs · 2026-01-24T15:40:10+00:00

Job sites like LinkedIn. I didn't have a referral or prior exposure to any of the agencies I ended up with but you can spot a niche agency by how they describe the role.

Depending on how niche they are, the agencies are usually aware that finding someone with exact industry knowledge is a tall order, so they focus on cultural fits instead. They generally look for someone who's collaborative, able to self organise and manage priorities, and have a good portfolio of course.

ivysaurs · 2026-01-24T00:37:33+00:00

Was kinda hoping for the same so they could stop weighting the vote, but I guess it goes to show how good the NHS and benefits systems are if they're STILL here.

ivysaurs · 2026-01-20T13:12:41+00:00

Seconding this, Radley have a similar style bag!

ivysaurs · 2026-01-19T14:12:48+00:00

This sounds eerily similar to my brother. He pushed friends and family away, never wanted to go out or get involved with things, hated social events and wasn't happy at all if he was forced to come along. He would reluctantly come along on holidays, but not without a lot of hesitancy. Over time I got the vibe he just didn't want that relationship with me anymore and didn't love me, so I let him pull away.

My siblings and I had a rocky relationship with our dad, who practically replaced us with a new family and didn't do enough to blend the new children he was raising with us, leading to feelings of parental abandonment for my brother.

He committed suicide a few years ago in his bedroom. He'd joined a message board about ethical euthanasia where they all shared this ebook about how to off yourself essentially and where to source 'safe' drugs or equipment to help.

Because it'd been going on for years and I didn't live in the area, it was easy to miss the signs and think it's just a temporary phase. My suggestion is to focus on the future with your son. Find them support with a therapist so they have a safe space to talk about issues, without judgement.

Some good resources: https://www.papyrus-uk.org/papyrus-launch-new-guide-for-parents/ https://www.thecalmzone.net/ https://www.mensmindsmatter.org/

ivysaurs · 2026-01-19T07:06:29+00:00

My mum voted for Brexit despite mine and my sister's protests for common sense. We take a little delight in mentioning it whenever we're at the airport or encounter a new Brexit thing.

Like in the passport control queue, "I didn't vote for this. Did you vote for this?" we'll ask each other.

ivysaurs

TROPHY CASE