Former health secretary wants to see an overhaul of special educational needs and disabilities system in England
Children and young people are being overdiagnosed with mental health conditions in a society that has lost sight of the reality that child development is “messy and uneven”, the former health secretary Jeremy Hunt has said.
He is the latest senior figure to add his voice to calls for a radical overhaul of the special educational needs and disabilities (Send) system in England.
Hunt said in his half decade as health secretary, he witnessed “an alarming escalation” in the prevalence and severity of mental ill-health among young people, as well as significant increases in diagnoses of neurodevelopmental conditions.
In a foreword to a new report by the centre-right thinktank Policy Exchange, Hunt said: “Mental ill-health and neurodiversity now accounts for more than half of the post-pandemic increase we have seen in claimants of disability benefit. Spending on Send provision has sky-rocketed and risks the financial sustainability of local government.
