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Matt Keer

@captaink77.bsky.social
629 followers 238 following 500 posts

Mostly SEND, mostly for @spcialndsjungle.bsky.social

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Matt Keer
Catriona Moore @catrionamoore.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Here goes: my new Substack, called Without Words. First post: there's no standard word in English for a parent whose child has died. Who and what even are we? I don't know where this might go, but do subscribe if you'd like to follow along. withoutwordsjournal.substack.com/p/there-isnt...
withoutwordsjournal.substack.com
There isn’t a word
What are you when your child has died?
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Reposted by Matt Keer
Jo Hutchinson @jojohutchinson.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
Critical shortage of Ed Pychologists and lack of plan to expand training numbers puts #SEND reforms (Experts At Hand) at risk of being undeliverable.
theguardian.com
English councils need to hire 1,400 more educational psychologists, says report
Rising demand from children with special needs means the £140m required could come from government grants
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Matt Keer @captaink77.bsky.social · 28/03/2026
“Slowly but surely, the state is retreating from individual entitlement-based support for disabled people across both employment and education, reframing it as a provider responsibility, without increasing provider funding, hoping we don’t notice”
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Reposted by Matt Keer
Schools Week @schoolsweek.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
Whitehall is continuing to tighten its grip on councils’ SEND functions by forcing them to agree to prioritise mainstream specialist places or face having capital cash withheld schoolsweek.co.uk/send-whitehall-to…
schoolsweek.co.uk
DfE leverages capital cash to force council mainstream focus
Town halls will be required to sign deal on how to spend £860m of high needs capital cash
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Reposted by Matt Keer
Special Needs Jungle @spcialndsjungle.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
NEW POST: @captaink77.bsky.social explains the Government's carrot and stick funding strategy as it steamrollers over dissent to its SEND reforms, without waiting for evidence or consultation www.specialneedsjungle.com/c...
image shows a scary large man-carrot holding a cudgel, standing by a steamroller driven by a bureaucrat that is forging ahead crushing papers with "evidence" and "data" written on them
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Reposted by Matt Keer
Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
New from me Things Can Get Worse. Why I'm so worried about the SEND reform direction of travel. bennewmark.wordpress.com/2026/03/26/t...
Screenshot of text from the linked blog post.
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Reposted by Matt Keer
RR @rlrossi64.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
Thread #SEN : I’ve been contemplating the SEN reforms. With a limited budget, how will government ensure all schools have equal & fair access to Experts at Hand? The single Case Study cited as an example of EaH in practice has given me cause to think. It’s screenshotted below with link in ALT text /
extract from SEND reform : braille and large print available by emailing SENDreform.CONSULTATION@education.gov.uk.  This is Case Study 8 - Experts at Hand Extract from SEN Reform - Case Study 8. Braille/large print available. Link in first photo.
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Matt Keer @captaink77.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
Two-thirds of special schools (inc NMSS) over capacity ~11,000 pupils over capacity, special school places in the capital pipeline won't be enough Median number of spare places per school, in special schools that aren't over capacity = 4
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Reposted by Matt Keer
Schools Week @schoolsweek.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
💸 Investigation: Councils are spending up to four times as much per pupil on private special schools as state special schools, with private placement costs growing twice as fast over four years schoolsweek.co.uk/soaring-cost-of-p…
schoolsweek.co.uk
Revealed: Private special school costs soar as curbs planned
Findings come as the government gears up to rein in spending on private special schools
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Matt Keer @captaink77.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
‘often by exploiting parents’ would be true if 99% of cases that reach a SENDIST tribunal hearing were meritless… …but 99% of these cases are successful, & there’s no meaningful data on what difference paid legal help makes to those outcomes: most parents are unrepresented
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Matt Keer @captaink77.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
This definitely tracks with the way that SEND capital grants are being spent: lots on temporary / modular buildings, sometimes not even on the main school site because space is so tight www.specialneedsjungle.com/exclusive-la...
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Reposted by Matt Keer
Schools Week @schoolsweek.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
Exclusive: More than half of free specialist school projects put on hold by the government are set to go ahead, as councils turn down alternative funding offers schoolsweek.co.uk/more-than-half-of…
schoolsweek.co.uk
Over half of specialist free school projects to go ahead
Councils faced a choice between a new school and accepting alternative funding for SEND expansion
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Reposted by Matt Keer
Special Needs Jungle @spcialndsjungle.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
NEW POST: @captaink77.bsky.social & @tanialt.bsky.social have some words about answering the Government’s 39 Step White Paper SEND consultation, including their—and your—use of AI www.specialneedsjungle.com/3...
image shows long steps upwards with the consultation at the top colourised in mauve
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Reposted by Matt Keer
Schools Week @schoolsweek.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
Some councils will remain in financial trouble even after the government intervenes on SEND deficits – and could face clamour from families and schools to get statutory support before reforms come into effect schoolsweek.co.uk/will-reforms-fix-…
schoolsweek.co.uk
Will reforms fix the SEND funding crisis?
Councils may face a rise requests for EHCPs to secure special school places ahead of the reforms
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Reposted by Matt Keer
Special Needs Jungle @spcialndsjungle.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
NEW POST: We take a close look at the proposed “Specialist Provision Packages” and discover they’re more of a Trojan horse, reducing the #EHCP rights of children with SEND. www.specialneedsjungle.com/s...
image shows a sepia colourised trojan horse image
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Reposted by Matt Keer
Jim Lauder @mrjlauder.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
I wrote about the SEND proposals in the White Paper, and my view of how we got here politically. V personal - no one's views but mine. open.substack.com/pub/jimlaude...
open.substack.com
The White Paper
There are some good bits, but also an approach that isn't going to work for my family
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Reposted by Matt Keer
Mr D Brian @dbrian2.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
Children's deaths due to failures of state provision should be a massive story.
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Matt Keer @captaink77.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
A tale of two Times SEND stories on X, the everything app: same paper, same journalist, 48 hours apart Story about spending on equine therapy - 136,000 views, 111 RTs, 95 comments, many foam-flecked Story about 20+ system-induced teen suicides - 4,000 views, 30 RTs, 7 mostly scornful comments
Story 1 by Max Kendix of The Times, tweet posted at 14:35 on Friday 20 February

Councils forced to spend £20k a year for a single child to receive horse therapy to help with special educational needs

EHCPs used for therapy alpacas, dogs, angling, and aerial arts. Costs of horse-related spending alone is £1.9m across 22 councils this year, for 119 casesSecond story by Max Kendix, tweet posted on 22 February 

Times investigation: They had special educational needs. The state failed them so badly that they took their own lives

We uncover the stories of 20 young people whose recent deaths are blamed on failures by schools, councils and hospitals to give them the support they needed
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Matt Keer @captaink77.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
There’ll be lots of references to different pots of SEND funding today: some new, some not. Here’s a table showing recent announcements

Inclusive Mainstream Fund
E1.6bn
2026-2029
Broad inclusive provision funding


Experts at Hand
E1.8bn
2026-2029 LA-commissioned specialist
support services (eg EP, SALT, OT)


Best Start Family Hubs (SEND
Offer)
£200m
Unclear Equip hubs with SEND support /
outreach offer


Teacher Training for SEND
£200m
2026-2029 Training course across multiple
stas of SEND for all teaching


High Needs Provisional Capital
Allocation
£3.74bn
2025-2030 SEND capital funding (infrastructure, buildings) to create around 60,000 "specialist places," plus "inclusion bases" for
all secondary schools
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Reposted by Matt Keer
Special Needs Jungle @spcialndsjungle.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
NEW POST: Children died. The system looked away... On the day the Government seeks to slash the support rights of most neurodivergent children, accountability group Measure What Matters publishes evidence of the lethal cost of unmet need Part 1 www.specialneedsjungle.com/c...
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Matt Keer @captaink77.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
Breakdown of the £4 billion figure leading headlines… …plus some extra work assigned to special schools that doesn’t appear to have any earmarked funding
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Matt Keer @captaink77.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
I’m only a simple SEND parent who feels things. I don’t understand big complicated policy concepts like ‘perverse incentives’ or ‘unintended consequences’ But if you make pledges like this, & you don’t implement your reforms for 3-4 years, how exactly do you expect people to respond from 2026-2030?
Excerpt from Observer article

Whitehall sources stressed that the Send reforms would be phased in slowly and that the initial priority would be to improve facilities and support in mainstream schools.

“It’s not at this stage about taking anything away from anybody,” one official said. “Every child who is in a special school will stay there and every child with a plan will keep it.”
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Matt Keer @captaink77.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
“remember, there are always two sides to a debate”
Photo of the outside of a building, with a sign reading “GRADUATE SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM”Photo of a bearded guy in a library, surrounded by books on his desk, concentrating hardStock photo of a university degree graduation ceremony, with mortar boards and scrolls raised highFacebook journo request 

***SENSITIVE SUBJECT***

£150 / ANONYMOUS INTERVIEW: MUM WHO'S CONCERNED HER CHILD'S SCHOOL BUDGET IS BEING SPENT ON PUPILS WITH SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS 



This is a sensitive and divisive subject, but please keep comments civil and remember there are always two sides to a debate.



Are there other, more important things you feel the school should be spending money on? For example, urgent repairs to the building/s, vastly improved food for the children, more books, computers, sports equipment etc.



If you'd be happy to chat to me anonymously, please get in touch at [email redacted] with more details and your phone number. 



Key details will be altered to protect your identity and you will have copy approval.



https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15551307/Town-hall-spending-support-special-needs-pupils-SEND-soars-nearly-two-thirds-six-years-fastest-rise-wealthier-areas-report-finds-prompting-calls-urgent-overhaul.html
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Reposted by Matt Keer
Special Needs Jungle @spcialndsjungle.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
NEW POST: SNJ’s @captaink77.bsky.social has dug behind DfE research data into #EHCP creation times. He’s found some “deranged” numbers that can’t be real—but does the government really care as long as it gets what it wants? www.specialneedsjungle.com/s... #SaveOurChildrensRights #SENDSky
image has the graphic with an overlay of cracked glass on a peach background
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Reposted by Matt Keer
Schools Week @schoolsweek.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
'Mainstream school appears 13 times in the new DfE estates strategy. Special school doesn’t appear once' schoolsweek.co.uk/dear-dfe-dont-mar…
schoolsweek.co.uk
Dear DfE, don't marginalise special schools and AP!
In their quest for inclusion, ministers must not push specialist settings to the margins
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Reposted by Matt Keer
Special Needs Jungle @spcialndsjungle.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
NEW POST: We’ve had a few #SEND funding-related announcements recently. SNJ’s @captaink77.bsky.social explains the cash splash: What it means and if it’ll improve provision… www.specialneedsjungle.com/s... #Disability #SENDSky
images shows floating £20 notes over water splashing and the graphs from the article
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Reposted by Matt Keer
Catriona Moore @catrionamoore.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
It's a year since my extraordinary daughter died unexpectedly. Re-sharing her obituary because it matters so much that the world understands who children w/ SEND actually are - especially right now when their right to the support they need in education is at risk. www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
theguardian.com
Amy Reyes obituary
Other lives: Music-loving teenager who was a consummate communicator, despite the restrictions imposed on her by Rett syndrome
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Matt Keer @captaink77.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
“Under one plan discussed in government last year, the indicative threshold above which a council would fund a specific pupil would rise from around £6,000 to upwards of £40,000, £50,000 or £60,000” If implemented, that would probably impact 90%-95% of kids who currently have EHCPs
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Reposted by Matt Keer
Samantha Booth @samanthajbooth.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
Major news on SEND funding this evening… All the details here ⬇️⬇️
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Matt Keer @captaink77.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
Looks like Whitehall will absorb 90% of local authority cumulative DSG deficits racked up until March 2026 [conditions apply] That'll be roughly £6 billion absorbed, with a remaining ~£600m for LAs to find down the back of the sofa before April 2028
Extract from local government financial settlement

2. Special Educational Needs and Disabilities
(SEND): Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG)
Deficits
2.1.1 The government is committed to supporting local authorities with their DSG deficits as
we transition to a reformed SEND system. We will introduce support for local authorities in
phases. The first phase will address historic deficits accrued up to the end of 2025‑26. All local
authorities with a SEND deficit will be eligible in 2026-27 to receive a High Needs Stability
Grant covering 90% of their High Needs-related DSG deficit accrued up to the end of 2025-
26.
2.1.2 We will confirm the detail on further support for deficits arising in 2026‑27 and 2027‑28
before the accounting override set out in Regulation 30L of The Local Authorities (Capital
Finance and Accounting) (England) Regulations 2003 (“the Statutory Override”) ends from 1
April 2028. From 2028-29, SEND spending will be covered by the overall government DEL
budget, meaning local authorities are not expected to fund future SEND costs from general
funds, once the Statutory Override ends at the end of 2027-28
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Reposted by Matt Keer
Schools Week @schoolsweek.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
With a white paper expected within weeks, leaks to national newspapers offer only a piecemeal glimpse at what might happen with SEND reform. But in the background, local officials have been quietly instructed to start the wheels in motion now for a reformed system… schoolsweek.co.uk/revealed-dfe...
schoolsweek.co.uk
DfE quietly orders councils to begin SEND reforms locally
Whitehall tells councils not to wait for the white paper or further info on deficits to get started
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Matt Keer @captaink77.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
The least insightful, least accurate, and most annoying SEND label my kids & their cohort ever received? That label was ‘low-ability,’ bestowed by a team of Ofsted inspectors www.politicshome.com/news/article...
politicshome.com
Ex-Ofsted Chair Amanda Spielman Interview: SEND, Gentle Parenting And Ruth Perry
Conservative peer and former Ofsted chair Baroness Spielman talks to Sienna Rodgers about the SEND crisis, her time at the regulator and why some p...
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Matt Keer @captaink77.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
If they curb rights to statutory SEND provision, then curbing legal appeal rights 👇 will be part of the policy package too - they’ll want to choke off ‘perverse incentives’ OTOH, the source here doesn’t understand SENDIST’s remit & approach: the decision-making process is precisely what it examines
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Matt Keer @captaink77.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
The Door to Hell in Turkmenistan: a generation-spanning toxic fire visible from space, ignited by unaccountable specialists, left to fester for decades by feckless bureaucrats, is now close to being extinguished Whereas this tyre fire, on the other hand, is not 👇 www.ft.com/content/e1aa...
ft.com
Ministers set to delay key elements of special needs education reforms until next parliament
Delaying implementation is seen as a way to avoid a repeat of last year’s backbench rebellion
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Special Needs Jungle @spcialndsjungle.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
NEW POST: “We are living on a knife-edge” @sharonlsmith.bsky.social reviews new #SENCo research that sounds the alarm about the high cost of under-funded and under-resourced mainstream inclusion www.specialneedsjungle.com/k... #SENDCo #Disability #SENDSky #SaveOurChildrensRights
Image shows a harrassed looking professional behind a laptop, colourised in yellow
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Matt Keer @captaink77.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
“I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of peace”
Album cover by French grindcore band Anal Chaos. The album is called ‘An Evening with Anal Chaos’

The four band members are in 1970s lounge suits, standing awkwardly on a stage. The three men are wearing white suits with red shirts, the woman is wearing a red suit with a white shirt.
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ae @aelkus.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
yes but now all of these executives have a hungry ghost that will do whatever they want bsky.app/profile/jsla...
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Natalya D @natalyad.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
A lovely and honest thread about one deaf person's experience of a cochlear implant.
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Special Needs Jungle @spcialndsjungle.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
NEW EXCLUSIVE: Our hero, @captaink77.bsky.social has followed the money via FOIs, discovering LAs largely ignored the Government’s “strong recommendations” to spend SEND cash on mainstream places: www.specialneedsjungle.com/e... #SEND #EHCP #saveourchildrensrights #Disability #SENDSky
image shows a copy of the infographic in the post (accessible pdf in post)
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Matt Keer @captaink77.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
Provisional local govt financial settlement & DSG/SEND deficits: £3.8bn now, est £14bn in 2028 “We will provide further detail on our plans to support local authorities with historic & accruing [DSG] deficits & conditions for accessing such [unspecified] support later in the Settlement process.”
Front of an evangelical church, displaying a large sign in white lettering on a blue background:

JESUS CHRIST THE SAME YESTERDAY, TODAY AND FOREVER
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Special Needs Jungle @spcialndsjungle.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
On SNJ Today: @captaink77.bsky.social crunched numbers on the DfE's £3 billion #SEND funding extravaganza. Is it new money? And how you can set them against the 5 reform principles to ask the right questions in the "National SEND Conversation": www.specialneedsjungle.com/g... #Disability #SENDSky
image shows graphics of a school and people talking online and in person with question marks.
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Matt Keer @captaink77.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
This looks like a continuation of a SEND capital grant pipeline (HNPCA) that's been in operation since 2021. If so, it's being funded at a slightly lower rate in real terms than the previous government did under the 2021 Spending Review
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Matt Keer @captaink77.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
Running the numbers, looks like ~2,500 planned special school places have definitely been axed, with a further ~6,900 places subject to an undefined CeX-style trade-in
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Matt Keer @captaink77.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
‘Purple Hayes’ was right there
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Matt Keer @captaink77.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
Two things from the DfE SEND 'conversation' docs: - The 'conversation' will be about five single-word principles, & ideas raised by stakeholders - not the Department's own specific proposals - In a novel take on the word 'conversation,' the DfE may use AI to parse written responses from families
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Special Needs Jungle @spcialndsjungle.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
NEW POST: In an SNJ exclusive, @rachel.stopsafetyvalve.uk highlights how ADHD and Autism “Right to Choose” assessments have been paused in at least nine NHS areas, as ICBs tell their contracted private providers to stop offering new appointments www.specialneedsjungle.com/a...
image shows a aeated medical profesional leaning forward talking to a young girl with a long darn braid, colourised in green
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Matt Keer @captaink77.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
This article's a mess - largely because comms around the funding change has been a mess Allocation of the educational component of SEND funding is the ultimate responsibility of the DfE, and always has been Thread (apologies in advance for the 'stop getting Bond wrong!' energy)
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Matt Keer @captaink77.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
Yeah, they're fucked. Proportionately, BCP has a bigger DSG deficit than anyone other LA in England, by miles But these guys seem to have fucked up in a uniquely bad way, in comparison to close statistical neighbours: BCP is under a DfE statutory direction to improve its SEND services
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Matt Keer @captaink77.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
At most, 1.4% of pupils in mainstream independent schools have an EHCP Pupils from mainstream independent schools make up 1% of local authority EHCP caseloads These percentages have not changed in years
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Shaun Lintern @shaunlintern.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
🚨 Exclusive: A damning inquiry will reveal tomorrow how NHS leaders ignored warnings over unsafe hearing tests 12 years ago leaving 300 children permanently disabled. @camillakingdon.bsky.social labels it a "disaster" and calls for a change in leadership: www.thetimes.com/article/2f23...
thetimes.com
Hundreds of deaf children misdiagnosed in NHS ‘disaster’
Many were wrongly given the all-clear when they needed hearing aids or cochlear implants, permanently stunting their development
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