iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Not my LA's, they haven't released theirs yet, but Hackney's worryingly talks about gatekeeping needs assessments, which would potentially be illegal on the timelines the plan covers. All the plans are complete fiction anyway, so I'm not sure whether to be worried about them or not

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

The reason it’s not international is because it’s about 6 minutes by train from st pancras. Running international trains would have no impact on Heathrow and there’s no evidence it would increase passengers through the tunnel.

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Even that's not strictly true. Everything is pretty much needs based as a child, not diagnosis based for neurodiversity. My son doesn't get anything his non-diagnosed but clearly autistic peers are getting.

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Was going to type out a long response but ultimately it boils down to a lot of labour leader are just evil/thick/both. If you want to find out who’s incentivising them, maybe talk to the DfE who have created a scenario where it would frankly be immoral to not pursue a diagnosis.

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

The children in £62k independent placements are mostly there because mainstream already didn't work for them. A unit in a mainstream school doesn't change that.

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

So naturally the £3bn is going on units in mainstream schools instead. I can only assume DfE doesn't think independent schools are quite such poor value as it keeps saying. Otherwise the logical thing to do is start a special school building programme.

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

"The Department for Education estimates the average cost per place in independent settings was £62,000 in 2024-25, compared with £24,000 in state schools." On those numbers, a new special school (~£97k a place to build) pays for itself in under three years, then saves millions.

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Have you tried throwing the data , or structure at least, at an llm and seeing if it can render it in mermaid? I’m not sure about combining the flowchart aspect with a timeline but, without creating something manually, that would be my best bet

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Yes, but there's no way a mass screening program is going to catch something that a teacher with them everyday wouldn't. Someone that masks is exactly the kind of person that would slip through a screening process undetected and then find it even harder to get access to support.

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

They're on a £1.1M 9 month contract to deliver this and 3 months in, so these apparently represent about £400,000 in value. Let's hope there's more and better coming.

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Aren‘t all children in school being observed every day for whether they might have SEND. What would a screening process add?

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Might be jumping too conclusions but they’re a non-profit structured to secure government contracts without a single SEND specialist in their leadership team. I don‘t get the sense they were selected based on expertise.

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

From these examples inclusion seems to be repeating yourself slowly until the slow SEND kid can guess at the answer you want them to give, not meeting them where they're at. Giving SEND kids help on listening skills is great, but don't mix it up with trying to impart knowledge

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Another slide says children who have trouble processing verbal information might do better if you remove visual distractions. How about giving them the same information in a visual way so they can process it how they need to.

They may find it easier to understand spoken instructions when they can focus solely on listening. If visual supports are used, these should complement and reinforce the spoken information rather than compete with it. We will look at visual cues later.

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I find it concerning that the Government SEND training goes down the route of if student can't take in verbal information, here's 2 slides of how you can verbally repeat the information at them until they get it right and single them out. Some teachers are going to get the wrong message from that.

A screenshot of a Government Speech, Language and Communication powerpoint slide showing an interaction where a pupil is struggling to process auditory information.

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Oh clearly they aren’t and that‘s how the lost generation is being created. We must track down Pip and stop them.

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Some should point out to Janice that receiving Pip and receiving PIP are too very different things, and I hope Pip, whoever they are, is using protection.

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I'm not suggesting necessarily parents. I'm paying for a play therapist for my son and alongside the therapy, they're delivering more training to my son's teachers in 10 minute bursts than they've ever had before on his needs profile. In theory that's what EaH should deliver, but it won't.

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I don't think a generalised approach to SEND training is effective though. Anything delivered as generalised scalable SEND training is going to be superficial. Any individual teacher might go years between seeing specific needs - surely a program of local targeted training is much more effective.

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Here's what's just happened in my son's school. The reception class has a new child with needs similar to mine (yr 3) that they're struggling with, and they asked me in to talk them through what works for me and my son - 6 teachers/TAs eagerly asking questions and taking notes about a specific case.

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

End of KS1, led by my son, his teacher let him ignore all instructions and just crack on with the work. Everyone was sceptical. Engagement shot through the roof and gave us real hope he'd stay in education. Let me know when "listen to the child" makes it onto a slide.

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

🤣 at the thought of an eager teacher handing my PDA son keywords to put in his answer, genuinely believing they're helping, and being met instantly with a full-blown meltdown for daring to tell him what to do.

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Was it a competition for national vag's? Or to find the best vag in the nation? And who's giant 🍆 did she grow? So many questions.

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

On a pure costs basis she's probably right. They're not going to get a much better cost on 2 slices of bread and some spread than you would at home, and there's additional staff costs. It just doesn't account for the economic loss of some children just not getting breakfast and the impact that has.

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

probably not actually illegal because a significantly motivated parent would still be able to ask for one, but definitely a route to inequality. That gatekeeping on schools submitting will definitely be higher than the legal threshold.

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

So, reading a little further it sounds like what it is going to do is add friction to schools submitting EHCNA requests, essentially preventing them from submitting until a threshold is met, which will put the burden back onto parents and reduce EHCP numbers by just making it harder to ask for one.

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

From Hackney's SEND reform plan. Anyone else think this sounds a touch illegal? "a data-driven gatekeeping mechanism before any statutory ECHNA is triggered"

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Also notes I leave for my son’s babysitter. I probably need to add a warning that he might bite and scratch.

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

And some children don't want to be in maths and english lessons because the lessons don't suit them, not because maths and english don't suit them.

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Vocational education isn't bad per se - but historically, when this has happened, it hasn't been the child's choice. An academically capable child that doesn't fit mainstream education will get pushed down the vocational route to save the school's rankings.

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Not really. I was brought up to top up people's water glass if you see it running low. It's just a probably slightly outdated set of manners. Certainly if I'm topping up my glass yours is getting topped up.

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

I'm glad it's your autism thats the problem. I was feeling anxious that it was my autism that made pubs shit for everyone.

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Yep 🤦‍♂️Balkans is not Baltics

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Although to be fair, just saw the plane caps out at 500km and that's about 1100km, so yeah, useless plane but we still need a different answer than train

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Paris to Rome is about 11 hours by train and only really 2 trains per day can get you there that fast. International high speed train is just not that good in a lot of Europe. Greece - no international trains. Balkans - different railway gauge. It just can't replace air travel.

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

By the same measure people are applying to ADHD, my arthritis isn't real. It doesn't show up on any tests and has only been diagnosed by observation and interview. Yet without the drugs that cost the NHS many thousands of pounds a year, I would not be able to function in society

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

The more specific a diagnosis is, the more pushback there will be for 'needs based intervention' rather than 'diagnosis based intervention'. That would be a huge step back and something I'm already worried about with the proposed SEND education reforms.

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

There's no clean line here, unlike a measurable pathology. My son can pass as near-neurotypical with mild social delays one day, and be non-verbal, communicating only through violence, the next. Diagnose that as 'mild' and he loses support he desperately needs.

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Be gentle on the Grey Bastard

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Hmmm, don't tell Reform, but I believe this allows asylum seekers to still have bbqs. Pretty sure they don't fit any of those categories

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

That was only a severe alert. There is one level higher - Extreme alert - I assume they'll use that for the nuclear war. Anyway, severe alerts are turned off because I don't need to be told to not have a bbq I wasn't going to have, after I've already cooked my dinner

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

That VAT exemption was based on them being non-profit entities. Private schools are very much paper "non-profit", not real. The UK badly implemented an EU policy that gave the VAT exemption in the first place as it was only ever really intended for state run schools.

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

No dyeing your hair when you‘re older if you want to remain a Nat Gray

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Is there any way to access favourites on tvOS? That would close a gap for me in how I follow YouTube feeds

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Where’s the discourse though? This clip is you just letting him spout nonsense unchallenged while you occasionally pull a face. That’s definitely bot journalism you’re doing.

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

That feeling as a parent when you're jealous of something you bought for your son but you can't justify spending that money on yourself. Today's item: a yeti water bottle.

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

That understates the impact somewhat. You're only looking at the impact on existing bus usage but by dropping a £10 fare to £2 you're opening up a lot more usage from the total potential bus usage.

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

The idea they're replacing bridges with only weekend closures seems astounding. I'm nearby so definitely going to see what I assume is some big crane action.

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Daniel Bowman @vrih.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Genuine intrusive thought courtesy of the SEND reforms: do I limit my son's support in primary so his assessed needs are high enough to get him the right support at secondary, or give him what he needs now and let him crash out at secondary instead. I don't love that this is a real calculation now.

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