A HEADTEACHER has spoken out about the Government’s overhaul of support for children with special educational needs.

Ministers yesterday unveiled plans for the biggest overhaul of support for children with special educational needs and disabilities in 30 years.

Under the proposals announced in the Green Paper, parents will be given a bigger choice of schools, and by 2014, a legal right to control the funding for their child’s support.

The current system of special educational needs, SEN statements, which are used to assess what support a child needs, will be replaced by a single SEN plan which takes in education, health and care. This will stay in place until a youngster reaches 25.

Gill Robinson, headteacher at Castle Hill School, Newsome, which has 97 pupils, welcomed some of the proposals.

But she expressed concerns that some children could “fall through the net” under the changes.

“If the Green Paper concentrates on joint working with both the educational and medical needs of the child that will be fantastic,” said Gill.

“Currently every child in my school has complex medical needs but I have no control over the number of health professionals who are based here such as physiotherapists, that is part of their medical plan.

“But I am concerned that some children may slip through the net as part of the new assessment process.”