Overdiagnosis of children overlooks that growing up is ‘messy and uneven’, says Jeremy Hunt | Special educational needs

Children and young people are too diagnosed with mental health problems in a society that has lost sight of the reality that the development of the child is “disorderly and uneven,” said former secretary of health, Jeremy Hunt.

He is the last senior figure to add his voice to calls to a radical overhaul of the Special System of Educational needs and handicaps (Send) in England.

Hunt said that in his half-decade as a health secretary, he witnessed “an alarming escalation” in the prevalence and severity of poor mental health in young people, as well as significant increases in the diagnosis of neurodevelopment conditions.

In a preface to a new report by The Center-Right Thinktank Policy Exchange, Hunt said: “Mental health and neurodiversity now represent more than half of the post-country increase we have seen in the applicants of disability benefits. Expenses for sending provision have increased and risks the financial sustainability of the local government.

“Rather than assuming that more money or more is the same answer, we must ask more fundamental questions. A cash transfer – or a label which means that young people are treated and come to consider themselves different – the right way to help them? ”

He added: “Through the political spectrum, and among a growing range of practitioners, it is now recognized that there is a level of” diagnosis ” [in] our system. We must reduce the complexity to better understand the engines of the demand we see. »»

Hunt, who is a conservative deputy for Godalming and Ash, and was also Chancellor and Minister of Foreign Affairs under the Conservatives, said: “As a company, we seem to have lost sight of the fundamental reality that the development of the child is a disorderly and unequal process.

“Our laudable desire to ensure that young people are happy and well supported sometimes manifest themselves in excessive impulses to medicine and diagnose routine in a way that can undermine grain and resilience.”

The government should publish a white paper later this year, detailing how it plans to reform the sending system. Parents fear that education, health and care plans (EHCP) – legally enforceable documents that detail the needs of a child or young, and the support they need – will be targeted.

In January of this year, the number of EHCP in place increased to 638,745 – up 10.8% on the same point last year. The exchange of policies, out of control, indicates that EHCP should be limited to students of special schools and that support for school mental health should contact those “who need it most, rather than general offers”.

Tania Tirraoro, co -director of Special Needs Jungle, a Send website, led by parents, said: “It is a bit rich by Jeremy Hunt to claim it, since her government has presided deep cuts to public services, including Camhs [Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services]A narrowed study program, which means that children who prospered in the arts and practical subjects were cut off and a sloppy response to the pandemic.

“What we see now is the result of this – young people who have grown up in a hostile environment, trying to sail in an explosion of unregulated social media and without the support services they need. It is certainly not widely accepted that there is an overdiagnosis – it is something that people like him to undo these failures.”

The Department of Education has been approached for comments. The Secretary of Education, Bridget Phillipson, previously declared that the government will protect the legal right to additional support for children with dispatch.