Jayne Dillon

DWP permanent secretary to step down after carer’s allowance scandal Peter Schofield tells staff he will leave the department for personal reasons

A government-commissioned independent review into carer’s allowance published in November blamed systemic DWP leadership failures, poor benefit design, and flawed and unlawful administrative guidance.

www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

You know what they’re going to store in those warehouses?

People

Per OBR, LAs are set to rack up a further £8bn of DSG deficit before Whitehall takes direct responsibility for SEND £ in April 2028

"Further support" (tbc) will come, although "LAs can expect
that we will continue to take an appropriate & proportionate approach, though it will not be unlimited"

Screengrab from TV comedy show The Thick of It, where Tory minister Peter Mannion says 'Farewell, our shit and useless servant'

The DfE's Safety Valve SEND financial intervention scheme is ending, although LAs will be sent all the useful lessons and best practice learned from that exercise

Unclear what happens to the £1.1m of SV consultants still on contract with DfE

The conditions that apply: each LA with a DSG deficit (over 90% of them by March 2026) will need to submit a "local SEND reform plan" and have that approved by DfE

More in your super-soaraway @spcialndsjungle.bsky.social tomorrow on what those plans are all about (more demand mgmt)

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

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

Foreign Office to review Peter Mandelson’s US ambassador payoff – UK politics live Mandelson under increasing pressure to return payout after he was sacked over as US ambassador over his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein

Poor people:
when sacked for dismissible conduct behaviour:
£0

Privileged people:
£55,000
three months’ salary

www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

Starmer's statement thanks McSweeney for "turning the party around after one of the worst defeats in its history".

Labour currently polling at about 17%.

For those keeping score at home:

There’s no point in dissecting this further - she has no influence any longer, and today of all days it’s screamingly obvious that some peers are just totally unable to evaluate their own conduct and practice

I’m so, so glad though that my kids’ futures can no longer be shaped by Ofsted’s practice

There are reasonable arguments that some types of SEND might be mis- or over-identified. You won’t find them here

None of the 130+ local area SEND inspection reports Spielman oversaw as HMCI flagged up overidentification as an area of significant weakness in practice

To paraphrase @jonnelledge.bsky.social , it’s amazing that Spielman has resisted the overwhelming instinct that any other human would have felt - if they’d been as thoroughly exposed as Ofsted was during the Ruth Perry inquest - to just never show their face in public again

Instead, we have this

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...

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...

Chalk Farm fire disrupts Euston station railway services There is major disruption on all rail services between Euston station and Watford Junction.

BREAKING

West Coast mainline

Major disruption to all West Coast Main Line railway services between Euston station and Watford Junction due to a fire in north London.

About 70 firefighters are tackling the blaze, at a building in Chalk Farm, London Fire Brigade said

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

in case you're curious about how angry Minnesota is about ICE, it was -20 today

Local MP SEND Engagement Activity What has your MP been doing about SEND lately?

What has your MP being saying or doing about SEND lately? Tell us here: forms.gle/MFgqrNzMciDSGytz9

#Disability #SENDSky

BPS responds to new NHS spending figures on ADHD services | BPS The report from CHPI provides an overview of how the majority of NHS patients are assessed and treated for ADHD in England

Shared via @spcialndsjungle.bsky.social

The British Psychological Society has responded to a report on NHS "overspending" on ADHD services and the quality of some Right to Choose services: www.bps.org.uk/news/bps-res...

I know people on Bsky know this but I hope it filters out: The feds are OCCUPYING the Twin Cities. This is a blockade, a siege. They are shutting down economic and civic activity. They are conducting "papers please" stops. They are criminalizing being a bystander/witness.

You could be next.

richard bacon @richardpbacon - Follow Graham Linehan is such a wild raging hypocrite he takes my breath away now. He isn't fighting for women. All he wants to do is win an argument and prove himself "right". His raging trans arguments are not about women they're about himself.

Richard Bacon's pretty sound but he's not some radical lefty...he seems like an average centrist. My point is that the Glinners have been so bananas about trans people that they've turned someone who could have gone either way on the issue in to a full ally. Oh TERFs, you silly sausages.

Beautiful 🦌

Posh paws

Foreign medics shunning NHS because of anti-migrant rhetoric, says top doctor Exclusive: UK now an ‘unwelcoming, racist’ country for overseas health workers, according to medical colleges leader

"Foreign-born doctors and nurses were being put off by antagonism by politicians towards migrants, media coverage of immigration, the racist abuse of international medical graduates by NHS colleagues and racist aggression by patients toward minority ethnic NHS staff, she said."

Resident Doctors entered Medicine as excited young people, completed a degree over 5yrs, accumulated £100,000 of debt

Then even with the pay increase given by Labour & Tories (28.9%) are paid three quarters of what Doctors used to be paid & not guaranteed jobs

Is it really a pay rise or a cut?

What a 2-faced liar! UK MP, whose govt persecutes trans ppl & incites hate against them, weeping crocodile tears as she bans them from public life. This is in breach of the EuroCHR & she knows! If the Supreme Court says the law is wrong, then it’s her job to change the law, not appease fascism

Covid fraud under the Tories cost the taxpayer £10.9 billion The counter-fraud and error measures during the pandemic under the Conservative Government were accused of being 'so lax they may as well have left the door wide open'

Covid fraud under the Tories cost the UK taxpayer £10.9bn.

VIP lanes and crony contracts.

Lack of anti-fraud controls in Covid scheme.
Money handed out for non-existent employees
Newly formed companies got public money
No competitive tenders
Poor checks on quality.

How much would be recovered?

Growing up with a sister who has a learning disability, I’ve seen people shout the R word at her. That was in the 80s and 90s. Now we’re in the 2020s and I am seeing world leaders and tech leaders use it and I cannot begin to tell you how devastating that is.

#booksky

Just a reminder to other cis women...

I'm Butch
And strangers regularly assume I'm trans
I know this bc they are not shy about telling me

And yet I'm still able to value and care about how transphobia affects trans people without making it about me

... So what the fuck is your excuse?

UK Govt bends to Trump's imperialism. NHS to pay 25% more (3bn) for drugs after UK–US tariff deal.

Money will buy less, higher taxes or longer healthcare queues as Trump wants bigger profits for US companies.

Build your supply chains or be blackmailed. Whatever happened to 'take back control'?

If they have to attack you personally, it means they don’t have any valid arguments left.

#VoteGreen