6 h. ago Rylan Clark is 'smitten' with fairground worker boyfriend who has dedicated his life to supporting children with special needs

The sixth-generation showman is a director at Billy Bates & Sons Fun Fair - which regularly hosts SEN friendly session for guests with Special Educational Needs.

Society

30 h. ago Voices: I’m a secondary school teacher: SEND provision changes lives (and there’s nowhere near enough of it)

Jeremy Hunt’s eye on the special needs budget is short-term when schooling prepares children for their working future, writes teacher Charlotte Harrison. We need to support students even further to let them succeed – and remember that we benefit from their success

Society

54 h. ago Irish missionary kidnapped from orphanage she runs in Haiti is freed after a month in captivity

Gena Heraty - a director of a special needs program for children and adults at the Saint-Hélène orphanage in the commune of Kescoff - was released alongside seven others.

Events

2 w. ago Supporting kids with Send is expensive. But the cost of not doing so is far greater | Carrie Grant

Education, health and care plans have been invaluable for my children. Hints they could be scrapped fill me with fearCarrie Grant is a TV presenter and voice coach and a parent of four children with special educational needsThree of my four children have had full EHCPs. These are education, health and care plans, which means each child’s needs have been assessed and documented. They guarantee that appropriate provision to meet those needs has been agreed and must now be delivered by law. Well-written EHCPs are invaluable, particularly the legal part. Without it there would be no rigour, no meaningful challenge and, ultimately, no power to ensure that the right educational support is provided.Naturally, then, I was worried when earlier this year the government began discussing reforms, with the possibility of scrapping EHCPs. Ministers said they had inherited a system on its knees, with local authorities struggling to cope with the rising demand for support for children with special ...

Politics

2 w. ago Babysitter weeps as she's given enormous sentence for delivering disabled children to pedophile boyfriend so he could rape them

Brittney Mae Lyon touted her interest in working with special needs children in online ads for her childcare services.

Society

2 w. ago Eamonn Holmes on 'special' bond with dog Maggie he still shares with Ruth Langsford after split

The Northern Irish broadcaster has praised the pooch, with whom he has shared custody with his ex, ‘as the most special creature outside of my children that has come into my life’

Politics

2 w. ago Eamonn Holmes on 'special' bond with dog Maggie after Ruth Langsford split and unusual memorial plan

The Northern Irish broadcaster has praised the pooch, with whom he has shared custody with his ex, ‘as the most special creature outside of my children that has come into my life’

Politics

3 w. ago Pam Bondi fired him for prosecuting January 6 rioters. He’d do it again: ‘it’s about justice’

After volunteering to take on cases, Mike Gordon became known as a skilled litigator who took on high profile defendantsWhen he showed up to work on 27 June, Mike Gordon was having one of the best weeks of his career.Gordon, a federal prosecutor in Tampa, had spent the last month working on a complex case involving allegations that well-known businessman Leo Govoni stole $100m from a fund for children with special needs. That Monday, the US attorney for the middle district of Florida held a press conference announcing an indictment in the case. On Wednesday, Gordon had his semi-annual performance review and received the top rating: outstanding. On Thursday, he appeared on behalf of the government in court and successfully convinced a judge that Govoni should remain in jail until his trial. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago Council spent over £5m transporting special needs children to school and back last year

Recent data has revealed the eye-watering sum spent on transport SEND children to school

Economics

3 w. ago We published a photo of a malnourished child in Gaza. It made an impact globally – and created controversy | Elisabeth Ribbans

Initially, we did not know that Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq had cerebral palsy. But his medical details do not diminish his suffering, or that of other children in GazaBetween April and mid-July this year, more than 20,000 children in Gaza were admitted to hospital for treatment for acute malnutrition, 3,000 of whom were severely malnourished, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a global initiative whose members include UN agencies such as the World Health Organization, World Food Programme and Unicef, as well as NGOs and research institutes.Over this period, and in the weeks since, the Guardian has published many images of hungry children, among them at least 20 shown in an emaciated condition. (It does so working to an editorial code that gives special protection to children, publishing on matters that may intrude into their welfare only when there is a strong public interest to do so.) But one photograph, which appeared on the homepage of ...

Culture