Farage sparks furious backlash after claiming children with special educational needs are ‘over diagnosed’

38 comments

1. You know its bad when even the photo they use of him looks like the lol guy from the memes

2. Aww he thinks there are family GP’s who have known the family for
   “Generations” who incidentally find it hard to say “No” whn Mum wants little Johnny to be on the spectrum.
   I can’t even read more than a couple of paragraphs of this pub politic crap. The trouble is there are a lot of actually otherwise decent people who lap it up. We are on a dangerous path if he isn’t shot down every time he floats one of these poularist speculative pieces.

3. GPs don’t provide diagnosis for SEND. As per usual, the odious little arse is just making stuff up.

   Coincidentally, I suspect Farage’s private doctor has failed to diagnose a case of ‘being a raging unmitigated [redacted]’

4. It doesn’t matter if what he says is bollocks, causes offence or outrage.

   He’s made the news, it’s shared on social media and the people he targets — the ones who like a simple solution to a complex problem — will nod and go “oh yeah, he’s probably right. Clever chap that Nigel.”

   Job done. Rinse. Repeat.

5. As usual, a failure of journalism.

   First question to him: “are you a qualified doctor?”

   Second question to him: “you do realise SEND isnt undertaken by GPs, right?”

   Instead, they just ask bollocks that only validates his nonsense. Totally useless profession.

6. Always good to have the expert opinion of a stockbroker cosplaying as the bloke down your pub to weigh in

7. He has zero professional qualifications to speak about this subject.

8. The idea that “there’s too much of this mental health stuff nowadays” is incredibly widespread. I work in an industry where the impact of mental health/neurodivergence on people’s daily lives is supposed to be well understood, and it’s a sentiment I hear alarmingly often, particularly among older people. Farage, as usual, is just telling people what they want to hear.

9. I know a lot of teachers including Senco’s (*Special educational needs coordinators*) and all of them think there is an issue with over diagnosis. Neither I or any of the teachers I know are fans of Farage, but there is a discussion to be had. Turning it into a culture war doesn’t help anyone.

10. This man spews all sorts of fake rubbish time and time again, then hides from the consequences. Southport, Brexit and now this.

11. He’s not wrong. He’s also not right. Back when I was at school (1990-1995) we had very few special ed students. And the ones that were had very obvious issues. The rest of us just got in with it. Now it seems every boy and their dog has some sort of issue. Autism for example. The spectrum has grow so large now that almost everyone who wants to be in it can be.

    So my question is are we just getting more needy and insisting we all have issues to excuse some behaviour or do we have a real problem that we as a people need to sort.

12. Nope, it’s genetic you arse🙄 and it’s still taking an average of 7 years to get a diagnosis, my local camhs has only just started processing referrals from 2022

13. Feel like he is right and wrong. He’s objectively wrong about GP’s diagnosing and that side of it, but I do think they’re over diagnosed.

    I can’t substantiate it beyond ‘gut feelings’, how unscientific I know, but I feel the normalisation of discussing SEND has led a lot of parents who are, for a lack of a better word, shit, to conflate the outcomes of poor parenting with SEND.

    Am I saying the number of severely autistic people are up for false diagnosis? No. Am I saying that low level autism / ADHD diagnosis might be false positives of kids raised by a generation of parents who are not very good, yeah.

14. Hate farage. The GP stuff is nonsense.

    However, ed psychs do over diagnose. This is basically beyond doubt and is an open secret in lots of councils. Especially when it comes to disruptive little boys, who are just acting like little boys have always done, some primary teachers and their ed psychs will stop at nothing until a diagnosis is in place and the disruption can be “handled”.

    This othering is not helpful, its downstream effects are going to be horrendous for the next crop of teenagers, and it’s just not a good system. And if you’re an ed psych who thinks or feels differently, the message from the top is to get in line.

    When we ignore these salient points because of party lines we do nothing but add fuel to reform’s UK-sized fire.

15. People have made this claim about ADHD a fair bit, guess it is autism’s turn.

16. It takes years as an adult to get diagnosed with ADHD or autism. I doubt it’s much more efficient with kids.

17. Getting diagnose for anything in this country is so difficult. What is he talking about

18. It’s alarming to note how many Redditor’s suddenly think they are experts on the matter and can assert that people are over diagnosed. If this is was the case, it would have to be raised by professional experts and discussed in a proper and professional manner, not left to anonymous Reddit accounts and woefully ignorant politicians such as Farage.

19. The thing is …there is a problem …but what he’s saying happens is bs.

    The bigger issue is that parents don’t trust teachers.

    I’ve taught a few children who were SEND (some SLD, so severe learning difficulties) and they are very easily able to follow rules, understand boundaries and take responsibility for when they have done something wrong.

    The issue is when the parents try to validate their children’s poor behaviour and blame it on their needs.
    Most teachers recognise when something is needs based or when a kid is purposely trying to get away with something they shouldn’t be doing.

    By validating your child’s behaviour it makes it impossible to teach the child literally anything, let alone prepare them for the real world.

20. I really don’t think these cases are being over diagnosed but I’ve been wrong before who knows? I guess my main thought is…. it’s irrelevant. These people whether children or adults still need to be helped so why can’t we just do that instead of finding whys to not be kind to each other?

21. This is why Farage is dangerous for British society.

    British Media should be liable for giving him a platform to spew such uninformed, divisive a toxic rhetoric.

22. I was diagnosed with autism at 13 years old and I agree to be honest.They diagnosed me on the basis that I struggled socially and that was it, I think it’s the same for other teens as they go through the same cams system that victimises you and helps you avoid problems instead of dealing with them.

23. In poor areas they get extra money if their child is statemented, this lower end is where the abuse happens. Ruins the kids schooling as they could be in a mainstream school

24. Or the experts are better at diagnosing complex issues than they were 20 years ago because our understanding of things like autism and dyslexia has improved massively.

    Teachers need more resources to better help kids, trying to lower that by not assessing as many kids doesn’t solve a thing, they’re still gonna have autism but now they won’t get specialist help with their education. Makes no sense at all.

25. https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/special-educational-needs-in-england/2023-24

    Data from the government on SEN.

    The number of children with SEN has increased from 11.6% in the 2015/2016 school year to 13.6% in the 2023/2024 school year.

    Yes, there is an increase. However there’s nothing to say it’s an over diagnosis and not a correction of historical under diagnosis. How does this compare with other OECD countries, do they have similar levels?

26. It’s weird to me that politicians are fixated on these rather fringe topics. Don’t they trust healthcare professionals and teachers?

27. Another day, another prick “politician” attacking autistic people. What a time to be alive .

28. Does he have any idea the hoops you have to jump through to get a diagnosis? One of my kids was very recently diagnosed with Autism and it has taken us almost 2 years to get to this point.

29. I’m all for freedom of speech, even to the extent that I don’t like the idea of banning books or topics.
    I’ve always believed that banning something not only enforcers the mind set of those that seek to misuse and mislead but also makes challenging it in open debate impossible.

    That being said free speech is not a right to “make stuff up” and I do think we need better processes and frameworks.

    There is a massive problem with politicians just making things up or twisting the facts.
    Maybe each time they do a public speech they should have to reference there source and make it clear when it’s an opinion.

    (It’s my opinion they make stuff up as I don’t have the time right now to go through and check the sources. 😁)

30. He’s right, but perhaps not for the right reasons.

    I’m autistic and diagnosed. I clearly got it from my Dad and my Nan who weren’t diagnosed. It hasn’t suddenly appeared, it was always there.

    However, I could legally not work even though I’m fully capable of working and caring for my two children.

    That’s the issue. What we expect from people with different needs. He’s right about the victimhood mentality and I think getting rid of Asperger’s as a diagnosis, whilst I understand it, was a big step in the wrong direction.

31. People work the system. Having a diagnosis gets their kid extra time in exams; or preferential access to certain schools; or an increase in benefits.

    Incentives drive behaviours.

    One kid in our primary school was a nasty bully. Parents paid to get him a private diagnosis in Year 6, meaning extra time in exams etc. His behaviour was atrocious. School did nothing about it. He now goes to a very strict no-nonsense secondary school where magically he is able to behave because there were clear and immediate ramifications for his behaviour.

    There is nothing wrong with the kid. His parents are just entitled fuckwits.

    Those with genuine issues need help. But those gaming the system deserve nothing but contempt.

32. Farightage is a groomed parrot of the US PROJECT 2025 monkeys. Despite Musks distain, he is still the chosen UK candidate for them.

33. Of course he does. I’d wager his intelligence is countable on one hand.

    The rat legged it after he caused Brexit, just to come out his his goblin cave and create Reform.

34. Funnily enough. Farage would likely get diagnosed with NPD.

35. What a surprise. His buddy Trump is doing a similar thing with RFK Jr so this pissrat jumps on the bandwagon

36. I think there’s something being spread in the environment is causing an increase and rather than taking accountability or acknowledge the increase, the government pretends its over diagnosed.

    Have you watched toxic town where mining in a town caused a generation of birth deformities. I apologize for any unintentional ignorance.

37. Back in his day, they didnt need all this “help” to “live a normal life” they just went into politics.

38. I don’t think there’s an over diagnosis, but i think a lot of parents claim their children are neurodivergent to excuse bad parenting

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