Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice has called the sight of children wearing ear defenders in school “insane” and claimed neurodiverse conditions such as ADHD are being overdiagnosed. Speaking at a press conference in Westminster on Monday, he warned that without resolving the special educational needs and disabilities (Send) crisis, there will be “no bins collected”.
Tice said there is a “crisis of overdiagnosis of children with neurodiverse issues”. He argued that schools and teachers should handle support without formal labels: “The best thing to do actually, is to push almost all of it back to the schools. The schools know best, the teachers know best.”
He added: “Stop labelling people, just say ‘you need a bit of extra support, you might need a bit of extra time’.” Tice claimed the situation has become absurd, with unlabeled children feeling left out as “the normal minority”.
On ear defenders specifically, he said: “I’ll just raise one more point, the sight of children in classes wearing ear defenders, I’m sorry, this is just insane. It’s got to stop. The teachers want it to stop. Heads want it to stop. It’s not the right way forward.”
Strong pushback from autism charity
Joey Nettleton Burrows of the National Autistic Society sharply rejected Tice’s claims. “Parents aren’t profiting from the education system, they are spending time and money fighting against a broken Send system, just to get the most basic support at school,” he said.
