By Alexandra Chambers | 21st July 2025
Mainstream schools often promote their commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). However, for many neurodivergent children – especially those who are autistic, ADHD, PDA, or otherwise neurologically divergent – that inclusion ends at the poster on the wall.
Behind the DEI slogans, behavioural policies still centre neurotypical norms. Authentic expressions of difference are often mistaken for misbehaviour. Masking is rewarded; regulation is mistaken for disruption, and children are punished for their needs – not their choices.
Most mainstream behaviour frameworks are still built around compliance: sticker charts, warnings, consequence ladders, isolation booths. These can be deeply harmful for neurodivergent children, who often communicate distress through movement, shutdowns, or refusal – not words.
The Behavioural Policy Blind Spot
A child with PDA isn’t defying the teacher – they’re responding according to their neurology.
A child who stims isn’t disrupting others – they’re self-regulating.
A child who avoids eye contact isn’t being rude – they’re protecting themselves.
Yet these behaviours are still punished. Most DEI frameworks include race, gender, and language – but neurodivergence is still absent or misunderstood. “Reasonable adjustments” often exist only on paper.
🏫 It’s Not usually the Schools’ Fault – It is a Systemic Crisis
The reality is: schools want to help. Most staff care deeply, but they are being set up to fail by a system that is dangerously underfunded and overstretched.
🚨 Underpaid, Overworked, and Leaving the Profession
Teacher pay in England has fallen by up to 20% in real terms since 2010, despite a modest pay rise in 2023 (NEU, 2024).
Most qualified teachers earn £31k–£43k.
Support staff – vital for neurodivergent children – are often paid less than a living wage – which is, in my opinion, disgraceful.
Morale is low, and staff are leaving faster than they can be replaced.
This staffing crisis means fewer adults in classrooms, longer waits for assessments, and minimal time for personalised care.
📉 Schools Are Fundraising for Essentials
Schools are being forced to crowdfund just to cover basics. Since 2010, per-pupil funding has dropped by around 9% in real terms, while the complexity of need has surged.
According to national data:
Over 50% of secondary schools have cut teaching assistant hours.
Many are diverting “pupil premium” funding away from vulnerable learners just to stay afloat.
Resources for SEND are frequently the first to be squeezed.
(Source: Guardian, 2024)
🔁 SEND Demand Has Exploded – But Funding Hasn’t Kept Up
The number of children with Education, Health, and Care Plans (EHCPs) has more than doubled over the past decade. In January 2025, there were over 638,000 active EHCPs in England (Guardian, 2024).
The government points to increased high-needs funding – from £6.8 billion (2015) to over £10.7 billion (2024–25). But the increase has not kept pace with demand.
83% of councils are running high-needs budget deficits.
Total SEND overspend is expected to hit £8 billion by 2027.
EHCPs are now harder to obtain, even for children with clear need.
(Source: IFS, 2023)
The Real Bottom Line
This is not a failure of individual schools.
This is a systemic failure at government level – and neurodivergent children are paying the price.
Teachers don’t lack compassion – they lack capacity.
Schools don’t lack will – they lack resources.
Inclusion isn’t failing because no one cares – it’s failing because the infrastructure doesn’t exist.
🛠️ What Needs to Change
To move from performative inclusion to real transformation, we need structural redesign:
1. Embed neurodiversity into every DEI framework, not as an afterthought.
2. Abolish compliance-based behaviour policies in favour of trauma-informed, sensory-aware approaches.
3. Restore per-pupil funding to pre-2010 real terms – and increase it to match modern complexity.
4. Fund training, time, and staffing to support neurodivergent children meaningfully.
5. Mandate co-designed neurodivergent training in all teacher education.
6. Build inclusive architecture and sensory spaces, not just policies.
✊ Inclusion Without Investment Is Illusion
If the government claims to care about inclusion, it must show it through funding, not slogans.
If your DEI policy doesn’t include neurodivergence – it isn’t inclusive.
If your behaviour policy punishes distress – it isn’t equitable.
If your school rewards masking – it isn’t safe.
At Neurotopia, we believe in systems that honour neurological difference and build frameworks for children to discover and enhance their unique abilities – not just survive.
Until then, the illusion of inclusion will continue to harm the children it claims to protect.
💬 “This is about people – not just policy.”
At its heart, system change is people change. It’s not about tearing institutions down for the sake of it – it’s about working together to redesign them so they genuinely serve the individuals within them. What really matters isn’t policy on paper – it’s how a child feels walking into school. It’s whether a teacher feels supported to succeed in their role. It’s whether a parent feels heard. Neurotopia exists not to fight the system, but to walk alongside the people inside it – building a better one, together.
✉️ An Invitation to Educators and Allies
Real inclusion starts with listening – not just to systems, but to people.
If you’re a teacher, a support worker, a headteacher, or someone trying to make it work from inside the system – we see you, and we want to work with you.
This isn’t just about rewriting policies. It’s about creating cultures. It’s about making sure no child is punished for the way their brain works. It’s about us, together, creating schools where everyone is valued, not just ‘noticed’.
Whether you’re frustrated, hopeful, curious, or quietly exhausted – you’re welcome here.
Let’s build something better. Together.
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