The government’s special educational needs and disability (SEND) reforms are aimed at saving money rather than improving the experience or outcomes for pupils, a SEND expert has told MPs.
Ali Fiddy, chief executive of the Independent Provider of Special Education Advice (IPSEA), told the Commons Education Committee that ministers’ SEND review plans could only achieve this by “diluting rights and entitlements of children and families”.
The concerns centre on the Green Paper plans to create new national standards in SEND to “promote nationally consistent systems, processes and provision”.
Ministers have said their reforms aim to end the “postcode lottery of uncertainty” for parents.
But these plans have been strongly criticised today in the select committee hearing into the SEND review.
Ms Fiddy said: “I think the starting point has to be to recognise that the proposals in the Green Paper are absolutely not about improving families’ experience or improving children’s and young people’s outcomes.
“To pretend that they are is disingenuous because this is about saving money but masking that, and masking what is really being proposed, in an effort to avoid the really undesirable position of the government saying it doesn’t want to spend unnecessary amounts to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND.”
Concerns over plans for national standards
Along with Imogen Jolley, head of public law at the Simpson Millar legal firm, Ms Fiddy raised concerns about the plan to create national standards while giving evidence to MPs.
She said: “Part of what they [the government] want to do is save money - and this is not going to be possible without diluting rights and entitlements - but avoiding that very undesirable position of coming out and saying, ‘we do not want to put this much money into supporting children with SEND anymore’.”
She said that under the current system, providers are expected to work out what an individual child’s needs are and then put in place the support that meets those needs.
“What the reforms appear to be saying is ‘work out what the standard provision is for this level of need’ to get the child back and a kind of one-size-fits-all approach.
“The fact is that special educational provision isn’t standard. The clue is in the name - it’s special, it’s unique, it’s individualised.”
She later added: “Nobody should underestimate the significance of the proposals in this Green Paper or the extent to which they are going to entail a complete overhaul of the current SEND law framework to the detriment of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.
“I think it’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
Ms Fiddy also said IPSEA suspected there would be a reduction of rights and entitlements, and a raised threshold, so that fewer children and young people will qualify for education health and care plan needs assessments.
Commenting on the plan for national standards, Ms Jolley added: “It really concerns me that we are moving away from that kind of high-level individualised focus on individualised need and support, and then that feeds into a question about the delivery of those really highly specialised services because the minute you block things, you put children into a pigeonhole.”
Ms Jolley also voiced concerns about the government’s plan for standardised funding bands for SEND provision.
She said: “We see them in use now and what that means is that funding is pushed down to the lowest common denominator and that parents are then having to fight to get out of these funding bands.”
Ms Jolley predicted that the government reforms would lead to “a fettering of choice and discretion for parents...and support not based on individualised needs but on a kind of a general standard or what is available.
“I think that would be a retrograde step.”
Pandemic impact ‘not over’ for families with SEND children
MPs were also warned that families of children with SEND were still feeling the impact of the Covid pandemic.
Mrunal Sisodia, co-chair of the National Network of Parent Carer Forums, said that the SEND system was failing before the pandemic and that the lack or disruption of services because of Covid has exacerbated existing harms.
He said: “We have got lots of evidence of children who have gone backwards in their learning, and have ended up with significantly worse physical conditions, for example through missing physiotherapy.
“We also have lots of evidence of new harms through the pandemic itself. I am sure you are all across the anxiety, mental health and social isolation issues that children are facing.”
Mr Sisodia said he was “biting people’s heads off” for saying things are now “back to normal” after the pandemic.
“We are categorically not back to normal when it comes to our families because services are under huge amounts of pressure.
“We are facing a tsunami of unmet needs now and we’re seeing a backlog that services aren’t able to catch up with - and then, on top of that, you have got the exacerbated harms and the new cases that have come up.”
