An influential group of MPs has asked the government to explain what it has done to ensure its drive to improve school attendance and attainment does not discourage the inclusion of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
The cross-party Commons Education Select Committee has written to the new education secretary, James Cleverly, to ask how the Schools White Paper will work in “conjunction” with the SEND review to “incentivise the inclusion of children and young people with SEND”.
Ministers have set the target for 90 per cent of primary school pupils to achieve the expected standard in reading, writing and maths in key stage 2 Sats, and for the average GCSE point score in English and maths to increase from 4.5 to 5 by the end of the decade.
The government is also requiring schools to have an attendance policy, and is creating national standards for when fines should be considered for pupil absence.
MPs on the education committee have raised concern about how these aims will impact on the government’s SEND Green Paper plan for mainstream schools to be more inclusive.
In the letter, committee chair Robert Halfon explains that expert witnesses who spoke to the committee during a session in May told MPs that “a key issue” with the current SEND system is that schools are “incentivised to focus on attainment, attendance and good behaviour, which for good reasons can be challenging areas for some SEND pupils”.
The letter states: “The committee would like to know more about any work the department has done to ensure that attendance and attainment performance measures do not disincentivise the inclusion of children and young people with SEND within schools.”
The letter, sent yesterday, poses several questions to the Department for Education about the SEND review.
On Ofsted inspections, the letter says: “The co-chair of the National Parent Carer Network suggested in our session that schools should not be able to be rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted if they are not also rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ with respect to SEND.
“We ask the government to consider this proposal, along with any changes to the [Ofsted] framework that may be required to enact it.”
A “lack of accountability” in the SEND system has also been flagged in the letter.
It states that in 2020, 96 per cent of tribunal cases against councils were found at least partially in favour of parents and carers, and adds: “This is not indicative of an accountable system that is functioning as it should.”
And a “lack of resources” is also brought up as a “key issue”.
In the letter, Mr Halfon said: “The committee would be grateful for clarification on whether local authorities will need to fund the SEND review’s proposals from existing budgets and whether the department has estimated the net financial impact of its package of proposals in the SEND review.
“We would also like to understand what work the department has been doing to understand the level of funding needed to ensure that children and young people with SEND receive the support they rightly expect and are entitled to.”
The government’s SEND Green Paper was launched earlier this year. A consultation on the proposals included as part of this is closing in nine days.
The committee has asked for a response to its letter by 29 August.
