Just 3 per cent of teachers said pupils with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) always receive the educational support to which they are entitled, a survey has revealed today.
Two-thirds of teachers who responded to the NASUWT teaching union survey said the level of support received by their pupils with SEND has decreased in the last five years.
The survey, conducted between 16 February and 5 March, received nearly 3,000 responses and found that long waiting lists for support, budget pressures on schools and colleges and shortages of specialist staff are leading to a breakdown in the system of SEND.
It comes ahead of the NASUWT’s Annual Conference in Glasgow this weekend (7-10 April) where delegates will debate a motion calling for governments and administrations across the UK to increase funding for SEND and additional support needs (ASN) or additional learning needs (ALN).
Just under a quarter (731) of respondents said their students mostly received the educational support they are entitled to, while nearly 42.6 per cent (1,253) said students sometimes got the support they needed, and over a quarter (763) said students rarely got appropriate support.
Over four in 10 (1,115) respondents complained of difficulties obtaining assessments of pupils’ needs, while more than seven in 10 (1,912) cited long waiting lists for support. Almost 62 per cent (1,640) said financial pressures meant that specialist support was too expensive to obtain for their school.
The NASUWT said the survey provides compelling evidence that the impact of both the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis have worsened problems with insufficient support for pupils with SEND, which is having a negative impact on teachers’ wellbeing and morale.
Almost three-quarters (74 per cent) said some pupils are struggling to get assessed for SEND and 87 per cent said long waiting lists for assessment are the biggest barrier to receiving a timely assessment, with 75 per cent blaming a shortage of specialist staff.
The vast majority of teachers said they had noticed a decline in pupils’ emotional and mental wellbeing, attainment and attendance as a result of both the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis.
Nine in ten teachers said that their SEND/ASN/ALN responsibilities have caused them to experience workplace stress in the last 12 months. They said the increased complexity of pupils’ needs, managing the behaviour of pupils with SEND/ASN/ALN and the increased number of pupils with additional needs were the most common factors behind increased stress levels.
One respondent to the survey said school staff “are being expected to deliver SEND provision in a mainstream school with the wrong environment and staffing ratios”, including providing “sensory snacks, deep pressure massage and work stations with little training”.
“The pupils with SEND at my school can become quite violent on a daily basis and some require a 2:1 ratio at times,” said the respondent, adding that this means other pupils are suffering attacks and missing out on the time they should be getting in class as a result.
NASUWT general secretary Dr Patrick Roach said the findings of the survey “underline the need for action now - teachers, children and families cannot wait”.
He added: “Teachers are in the eye of a perfect storm of managing increasing numbers of pupils with special and additional learning needs at a time of declining budgets, cuts to external services and specialist staff shortages.
“Teachers and headteachers cannot be expected to pick up the pieces and paper over the cracks of a broken system.
“Plans set out to reform and improve special and additional needs provision by governments and administrations across the UK currently lack the urgency, scope and ambition required to ensure hundreds of thousands of children are not left behind.”
The Department for Education said that it was reducing bureaucracy and increasing investment, training and staffing in special and higher needs.
A spokesperson said: “Every child deserves to have access to education that meets their needs. Our recent Improvement Plan will reform the support system for children with SEND, prioritising earlier intervention and creating consistent high standards across the country.
“We are also putting significant investment into the high needs budget, worth £10.1 billion by 2023-24, which is 50 per cent more than four years ago.”
