Schools should make sure they talk to parents and special educational needs and disability (SEND) learners about their post-16 options well in advance, the organisation representing special colleges has urged.
In a new report on the availability of information, advice and guidance on post-16 education and training options for young people with an education health and care plan (EHCP), Natspec says colleges should provide clear details of their SEND/alternative learning needs provision to those local authorities that might reasonably expect to place students with them - including information about programmes available and the range of needs they can meet.
The report also says schools should build on the support they already offer to parents and young people to ensure that conversations about post-16 options begin well in advance of transition points.
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Natspec invited parents and carers of young people with an EHCP or Welsh equivalent to share their experiences of accessing information, advice and guidance (IAG) on post-16 education and training options. Around 137 families completed the online survey, and two-thirds of respondents rated the overall quality of the information, advice and guidance that they or their young person received as poor.
According to Natspec, they were critical of the timeliness, availability, sufficiency and quality of the IAG received, and felt that they and their young people had not been fully involved in decision making.
What the survey found
- Around 58 per cent of parents said that discussions about post-16 options came too late. The delay had caused stress and anxiety for whole families and resulted in rushed transitions.
- Almost a third said that they were never encouraged to think about post-16 options.
- Only a third were encouraged to think about post-16 options two or more years before their young person was due to leave school.
- Only 10 per cent said that post-16 options were formally discussed in the Year 9 annual review.
- Only a quarter of families had been offered information about several different post-16 providers and supported to understand the difference between them.
- Only a quarter had been given any information at all about specialist FE colleges.
- Of the families whose young people were in special schools with their own post-16 provision, 59 per cent reported having been given no information about alternative post-16 options.
Natspec calls on local authorities to ensure that young people and their families have access to a properly funded impartial IAG service, and to provide young people and families with clear information, including timelines on what they can expect from whom in relation to making choices about post-16 options.
The organisation says they should also overhaul their local offers to provide a single point of information on all potential post-16 education and training options.
Ruth Perry, senior policy manager at Natspec, said: “We already suspected that IAG around post-16 options was patchy, but our research has revealed that it is far worse than that. Parents are clearly angry, frustrated and exhausted at having to do all the legwork for themselves. They are not being offered the help they need and, in some cases, they feel information is being deliberately withheld from them. It is also really disappointing to hear how little effort is being made to involve the young people in exploring their next steps.
“The SEND Reforms in England were supposed to put the young person front and centre in terms of decision making, but that just isn’t happening. Overall, the experiences parents are describing are a far cry from the expectations set out in the [SEND] Code of Practice. That just isn’t acceptable. Our report recommends a range of actions to address these issues.”
