6 steps to solve the SEND crisis

MPs’ inquiry is told that parents need ‘routes of redress’ before going for an EHCP if their child’s needs are not being met in school
28th January 2025, 5:17pm

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6 steps to solve the SEND crisis

https://www.tes.com/magazine/news/specialist-sector/6-steps-solve-send-crisis
Six steps to solving the SEND crisis

MPs were today told that putting special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) support in schools on a statutory footing and giving parents routes of redress when needs are not being met would reduce the need for children to have education, health and care plans (EHCPs).

Charity leaders, appearing in a parliamentary session aimed at finding solutions to the SEND crisis, also called for improved teacher training.

The Commons Education Select Committee is holding an inquiry aimed at finding ways to improve provision for children and young people with SEND.

In the first session of its Solving the SEND Crisis inquiry today, the committee heard evidence from representatives of SEND support and parent charities and organisations.

Ways to improve SEND support

Here are six recommendations from witnesses on improving the system, given in response to MPs’ questions:

1. Put SEND support on a statutory footing to reduce need for EHCPs

Imogen Steele, policy and public affairs manager for the charity Contact, said that SEND support provided in schools should be put on a statutory footing to reduce the need for pupils to have EHCPs.

She also said local council officials should receive more training in SEND law. This was in response to a question from committee chair Helen Hayes about what steps could be taken to reduce demand for EHCPs.

Amanda Allard, director of the Council for Disabled Children, said there should be national standards setting out what support parents can expect for pupils as ordinarily available provision in schools.

She added: “There needs to be accountability and possibly not just through the inspection framework. We have got to have a system where parents have got confidence and feel they have got routes of redress if schools are not meeting their child’s needs through SEN support.

“I am now meeting parents - which I never did before - who say to me, ‘My child never needed a [EHC] plan. Their needs should have been met in mainstream schools.’”

2. Penalise schools for high exclusion rates and reward inclusion

Witnesses were also asked by the committee how Ofsted’s focus on inspecting inclusion under its new inspection framework, announced last year, should work.

Agnes Agyepong, CEO and founder of Global Black Maternal Health, said: “A practical improvement would be for Ofsted to penalise schools for high exclusion rates and reward those with robust inclusion practices, and so really get under the bonnet and find out what is going on there and have that detailed knowledge about how many students are being off-rolled.”

Tania Tirraoro, co-director of the Special Needs Jungle website, said that “far too many children are ending up in alternative provision without ever having any kind assessment of need. [Alternative provision] is not SEND provision, so why is it that schools are not taking time to assess pupils’ needs?”

She said that schools should not be able to exclude pupils until an assessment of need is carried out.

3. Evidence base needed to support resourced provision places

Ms Tirraoro also told the committee that the direction of travel was now towards more resourced provision places being created within mainstream schools, but she questioned how this was being funded.

Hayley Harding, founder of Let Us Learn Too, said these SEND resourced provision bases can work well “at integrating children to the level they are comfortable with”. She added that this meant they remained part of a school community without being scared of the prospect of attending.

But she told MPs that resourced provision should be put on a statutory footing to ensure that it “doesn’t end up just effectively being childcare because we have seen cases of that in some schools”.

Ms Tirraoro added: “We do need an evidence base. I know the Department for Education are gathering this at the moment but while they are busy gathering it, local authorities are busy creating more resourced provision places without any guidance”.

A Tes investigation last year revealed that the DfE was being urged to investigate how mainstream schools were using both formal resourced provision and informal additional provision to support pupils with SEND amid concerns about a lack of oversight and guidance.

4. Improving teacher training on SEND is one of government’s biggest levers

Katie Ghose, CEO of Kids Charity, said that the SEND element of initial teacher training needs to improve: “They are only getting two days of SEND training at the moment, so that needs to be considerably boosted and we think this is going to be one of the biggest levers for delivering the inclusive schools agenda.”

She also said staff needed practical training in how to navigate the SEND support system alongside training in the theory of SEND.

A Tes investigation last year revealed that most teachers across both primary and secondary felt their training did not prepare them to meet the needs of pupils in any of the main areas of SEND.

5. Sendcos should be on school leadership teams

Witnesses also highlighted the importance of Sendcos repeatedly during the session.

Ms Allard said: “One of the reasons why there is an issue around retention of Sendcos is that they can be that lone voice around a school…They might put in place an excellent strategy to support a child, which is then completely undermined by other teachers who haven’t understood that actually that child needs a reasonable adjustment.”

She told MPs that Sendcos should be on a school’s leadership team and should not be a “lone voice”, adding: “In a large school there should be SEN champions in every department.”

6. SEND funding needs to be directed to early intervention

Ms Allard also warned MPs that the way SEND funding works means there is no money for early intervention.

“We are pushing children into requiring more and more specialist support, so I think we have to find a way of continuing to support those children with complex needs absolutely, but ensuring we are also supporting [pupils with SEND] at that earlier point of presentation,” she said.

Ms Ghose said that any SEND funding should be ringfenced; this should be a fundamental principle that underpins any government reforms.

This was backed by Ms Steele, who said that the system whereby mainstream schools have a notional SEND budget of £6,000 per pupil is confusing for parents and creates a more adversarial system.

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