Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman has said children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) should be put “front and centre” of the education recovery from Covid.
But she warned that wholesale system changes would be needed to ensure that children with SEND are getting the best deal.
Speaking to the Association of Directors of Children’s Services’ annual conference today, she said some children with SEND have been either missing out on education or struggling to access their usual support services during the pandemic, despite the efforts of those working with them.
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She also suggested that some pupils have been misdiagnosed or wrongly labelled “simply because they haven’t been taught well”.
Ms Spielman said: “This year has been so hard for many children with SEND. We’ve seen families exhausted to the point of despair…
Ofsted: Covid ‘has been so hard for many children with SEND’
“Local SEND systems were under pressure before Covid, which has only made them worse, particularly with the disruption to children’s health services.
“Many of the old issues remain. Misdiagnosis is still a problem - children being wrongly labelled, simply because they haven’t been taught well, or given enough time and support to learn. While children with genuine needs are being missed or identified too late.”
She said that Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission would launch a consultation on its new approach to SEND area inspections soon.
Ms Spielman said she wanted inspections to have a sharper focus on how all partners are working together for children - encouraging everyone to play their part.
She said: “As we return to normal, I hope things will improve for children and for families. But we’ve yet to see the impact on children whose assessments and diagnoses have been delayed. And we’re now in a position where children with SEND are even further behind their peers.
“There’s no doubt that children and young people with SEND need to be front and centre of education recovery. But wholesale system changes are needed to make sure children are getting the best deal.
“The government’s SEND review is an important opportunity to make the system work better, and we are using our insights to contribute all we can to it. Hopefully, you’ll have seen our reports setting out the findings from our recent interim visits.”
The government’s SEND review, which is yet to be published, was first announced in 2019.
Last year education secretary Gavin Williamson told MPs on the Commons Education Committee that its findings would not be published until the early part of this year and were delayed because of the Covid crisis.
Earlier this year Ofsted warned that longstanding problems in the system for children and young people with SEND had been made even worse by the Covid 19 pandemic,
A report entitled SEND: Old issues, new issues, next steps reveals the findings of joint visits to local areas by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC), carried out during the autumn term of 2020 and spring term of 2021.
