Provision for learners with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in further education is set to be considered alongside that for other learners in Ofsted’s new inspection framework.
Currently “provision for learners with high needs” is a separate category of provision in inspection reports, but under proposals to be sent out for consultation today, this category will be scrapped, as the inspectorate looks to rationalise the types of provision from six to three.
The three proposed categories in the new framework - education programmes for young people; apprenticeships; and adult learning programmes - will replace the current six. These are: 16 to 19 study programmes; adult learning programmes; apprenticeships; traineeships; provision for learners with high needs and; full-time provision for 14- to 16-year-olds.
‘Very disappointed’
Clare Howard, chief executive of Natspec (the Association of National Specialist Colleges) said while the organisation broadly welcomed the changes in the new inspection framework and fully supported an increased focus on the curriculum and overall quality of education, it was not happy about the removal of the high-needs category.
She said: “We are very disappointed to see the proposed removal of the separate high needs judgement. This judgement has acted as a means of ensuring that providers were playing their part in delivering the SEND reforms, and has been a critical factor in improving the quality of provision for learners with SEND.
“The detail provided in the current high needs section of the Ofsted report, alongside the specific high needs grade, allows learners and families to make informed choices about which providers are most likely to be able to meet their needs. It also helps them to draw comparisons between providers in relation to the quality of their high needs provision.
“We do not believe that including SEN as a whole throughout other sections within the inspection will lead to a sufficiently detailed commentary in line with that currently required by the separate judgement. We are also doubtful that inspectors who are not specialists in this area will have sufficient expertise to make accurate judgements about the way in which a provider is meeting the needs of its high needs learners.”
Ending ‘marginalisation’ in inspection reports
Speaking ahead of the launch of the consultation into the new framework, Paul Joyce, Ofsted’s deputy director for FE and skills, said the proposals aimed to stop learners with SEND or high-needs being “marginalised or isolated” in inspection reports.
Mr Joyce added: “What we’re trying to do is ensure that learners in receipt of high-needs funding and those with special educational needs and disabilities are reflected in the criteria in the handbook and the evaluation criteria of the judgements we make. And the reason we have proposed the change is to genuinely ensure that those learners are not marginalised or isolated on inspection or in the inspection reports.
“Most of those learners are studying mainstream programmes and receiving support for their special educational needs or disabilities and we will ensure that on every inspection that we do where will find those learners we will report on them fully within the three provision types we are proposing to grade.”
Ofsted’s national director for education Sean Harford added: “It’s also important to see those learners as apprentices, if they are, first and full most who happen to have special needs - or youngsters studying for A levels who happen to have special needs and seeing how the provider is doing the right for them in that particular circumstance, because an apprentice with special needs might have very different needs from a youngster studying for A levels. I think by putting them in the right provision type you’re actually raising the importance of them as that particular type of learner.”
