Support and Aspiration - 
A new approach to send

The Green Paper published in March 2011 set out the vision for a new system to support the 1.7 million children and young people currently identified with special educational needs and disabilities. In their response to the consultation document published in May 2012, the government set out the next steps towards the changing of legislation by 2014.

The Queen’s Speech on 9th May announced a Children and Families Bill that will offer the biggest reform in 30 years. The legislation will be introduced in this session of Parliament and will draw on lessons learnt from the pathfinders. It will also build on the reforms to the health service and draw on recommendations of the Children and young People’s Health Outcomes Forum.

A draft Bill is expected in summer 2012 for consultation and pre-legislative scrutiny. This should enable the new legislation to be introduced in 2014.

The planned Children and Families Bill will better support families, legislating to break down barriers, bureaucracy and delays which stop vulnerable children getting the support they need. The main elements of the Bill include Special Educational Needs, Family Law, Shared Parenting and Office of the Children’s Commissioner.

Key Measures
Special educational needs key measures include a single assessment process (0-25) which is more streamlined, better involves children, young people and families and is completed quickly; An Education Health and Care Plan (replacing the statement) which brings services together and is focused on improving outcomes; An offer of a personal budget for families with an Education, Health and Care Plan; A requirement for local authorities and health services to jointly plan and commission services that children, young people and their families need; A requirement on local authorities to publish a local offer indicating the support available to those with special educational needs and disabilities and their families, and; The introduction of mediation opportunities for disputes and a trial giving children the right to appeal if they are unhappy with their support.

With 21 per cent of our total education population identified with special and additional needs, schools are under more and more pressure to ensure that they are meeting the needs of this group of vulnerable pupils and that they are able to evidence the interventions they are implementing to ensure significant progress is being made.

The term special educational needs was first introduced by Mary Warnock in the 1970’s to describe a significant group of children and young people who needed something different from or in addition to the education offered to their peers. Much debate has taken place over those 40 years about the terminology and whether these children should be in special schools or included in mainstream settings, but what has not altered is that these children and young people are still experiencing difficulties accessing an education system that is appropriate to meet their individual needs.

In more recent years we have seen a significant increase in the number of children and young people with far more complex needs. Modern medical science is enabling those with life limiting conditions to live longer and babies born very prematurely are surviving. Factors such as alcohol, smoking and drug abuse during pregnancy, poverty and social deprivation are just some of the forces affecting the complex needs that we are seeing in our schools.

Room for improvement
Although we have some of the best educational provision in the world which supports our most vulnerable young people there is always room for improvement and it is hoped that the proposals in the Green Paper, and the legislation that follows will support schools and colleges in improving their provision for children, young people and their families.

Since the Ofsted report, ‘A Statement is Not Enough’, published in 2010, there has been much discussion and media coverage about the over-identification of children and young people with special educational needs. Yes, there may well be pupils who are low achievers who have been listed as SEN but it is also highly likely that there are probably equally as many who have not been identified at all. The report suggested that this over identification was actually due to poor teaching and with better teachers many of these pupils would no longer be on SEN lists. This may have some basis in fact but it is probably more likely to be the lack of high quality training at both initial teacher education and within on-going continuing professional development. We need to ensure that we have a highly skilled, trained workforce that can meet the complex needs of 21st century children.

A more focused approach
The system we currently have relies heavily on families and schools ’fighting’ to get a statement which in the past has come with ‘hours’ of additional support. Boxes are ticked in terms of the hours of support not the outcomes for children and young people. The introduction of the Education, Health and Care plan will hopefully eradicate this notion of ‘hours’ and be far more outcomes focused. What is it that we want this young person to achieve by the time they leave school? How are we going to get them to that point?

Schools will need to support families as the transition from statements to Education, Health and Care Plans is undertaken. The proposals within the legislative change are very clear, no child or family will lose out during this transition but there will need to be extensive conversation with families to ensure they understand that the provision identified within the plan has very targeted outcomes and not just about hours of support.

The introduction of the Education, Health and Care plan from aged 0 to 25 will offer real assurances to families and schools in regard to not just education provision but also that which must be provided by health and social care.

Positive Outcome
The really positive outcome in these proposals is the introduction of a plan from aged 0–25 as there are many young people who fall through a gap in the current system once they reach the age of 16. The introduction of the plan will ensure that this does not happen but schools and colleges will have to ensure that they are able to offer appropriate provision for all those at 16+ that enables our most vulnerable young people to access employment, education or training opportunities alongside their peers.

Alongside the Education, Health and Care plan is the introduction of personal budgets for families whose child has a plan. It is still very early days of the Pathfinders work to really understand what these budgets will be used for, or where the money is coming from – we will have to wait and see how these develop. There could be very big implications for schools if this is funding that would have gone to schools and will now be directly controlled by families.

Alongside these radical changes proposed for SEND, we are also awaiting radical reform on the way school funding is allocated and distributed to schools. Schools will need advice and support on the impact on these changes to their school provision. There is the potential for many schools to lose out financially especially in those local authorities that have previously topped up school budgets to support additional needs. It is possible that we will see a tsunami of statement applications in the next six months as schools get to realize that under the new single assessment process there will not be the current level of financial support.

Schools are already beginning to see the impact on the reduction in public sector employees. Many local authorities have lost experienced SEND staff and schools are finding it difficult to access support. If there is an influx in statement requests will there be the personnel to manage that process?

Clear roles for Local Authorities
The Green Paper sets out some very clear roles for local authorities especially in setting out their local offer. There is a concern that they may not be able to offer everything they would wish to because they will not have the budget or the personnel to deliver.

One of the key messages within the Green Paper and reinforced in the new Ofsted framework is the need for high quality professional development opportunities for the school workforce and those who work with schools supporting children and young people. The announcement of the second year of the National Scholarship for teachers and the introduction of a Scholarship for SEN support staff was welcomed as was the fourth year of funding for the National Award for SEN Co-ordination. The SENCO is going to be key in ensuring that all the changes within SEND policy are implemented in schools. Although the SENCO regulation in 2008 legislated that all SENCOs must be qualified teachers and those appointed since 2008 must undertake the award – the quality assurance processes is still not robust and so is not being systematically implemented across the country. The SENCO is very important and we must ensure that Governing Bodies understand that they need time and resource to carry out their role and responsibilities to the highest level. Schools also need to ensure that there is high quality continuing professional development opportunities for all staff.

All of the changes announced through the Green Paper that will become law through the Children and Families Bill have to be taken alongside many of the other significant developments across the sectors. I have already mentioned the funding reform and the new Ofsted framework. We also have the radical reforms to the health service, the ever growing numbers of Academies and Free Schools, the introduction of a revised national curriculum, a new Early Years Foundation Stage Programme, the Phonics Screening Check, the raising the Participation Age and the New Teachers Standards – all of which will impact on schools, families and children. We need to ensure that this process is not about reducing numbers, cutting funding, changing terminology and doing the same things, it is about improving the outcomes of all children and young people by offering a high quality education system that meets their individual needs and prepares them for adulthood in the 21st century.

Further information
Nasen is the leading organisation which aims to promote the education, training, advancement and development of all those with special and additional support needs. Nasen reaches a huge readership through its journals: British Journal of Special Education, Support for Learning, Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs and the magazine Special. For further information visit www.nasen.org.uk