SEND children not in school missing vital support

A report by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) finds that support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) who do not attend school full-time is too inconsistent.

Inspectors found that some SEND children not in school do not have access to the same key services or joined-up support from health, social care and education partners. Official data does not show how many children with SEND are known to not be in school, but recent research from the Children’s Commissioner estimated that a quarter of children who went into home education had SEN support.

The report says missed opportunities to identify children’s needs early, and to provide the right support, means too many children with SEND are leaving school when it could be avoided. Parents and carers spoke to inspectors about having no choice but to home educate their child – because they believed their child’s needs were not being met in school, and they were struggling to navigate an overly complex SEND system. 

School leaders, meanwhile, stressed that they lack the necessary resources – such as staff with the right expertise – to identify or meet children’s needs effectively. 

Inspectors from Ofsted and the CQC also found inconsistencies in the quality of oversight and support across local areas, often due to capacity challenges and a lack of understanding of roles and responsibilities. Inspectors heard that there was limited understanding of how ‘education otherwise than at school’ (EOTAS) arrangements should be applied.

Schools and local authorities generally have strong information sharing processes for children with SEND not in school, but health partners are often absent from these arrangements. This means some children with SEND are unable to access key services, such as occupational therapy or speech and language therapy, when they are out of school.

The report makes several recommendations for both national government and the sector, including for the DfE to prioritise working with local area partnerships to ensure that children’s emerging needs are identified early and accurately.

It says that NHS England and the DfE should provide local area partnerships with access to resources and training so they can support schools to take a needs-led approach to supporting children with SEND, and that the DfE should lead on developing guidance for the appropriate use of EOTAS arrangements. 

The report also says that local area partnerships should establish clear and robust processes for sharing information about children with SEND not in school, or those at risk of leaving school, and that all children with SEND who are not in school receive coordinated support to meet their education, health and social care needs.

The DfE should resolve the lack of consistency in how in-year admissions are coordinated across the country. Guidance should be developed to help ensure all local area partnerships understand expectations and replicate effective models of in-year admissions.