Special Educational Needs
‘Support and aspiration: A new approach to special educational needs and disability’
SEN and Disability Green Paper outlines proposals for change I
n March, Children’s Minister Sarah Teather unveiled proposals which would mean the biggest programme of reform in the education and health support for children with special educational needs (SEN) and disabilities in 30 years. Education Today reports…
Currently, local authorities look at requests for a statement of SEN and tell parents (normally within six weeks) whether they will carry out an assessment. They also explain the assessment process. If the assessment goes ahead, the local authority asks people to give their views on the child - they ask for advice from: the parents, the child’s school, an educational psychologist, a doctor, social services (who will only give advice if they know the child) and anyone else who the local authority thinks it should get advice from to get a clear picture of the child’s needs.
However, the Government wants to fundamentally reform the SEN system to address problems with the current system, including: parents having to battle to get the support their child’s needs; SEN statements not joining up education, health and care support; children falling between the gaps in services or having to undergo multiple assessments; multiple layers of paperwork and bureaucracy adding delays to getting support, therapy and vital equipment; a confusing and adversarial assessment process, with parents’ confidence in the system undermined by the perceived conflict of interest where the local authority must provide SEN support as well as assess children’s needs.
SEN & Expectations
Ofsted and others suggest that too many children are being over-identified as SEN, which they prevents them from achieving their potential, because teachers have lower expectations of them. Kate Fallon, General Secretary of the Association of Educational Psychologists agrees: “We need to be very careful about the classification of SEN and the inherent expectations for
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children with SEN – and it must not become a catch-all term for children experiencing difficulties. We also need to challenge the notion that SEN is always ‘for life’, as the early intervention and preventative work of educational psychologists can have a significant and long-term impact, helping many children to fully engage in and benefit from learning experiences which will lead to a range of positive outcomes during and after their school lives.” The Government proposes to include parents in the assessment process and introduce a legal right, by 2014, to give them control of funding for the support their child’s needs; replace statements with a single assessment process and a combined education, health and care plan so that health and social services is included in the package of support, along with education; ensure assessment and plans run from birth to 25 years old; replace the existing School Action and School Action Plus system with a simpler new school-based category to help teachers focus on raising attainment; overhaul teacher training and professional development to better help pupils with special educational needs and to raise their attainment; inject greater independence from local authorities in assessments by looking at how voluntary groups might coordinate the package of support; and give parents a greater choice of school and give parents and community groups the power to set up special free schools.
Currently children who have severe, profound or multiple health and learning needs or disabilities receive a statement of support from their local authority. However, it often isn’t clear – to parents, and to local services – who is responsible for delivering on the statement. For example, services such as speech and language therapy may appear in the statement but are funded and commissioned by local health services.
Children’s Minister Sarah Teather explains: “Parents and voluntary organisations have given us overwhelming examples where they have felt let down by local services. At the moment there is an appalling situation where public money is being wasted as children are growing out of equipment, like
May 2011
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