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NEWS • VIEWS • INFORMATION • ADVICE


Special Educational NEEDS

(Photo captioned: The Coalition Government has set out wide-ranging reforms for SEN in its Green Paper. A study of teachers’ experiences to gauge the likely impact of the shake-up exposes some serious concerns.)

A shake-up of the system of support for pupils with special educational needs (SEN) and disabilities will lead to fewer children getting the help they need, research commissioned by the NASUWT warns.

The Coalition Government has set out plans to overhaul the SEN system, with the scrapping of statements and the hiving off of SEN provision to the voluntary sector.

Ministers claim the changes will reduce bureaucracy and improve support for children and young people, but the NASUWT believes the key message behind the proposals is that the Government believes there are too many pupils classified as having SEN.

Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, warned that the aim of the reforms was to reduce the number of pupils entitled to extra support and therefore reduce costs.

“The evident danger is that the Coalition Government is seeking to redefine what constitutes SEN,” she said. “In the context of an austerity programme, this can only mean that fewer children will qualify for additional support.”

Ms Keates pointed out that huge cuts are being made to many of the specialist services on which teachers rely to help them support pupils with SEN, with educational psychologists and speech and language therapists among those being made redundant. This will have a devastating impact on the ability of schools to support pupils with SEN, she stated. Ms Keates called for greater scrutiny of the funding of SEN, warning that it risks becoming ‘sidelined’ in a tighter financial climate where the free market rules education.

“This Green Paper will not give confidence to those parents who have children currently on the SEN register. It will simply create anxiety and fear that they may no longer qualify for support,” she said.

“If this Green Paper is genuinely about seeking to meet the needs of children with SEN and disability rather than about cuts, then the Coalition Government must demonstrate its willingness to have an open and honest debate on this complex and critical issue.” The NASUWT has responded to the Coalition Government’s consultation on the plans, which closes at the end of June.

In its response the Union has called on ministers to strengthen the role of local authorities and provide adequate funding and support to schools to ensure all children and young people with SEN receive the help they need.

The full NASUWT submission can be found at www.nasuwt.org.uk/SenGreenPaper


Research highlights cuts concern

Cuts to local authority services and support staff could hit special educational needs (SEN) education hard, teachers fear. A major new research study by the NASUWT into the experiences of teachers of pupils with SEN has uncovered real concern about the impact of the Coalition Government’s cuts on the provision and support available to teachers and students.

Insufficient funding for SEN is already a problem according to the majority of the 1,500 teachers surveyed for the study, which was conducted by Canterbury Christ Church University.

This is likely to be exacerbated by the Coalition Government’s programme of cuts, respondents believe, with a possible reduction in the number of teaching assistants and support from local authorities being a particular worry.

A summary of the research findings is available at www.nasuwt.org.uk/SENReport with the full report due for publication this summer.